McGraw-Hill Construction’s SmartMarket Report, “The Business Value of BIM: Getting Building Information Modeling to the Bottom Line,” produced with software manufacturer Autodesk and 26 other industry organizations, profiles adoption of building information modeling (BIM) in North America and examines the real business values that users are experiencing. Nearly half of respondents (49 percent) report that they are using BIM tools—a 75 percent increase over the 28 percent BIM adoption rate measured in 2007.

BIM offers a new way of creating and leveraging digital models for the design, construction and operation of projects, and it is revolutionizing the way firms communicate, solve problems and achieve better outcomes. BIM is spreading quickly throughout the design and construction industry, and there is a growing interest both in quantifying that growth and in defining the business benefits of this new approach to project delivery.

The U.S. West Coast leads BIM adoption with 56 percent far ahead of the Northeast (38 percent). Canada closely resembles the U.S. average at 48 percent. Current BIM users of all skill levels expect to double their application of it on projects over the next two years. Forty-two percent of BIM users consider themselves experts or advanced—three times the amount in 2007. Those with higher BIM skill levels report more than twice the return on investment of beginners. Users who formally measure the benefits of BIM see greater return on investment. Experienced users are leveraging their BIM capabilities to win new work over their competitors and rate this as among the greatest current benefits of BIM.

“Those companies that are embracing BIM most aggressively are reaping real and measurable business benefits for their firms—increased productivity, profitability and prestige,” said Norbert W. Young Jr., president, McGraw-Hill Construction.

For a free download of the report, visit www.bim.construction.com.