Guidance 0: The case for
information management
Table of Contents
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This guidance document (guidance 0) sits within the overall . It provides the high-level case
for information management and is relevant to any organisation involved in the procurement,
design, construction, operation or maintenance of a built asset.
Detailed, technical guidance supporting the implementation of information management is
provided through documents 1 – 4 and A-F.
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Abbreviations and acronyms
Abbreviations and acronyms used throughout the guidance.
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1.0 Digital transformation
There is a need to harmonise, digitise, and rationalise the way we work. Therefore, digital
transformation of the built environment sector requires new practices for whole life
information management. Having standardised, good quality, structured information with
proportionate security controls means the information can be appropriately exchanged,
interrogated, and reused for different purposes across a range of technologies.
In response to the low levels of productivity found in the global built environment sector, the
UK Government’s sets out a vision and plan for creating an environment where digital
technologies will lead the development of the UK economy. A root cause of this low
productivity is the high transactional cost of information exchange and lack of transparency
across the sector.
There is a movement within both public and private sector clients to develop innovative
practices that improve the performance of all industries within the built environment. These
practices include the production of object-based information models and simulations of
physical systems and assets, which will help manage risks and provide greater assurance in
key decision making. This approach will also enable greater automation of standard
processes during design and construction and into operation and maintenance.
Intelligent data models (digital twins) will be able to update in near-real time, using
information from sensors and networked devices, and interacting and exchanging
information with other systems through the Internet of Things. This will optimize
performance, improve health and safety and end-user experience, and in doing so, will
enable smart communities to become a reality to serve society.
To achieve this requires more than new technologies. It needs new operating models that
move from transactional ways of working to incentivized collaboration across the built
environment, as well as new standards, methods, policies and capabilities. Developing new
collaborative and integrated business models and exploring the production of a national
digital twin or a single unified information framework will enable the sector to capitalize on
the digital transformation agenda.
Implementation of information management is no longer a question of ‘if’. It is now a
fundamental part of delivering world-class social and economic infrastructure.
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Digital transformation can be achieved through gradual yet sustained progress over a period
of time. It is possible to break the overall objective down into smaller steps incorporating
lessons learned as these are rolled-out.
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2.0 Why information management is important
Information management is the process by which organisations, with appropriate security
controls, specify, procure, assure, store, present, and exploit information to perform core
business.
Introducing information management successfully into any organisation requires three
overlapping key components: people, process and technology. With these three components
in place, the opportunity to innovate and automate at scale can be realised.
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Figure 1: People, process and technology required for information management
success
2.1 Who is involved in or affected by information management?
Everyone involved in procuring, delivering, and operating the built environment uses
information.
For example:
Front-line project delivery and asset operational teams
Team leaders and managers, to understand budget, resourcing, and programme
implications
Organisational support functions such as Quality, Procurement, Health and Safety,
Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology (IT) and Estates, to report on
performance or check for adherence to policies and appropriate governance
Senior managers and executives, to understand key performance indicators and
strategic trends.
2.2 Benefits of implementing information management
The benefits of information management can be difficult to quantify. However, there are
examples cited in the on the value of information management in construction. These
include the Met Office expecting to save 18% in design and procurement costs for a new
facility in Shetland, and the Government Property Agency saving 3% in capital project costs
through better integration of end-user fit-outs. Other examples include the Environment
Agency seeing a direct resource-saving of more than £1m from having access to asset data
at project handover.
Highways England assessed the they have accumulated from and concerning their assets –
this was conservatively valued at £60bn.
It is clear that good information management is therefore pivotal to assets within the built
environment sector, and all those organisations who deliver, operate, and maintain them.
The information about our built environment is a valuable asset in itself and is as important
as the physical buildings and infrastructure it represents.
All types of organisations are involved in information management, including public and
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private sector clients and asset owners, maintenance and construction contractors and
specialists, manufacturers, project delivery consultants, engineering and architectural design
practices.
2.3 The benefits of structured information
What do we mean by structured (and unstructured) information?
Structured information: Data that are organized so that they are machine-readable and
can be queried and analyzed, such as models, databases, and spreadsheets.
Unstructured information: Typically, text-heavy and not organized in a pre-defined
manner that needs human interpretation, such as drawings, documents, images,
photos, and videos.
There are efficiency benefits from capturing data once and transforming it into information
and reusing it many times, for multiple purposes. But this doesn’t happen automatically. A
lot of thought and preparation is needed to make sure this efficiency is enabled by the
appropriate collection methods and by how information is structured and stored.
Having information in a structure means that some automatic checking can be done both
when information is generated and when it is delivered. This means an organisation can be
sure about the quality of the information before it is used for analysis and subsequent
decision-making.
One of the main advantages of structured information is the speed with which it can be
searched, grouped, processed and analyzed.
Using computers and IT systems to do what they are good at, such as gathering, storing and
aggregating structured information quickly, frees up people
2.4 Information led decision making
Information is used to make decisions across all types of project and asset operations. To
achieve the best outcomes, information needs to be the right quality for the decisions that
need to be made. This will result in decisions that are based on evidence not intuition. In
other words, information needs to be sufficiently structured, accurate, detailed and timely so
that it can be exploited fully.
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A digital audit trail will show when decisions have been made and the information they have
been based on. This then provides the trustworthiness that is required.
2.5 Cost of implementing information management
The main financial investment required can be categorized into the following areas:
- Getting the required information in the form that is most helpful which may involve
cleansing or restructuring existing data sets
- Investment in staff so they are equipped for information management including training,
recruitment, redeployment
- New or updated IT infrastructure and systems
- Migration from existing to new IT systems.
Figure 2: Approximate proportions of investment to implement information
management
The percentages in Figure 2 come from a study by Daratech Inc (quoted in the ) of the costs
of implementing information management for engineering design. It is interesting to note that
the largest element of cost relates to obtaining the right information, rather than the cost of
hardware or software systems, or in training staff.
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2.6 Information management belongs to you
Information is the currency your organisation uses to achieve its objectives and it underpins
everything that your organisation does. Managing this information is as important to
organisations as managing their costs, customers, and staff.
Because of this, accountability for information management belongs to an organization’s
senior leadership team. Although developing a strategy for information management might
be delegated to senior managers, senior leaders need to retain a line of sight from their
board-level decisions through to the operational outcomes of using information effectively.
Key points:
- Information is your organization’s currency
- It is used to underpin everything your organisation achieves
- Boards and leadership teams set the vision
- Senior managers develop the strategy to implement information management
- Everyone has some form of responsibility for information management
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3.0 UK history and motivation
The sets out a hypothesis and several tests to develop a strategy for the widespread
introduction of BIM with increasing maturity: ‘Government as a client can derive significant
improvements in cost, value and carbon performance through the use of open sharable
asset information’. This was accepted and published as the BIM mandate in the , commonly
referred to as ‘BIM Level 2’.
Since 2011, central Government departments within the Home Nations (England, Scotland,
Wales, and Northern Ireland) and various private sector clients have tested this approach to
information management. Their early adopter projects demonstrated a significant value
proposition of purpose-driven, structured, verified, and validated information models and
their managed exchanges in a collaborative and secure environment. Some case studies
supporting information management can be found
Digital transformation of the UK built environment industry was a cornerstone of the which
sought to ‘embed and increase the use of digital technology’.
Pivotal to this shift was adoption of building information modelling to change the way the UK
designed, built, operated and integrated its built infrastructure.
To bring the UK BIM mandate up-to-date, in September 2021 the Infrastructure and Projects
Authority published a new . This can be found in Annex B of the Transforming Infrastructure
Performance: Roadmap to 2030. This refreshed mandate requires public sector clients to
use the across their projects and operational assets. This incorporates the ISO 19650 series
of standards along with some related British Standards and guidance/tools and replaces
what was previously known as ‘BIM Level 2’.
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