Digital transactions and technological advances enable the rapid creation and sharing of information and its efficient management. Digital information management enables a project team to record accurately the following information and for all this information to be available for reference against what is undertaken, installed and completed on site:
■ All designs, all sources of materials and manufacture and all specialist work packages
■ All changes to this agreed and approved information
■ The parties who proposed and approved the designs, the sources, the works packages and the changes.
Each project relies on the coordination of a diverse network of people, products, services and works, and requires the integration of a huge number of interconnected processes of design, delivery and payment. Digital technology can improve this coordination and integration, and enables the efficient management of the design, cost and time information that supports design, construction and asset maintenance.
Building Information Management ('BIM') sets out methods and the processes for creating and managing digital information relating to a built asset. ISO 19650:2019 defines BIM as the 'use of a shared digital representation of a built asset to facilitate design, construction and operation processes to form a reliable basis for decisions'. The purpose of BIM is to ensure that appropriate and accurate information is created and is available in an accessible or suitable format at the right time to the right people.