Modern construction projects require the digital collection, management and automatic exchange of dynamic project data with all stakeholders. Choosing the right Common Data Environment (CDE) is crucial for the successful construction, commissioning and use of a property.
In the construction and real estate industry, the digital transformation is bringing about many changes in the project planning, development and construction of buildings. Many market players are currently involved in the introduction and further development of Building Information Modelling (BIM). This creates a digital model of a building.
This "digital twin" not only records the static building data, but also contains information about installations, products, sensor data and functional properties of the object. This information is further used after the construction and development phase and thus forms the basis for an integrative, cross-phase view of a property.
Digital building documentation in the cloud
An essential tool for effective collaboration in the digital sphere is the Common Data Environment (CDE). This is a cloud-based central platform on which all parties involved in the construction store, share and manage relevant information and data but the entire life cycle of the property. The functionalities of a CDE go far beyond those of a simple document repository or a document management system (DMS). A CDE includes, among other things, the aggregation, management and addressee-specific distribution of information, enables automated workflows and individual access management. Ultimately, therefore, it can be used to procure comprehensive building documentation in a digital environment.
Today, there are a large number of different CDEs, which vary greatly in terms of functionality, structure and security. The consulting firm pom+Consulting, which specialises in real estate, recently examined 18 common tools on the basis of around 40 evaluation indicators in the clusters of usability, information management, interfaces, file storage and BIM functions.
It was found that the market for CDE solutions is characterised by rapid changes and a high degree of specialisation. Often, independent tools with specific functionalities are bought up by large technology providers or integrated into existing solutions. This can lead to problems when taking over existing projects. The integration capability should therefore be carefully examined when choosing a CDE. Furthermore, it is advisable to use a platform as consistently as possible to ensure smooth data exchange. While the mills in the construction and real estate industry are known to grind slowly, short innovation cycles are among the most important success criteria in the technology industry. The existing CDEs are therefore constantly updated, optimised and expanded by the manufacturers. Users are thus forced to continuously update their systems and deal with versioning. Therefore, the user-relevant use cases, process flows and responsibilities should already be defined before the system selection.
Requirements of the client are decisive
Today, more and more construction projects are being tendered with the requirement to set up a CDE. The functional scope of a CDE depends on the planned use cases and objectives. It is advisable to consider which digital use cases are relevant in building operation already in the development and project planning phase. The digital room book, for example, is a classic use case here. With a CDE, transparency about space development and space information can be ensured and the required visualisations can be made available to all project participants at any time.
Basically, the project parameters are decisive for the selection of the appropriate system. For example, the client must ask itself whether and how deeply it would like to have insight into the individual project processes, whether it is a BIM project or who has data sovereignty during the construction project. Anyone who is on the move in the networked world and wants to develop and manage corresponding properties is aware of the relevance of structured, comprehensible, transparent, up-to-date and qualified information throughout the entire building life cycle.
This makes it all the more important to focus on stringent data organisation and data-supported building operation as early as the planning and construction phase. To achieve this, building owners, planning teams, architectural offices and all other parties involved in the development must address the necessary functions and possibilities of system solutions at an early stage.
The CDE market overview can be downloaded free of charge from the pom+ website.
About the author
Patrick Pick is Head of Service Unit BIM/LCDMat pom+Consulting. With his team, he supports clients in determining the necessary functional scope of a CDE and in successfully implementing BIM-based construction projects.