Convergence Yields Smarter Facilities: Practical Applications for Building Planners and Operators

The spring 2010 issue of JBIM provided a number of interesting articles focused on building information modeling (BIM) and facility management (FM) applications. One of these articles, written by Kurt Maldovan and Tammy McCuen, LEED AP, discussed the increasing request for better support of the planning and operations portion of the facility lifecycle. This is a trend that people in the geographic information system (GIS) industry believe is quickly driving an anticipated and necessary nexus between BIM data and GIS technologies. Why do facilities owners and operators wish to incorporate GIS? Arguably, it is because they face increasing pressures to make their buildings “smarter.” Operating and maintaining buildings for longer periods of time requires retrofitting existing buildings or designing and constructing new buildings to be sustainable for optimal occupancy and use. Owners and operators also find they must comply with a host of compliancy issues such as those represented in Federal Executive Orders 13327, 13423 and 13514.