Is there a person missing from your building project team – the Interoperability Consultant?
By Ian Howell and Todd Kozikowski

A Definition of ‘Interoperability’ for our Industry
In its August 2004 report entitled "Cost Analysis of Inadequate Interoperability in the U.S. Capital Facilities Industry"¹ the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines interoperability as "the ability to manage and communicate electronic product and project data between collaborating firms' and within individual companies' design, construction, maintenance and business process systems." In different words, interoperability is about integrating work processes which leverage established best practices—creating and managing project data that is both intelligent and well organized—sharing information via improved communication and collaboration across all project participants and across all the phases of the lifecycle of a facility.

The cost of ignoring Interoperability
The NIST report² quantifies the annual cost of waste due to inadequate interoperability among computer-aided design, engineering and software systems in the construction industry to be $15.8 billion in the U.S. alone. This is such a large number that it is difficult to comprehend. To really appreciate what this number means, we could dissect this annual cost into more meaningful (and possibly more painful) metrics:

• Annual cost to architects and engineers in the planning, engineering and design phase of projects = $1.007 billion (which by any definition is a huge erosion of fee margins).
• Annual cost to general contractors in the construction phase alone = $1.265 billion (all of which could be added profit margin).
• Annual cost to building owners during the operations and maintenance phase = $9.027 billion based on the sum of new construction annually plus the cost to maintain existing building portfolios (due to the problems associated with post-occupancy information management and information accessibility which seriously hamper efficient facilities management).

To put these still very large numbers into single project terms, this annual waste represents an overhead of $5.93/sq. ft. in the planning, engineering, design and construction phases of every building project. Specifically, to take the example of a six-story office building of 200,000 sq. ft., this represents a pre-handover cost burden to this one project of $1,186,000. For this same building, the $0.23/sq. ft. overhead for operations and maintenance over a 30 year life cycle represents an incremental $1,380,000 in the total cost of ownership of the facility.

Imagine being able to recover 20 percent or even 25 percent of all these wasted dollars!

The interoperability consultant as a breakthrough strategy
Research by Newforma has identified a select group of building industry technology consultants who are involved in the delivery of building and infrastructure projects for a wide range of clients on a daily basis. They are a unique group of specialist consultants who recognize the importance of adopting a “work process view” for managing project information. We call them interoperability consultants.

As president of Kristine Fallon Associates Inc.³, Kristine Fallon is making sure that her Chicago-based firm has the skills it needs to respond to her clients’ increasing demand for services which address interoperability issues. “The demand for interoperability is directly related to the emergence of intelligent building modeling systems,” says Kristine. “Once intelligent building information is available, then a clear purpose exists for this information to be exchanged between different software applications. At that point, technology ideas that have been out there for awhile will finally come to market. Until then, we will have to continue linking work processes via document exchange and situation-specific data conversion via more traditional collaboration tools and integration services.”

As CEO of K-Tek Solutions Inc.⁴, Pete Kelsey observes that in his experience, there have been three methods to achieving software interoperability on building projects. “Typically our consultants have been engaged to implement point-to-point data translators to facilitate information exchange but, with the inherent problem with unstructured sources of data, that only the lowest common denominator could be shared. Increasingly, especially on the largest of projects, the building owner, or in the case of a design-build project, the contractor, mandates the use of pre-selected proprietary tools across the entire project team. The problem with this approach is that many of the companies on the project are forced to retrain, retool and redefine work processes on a project-to-project basis which involves our consultants in extensive training, implementation, and work process definition services. A third and still emerging methodology is the use of neutral (open) data standards such as IFC’s (Industry Foundation Classes⁵) to facilitate intelligent information sharing. However, this is not yet a mainstream approach; it requires specialist knowledge and the use of compliant software applications.”

All of the interoperability consultants that we have interviewed share the common goal of providing value-added services which help their clients create and manage accurate, structured, and reusable project information as a basis for more efficient work processes – which result in improved interoperability and consequent cost savings.

How do you recognize an interoperability consultant when you see one?
The profile of an interoperability consultant is complex. They are domain experts and super users of a range of different software applications. Typically, they have worked on a broad range of project sizes and types and with a number of different companies. They respect discipline-specific roles and responsibilities, understand the communication dynamics across an extended project team, can facilitate the flow of information between project processes, and have the skills to implement repeatable best practices.

As with all professional services, interoperability consultants have different levels of experience and different areas of specialization. Generally speaking however, an interoperability consultant has the skills to:

1. Organize and structure project data for ready access by the whole team
2. Facilitate collaborative work processes
3. Share digital project information
4. Advise on the selection and use of interoperable technology
5. Help create intelligent data sets by structuring CAD files or by using BIM tools
6. Ensure that information flow supports work processes
7. Implement best practices for managing increasingly complex project data sets
8. Drive the standardization of project processes across the extended project team
9. Train key stakeholders

Two real world examples of how an interoperability consultant can save you money!
A building owner, in this case a large national retailer, engaged Integrated Data Solutions, Inc.⁶, to perform a business process analysis of facilities department activities. Chris Keller, president and the consultant on the project, reports that, “The study resulted in both short-term savings and very significant recurring savings across the owner’s portfolio of retail properties. Interoperability, based on instituting repeatable work processes and digital data sharing, proved to be a key success factor.”

In the final report submitted to the owner, Keller was able to identify and quantify the following specific savings:

• A solution to automate a process by which manual data was transferred between multiple systems and duplicated in two different database formats was identified, with estimated annual recurring savings of $30,000.
• Through an aggressive revamp of procedure and rigorous adherence to newly defined standards, they were able to renegotiate two service contracts that were due and reduce costs by almost $100,000.
• Work process analysis identified a situation where data was being captured both manually and electronically due to insufficient training. By resolving the duplication associated with the manual system, another $8-10,000 recurring savings was realized.
• When it came time for departmental participation in the company’s financial documentation process required for Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance, the facilities group was well prepared and actually had more detail than required which saved an estimated 100 man-hours.

The owner anticipates the total potential savings, if all project recommendations are implemented, to be as much as $1 million initially and an additional $100,000 savings annually.

As a second example, K-Tek Solutions advised the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on standardized processes for the vast amount of design data collected by its surveyors for water development projects. By adopting a work process view of the Pacific Northwest Regional design office’s activities, K-Tek was able to facilitate the implementation of technology and standardization of work processes that contributed to an increase in productivity of nearly 50 percent in the first year. Pete Kelsey explains that, “By standardizing the way data was being labeled and stored, thereby making the data easily accessible, teams were able to move projects more efficiently from the initial design phase all the way to final documentation.”

What are the benefits of engaging an interoperability consultant?
An interoperability consultant can ‘glue’ together the fragmented roles, discipline-specific responsibilities, competing software, different work processes, and fractured data sets which every project team struggles with.

These consultants understand that project decisions must be made quickly based on multiple sources of information. They know that many times on a project, the specific information needed to make a decision is incomplete or missing. They are acutely aware that the time associated with searching for relevant, up-to-date project information is too costly. Repeatedly, they have seen this problem exacerbated when project team members unnecessarily recreate duplicate and redundant information, which many times is inconsistent with the original source of data. Time and again, they are engaged on projects which suffer from omissions, repetition, misunderstandings and errors that result in delays and often lead to future litigation.

By analyzing the special circumstances for each unique project, sharing and adapting proven work practices, and improving information exchange between the many different software applications used on a project, interoperability consultants can deliver the following benefits:

1. Speed project delivery by removing the estimated 16 percent of a time being wasted looking for and/or recreating project information⁷.
2. Increase data migration and reuse by avoiding time consuming and error prone manual re-entry of information between project phases and between different software applications.
3. Mitigate risk by organizing project information, establishing audit trails and efficiently archiving documents of record.
4. Protect fee/contract margins by implementing interoperable technology.
5. Realize savings in errors and omissions (E&O) costs by improving the accuracy and consistency of the information being shared across the project team.

An interoperability consultant can certainly add value when engaged on as-needed basis. However, the value add is most significant when they are commissioned as an integral member of your cross-functional project team.

The bottom line on achieving the goal of interoperability
For building owners, we recommend that you consider interoperability to be a critical success factor in the same way as you value the structural integrity of a building and LEED certification for energy credits. Just as you rely today on specialist consultants for structural analysis and for efficient energy design to obtain LEED certification, invest in engaging an interoperability consultant on your projects.

We challenge architects, engineers and contractors to refuse to continue funding the building industry’s annual $15.8 billion of waste. Insist on having access to a specialist consultant who is focused on enabling interoperability on your projects by facilitating improved information sharing across the extended project team, data reuse between applications, and the streamlining of work processes.

We believe that the urgent need to address interoperability across our industry represents an opportunity for software vendors to facilitate interoperability by “unlocking” project information which is currently being captured in proprietary file formats. With open access to increasingly intelligent building information and a new generation of software applications that take advantage of the same, interoperability consultants will be empowered to help more project teams derive the many benefits of interoperability.

About the Authors
Ian Howell is Chief Executive Officer of Newforma. Howell is an Australian architect, a co-founder and current board member of the International Alliance for Interoperability, and has extensive experience in applied technology in the building industry, both as a director at Autodesk and as vice president of Citadon. Howell can be contacted by email at ihowell@newforma.com

Todd Kozikowski is a co-founder of Newforma with experience in start-up operations, enterprise sales and service, and strategic partnering throughout the high-tech industry. He has helped establish several start-up companies including Silknet, Kana, Unica and Software Emancipation Technology. Kozikowski can be contacted via email at tkozikowski@newforma.com

Newforma is a venture-funded software development company serving architecture, engineering, construction, and owner-operator (AECO) companies. Newforma is striving to dramatically increase the effectiveness and productivity of the AECO industry by developing software that enables the seamless flow of information between every building project team member, in support of both project and business processes. More information about Newforma is available at www.newforma.com.

References:

1. A copy of the full NIST report entitled "Cost Analysis of Inadequate Interoperability in the U.S. Capital Facilities Industry" is available at http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/publications/gcrs/04867.pdf
2. A summary of the 200+ page NIST Report and its key findings has been published by Lachmi Khemlani as AECbytes Newsletter #14 which is available at http://www.aecbytes.com/newsletter/issue_14.htm
3. For more information about Kristine Fallon & Associates see http://www.kfa-inc.com/
4. For more information about K-Tek Solutions, Inc. see http://www.k-teksolutions.com/
5. An overview of Industry Foundation Classes is available as a Feature Article titled “The IFC Building Model: A Look Under the Hood” on AECbytes at http://www.aecbytes.com/feature/IFCmodel.htm
6. For more information about Integrated Data Solutions, Inc. see www.ids-ddpc.com
7. The survey of “Issues and Trends in the UK Design Community - Focus on Building & Construction” undertaken on behalf of Autodesk UK by Pro-Log Research Limited, is available at: http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/index?id=3813105&siteID=452932