New McGraw-Hill Construction Study Compares Building Information Modeling in Western Europe and North America

NEW YORK, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- A little over a third (36%) of Western European construction professionals are now using Building Information Modeling (BIM), according to McGraw-Hill Construction's latest SmartMarket Report, The Business Value of BIM in Europe. Produced in collaboration with Autodesk, the National Institute of Building Sciences/buildingSMART alliance, and 11 industry associations in Europe, and released today, the first-ever report compares BIM adoption rates in France, Germany and the U.K. with those in North America, where 49% of contractors, architects and engineers report BIM usage, according to McGraw-Hill Construction's 2009 report, The Business Value of BIM.

"While the overall adoption rate in Western Europe is lower than in North America, those that have adopted BIM have been using it longer and have developed a higher level of expertise," said Steve Jones, senior director, McGraw-Hill Construction. "These long-term adopters are also seeing higher value from their BIM investments, and we expect usage to surge in the coming years, especially among contractors."

McGraw-Hill Construction's new report reveals meaningful differences between the North American and European BIM markets and further affirms that firms with greater experience and expertise in BIM frequently achieve a significant return on their BIM investment. Over a third of Western European BIM users (34%) have more than five years of experience using BIM, versus only 18% in North America; and nearly three-quarters of Western European BIM users (74%) report a positive perceived return on their overall investment in BIM, compared with 63% of North American BIM users.

"BIM is transforming the global construction industry and is fast becoming the foundation of a new workflow process," said Jay Bhatt, senior vice president of Autodesk AEC Solutions. "The resulting consistent, coordinated information is delivering tangible benefits to all stakeholders, as is evident in the new McGraw Hill Construction study."

The Business Value of BIM in Europe report provides significant insights into BIM implementation and tangible business benefits. Respondents are broken into two groups, BIM users and non-users, and the report examines non-users' reasons for not implementing BIM, as well as extensive data from BIM users about their length of usage, levels of expertise, BIM investments, and the return on those investments. Additional highlights include:

• Compared to North America, where BIM adoption has surged among contractors to 50%, BIM has only been embraced by 24% of Western European contractors. However, contractors anticipate the most aggressive increase in implementation, with the frequent user population expected to grow from 11% today to 54% by 2012. Thus, as in North America, it is likely that the use of BIM by contractors will surge in the coming years.
• 82% of BIM users who formally measure ROI are seeing positive returns. 46% of BIM users in Western Europe who formally measure ROI are seeing returns of 25% or more on their investments versus 32% of users in North America.
• Users in Western Europe and North America agree that interoperability of software used by team members is an important factor in determining BIM's overall value on construction projects.

To download the free report, visit http://www.construction.com/market_research.

The Business Value of BIM in Europe is produced by McGraw-Hill Construction. Autodesk is the premier corporate sponsor. Premier association partners include buildingSMART alliance and the National Institute of Building Sciences. The association survey partners include the Architects' Council of Europe, Association for Consultancy and Engineering, Bayerische Ingenieurekammer Bau, Bundesarchitektenkammer, Bundesingenieurkammer, The Chartered Institute of Building, Conseil International du Batiment, Conseil National de l'Ordre des Architectes, European Construction Industry Federation, Institution of Structural Engineers, and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

About McGraw-Hill Construction:

McGraw-Hill Construction connects people, projects and products across the construction industry. For more than a century, it has remained North America's leading provider of project and product information, plans and specifications, and industry news, trends and forecasts. McGraw-Hill Construction serves more than one million customers in the $5.6 trillion global construction industry through Dodge, Sweets, Architectural Record, Engineering News-Record, GreenSource, and 10 regional publications. To learn more, visit www.construction.com or follow @mhconstruction on Twitter.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies:

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) is a global information and education company providing knowledge, insights and analysis in the financial, education and business information sectors through leading brands including Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, Platts, and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2009 were $5.95 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.

SOURCE McGraw-Hill Construction