IFMA Survey Summary: Expectations and Reality
Last year, R.O.I. partnered with IFMA’s ITC and Autodesk
to run our first annual survey on the state of electronic documentation for
building owners and operators. Autodesk recently published a
whitepaper revealing the highlights of that survey, demonstrating current
state and desired future state. Please download this document and see what the
industry has to say!
The 2023
IFMA ITC Annual Digital Twin Survey is running now. The IMFA survey has closed, please keep an eye out for results.
Please take a couple of minutes to chime in with
information about your facility.
While you’re here, you might want to check out my prior
article on the current state of electronic records and BIM requirements.
What Makes a Digital Twin?
Much like CAFM (Computer Aided Facility Management) and
IWMS (Integrated Workplace Management System), what people believe a technology
does or should contain is influenced by their respective needs. As a result of
this survey, we see that the top component of a Digital Twin is a facility
record model.
The prior chart displays what facilities want from their
technology adoption, as an end goal. They also shared what elements are already
in use. We look forward to monitoring this during our annual surveys and seeing
how the industry progresses.
Why Not Digital Twin?
For the respondents not yet utilizing a Digital Twin, a
variety of obstacles were revealed. There are many replies citing a lack of
resources (whether that be skills, funding, leadership support, or current
large projects which would benefit), but nearly half of the negative replies
indicate they cannot currently justify a business case.
Dominant Use Cases
For those who shared their expected business case, the
most popular is supporting maintenance. Though, visualization for space and
workplace management is not far behind. Commissioning a building and execution
of jobs are fairly close in popularity as well. Some additional use cases were
suggested, strategic portfolio planning, simulation, predictive design, and
baseline comparisons.
Anticipated Business Benefits
When we asked, “Does your senior management see value in
Digital Twin?”, a resounding 78% affirmed that they have support.
When queried, on a scale of 1 to 5, what are the most
valuable benefits you expect from a Digital Twin initiative? All of the
suggested benefits ranked strongly, indicating the importance for a wide range
of functions. Receiving better deliverables and having an easier time keeping
record documents up to date post-occupancy were valued most.
Please keep an eye out on notifications from R.O.I.,
Autodesk, and the IFMA Information Technology Community (ITC) announcing future
results and surveys.
