Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Bim: Strategic Positioning Of Bim

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been well recognised for its potential to reduce cost, improve efficiency, improve quality, and provide further productivity and performance benefits. In response to the recent hype of BIM processes and workflows, together with government mandates and client's demands, more companies are starting to implement BIM based strategies in their delivery process to improve their business. However, there is still a question of what happens when all the surrounded competitors have similar level of access to all stated benefits of BIM. In the innovation management literature, it has been widely accepted that the early BIM adopters possess more advantage compared with early majority or the late majority. As a result of this dynamism, the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is likely to reach a tipping point with a BIM-saturated market. A BIM-saturated market is a sign of a transition from the stage where the early adopters are taking the lead to a position where BIM is becoming a norm within the industry. This paper explores how this dynamism can be managed at an organisation level to be able to gain competitive advantage. Semi structured interviews from industry professionals were employed to gather data on how BIM can be strategically positioned to ensure competitive advantage in the market. The paper concludes with a recommendation on how companies could strategically position BIM within a BIM saturated market which will essentially be useful in an uncertain market condition.