Many construction businesses and their projects are still transitioning from BIM Level 2 to the next stage, namely the ISO 19650 suite of information management standards. Engineering consultancy Caulmert has recently gained certification to 19650: its BIM manager, Tim Williams, discusses his and the firm’s journey to the standard.
Caulmert was founded in 2008 and now has 50 staff with offices in St Asaph, north Wales, as well as in Bangor, Altrincham, Nottingham and Kent. It has a turnover of more than £8m and works across a number of sectors, including commercial, education, residential, healthcare, energy and prisons.
Not only has Caulmert committed significant investment in time and money to adopting 19650, it is also one of the few companies that has gone the extra mile of undergoing certification to the process. Certification to ISO 19650-2 focuses on how information is managed during the design and construction stages of a project.
Key aspects include:
- establishing an information management process;
- developing Employer’s Information Requirements (EIR);
- creating a BIM execution plan (BEP);
- managing a common data environment (CDE); and
- defining information exchanges and approvals.
“We have operated to BIM Level 2 for years on local and national schemes, but this is a new way of working with fresh processes that consider the whole lifecycle of a project.”
Williams has worked at Caulmert since August 2021. He joined as a senior technician and became BIM manager in November 2023, managing a team of 20 and driving the company’s digital development as well as achieving 19650 accreditation. He says the certification signals the company’s position as a leader in the sector through an approach that reduces errors while improving cost, value and carbon performance via increased digital efficiency.
“We have operated to BIM Level 2 for years on local and national schemes, but this is a new way of working with fresh processes that consider the whole lifecycle of a project,” he says.
CM Digital: Tell us about your role at Caulmert
Tim Williams: I wrote all the policies and procedures for ISO 19650 accreditation, and I monitor to ensure that all policies and procedures are being followed by the firm. I also look out for and test the latest software and technology. And I oversee all our Revit 3D modelling. We use a variety of 3D modelling software as well as more traditional 2D CAD software, as these all fall under the BIM umbrella.
Why did Caulmert want to go down this route, and how did you go about managing it?
As you know, the intention of BIM Level 2 was to do a little bit of work in 3D, but it’s really all very vague and open to interpretation. Organisations and professionals often interpreted things differently, so there wasn’t much sharing of information and coordination between companies. It could only be shared in-house.
Basically, 19650 establishes the information management process by developing information requirements, such as EIR, and then creating a BEP, a roadmap, if you will. We also manage our own and the customers’ CDE, making for smoother information exchanges and approvals.
So it’s not just about 3D modelling anymore. 19650 covers the entire work process, from the initial concept and pricing of the job all the way through the lifecycle of the building. It lets you share all that documented information with other companies that have ISO 19650, and huge benefits have come from that.
It was definitely challenging for us to get the correct system in place, because there’s no information out there on how to do it. You couldn’t just Google it. There is some guidance, but mostly you have to work it out for yourself.
But despite the difficulties, we’ve found it really is worth doing. As just one example, we often used to tender for a job and then sometimes find there were problems we hadn’t foreseen. Now it’s much easier to interrogate client information held on BIM documents and then decide in advance if we have the capability and capacity to take it on.
“Now we’ve achieved certification, it does set us out from the crowd when companies come to us. It gives them a new level of assurance in our capabilities.”
Why did you decide to get 19650 accreditation? Was it to demonstrate your commitment to clients or to reinforce internal disciplines?
A bit of both. Our MD, Mike Caulfield, always wants us to be at the forefront of the industry – he’s always looking at ways to futureproof the company and provide better value to our clients – so that’s the main reason we’ve done it.
Now we’ve achieved certification, it does set us out from the crowd when companies come to us and look for pricing and things like that. It gives them a new level of assurance in our capabilities.
What were the key challenges to achieving accreditation?
A lot of people, myself included, thought it would just be a case of advancing the BIM Level 2 policies and procedures we have and then growing them to gain ISO 19650. The reality was we pretty much had to reinvent the wheel. It was far more complex than we initially anticipated, because there’s a lot of things that aren’t highlighted that you need to produce.
After a while, we realised it would be far more efficient to start the whole process from scratch, and we then began writing new policies and procedures, using our knowledge of BIM Level 2. It was very time-consuming, but very much worthwhile.
Have you discovered any other benefits of obtaining certification?
Yes, and one of the most important is that it’s helped clearly define team members’ roles – they know exactly what they’re expected to do.
It also helps with our regular meetings where we can better understand and discuss individual workloads, and whether team members have the qualifications and experience to tackle certain projects.
“Don’t be afraid of what’s involved in making the change. For us, it’s created a better working environment, better working processes and a more efficient team.”
It has greatly improved coordination between the various packages in our projects.
And this plays into what I mentioned earlier about resolving issues on projects at the design and coordination stage rather than on site. So, for instance, if there’s a steel beam going over a window, you spot that on a computer screen at the early coordination stage, rather than it getting to site and there’s a big piece of steel going through the window.
Of course, that’s one of the benefits of BIM generally, but with 19650 we now have much more concise checking policies and procedures in place that we have to adhere to.
All our processes are set out to comply with 19650, so it’s checked by the design manager, then the engineering manager and then the site manager, so everyone’s had a good look at it and you’re much more likely to spot issues pre-site. That saves a massive amount of work that was taking place further down the line. The quality of the work that’s produced now is of an even higher standard than before.
Has it been a big investment for the firm?
In terms of my time and that of fellow team members, yes. As I mentioned, we had to go back to the start and rewrite all our documents. But the transition has gone smoothly and the staff have adopted it very quickly.
What does the certification involve? Do you get somebody coming in and checking on your systems?
Yes, we had initial guidance from the BRE Group, who went through our previous documentation. They worked with us to see what was and wasn’t relevant and what needed changing.
When we’d made the changes and created all the new documents, they carried out a desktop audit of all our documentation and policy procedures, and followed that with an on-site audit to make sure we are working to our policies and procedures and using all the documents. On top of that, they do an annual check of everything.
What tips would you give to anyone thinking of going down this route?
The first thing I’d say is that it’s completely different to what you’ve probably been doing before, so you have to make a real effort to read very widely around the subject just to understand the ISO and get to grips with what it wants you to do.
It took us about 12 months to get it all in place.
And I’d also say, do it – don’t be afraid of what’s involved in making the change. For us, it’s created a better working environment, better working processes and a more efficient team.
