RLB Digital won the Information Management Best Practice category at the Digital Construction Awards 2026 last night (18 March).
RLB Digital’s Project Colin addresses the elephant in the room when adopting a data-driven approach: documents.
Traditionally, documents are created as large, disconnected files, O&M manuals, health and safety files, fire and emergency files (FEF), each authored by different people, in different formats, often with overlapping or conflicting content. This fragmented method leads to duplication, inconsistency and information that’s hard to find, trust, or maintain. Editing one part without affecting others becomes nearly impossible.
What the judges said
“This shows the information management practices we should expect on a project. The solution is innovative, forward-thinking and logically rigorous.”
Project Colin proposes a shift: instead of starting with whole documents, the process starts with individual pieces of information. These are combined to produce O&M, health and safety and FEF outputs. Each piece of information exists only once, but is reused many times. This eliminates duplication across structured and unstructured formats and clarifies what the information is, so it’s not provided twice (eg asset register vs COBie).
A unified data environment
The process separates purposes, information requirements, task/master information delivery plans (TIDPs/MIDP) and CDE metadata. These connect directly to the project’s information standard, where all pick lists are documented. This ensures consistent values across the workflow and aligns the CDE setup with the structure of the requirements and delivery plans, creating a unified data environment.
A key challenge was transferring data from information delivery plans to the CDE. While multi-select lists worked well for building requirements, they complicated data exchange via CSV/XLSX.
Other finalists
- 10 Dock information management transformation – CDE managed service | Babcock International/Assystem
- Best practice across the DfE construction framework: the Alliance for Learning case study | Mace Consult
- Bridge asset information management system | Laing O’Rourke
- DfE Framework: Information Management Tracking & Validation proof of concept | XD House
- Digital building logbook | GS1 UK & GS1 Ireland/EcoWise
- Digital construction and investment | National Gas/Premtech/Capgemini
- HS2 Area North BIM team IFC processing | Balfour Beatty Vinci
- Scaling information management in the AI era | Hoppa/AtkinsRéalis
- Making best practice inevitable in information management | Shape Construction
To resolve this, the requirements were rebuilt using single-select lists, which was time-consuming but essential for a smoother, integrated process.
This approach enhances how information requirements are defined and tracked, from initial purpose to final delivery. Information is no longer buried in documents, but becomes visible, traceable, checkable and manageable.
It allows handover documentation to begin forming even before information is produced, creating a joined-up process that reduces waste, removes ambiguity and improves the quality of what’s handed over. This connects level of information need (ISO 7817-1) with ISO 19650 processes and aligns with PAS 1958 principles.
The Digital Construction Awards are organised by Digital Construction Week, the Chartered Institute of Building, DC+ and Construction Management. Read about the rest of the winners.
To find out more about the Awards and enquire about sponsorship or entering next year’s event, visit digitalconstructionawards.co.uk.
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