Why BIM’s Greatest ROI Starts After Construction Ends

For much of the past decade, building information modelling (BIM) has been synonymous with design and construction efficiency: fewer clashes, less rework, tighter coordination between architects, engineers and contractors. Yet, recent moves by major BIM software vendors suggest the industry's focus is broadening. In early July, Nemetschek Group completed its $2.4 billion acquisition of construction management software provider HCSS, reflecting a growing industry emphasis on connecting BIM data with construction execution and lifecycle asset management, rather than viewing BIM solely as a design-stage tool. Despite this, the industry's fixation on perfecting the model before breaking ground has consistently obscured the question of what happens to that model once the building opens its doors.

This is the paradox facing building owners and operators today. Firms often invest in sophisticated digital models, only to allow their value to decay before the asset enters the period where most cost, risk and performance outcomes are realized. Global survey data from Verdantix reveal that 43% of capital project managers use BIM for only some stages of capital project delivery, or not at all, highlighting the gap between project-based BIM adoption and lifecycle-wide information management.

The problem is less about technology and more about organizational ownership. OpenBIM standards, cloud-based common data environments and digital twin architectures are making lifecycle data continuity increasingly feasible. Yet facilities management teams are too often excluded from defining BIM requirements, meaning operational users inherit models that are rich in design and geometry but poor on practical maintainability data. During the reconstruction of Planon’s headquarters in the Netherlands, for example, the third-party BIM provider initially recreated models to a level of detail that exceeded the needs of facilities users. This frequently results in the ownership of the model itself becoming unclear the moment the contractor's obligations end – and with it, any incentive to keep the data current.

This mismatch matters most where operational failure is expensive. Lifecycle BIM delivers the strongest ROI in high-complexity, mission-critical assets such as data centres, airports and hospitals, where mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems form a large share of asset value and downtime can rapidly dwarf the cost of a BIM programme. Thésée DataCenter in France, for example, uses a BIM-enabled operational digital twin to simulate expansion and maintenance scenarios without disrupting live operations. Similarly, at the New Stavanger University Hospital in Norway, Omega 365 supported the use of operational BIM to maintain a single source of truth from construction through commissioning and operations.

Investment momentum is reinforcing this shift, with 48% of asset and capital project managers planning to increase BIM spend over the next year. However, additional investment alone will not solve the lifecycle problem. If owners continue to treat BIM as a handover deliverable rather than an operational data asset, they will simply create more models that age quickly, fragment across systems and lose relevance. The next phase of BIM maturity will require clearer ownership of model data, contractual information exchange requirements from day one, owner-controlled CDEs and post-handover processes that keep the model aligned with the physical asset.

The stakes are rising for building owner-operators, asset managers and facilities management teams as AI and digital twins enable predictive maintenance, automated risk detection and AI-assisted handover validation – all of which rely on accurate, continuously maintained lifecycle data. A live BIM model connected to sensor data equips AI agents to reason and act autonomously on an asset’s behalf. Without that grounding, any AI tools are relying on disconnected documents, incomplete records and stale assumptions. In this sense, AI has the power to reframe the role of BIM from a static file delivered at the end of a project to a live, continuously updated view of the project throughout its life cycle, forming the digital backbone for predictive operations, portfolio performance and – eventually – boosted asset valuation.  

To learn where lifecycle BIM delivers the greatest value, why adoption continues to break down after handover, and which best practices can help owners, FM leaders and AEC teams close the gap between construction and operations, read Strategic Focus: Is BIM Rewriting Building Lifecycle Management?