BIM and specification writing:
The great disconnect
Software to associate specifications
writing with BIM fails to capture
market traction and relevance in
Canada and the U.S.

Canadian Design and Construction Report staff writer
The idea seems simple (and valuable) enough: If Build-
ing Information Modelling (BIM) provides architects, engi-
neers, contractors and owners the capacity to resolve
conflicts, test out ideas before they are carved in stone, and
improve long-term building reliability and efficiency, surely
BIM could be a significant aspect of the specification
process for virtually all projects.

However, the story turns out to not be quite as straight-
forward as it seems. Despite initiatives to develop BIM-
relevant software by several organizations in Canada and
the U.S., uptake has been limited and most specifications
continue to be done the old way, with word processing
programs and limited if any connection to the BIM
process. These issues are reflected in challenging business cir-
14 – June 2017 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report
cumstances for two Canadian specification software
providers, Digicon Information Inc. and Innovative Technol-
ogy Inc., who have independently developed different BIM-
related solutions, but have failed to attract significant
market interest in their BIM innovations despite several
years of effort.

The story isn’t much different in the U.S., says Beth
Stroshane, managing partner at Applied Building Informa-
tion LLC, an independent specifications consulting busi-
ness in Seattle, Washington.

Stroshane has used two U.S. BIM specifications soft-
ware products, e-SPECS and BSD Linkman, and says nei-
ther are providing enough value to offset the effort of
making them work. She has presented her findings at Con-
struction Specification Institute (CSI) conferences. CSI is
the U.S. counterpart to Construction Specifications Canada
(CSC). CSC and CSI jointly publish North American stan-
dards concerning specifications in both countries.

The problem of building effective BIM specifications
software is “not Canadian,” she said. “It is pretty universal,
the software does what the software people say it does,
but the architects don’t do what the software people as-
sume they do.”