Is forensicBIM related to the EU cost-benefit method for BIM?
No. forensicBIM was not involved in the EU publication Calculating Costs and Benefits for the use of Building Information Modelling in Public Tenders, and the publication does not mention forensicBIM. The two do cover related ground. The EU method helps a public client decide whether to ask for BIM, and forensicBIM checks what the client got.
What the EU publication is
The European Commission commissioned the method in 2020 to help public clients decide whether to require BIM in a tender. Two Italian firms, RINA Consulting and B1P Group, wrote it under a contract with the EU agency EISMEA, guided by an advisory board that included the EU BIM Task Group. It came out in 2021 as a handbook, two presentations and an Excel tool, under a CC BY 4.0 licence.
The tool asks for a few facts about a planned project: its budget, how long design and construction will take, the floor area, how complex and repetitive the building is, and the level of detail the tender requires. From those it estimates what using BIM will cost (staff time, software, training, modelling and coordination) and what it will save, such as fewer design clashes, more accurate quantities and lower maintenance costs over 20 years. The result is a net present value and a benefit-cost ratio.
Most of the percentages behind these estimates come from a survey of 122 organisations, mainly public bodies, along with 40 interviews and six case studies. The tool describes itself as an experimental prototype, and the handbook says a later version should move to the EN ISO 19650 and EN 17412-1 standards.
What the EU tool counts
The tool works from the public client's point of view. It counts nine costs:
- extra staff time in the pre-tender, tender and post-award phases
- extra consulting for the procurement
- modelling the asset
- BIM coordination
- a project's share of hardware, software licences and staff training
And eight benefits:
- fewer clashes and design errors, so fewer changes during construction
- more accurate quantity take-offs
- lower costs for claims and litigation
- a shorter design and construction period
- less staff time to find documents for facility management
- lower annual maintenance costs
- fewer site accidents, valued as a saving to society
- less CO2 from wasted material
The last two count only in the “economic” results (ENPV and economic benefit-cost ratio), which include benefits to society. The financial results (NPV and benefit-cost ratio) leave them out. You can switch any cost or benefit off when it does not apply to your project.
The interviews also gave a rough price for getting started with BIM. In its first year, a public organisation spends about €15,000 to €20,000 per employee: €5,000 to €8,000 on training, €8,000 to €10,000 a year on software and €2,000 to €3,000 on hardware. The organisations interviewed expected to see a return only after several years.
The six worked examples
The handbook runs the tool on six sample tenders based on real cases across Europe. Every example comes out positive, and the higher maturity level always scores better.
| Example | Type | Size | Investment | Benefit-cost ratio, level 1 | Benefit-cost ratio, level 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old factory converted to a sports centre | Building, conversion | 1,680 m² | €1.17M | 1.46 | 2.15 |
| Road maintenance and renovation | Infrastructure | 34,850 m² | €11.05M | 1.69 | 5.31 |
| New port | Infrastructure with buildings | 7,203 m² | €5.15M | 2.72 | 2.96 |
| School renovation | Building, renovation | 4,000 m² | €13.09M | 3.44 | 8.53 |
| New administrative building | Building, new | 4,000 m² | €26.88M | 10.0 | 10.60 |
| New residential building | Building, new | 1,800 m² | €2.31M | 1.60 | 2.02 |
A ratio above 1 means the estimated savings are larger than the extra costs. Level 1 and level 2 are the tool's two BIM maturity levels: at level 2, the client works with shared, federated models and the savings percentages are higher.
Does forensicBIM have a relationship with it?
No. forensicBIM did not write, fund or review the publication, and the publication does not name forensicBIM. It does not mention IFC or openBIM either. The software it refers to is all proprietary.
How the two differ
The EU tool works before a tender and estimates what BIM should return on a typical project. forensicBIM works after delivery and measures the model you actually received.
| Dimension | EU cost-benefit tool | forensicBIM |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | Should we require BIM in this tender? | What is this delivered model worth, and how good is its data? |
| When you use it | Before procurement | After delivery, on the IFC file |
| What you put in | Answers about the project: budget, floor area, complexity, level of detail | The IFC file itself |
| Where the numbers come from | Survey averages and six case studies | The content of the file, compared with a reference set of more than 4,000 models |
| Non-geometric information | Not considered; its level of detail covers geometry only | Properties, classification, materials, quantities and relations are all measured |
| Data quality | Assumed from the client's BIM maturity level | Measured and scored per file |
| File format | Not considered | IFC, so the data stays readable for the life of the asset |
| Asset types | Buildings, infrastructure and mixed projects | Buildings and infrastructure such as bridges, roads and tunnels |
| Result | Net present value and benefit-cost ratio | Quality scores, reproduction cost, value in use and a carrying amount if the data is recognised |
| Accounting view | The model is a project expense | The data can be recognised and capitalised as an asset |
The difference shows most in maintenance savings. The EU tool gives every project the same percentage saving on its annual maintenance budget: 6.6% at its lower maturity level and 15% at the higher one. A model full of classified, typed elements and a model made of unclassified objects get the same figure. forensicBIM bases a model's value on what its data contains, so those two models come out very differently.
Where they agree
Both treat operation and maintenance as the phase where model data earns most of its value. In the EU survey, most public clients expected their largest benefits in operations, although fewer than 20% were using BIM there yet. In four of the six worked examples in the handbook, maintenance savings are one of the two largest benefits.
They also agree that modelling effort depends on size, complexity and how much of the design repeats. The EU tool asks you to score complexity and standardisation from 1 to 3, while forensicBIM reads them from the file.
The handbook also notes that public clients adopt BIM partly to check delivered models against the tender, and that its own estimates cannot show what an analysis after delivery would. forensicBIM does that analysis.
Limits of the EU method
The handbook acknowledges most of these itself.
- It is meant for estimates made in advance. The benefits are percentages applied to the project budget, so the result says nothing about the model a contractor will actually deliver.
- The percentages rest largely on expectations. About 70% of the survey respondents placed their own organisation at the two lowest BIM maturity levels, so many of them had little experience to report from.
- Its maturity levels come from a 2008 model, and its level of detail covers geometry only. The handbook says both should give way to EN ISO 19650 and the level of information need in EN 17412-1, which treats alphanumeric information as just as important as geometry.
- It is designed for small and medium projects, up to about €50 million.
- The operation and maintenance phase is fixed at 20 years, which is short for bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure that stays in use far longer.
- The tool is a 2021 prototype, provided “as is”.
Using them together
In a public project, the two fit one after the other:
- Before the tender, the EU tool helps you decide whether requiring BIM is worth it.
- The tender then specifies what information the model must contain.
- At handover, forensicBIM shows whether the delivered data can support the savings the business case assumed, and what the data is worth as an asset.
Comparing figures from the two
The maintenance savings the EU tool reports among its “most relevant indicators” add up 20 years of savings without discounting them. In the handbook's first example that total is €54,575. Discounted at the tool's own 4% rate, the same savings are worth about €33,400. forensicBIM reports value in use as a present value, so compare it with the discounted figure.
The EU “BIM model cost” is the price of having a model authored during design, including drawings and quantity take-offs. forensicBIM's reproduction cost is the effort needed to rebuild a model whose result is already known, which is much lower.
Frequently asked questions
Does forensicBIM use the EU method to value models?
No. forensicBIM does not use the EU tool or its survey percentages. It works from the IFC file you upload, with its own calculation.
We used the EU tool to justify BIM on a project. Can forensicBIM help afterwards?
Yes. The EU tool assumes the delivered model will be good enough to produce the savings it estimates. Upload the IFC model delivered at handover to forensicBIM and you can see how complete and reliable its data is, and what it is worth to you over its useful life. Where the data falls short, the report shows what could be improved.
Can forensicBIM tell me whether we reached the 6.6% or 15% maintenance saving the EU tool assumed?
Not directly. Those percentages are survey averages, and the actual saving depends on how you run maintenance. forensicBIM estimates the savings the delivered data makes possible, based on what the data contains. Set that estimate against the EU percentage to see whether the business case was realistic.
Is the EU method relevant outside the EU?
The method was built for EU public clients, with European salary levels and EU policy goals in mind. forensicBIM is used by asset owners in and outside the EU, including US public clients. Its valuation follows accounting rules for recognising data as an asset, with references to both GASB and IAS.
Is the EU method an official requirement?
No. The EU encourages public clients to use BIM but does not require it, and the cost-benefit method is voluntary guidance. The handbook itself says it reflects the views of its authors rather than the European Commission.
Key terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Net present value (NPV) | All future savings minus all costs, with later amounts discounted to today's money |
| Benefit-cost ratio | Discounted savings divided by discounted costs; above 1 means savings exceed costs |
| ENPV and economic benefit-cost ratio | The same measures with benefits to society, such as fewer accidents and less CO2, included |
| BIM maturity level | The EU tool's scale for how far a client uses shared models, from 0 (no BIM) to 3 |
| Level of detail (LOD) | How much geometric detail a model has; the EU tool uses LOD 200, 350 and 450/500 |
| Value in use | In forensicBIM, the present value of the operate and maintain costs the delivered data saves over its useful life |
| Reproduction cost | In forensicBIM, the effort to rebuild the model's data when the result is already known |
| Carrying amount | In forensicBIM, the value of the data on the balance sheet if you recognise it as an asset, after amortisation |
Source
European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (2021). Calculating Costs and Benefits for the use of Building Information Modelling in Public Tenders: Methodology Handbook. RINA Consulting and B1P Group. ISBN 978-92-9460-642-6. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
The EU BIM Task Group's page for the method: eubim.eu/cost-benefits