The Future of Managing the Building Community

Managing the built environment today is becoming more important than ever. With more and more stakeholders involved, lots of complex operations to control, and tons of data to handle, comes the risk of overwhelming disintegration and mismanagement. This is where BIMMUNITY (or the Building Community) comes in.

BIMMUNITY is a cloud-based system that aims at empowering all parties concerned with the efficient management of the built environment. It utilizes state-of-the-art concepts of building information modeling (BIM), geographic information systems (GIS), and database and server technology, to provide smart and real-time solutions, involving a variety of building types and stakeholders, within a fully integrated and customized platform.

BIMMUNITY solutions range from managing not only spaces and buildings, but also communities and cities, using its flexible and scalable “city-to-room” services. Rather than a “one-size-fits-all” platform, its fully customizable features address the needs of a wide variety of building types, including residential, commercial, educational, and mixed-use buildings, as well as stakeholders, including property holders, facility managers, service providers, and building tenants.

All stakeholders can navigate seamlessly through BIMMUNITY’s dynamic and user-friendly visual interface using its interconnected portals. Property holders can manage their properties worldwide and track income, expenses, and performances on their PCs or smart devices. Facility managers can issue tickets and work orders to service providers and monitor all building systems and operations. Service providers can monitor their stocks and inventory and conduct their assigned work orders. Building tenants can visually navigate through their units and perform a variety of requests including services, bookings, and maintenance and operation requests.

The system infrastructure comprises several cloud servers and databases, including MySQL database, Google Maps for general map navigation, BIM server for managing data translation from 3D BIM models, and GIS server for creating and managing GIS data, web services and applications related to worldwide maps. All server outputs are communicated through an API gateway to serve any type of devices including desktop and mobile applications.

One of the key added values of the system is the BIM/GIS integration, where GIS augments the value of BIM design data through the analysis and management of infrastructure and project elements. Using the analytical power of both BIM and GIS, building users, managers and owners can better understand the issues and impacts of their decisions. Other strengths include the support of data retrieval, tracking of component development and maintenance history, dataset availability for maximum on-demand use and recall, therefore supporting integration with other collaboration platforms.

The integration of BIMMUNITY and existing Internet of Things (IoT) systems including smart systems, home automation and sensor network technology offers yet a further competitive edge, where real-time data and feedback from existing operations are detected, monitored and processed to provide comprehensive and accurate data representation. BIMMUNITY introduces a solution that is much more than an efficient management tool. It extends to deliver smart solutions that involve enhanced scenarios of operation, automated workflows, performance monitoring and tracking, optimized management of building facilities and spaces, and informed real time decision-making.