Not All BIMs Are Created Equal…
Why Owners Must Lead with Their Own Portfolio-wide Data Standard
Executive Summary
November 6, 2025, Naples, FL. Every year, facility owners fund millions of dollars in Building Information Model (BIM) deliverables—yet 96% of the data created during design and construction never reaches operations.
The problem isn’t technology, it’s inconsistency. From the start, AEC teams typically use their own BIM standards that do not match the owner’s data standard, resulting in a patchwork of models that look impressive but cannot be merged, compared, or reused.
Most owners assume that a “BIM deliverable” automatically contains usable information. It rarely does, because the level of usable data depends entirely on how it’s defined contractually. Some BIMs are visually detailed but informationally empty, while others are structured for harvesting into lifecycle use.
The difference lies in who defines the data structure and who enforces it.
When each AEC consultant applies their own standards, the result is fragmented and incompatible. When the owner defines an authoritative schema, all project teams contribute to the same digital ecosystem. This isn’t about controlling modeling methods—it’s about controlling data outcomes contractually.
The solution is an authoritative, owner-executed data structure—defined, provided, and validated by the owner. The mechanism of this structure is a BIM Execution Plan (BEP) that includes a Data Execution Plan (DEP) owned by the facility organization that includes a Level of Data Information (LODi) framework that together defines how data is structured, validated, and delivered.
This unified data framework serves as the owner’s playbook for consistent information, ensuring all facility teams for new and existing buildings to follow the same data structure and data rules. It guides AEC teams on new projects to create data-rich BIMs that can be harvested directly into the owner’s digital twin, ensuring a smooth transition from construction to operations. At the same time, it enables existing buildings to adopt the same data structure, improving the accuracy, consistency, and efficiency of ongoing operations.
However, this data structure cannot be created in isolation. When the BEP and its LODi framework are established, they must blend with the owner’s existing preferred data structures—honoring legacy systems and institutional data conventions that are already working. Achieving a truly unified standard requires agreement from both sides: adapting elements of the new BEP framework to fit established datasets and modernizing legacy standards to align with the BEP. The goal is not to replace what exists, but to integrate and elevate it into one consistent, portfolio-wide data framework.
Once established, this shared standard allows every department—from capital planners to custodians—to participate in improving and expanding the data within their operation ecosystems. Facility staff can harvest, update, and fill in missing information across legacy buildings, ensuring that both new and existing assets evolve together under a unified, consistent data structure.
This strategy delivers two wins with one standard: validated data-rich BIMs for new projects and structured, actionable data for existing facilities.
Even as many owners pause new construction to consolidate and optimize existing assets, this is the ideal time to define and enforce a unified data standard. When new projects begin, the framework will already be in place to ensure consistency across the entire portfolio. With budgets tightening and construction slowing, owners cannot afford data waste. A unified data framework ensures that even legacy facilities become strategic assets, fueling better decisions, capital planning, and long-term sustainability.
To succeed, this strategy requires executive leadership. Only the C-Suite can mandate a unified data structure across planning, design, construction, and operations.
When leadership enforces this alignment—while respecting and blending existing data conventions—a truly data-driven portfolio can emerge. The C-Suite must set the expectation that all departments operate within one consistent data framework, connecting every space, asset, and system into a living, evolving digital ecosystem.
Owners who lead this now will guide their consultants, contractors, and internal teams toward a more intelligent, interoperable future. One where every building and dataset contributes to an authoritative, unified source of truth.
———————————————————————————————
The Owner’s Mandate: Define, Provide, Validate for New and Existing
1. Define: The Owner’s BIM Standard
The owner’s unified data framework must be clearly defined in the BEP from the very start. This plan specifies:
· Which parameters must exist in every Revit model.
· How rooms, assets, and systems are classified using MasterFormat / UniFormat / OmniClass.
· How LODi data requirements progress through all stages of the work and by whom:
o LODi 300 – Design and Documentation by A/E teams during SD & DD.
o LODi 400 – Manufacturer and installation data by contractors & subs post- construction.
o LODi 500 – Operations and maintenance data by contractors & subs post- construction. Click image below to see details…
2. Provide: The Owner’s Data Structure for All Trades
A BEP is only effective if every participant can work inside the same framework.
That’s where the owner must provide a common data structure—a preconfigured library of BIM components and schedules that embody the BEP and LODi requirements.
Solutions like Collectus make this practical by giving all AEC teams access to:
· A complete 36,000+ component Revit library named per CSI MasterFormat.
· Embedded LODi schedules that guide what data must be entered, when and by whom.
· Built-in translation between MasterFormat, UniFormat, and OmniClass classifications.
This standard library ensures architects, engineers, contractors, and facility managers are all speaking the same digital language—no matter who builds the model. Click image below to see details…
3. Validate: Continuous Compliance, Not Post-Mortem Review
Validation shouldn’t happen at final deliverable. It must happen continuously through design, documentation, construction, construction administration, to handover.
Using the LODi schedules inside each Revit model, the AEC BIM staff and owners alike can verify in real time whether required fields are filled and whether components match the approved library and include their assigned CSI classifications.
Even without BIM expertise, facility owners can check the Revit project models for compliance from design to handover with simple Revit schedules that highlight missing data.
This ensures at final handover, the BIMs are not just geometrically correct, they are data-rich and harvest-ready. Click image below to see details…
4. The Same Data Standards Portfolio-wide
A unified data structure does more than standardize new projects—it modernizes the entire portfolio. Since 90% of an owner’s portfolio already exists, the same BEP + LODi framework should extend beyond construction to the owner’s digital operations for their legacy building environment.
When Facility Condition Assessors, custodians, technicians, or planners work inside a map-based digital twin built on the same structure, they can all add or update information without needing to open CAD or BIM files. It’s done within the same digital twin.
Each department adds another layer of accuracy to the same dataset. Over time, the entire portfolio - old and new - becomes a unified digital ecosystem of rooms, assets, and systems.
Examples of Departmental Contribution: Click image below to see details…
Why It Must Come from the C-Suite
Bridging the Path from AEC BIM Standards to Facility Data Standards
No technology or department can achieve this alone. The move to an authoritative data structure is not a project, software or IT initiative, it’s a data governance policy. It requires executive endorsement because it impacts every department: planning, design, construction, maintenance, custodial, security, IT, and finance. Without a C-Suite mandate, each group will continue maintaining its own siloed spreadsheets, CAD/PDF floor plans, and databases.
By contrast, when leadership defines a facility-wide data structure that aligns across all departments, a powerful cultural shift occurs. That alignment becomes the foundation for all future analytics, digital twins, and AI-driven insights.
A unified owner-driven data structure pays dividends far beyond construction—it eliminates redundant data collection and re-entry, provides trustworthy analytics for funding, energy, and space use, and creates AI-ready data for predictive maintenance and optimization. It also reduces lifecycle costs by ensuring every dollar spent on data continues delivering value.
The C-Suite’s role is to declare:
“We will manage our facilities through a unified data structure—an authoritative digital language that unites design, construction, and operations.”
The owner’s investment in standards becomes a permanent asset, powering smarter decisions, lower operational costs, and measurable returns across the entire building lifecycle. That directive gives every project and every staff member both the permission, obligation and responsibility to participate in a common data future. One that connects the AEC BIM Execution Plan Data Standard directly to a matching Facility and Asset Management Execution Plan Data Standard. Click image below to see details…
Conclusion: Leadership Defines the Future
Not all BIMs are created equal—because not all data is owner-defined. To move from fragmented models to an intelligent, connected portfolio, owners must lead with a unified data governance strategy—defining one consistent structure, providing it to every partner, validating it continuously, and mandating alignment from the C-Suite.
Start simple—with consistent room names and data—and grow from there. This isn’t about controlling technology; it’s about controlling outcomes through alignment. When leadership unites every project and department under one data framework, buildings stop being static files and become living, AI-ready assets—driving insight, efficiency, and lasting value across the entire lifecycle. Click image below to see details…
For more information about Collectus or to schedule a demo, please contact:
Media Contact:
Cyril Verley, Architect
Founder / Co-Founder
CDV Systems, Inc. / 26 Degrees Software LLC.
Phone: (617) 719-7474
Email: cyril.verley@cdvsystems.com