With Level Two BIM Training (Building Information Modelling) achieved amongst its leading surveyors, and with all other surveying staff having had BIM training, Hardies Property & Construction Consultants are staking their claim as Scotland’s leading authority on BIM.
In the past few months, the company, which has fourteen offices in Scotland, has been approached by no less than four different organisations to talk on the benefits of training staff in BIM, and asked to pass on its knowledge of the system to other industry professionals.
“We have invested a great deal of time and money to train our leading surveyors in this new discipline which creates value for the combined efforts of people, process and technology, “ said Derek Ferrier, Managing Partner of Hardies. “About eighteen months ago we had the foresight to see that BIM was the way the industry was heading. We knew we had to be a major part of it, especially as we are very active in the provision of new schools, the vast majority of which use BIM technology.”
“One of the first things we did was to appoint a BIM Tsar for the firm, Quantity Surveyor Simon Beveridge in the Edinburgh office,” said Derek. “Simon has led the process for us and passed on his knowledge to others. He was the best man for the job as he had experience of BIM training in the States where he worked for a couple of years. He returned to us at Hardies three years ago and we are delighted to have him. He has been instrumental in driving this initiative forward and it has worked really well.”
Derek explained that word must have spread amongst the industry that Hardies saw, and was using the massive potential and application in the marketplace of BIM.
“We were asked to give a talk on BIM at two RICS Annual Conferences, one for Building Surveying and one for Quantity Surveying, “ said Derek. “This was closely followed by another talk at the Annual Conference of top law firm Bond Dickinson. We are waiting to give a talk to Edinburgh City Council about the topic and have also been approached by Midlothian Council, who are clients of ours, to talk to their employees about BIM too.”
“We seem to have set a benchmark for integrating new technology into a firm of our size. Other organisations want to hear about our experiences to adapt and learn from these for themselves,” said Derek.
Hardies, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2013, serves clients in both the private and public sectors with a complete operation in property and construction development, including property valuation, building and quantity surveying and project management. The firm also handles the leasing and sale of commercial and industrial buildings; H&S Principal Designer and the provision of Energy Performance Certificates. Altogether, Hardies employ over 100 members of staff, professionally qualified in various disciplines.
Further details www.hardies.co.uk.
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