#	Pagina
attuale pagina	/open-h2020/projects/218967/results.html

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BIMSERVER.CENTER (OPEN COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM FOR ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS)

Teaser

Summary

CYPE SOFT has more than 35 years of experience in software development for Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC). They detected in 2015 that construction sector is one of the less digitalized in EU because there is a huge diversity of privative AEC solutions in the market, with high price licenses that are not affordable for all users. The global players market trend is to create closed BIM ecosystems based on proprietary formats that do not facilitate interaction among different software solutions.
CYPE started a new business plan based on BIMSERVER.CENTER to change the architecture of all its traditional applications to IFC open standard and develop specific plugins to convert REVIT (and other proprietary standards) to IFC. The main challenge was to be 100% compatible with other software solutions.
CYPE aims to consolidate an open collaborative environment where all agents involved in the construction sector can interoperate and share information using an open standard, the IFC format. BIMSERVER.CENTER will change the AEC software paradigm becoming the â€˜construction social networkâ€™, a space where professionals can work in a common project using any AEC tool. This project will have a huge societal impact because:
- Collaborative and synchronized workflow enables to use different software solutions in a same project.
- Big Data approach create jobs promoting collaborations based on the needs of specific project owners.

BIMSERVER.CENTER minimum viable product was developed in 2017 and this prompt the following phase 1 objectives:
Assessment of technical viability:
- Meetings/surveys to determine which stakeholders can help us to scale-up the platform.
- Co-design with stakeholders the main business processes and e-commerce tools that must be standardized and automatized for specific roles (professionals, developers, public administration and educational)
- Study of scalability of the platform and additional modules to be implemented.
Assessment of economic viability:
- Development of the detailed international Business Plan: defining target markets, channels, potential incomes and estimating the necessary expenses to industrialize it in all the exploitable fields.
- Definition of alliance strategies and technical agreements for worldwide commercialization.
- Customer meetings and attendance to events for contrasting our price policy and expected sales forecast.

Main conclusions of the Phase 1 have been:
CYPE has designed the most convenient and effective business plan with the support of the assigned coach.
Market traction data has validated our approach is correct but CYPE has detected new opportunities for improvement. It is necessary to launch a digital marketing plan to continuously monitor the market trends and to adjust the technical requirements and commercial features of the project, including the assessment of the costâ€effectiveness and exploitation potential of the solution.
At technical level the main challenge to be a market leader is basically related to the need of continuously develop new solutions in several technical areas. The signature of technical alliances with flagship stakeholders is crucial.
Phase 1 ends successfully, now BIMSERVER.CENTER has more than 30,000 users working in more than 60,000 active projects. Now is the moment to scale-up the system and reach the hundred thousand potential users looking for free and universal solutions for collaborating in the complete lifecycle of construction process.

Work performed

One of the main challenges during last year was to adapt usersâ€™ interface to a more intuitive and practical use and visualization. The new interface has help to make popular the use of the platform and to grow from 17000 to 30000 users.
In addition, CYPE has launched several complementary technical developments to maximize the impact.

The prototyping phase has been completed and we already have a version that includes the necessary utilities to make the use of the platform useful. The next step and where we will focus our efforts on advancing on technological and commercial infrastructure issues to reach new goals.
We have discovered how the incorporation of software developers and manufacturers can become the gateway to other markets.CYPE has promoted during phase 1 collaborations with stakeholders in different vectors and we have created a line of innovative applications as a claim for new users.

It has been carried out an initial survey about the potential introduction of the BIMSERVER.CENTER into new markets, regions and countries, by means of sector diversification and internationalization to new fields.
Thanks to the collaboration with our coach it has been detected the relevance of the digital marketing strategy deployment.
CYPE commercial approach will be based on our strong customer relationships. We need to co-develop our solutions closely with our lead clients and developers to change from an strict software developer to a solutions provider.
Our product commercialisation is addressed, by now, to Spain and EU. BIMSERVER.CENTER solution will also be officially introduced through important fairs and other international exhibitions.

Final results

BIMSERVER.CENTER is the unique platform based on IFC open standard that develop specific plugins to convert REVIT (and other standards) to IFC being 100% compatible with other solutions. IFC standard is an Open BIM data file that is compatible with most of AEC solutions, but software global players slow their adoption because it endangers their business model based on licensing. This situation will be changed by BIMSERVER.CENTER because CYPE designed a customisation called IFC+ that creates a hierarchical structure to group all speciality needs and that can be updated to all stages of the life cycle in a unique format, classifying information into different detail levels and sub-projects. Nowadays, any AEC software can directly open IFC4 files while CYPE applications are able to read the â€™+â€™ part as well.
The project will be critical to standardise collaborative workflows that enable a real collaboration among all agents. CYPE created a free application called IFC Builder that can assemble and synchronize individual projects information into a single IFC+ collaborative file. This allowed us to collaborate with universities and R&D centers to co-develop a wide range of specific calculus solutions that no other competitor had (CYPESOUND, CYPELEC, CYPETHERM) and this supposed the CYPE entering in the global market as KEY VENDOR.

BIMSERVER.CENTER is promoting a professional network based on real projects to give our software an unlimited potential for job creation in the AEC sector. The objective was to use digital marketing and Big Data to create the â€œAEC social networkâ€œ, used as professional forum for marketing purposes. BIMSERVER.CENTER is unique because it predicts project owner needs and keep in touch professionals for future collaborations using a machine learning algorithm that detects incomplete workflows.

If BIMSERVER.CENTER is compared to basic storage solutions (e.g. Dropbox) its data stratification gives an intuitive use for each construction sector agent and facilitates to the project owner to manage the project because he/she can ensure access only to the information applied to each role. In addition, BIMSERVER.CENTER includes virtual reality tools to directly visualize BIM projects using simple apps.