Manage information requirements
in a common, comparable and standardised way
Cobuilder Link
The software solution enabling each construction stakeholder to get the right data at the right time
Construction projects of all sizes and levels of complexity, require different stakeholders to provide different data, at different stages to satisfy different needs. Collaboration between all participants is pivotal to the efficient planning, delivery, and operation of facilities. A major hindrance to this is the inability to communicate effectively, re-use and share data freely – without loss, contradiction, or misinterpretation.
To support the construction industry in solving these long-standing issues, Cobuilder Link is designed as a multi-role software platform that enables different stakeholders to create and distribute standard-based exchange information requirements in a way that is common, comparable and interoperable. It offers an unambiguous way to communicate responsibilities throughout all project stages.
Through Cobuilder Link, different construction industry organisations, governments, and associations, can customise data templates according to the needed data deliverables and distribute information requirements per purpose (why), milestone (when) and role (who/whom). This way, all parties are timely and accurately informed of what data is needed, what it will be used for, who has to deliver it and when – in line with the “Level of Information Need” framework. This approach enables construction industry actors to benefit from repeatability in different types of projects, predictability in their planning, and seamless collaboration. Allowing for API and system integrations, Cobuilder Link ensures free information flow between all participants and the different software that they use.
The information requirements created in Cobuilder Link are based on data templates developed in the data dictionary Define. Those data templates are based on recent standardisation work and provide an agreed and trusted approach to structuring and distributing different types of construction data. The data templates provide the industry with a common, consistent and reliable digital language during the entire information exchange in the course of a project lifecycle.
USE CASES
Streamlined information management drives operational efficiency
The use of common asset and project information models allows time and cost efficiencies, reduces risk of errors, complications, and waste. Effective planning, specification and procurement are now possible due to the improved collaboration processes that are based on trusted, standardised data.
- Save time and costs by improving collaboration and operational synergies.
- Ensure better forecasting and planning of the needed materials and labour.
- Minimise risk of errors, communication gaps and confusion among participants.
- Reuse project asset information on repeatable project types.
- Reduce risk of incomplete or missing information.
- Define and agree in advance the communication exchanges in projects – define what information has to be collected, for what purpose, who has to deliver it and when.
- Ensure efficient and reliable information flow throughout all construction stages.
- Work with one common system for managing project information during the asset’s life cycle.
Implement industry standards to structure and exchange information requirements
With Cobuilder Link you set and distribute information requirements based on standardised data structures, called data templates, and implement an industry-approved framework for Level of information need.
- Use data templates according to EN ISO 23387 to develop Requirements aligned with the EN 17412 framework for Level of Information Need.
- Ensure compliance of asset information requirements (AIRs) and exchange information requirements (EIRs) with ISO 19650 framework – the international standard for managing information in BIM.
- Identify the project data needed during all phases of the construction project, predefine the commonly used products and exchange information requirements.
- Enable seamless data flow across platforms and tools.
Define in a clear, structured way who is responsible for what
The main reason for errors and misunderstandings is that actors fail to find a clear way to communicate and agree on who is responsible for what, the reason why this information is needed and when it has to be delivered.
- Allow for a common way of defining product properties and what information is needed by implementing data templates.
- Set Information Requirements in an unambiguous agreed way.
- No more struggles to explain “what is what” during a construction process.
- With Cobuilder Link, each participant knows and interprets correctly who does what, when and why.
- Define exactly what information you need from a project team.
- Deliver your requirements in a format that is easy to deliver against.
- In Cobuilder Link, all construction actors in a project will have their responsibilities documented in an easy-to-access online platform.
- Forget the numerous versions of huge and inefficient excel files.
Connect all points in the construction value chain and close the gap between as-designed and as-built
Cobuilder Link helps you to connect the dots. Improve collaboration with all stakeholders by implementing a common digital language. Create the ‘link’ between planning, design, manufacturing and construction. The gap between as-designed and as-built is breached through writing better technical specifications and improving the way data requirements are communicated with the supply chain.
- Connect the entire value chain – appointing parties such as contractors and developers, with the appointed parties like architects and manufacturers.
- Enable two-way communication flow – from decision-makers to manufacturers and the other way around.
- Allow information enrichment over the lifecycle of the project.
- Identify construction elements at any point in the product’s life with confidence.
- Match information requirements with specific parties and points in time.
- Efficiently manage data deliveries on project and company level.
Integrate with existing software infrastructure
Cobuilder Link operates with data templates that are developed in the data dictionary Define. It enables a common digital language between all actors and the software they use. Integrations with various software infrastructures and mappings become easy and reliable.
- Apply commonly used products and information requirements on specific projects and access them in your native software via APIs (e.g. Revit).
- Ensure automated data exchange with all actors in a construction project.
- Use standardised industry formats to exchange and connect information between different systems.
- Facilitate the digital transformation of your organisation and integrate your software systems into a single platform.
- Link to systems that manage maintenance tasks, work packages, project management tasks and more.