Ten years ago, company certification for BIM was still something of an emerging idea. In 2016, following the introduction of the UK Government's BIM Level 2 mandate, we began to see a noticeable shift across the industry. Many organisations suddenly realised that, despite years of warning, they were not as prepared for BIM Level 2 as they thought they were.
That same year, several of our customers approached us to ask whether we could support them in achieving BIM Level 2 company certification. At the time, this represented a change in our own thinking.
The first BIM Level 2 company certification schemes had appeared several years earlier, but our advice to customers had initially been cautious. We had not seen enough industry demand or client recognition to justify the investment.
By 2016, the market had moved.
We researched the certification landscape and approached the organisation we believed had the right combination of credibility, culture and practical approach to support the needs of our customers. That organisation was Lloyd's Register, with the certification arm now known as LRQA.
Since September 2016, we have maintained an exclusive global partnership supporting its certification scheme.
As the BIM industry matured, the terminology around BIM Level 2 gradually began to change. BIM Level 2 was originally associated with the UK's BIM mandate and the BS/PAS 1192 framework. It provided a structured approach to collaborative working and information management and helped establish many of the principles that are now considered the best practice in industry.
Over time, the UK BIM Framework replaced the BIM Level 2 terminology, while the ISO 19650 series established an internationally recognised framework for information management using BIM.
Many of the concepts developed under BIM Level 2 were carried forward into ISO 19650. However, the move to an international standard provided greater consistency, wider industry adoption and a common language that organisations could apply across projects, sectors and geographies.
As a result, company certification schemes also evolved, moving from BIM Level 2 certification towards ISO 19650 certification.
Our position on certification between 2016 and 2022 remained deliberately balanced. We never considered company certification to be something every organisation simply had to obtain. Instead, we saw it as an enabler.
If certification could help an organisation strengthen its market position, support bids, improve internal consistency, drive continuous improvement or align multiple offices around a common way of working, then it could provide real value.
But certification had to serve a purpose.
The next major shift came with the move from BIM Level 2 to ISO 19650. By 2022, BIM Level 2 had firmly moved into the past and the ISO 19650 series had become the industry's primary framework for information management using BIM.
Certification schemes evolved with it.
A particularly important milestone in 2022 came when the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) completed its pilot accreditation programme. This enabled certification bodies such as LRQA to provide ISO 19650 certification within a formally accredited framework. That changed many views on the validity of BIM ISO 19650 certification once UKAS had provided its direct endorsement.
ISO 19650 certification was no longer simply an emerging industry initiative. It had become a more mature, independently validated route for organisations looking to demonstrate the quality and consistency of their information management processes.
Since then, we have seen growing numbers of public and private sector clients place greater value on certification within their supply chains. Increasingly, it is being viewed as a credible indicator of organisational capability.
A Global Direction of Travel
Today, ISO 19650 company certification is no longer just a UK conversation. We are seeing adoption increase internationally, typically as local markets mature and governments, major clients and infrastructure programmes begin to introduce stronger information management requirements.
The detail may vary from country to country, but the broader direction is becoming increasingly clear. ISO 19650 certification is becoming more established, more recognised and more relevant. It is not going away.
Over the years, I have reviewed framework pre-qualification questionnaires with a significant focus on BIM and information management. One pattern has been difficult to ignore. Organisations holding company certification frequently perform strongly when compared with those that do not. It would therefore be easy to say that certification helps companies win more work. There may well be some truth in that. But I think the reality is more nuanced.
It may be that organisations willing to invest in certification are already more mature. They are often more committed to information management, more disciplined in their processes and more focused on consistency in project delivery.
In other words, certification may not create maturity. It may expose it. That distinction matters.
Certification should not be seen as a shortcut to competence or a substitute for having robust systems, capable people and well-embedded processes. It should validate those things.
So, while certification may not be the only factor, there is clearly value in being able to demonstrate capability independently rather than simply claiming it.
One of the most important lessons from the last ten years is that not every organisation is ready to begin the certification process. Even today, we sometimes have to tell organisations that they are not yet at the right level of maturity.
That can be a difficult message to hear, particularly when BIM ISO 19650 certification has already been identified internally as a business objective.
But pursuing certification too early is rarely the right answer. Sometimes the priority needs to be awareness. Sometimes it is training.
Sometimes the organisation needs stronger processes, clearer responsibilities, better governance or more consistency between offices and project teams.
That work has to come first. Certification should never become a box-ticking exercise. Its value lies in supporting better business performance and better project delivery.
If an organisation focuses on building capability, improving consistency and embedding effective information management processes, certification becomes a natural outcome of that journey. It becomes the destination rather than the starting point.
After ten years of working in this space, my view remains balanced. ISO 19650 company certification will not be right for every organisation. But for businesses that are ready, it can be far more than a badge on a website or a line in a tender response.
Done properly, the benefits of ISO 19650 certification can include stronger governance, more consistent project delivery, improved information management and greater confidence from clients and supply-chain partners.
The key is not to chase certification for certification's sake.
Build the capability.
Embed the processes.
Improve the way information is managed.
Make consistency part of the culture.
Then let certification validate what is already happening.
Perhaps that is the biggest lesson from the last ten years:
The strongest organisations do not become better because they are certified. They become certified because they have committed to becoming better. And as information management continues to mature globally, the question may increasingly move from:
"Do we need ISO 19650 certification?"
to:
"If our competitors can demonstrate their capability independently, why can't we?"
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