Symetri helps a digital content specialist to master the intricacies of standardised BIM processes

Diane Butterworth Ltd is a boutique office planning, design, and technical consultancy founded by Diane Butterworth in 2016. The business originally focussed on creating Revit families, mostly for furniture manufacturers, to allow their clients to use them in bringing designs to life.

This was at a time when Building Information Modelling (BIM) was rapidly maturing and gaining wider adoption among a range of disciplines in the construction sector, including workplace design and layout, the specialist niche of Diane Butterworth Ltd.

The expansion of Diane’s business ran almost in parallel to the growing changes that BIM was bringing to design practices. This wasn’t a problem in itself, but when companies the size of Diane Butterworth Ltd look to enhance and evolve their skills, they do not usually have the ready in-house resources to call upon that exist in big corporates.

To stay ahead of the game and continue to provide trustworthy, quality consultancy input to her clients, Diane wanted an objective and expert view of the areas of her service and operations that may benefit from an overall fine-tune. Initially, there was the need for a quick ‘health-check’ to identify which focus areas would deliver the greatest added value to clients.

Diane Butterworth Ltd was already a Symetri customer, sourcing its Autodesk AEC Collection software from them. Through this relationship, Diane heard about the opportunity to explore precisely which steps she might need to make; through the freely available half-hour guidance sessions obtainable in the form of the Symetri BIM Surgery.

The 30-minute business overview
“When I spoke with Daryn Fitz, Symetri’s Principal Consultant, I was instantly aware that here was someone who could sense exactly what we needed to do to standardise our processes in line with BIM. Prior to that we had adapted to the BIM framework, now we were able to formalise our approach. More than just his deep industry experience, it was the perspective Daryn gave to our journey by relating bigger client stories; a deep-dive into industry best practice”, says Diane.

Diane had perceived the main need to be to glean an in-depth understanding of the best ways to respond to BIM pre-qualification questionnaire’s (PQQs) when tendering for new clients, but the scope expanded when Daryn highlighted how much more could be achieved in a short timeframe.

The building blocks
Within the half-hour Symetri BIM Surgery session, Daryn offered guidance in a range of areas. This detailed health-check covered:

• BIM Execution Plan (BEP) templates
• COBie asset data requirements and specifications
• BIM scope of services and level of detail (LOD)
• Cyber Essentials Certification
• BIM terms and conditions

“I trusted Daryn and the information and links he provided. I felt we were on our way to higher ground and being able to confirm the high levels of quality assurance and rigorous procedures we had always delivered to our clients, but now in a standardised, BIM best practice format. This free starter session whetted our appetite, so we decided to engage Symetri for further business support on some of the critical aspects that the Symetri BIM Surgery had identified for us,” says Diane.

The fine-tuning
With the fundamental building blocks in place, Diane wanted to go several steps further. These steps were accomplished in two half-day virtual training sessions for Diane and a colleague; which were tailored to the identified skills requirements of Diane Butterworth Ltd.

Diane expressed the value she gained from the sessions which followed up her BIM Surgery road mapping: “Thanks to Daryn, we gained a wealth of knowledge over the two half-day sessions. He connected a lot of the dots for us. Shortly after the support, I had a meeting with a potential new project and felt very confident knowing what questions to ask to ensure my quotation aligned with their expectations and the process of adhering to BIM procedures.”