Real estate and construction sector should follow international information management standards – annual savings up to EUR 300 million to be achieved
Following common international standards in information management would significantly improve the profitability of the real estate and construction sector. It could also increase cooperation among the different organisations. Through the RASTI project launched under the KIRA-digi process the Ministry of the Environment is now building a strategy for the use of international standards.
The aim of the RASTI project is to improve the efficiency of information management in Finland’s built environment by up to 50%. In the long term this would mean annual cost savings of about EUR 300 million*. At the moment there are several international and local, partly overlapping standards relating to information management, and it is a challenge for operators in the real estate and construction sector to choose the most suitable ones.
“If the situation is not fully clear, the organisations may create solutions of their own. Having many different sets of standards makes it more difficult for the organisations to work together, which is then reflected as weaker productivity. Following international standards would also improve the opportunities of Finnish companies on the international markets”, says Teemu Lehtinen, Chief Digital Officer responsible for the KIRA-digi project.
The RASTI project will last for three months, and it is implemented by a group of experts from a consortium of companies brought together by the buildingSMART Finland Forum.
In the project a proposal will be prepared concerning the harmonised use of international information management standards in the real estate and construction sector, followed by a strategy on how the target state is to be reached by 2030. At the same time, the project will also help operators in the sector to understand better the importance of joint information management and to commit to implementing the strategy.
In the digital era the strategy process is also fast
The project group is composed of key persons in information modelling and standardisation experts who are involved in the buildingSMART Finland Forum. The project group invites representatives of the central and local governments, civil society organisations and companies to also participate in the work. The project is implemented by Geowise, led by Juha Saarentaus.
“The schedule for the strategy work is very tight. Digitalisation is making fast progress, which is why we must soon determine the objective and ways to proceed in the use of international standards”, Saarentaus says.
The project is part of the work concerned with information management and the built environment. The results will be taken into account in connection with the projects on an electronic register of shares in housing corporations ASREK and on the management of shared data YTI. The RASTI project is also linked to the broader issue of interoperability.
The results of the project launched in April 2018 will be published at the World Summit on Digital Built Environment WDBE 2018 in Helsinki on 11-12 September.
* In 2017 the volume of annual investments in the built environment (= value of construction production) was EUR 33.7 billion. This comprises new and renovation building, infrastructure investments and maintenance. Information management represents an estimated 2% of this, i.e. EUR 660 million. The aim is to save 50% of this, i.e. about EUR 300 million a year.
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Inquiries
Leader of the Consortium: Juha Saarentaus, Geowise Oy, [email protected]
Interoperability of the built environment information space: Juha-Pekka Maijala, Senior Engineer, Ministry of the Environment, +358 295 250 173, [email protected]
KIRA-digi: Teemu Lehtinen, Chief Digital Officer, Building Information Foundation RTS, +358 40 456 6108, [email protected]
KIRA-digi project (2016-2018) is part of the Government key project concerning the digitalisation of public services, which also contributes to the key project concerning improved legal provisions. The responsible ministry for the project is the Ministry of the Environment. The fourteen organisations participating in the KIRA forum are: Association of Finnish Architects' Offices ATL, Central Federation of Finnish Real Estate Agencies KVKL, Real Estate Employers, Finnish Construction Managers and Engineers RKL, Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT, Building Information Foundation RTS, Finnish Association of Architects SAFA, Finnish Real Estate Management Federation, Finnish Real Estate Federation, Finnish Association of Civil Engineers RIL, Finnish Association of Consulting Firms SKOL, Electrical Contractors’ Association of Finland STUL, Finnish Association of Building Services Industries, as well as the Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ministry of Education and Culture, Corporate Real Estate Management of the city of Turku, City of Espoo, Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, Finnish Environment Institute and National Board of Antiquities.