BIM2SAP: Why a door is not just a door
The connection of BIM and SAP enables a seamless integration of data from the construction project and its efficient use in operations. The 'Data2Target' approach plays a central role here to ensure careful transfer and structuring of the data.
Building Information Modelling (BIM) has established itself over the last few years as an effective method for the planning, execution and management of construction projects. With the understanding of model-based collaboration, the connections and links to other systems are increasingly expanding. This is because experience with BIM has in the meantime shown many property owners that the need for correct, up-to-date and easily accessible data by no means ends with the completion of a building.
“On the contrary,” says Patrick Pick, Head of Service Unit BIM/LCDM at pom+. “The handling of data only becomes really demanding during operation. That is, when I want to use it for specific applications within the framework of efficient property management.” Here, the flawless transfer of data from the BIM model into the operational and property management systems is of particular relevance, says the trained architect and project manager.
Optimising building management
It is not uncommon for BIM to come up against a comprehensive, complex system architecture – such as SAP. The ERP software is used by many companies as a universal tool to link systems, applications and products and thus connect different business sectors and processes. This is particularly exciting for companies that own and manage their own buildings. Even if real estate is often not part of the core business, as is the case with a hospital or airport, for example, it is essential for the security and success of a company, such as pension funds or banks. For this reason, it is no longer just real estate specialists in facility, property and asset management who have been making their claim to data from real estate management for a long time, but also the finance, controlling, sustainability or IT departments.
SAP has developed a special real estate module – SAP RE-FX – for this purpose. It stands for ‘Flexible Real Estate Management’ and enables a holistic view of the building from different perspectives: “On the one hand, information on the structure of the building, such as office or floor space, is displayed in the architectural view. On the other hand, the usage view contains information on typical business cases in the area of leasing, such as rental agreements, conditions and contractual partners,” explains Stefan Pallier, Consultant Facility & Project Management at Novo. This enables SAP RE-FX to seamlessly integrate the real estate data into the SAP core and to link different SAP modules.
Reduction to the essentials
Against this background, the combination of BIM and SAP provides considerable added value. This is because a data-driven planning method meets an application for information management in building operations. BIM thus generates the data, while SAP provides a platform for its use and maintenance. For this, it is crucial that the data can be transferred from project planning to operation with as little loss as possible. “The fragmentation of the processes usually turns out to be the biggest challenge. Project management is not based on object management. Instead, the planning and construction phases are treated as separate units,” says Patrick Pick.
This makes the integration of BIM and SAP complex. It requires a correspondingly careful, expert transfer, transformation and structuring of the data from the BIM model in the target system. Patrick Pick likes to refer to this as ‘data-to-target’. In this approach, the data from the BIM model is analysed and reduced to the necessary information that is relevant for the SAP system. This process involves identifying the relevant data requirements, mapping this data to the appropriate fields and structures in SAP, and converting and transferring the data to the SAP system.
Stefan Pallier adds with an example: “In the BIM model, 120 attributes must be defined so that a single door is ordered correctly. In building operation, however, we are only interested in a part of it – for example, whether it is a revolving door, sliding door, fire door or escape route doors. So we need certain information about it in SAP, for example about the locking mechanism, smoke protection or the legal maintenance standard.”
If the relevant attributes are integrated correctly in SAP, this makes technically and commercially efficient property management possible. Before the actual data mapping, the necessary interfaces must be prepared and the responsibilities for individual data records clearly defined.