Construction Sales and Marketing Newsletter

November 2013

Welcome to this month's edition of the Construction Sales and Marketing Newsletter. Our Construction market activity report details positive growth across all sectors. In this edition we are focussing on Building Information Modelling and what it means for the manufacturer. We look at the benefits and consider how BIM can be incorporated into your specification sales strategy.

Construction market activity

The ONS has released its latest construction output figures for September and Quarter 3 2013. These show a steady growth in construction output over the previous two quarters of 2013, with a 1.9% rise in Q2 and a 1.7% rise in Q3, the highest Q3 rise since 2003. The CPA has also published their latest Construction Trade Survey. This reports growth from firms across all sectors in the industry and with two consecutive quarters of growth suggests sustained recovery for construction at last.

To reinforce all of this good news, The Purchasing Managers Index has recorded a value of 59.4 in October which is a rise from 58.9 in September; this is the highest figure recorded since September 2007. Also The CBI has revised its GDP growth forecast upwards from 1.4% in August 2013 to 2.4% in 2014, and 2.6% growth in 2015. Similar positive news comes from the Q3 RICS Construction Market Survey which shows a more widespread increase in workloads than at any time since Q2 2004. A net balance of 31% of respondents witnessed rising workloads with all of the regions of the UK seeing activity increase in all sub-sectors, both public and private.

The Nationwide House Price Index reported a 1% increase in October 2013, 5.8% higher than October 2012, bringing house prices to just 7% lower than their peak in 2007. The Halifax House Price Index has reported a 0.7% increase in October 2013, making this the ninth consecutive monthly rise in house prices. The predicted housing price bubble was reported in the BBC Panorama programme broadcast on Monday night.

With this continuing recovery of the housing market Persimmon Homes have released an Interim Management Statement saying that the Buy equity loan scheme, launched in April 2013, has helped them to sell 3,000 new homes. They also say that they have Ł650 million of forward sales beyond 2013 which is up 41% on last year. The Deloitte Real Estate UK Cities Crane Survey 2013 shows that this recovery is across five major cities (Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow) and not just in residential. The commercial office market is described as on the cusp of a new development cycle.

Regulations & initiatives - a quick update

The prime ministers' recent announcement that he wants to 'roll back' green charges on energy bills has intensified the debate around the Green Deal. Steve Heath, External Affairs Director of Knauf Insulation debates the scheme in his blog Green Deal and Black Holes, presenting Knauf's five point plan to get retrofit right. And Facta's whitepaper A Green Deal but a Fair One? reminds us that we are at the beginning of a 20 year journey and it is unrealistic to expect instant results.

In Bill Wright's recent article Deal or No Deal? he presents the case for getting involved, despite the bad press the scheme has received. I also talk about reaping the benefits of green construction in my recent article for CNplus.

In this eNews we are focussing on Building Information Modelling and a recent blog by Darren Lester raises an important question: BIM - how do we make it pay?

Building Products staged a round table of BIM experts, the meeting showed that many issues remain to be resolved. A full report of the meeting BIM: from Theory to Practice has been issued.

To support our recent research Adoption of BIM by Architects we have released an eBook: Incorporating BIM into your Specification Sales Strategy.

RICS have developed the first building information modelling (BIM) Manager Certification in response to industry need for a universal standard on which to assess the skills of construction professionals in using BIM.

How the Manufacturer can Reap the Benefits of BIM

Our recent research, Adoption of BIM by Architects, has been compiled to provide an impartial view to help product manufacturers make informed decisions as part of their BIM strategy. The provision of BIM objects by building product manufacturers is now an issue of when, not if and of course how! with this in mind we approached a number of industry experts to get their take on how the manufacturer can benefit from BIM.

An interview with Rebecca De Cicco

"The manufacturer can help by being involved in the early stages of the design process. This will ensure that their products are used and detailed as the project moves forward." Rebecca De Cicco, Architect working at David Miller Architects and prominent member of the UK BIM community

An interview with John Tebbit

"In the medium term I see the manufacturer benefiting from the restructuring of internal information systems, allowing for greater efficiencies." John Tebbit, Industry Affairs Director, Construction Products Association

An Interview with David Philp

"What is key for the product manufacturers is providing the right amount of information at the right time. I am often seeing BIM objects that are too detailed in their information for design stage." David Philp, Head of BIM Implementation, Cabinet Office

Incorporating BIM into your Specification Sales

Our recently completed report Adoption of BIM 2013 suggests that the value of UK construction projects using BIM will increase by a factor of 15 between now and 2016. With this in mind I believe BIM is another sales tool an argument I present in my recent article for RIBA Insight. I also debate that product manufacturer's should incorporate BIM into their sales strategy in another article for specifinder.com.

It is with this in mind that we have launched a new

eBook:Incorporating BIM into your Specification Sales Strategy. This book, cost just Ł20 + VAT and aims to provide:

A picture of how the UK Construction industry is adopting BIM now and into the future; An overview of the benefits of BIM and how the product manufacturer can take advantage of these; Insight into how BIM affects product specification; Ideas on how to incorporate BIM into your specification sales strategy.

This has been written to compliment our research report and if you choose to purchase the Adoption of BIM 2013 report we will give you this eBook free of charge. Here is what past purchasers of the report say:

"We have recently moved to operating in BIM, Competitive Advantage's report helped understand how we can increase the use of BIM in our practice and what areas we can target in the market. The report is also a good reference document when dealing with clients, as we can refer to many useful statistics when liaising with them." Colin Savage - Bernard Taylor Partnership

"Competitive Advantage's report offered an objective and impartial view on the relevance of BIM and the need for it going forward. As a manufacturer it was interesting to get the view of architects, what they think about BIM and how they want it to progress. The report reinforced my view that we do need to be included in BIM." Peter Wilcox - Recticel Insulation

In addition to the complimentary eBook (priced at Ł20 + VAT) purchasers of the report are able to utilise our service to calculate the growth in value of BIM designed projects in your markets free of charge (otherwise priced at Ł50 + VAT). Find out more about our research report.

What's being said - a round-up of useful BIM items

Continuing with the theme of BIM my recent blog looks at what benefits BIM can bring and how the product manufacturer can utilise these in their marketing.

For further reading material slideshare has some interesting presentations:

BIM survey for manufacturers
BIM for building product manufacturers
8 Benefits with BIM objects

RIBA Insight have provided a training video covering the key areas that manufacturers should take into account. Dan Pitkin from AluK Ltd provides a podcast on making BIM pay based on their own experiences. Another excellent case study, from washroom review demonstrates how BIM can help the small manufacturer.

Finally what follows BIM? Well Google is working on a project to 'transform the conservative construction industry' Could Genie be the solution?

Forthcoming events

Our next webinar: