Collaboration par excellence

Example: Hasselt City Hall, Belgium — The building of the new municipal administration center in Hasselt, Belgium, demonstrates how seamless collaboration in building projects can minimize risks and save costs from the design phase all the way to commissioning.
A joint project of several brands of the Nemetschek Group.
Nemetschek brands involved: Allplan, GRAPHISOFT, Solibri

Pioneering planning and project execution with Open BIM

“The end-to-end use of BIM solutions constitutes genuine added value for all stakeholders in the building process
because it enables seamless and efficient collboration”
Steven Hendrickx, Head Architect in Hasselt

Large-scale, highly complex building projects in particular require ongoing, reliable and efficient coodination between all stakeholders – both internal and external – across disciplines and between companies. Therefore, in association with other market players, the Nemetschek Group is promoting the Open BIM data standard. This is a universal, collaborative approach to designing, constructing and operating buildings based on open standards and workflows It makes it possible for project stakeholders to collaborate, even if the type of software varies from user to user. The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) interface has established itself as an open standard and is therefore of central significance.

Sharing and evaluating data throughout the entire product life cycle saves time and money and improves quality. The administration of data is key to this digital transformation, for it is only possible to take full advantage of the potential if each stakeholder can access the data that he or she needs at any given time. This begins with a realistic BIM building model, which is an essential prerequisite for a genuine 5D workflo. This model is no longer limited to just 3D construction data; it also includes data concerning the dimensions of time and costs.

Seamless collaboration exemplified by the Hasselt City Hall

Under the management of the architect team comprising Jaspers-Eyers, MASS Architects and Michel Janssen, a new municipal administration center is being built in Hasselt. The complex, consisting of a renovated building section and a new building, provides approx. 17,000 m2 for the city administration and social services as well as offices. The architects and their most important partners are using Open BIM software solutions for the entire construction process. Three Nemetschek solutions are being implemented for this project: Archicad from Graphisoft for the design and planning of the architects, Allplan Engineering for civil engineering, and the Solibri Model Checker for the BIM quality control carried out by the construction company.

From the beginning, all information concerning the building project is contained in the digital building model – from the draft to implementation – including all design details, desired materials, fire protection requirements, acoustic properties, insulation and building structures, and administration. This constitutes considerable added value for all stakeholders compared to the old standard model, which was purely 3D. Thus, this improvement ensures more than just seamless collaboration between all those involved. The complex project can be turned over to the municipality – the proud building owner – with the required quality, on time and within the specified budget.

Hasselt City Hall is groundbreaking – in terms of design, planning and project implementation.

Independent and yet consistent

Steven Hendrickx, the head architect in Hasselt, recognized four decisive factors with Open BIM over the course of the successful project:

  • Individual partners design their model with their preferred BIM software, and with their own templates. Outstanding collaboration is ensured, though, thanks to a common, uniform standard which is specified in advance.
  • The division of labor is defined at the beginning of the project. Data on statics, for instance, have an essential impact on the architecture and structural design. Data on heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, on the other hand, are also important but don’t generally flow directly into the architecture. These data, for example, can be sufficiently analyzed with the BIM solution for quality assurance from Solibri.
  • Design changes in one area don’t necessarily affect the plans of all the others involved in the project. The architecture and the building stage are inherently the most closely linked.
  • The expertise of the staff, i.e., extensive holistic knowledge of the various building disciplines, is also critical for the success of the project.

Two examples of the advantage of precise planning

In Hasselt, the construction company was commissioned with excavation, among other tasks. An assessment of the amount of sand that needed to be removed was done based on a cal culation using conventional 2D planning methods, which yielded a result of 800 cubic meters. The engineers used the Solibri Model Checker based on Open BIM and the data provided by the architects and arrived at a figue that was just half this amount, i.e., 400 cubic meters of sand. This shows how exact the work with Open BIM solutions can be.

The steel struts to be installed are another example: With the interface function IFC Exports from Allplan, it was possible to use the BIM model to automatically calculate which steel struts needed fieproofing. All it took was a mouse click to obtain precise results, right down to the running meter. In projects that don’t use Open BIM solutions, these calculations are made by manually entering the data from 2D drawings in Excel or some other software and then recalculating and evaluating the data for use in quotations and planning, a process that is susceptible to error and one that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. These errors often go undetected until the actual cost planning is already completed. In the case of the Hasselt City Hall,  it was possible to avoid such errors from the outset.

Converting to Open BIM pays off

As is the case with any change, it takes a certain amount of time for companies and employees to accept BIM as the norm. The best way, according to Steven Hendrickx, is to start out by planning smaller projects using BIM. The experience thereby gained will make it possible to complete successively larger BIM projects. The advantages of collaborating through Open BIM are obvious: The entire workflow is much simpler for all project stakeholders, and building projects are completed within time and cost budgets.

CONCLUSION

Consistent standards and open interfaces in par-ticular are essential for successful building projects. Stakeholders need solutions that can “work together” for all and any individual tasks being performed. Seamless collaboration between humans and machines: This is ensured with Open BIM, and backed by the brands of the Nemetschek Group.

Reference projects on this topic:

Nemetschek achieves record result

Corporate News Company News

Revenues up by 10 percent according to preliminary figures

  • EBITDA margin of 25 percent
  • earnings per share of almost 2 euros

 

 

Munich, February 17, 2011 – Nemetschek AG (ISIN 0006452907), Europe's largest vendor of software for architecture and the building industry, increased revenues by 10 percent to 150 million euros in 2010, thus achieving the same revenue level as 2008 again. The operating result (EBITDA) increased to a record high: according to preliminary figures, the operating result amounts 37 million euros, an increase of 22 percent over the previous year. The EBITDA margin was 25 percent. The group thus exceeded its record result, which was set in 2007 (EBITDA of 34 million euros). Net income (group shares) rose by 55 percent to 19 million euros while the cash flow from operating activities increased by 37 percent to more than 32 million euros.

Significant increase in revenues from license sales and maintenance contracts

In 2010 the group largely managed to make up for the slump in license sales in the crisis year 2009. The revenues from license sales increased by 16 percent to 75 million euros. The revenues from long-term maintenance contracts have been increasing constantly for years and at an increasingly dynamic pace: in 2010 they increased by a total of 8 percent to 67 million euros. The group's foreign markets recovered above all in the past fiscal year: with a 15 percent increase in revenues to 89 million euros. Revenues in Germany rose by 5 percent to 61 million euros.

The Nemetschek Group managed to grow above all in the Design and Multimedia business units. In the Design unit, revenues increased by 11 percent to 122 million euros, the EBITDA margin in this segment was 22 percent, up from 20 percent in the previous year. In the Multimedia business unit, the revenues even increased by 37 percent to 11 million euros and, at 38 percent, the margin was at a record level (previous year: 29 percent). In the Build segment, revenues remained largely stable at 14 million euros and with a steady, high EBITDA margin of 39 percent. In the Manage business unit, revenues remained almost stable with roughly 4 million euros, the EBITDA margin was 9 percent (previous year: 17 percent).

Earnings per share up by more than 50 percent

As a result of the considerable growth coupled with a fundamentally stable cost structure, the Nemetschek group achieved an EBITDA of 37 million euros in 2010 (previous year: 30 million euros). At 118 million euros the operating costs were up by 9 percent from the previous year. However, this was largely attributable to revenue-dependent cost items such as dealer commissions and bonuses as well as higher expenses for the market launch of new product versions. Besides there were higher costs for external personnel due to the company-wide implementation of a new ERP-System. At 1,076 (previous year: 1,064) the workforce remained largely unchanged.

According to the preliminary figures, the operating profit (EBIT) increased by 32 percent to 28 million euros. At 19 million euros, the net income (group shares) increased disproportionately by 55 percent. This includes a one-off effect of 1.6 million euros as part of an investment reduction. The earnings per share (group shares, basic) are 1.96 euros, up from 1.27 euros in the previous year.

The strong operating result is also reflected in the cash flow: the cash flow from operating activities increased year-on-year by 37 percent to 32 million euros. The cash flow from investment activities was -4 million euros. The free cash flow thus amounted to more than 28 million euros.

Compared to December 31, 2009, cash and cash equivalents increased by 34 percent to 31 million euros and exceeded the remaining loans from the Graphisoft acquisition (20 million euros) by 11 million euros. The Nemetschek group has an equity ratio of 56 percent (December 31, 2009: 50 percent).

The complete annual report 2010 will be presented on March 28, 2011.

Significant growth planned in 2011

After spending 2010 successfully making up for the ground lost in 2009, Nemetschek plans to grow significantly in the current fiscal year: organic revenue growth of around 10 percent resulting in overall revenues of around 165 million euros is planned.

'To achieve our ambitious growth targets we have to invest in our product and service offerings as well as in our market presence,' emphasized Ernst Homolka, CEO, Nemetschek AG. Nemetschek wants to drive forward with its internationalization activities in 2011; among other things, the company plans to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in Brazil. In 2010, the group invested almost 24 percent of its revenues in research and development; furthermore, both the group's subsidiary companies and the Nemetschek holding company have planned additional investments in 2011 to make the software solutions web-capable and to be able to offer new services over the Internet in the future.

'We will consistently harness new growth opportunities that arise as a result of the general trend toward cloud computing,' explained Homolka. In some areas this includes a moderate expansion of the work force.

Against this background, Nemetschek will achieve an operating result (EBITDA) of around 37 to 39 million euros in 2011 as a whole, which would correspond to an EBITDA margin of around 23 percent. After depreciation and amortization (including PPA) of around 10 million euros the EBIT will amount to between 27 and 29 million euros.

Nemetschek is known for the fact that the strong operating result is also reflected in the operating cash flow. Thus, in the current fiscal year, the company will succeed in almost completely repaying the loan taken to finance the acquisition of Graphisoft. The interest charges will be reduced further as a result. For 2011, the management expects to achieve net income of around 19 to 21 million euros.

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