Interoperability across Building Life Cycle

buildingSMART alliance, the OGC and Sponsors of the AECOO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owner and Operator) Testbed have issued a Request for Technology (RFT).

This document provides global software and research communities, business trade organizations and their membership an opportunity to identify their technology solutions relevant to the testbed's three focus areas:

-  Decision support and general communications - connecting building models with business processes

-  Energy analysis during design

-  Cost estimation during design

These three focus areas were selected as offering significant business benefits to the global market for interoperable solutions. Respondents will provide buildingSMART alliance, the OGC and the Sponsors a current and accurate understanding of what technologies the software and research communities are ready to bring to the table for integration into an interoperable environment for commercialisation.

Respondents throughout the global industry are encouraged to identify their innovative solutions that meet Sponsor's requirements; by responding to this request, such solutions can be considered for inclusion in this major initiative.

Effective management of buildings and other capital facilities increasingly requires information exchange with all disciplines and professions that have a stake in the design, construction and operation of those facilities. Numerous information exchange approaches have been developed independently within the community.

Understanding how particular exchanges and related technology might best support AECOO end-to-end business practices is a high priority for the industry.

The International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) and its National Chapters and the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) including its buildingSMART alliance (the North American Chapter of IAI) and National Building Information Modeling Standard (NBIMS) Project have large roles in the ultimate success of this testbed. It is through these organizations that results of the testbed will be delivered.

The RFT is available at the URL below. Due date for responses is 10^th March 2008.

The buildingSMART alliance is a program of the National Institute of Building Sciences and is the North American Chapter of the worldwide International Alliance for Interoperability. The alliance was established to 1) coordinate the profound constructive changes coming to the fragmented real property industry in North America; 2) be the coordination point for fund raising and uniform marketing of member programs; and 3) provide a centralized process for strategic planning, resource allocation and decision making for the member programs. Our collective goal is open interoperability and full lifecycle implementation of building information models. The focus is to guarantee lowest overall cost, optimum sustainability, energy conservation and environmental stewardship to protect the earth's ecosystem. www.buildingsmartalliance.org/