Welcome to 2025: A Message from Executive Chair, Ian Howell
Dear Member,
Welcome to 2025!
I want to take a moment for us all to reflect on what was a very successful 2024. With new Chapters being established, having IFC 4.3 approved as an ISO standard, IDS becoming a final bSI standard, the launch of the IFC Validation Service, publication of Professional Certification Entry Level training, an updated Foundation Course, publishing the learning content for Practitioner training, seeing increasing industry demand for open standards via owner/agency mandates and through government regulations, and having committed software partners who are actively implementing IFC 4.3, we are starting the new year with tremendous momentum and opportunity. Importantly, all of these accomplishments were only possible given your support, participation, leadership, and passion as members of the global buildingSMART community. Thank you.
As we embark on a challenging and exciting new year ahead, I am confident that with your continued support, participation, leadership, and passion we will look back a year from now with the same pride of accomplishment of having further advanced our mission “to create and maintain open and reliable digital standards for the built environment and support their global adoption.”
As a priority, the Board is committed to resolving the leadership gap left by Clive’s departure in December as soon as possible, but only after careful consideration for the best path forward for bSI. For the short term, the Board has asked me to serve as Executive Chair to help support the leadership team as needed. At the same time, the Board is also working very closely with the leadership team to finalize our 2025 business plan and budget based on a list of priorities that the leadership team has already identified and presented to the Board.
I know there have been many changes over the past 24 months, but despite the challenges, we have managed to accomplish some real milestones that advance our professionalism and improve the way we operate to support the continued growth of our community, including:
- Chapters now have a Journey Matrix to guide their growth and maturity
- Domains are now focused on specifying user requirements, whitepapers, and defining specific entities to be added to bSDD
- The Board now includes external (non-Chapter affiliated) Directors to broaden our perspective
- The expanding PCert program is being managed by new leadership and an executive committee elected by the community
- Development of the technical roadmap has been centralized under the Technical Services team to be more efficient and achieve higher quality
- The first Accelerator Program projects have been completed as proof points for our new openBIM workflows, and the standards and services that support them in order to capture best practices that can now be shared with the entire community
- Implementor Forum and General Assembly support for our software partners
In 2025, our objective is to further improve resource efficiency while delivering better outcomes. We aim to introduce a streamlined, less complex bSI process that maintains the essential governance. Our focus will be on projects that closely align with our technical roadmap, supported by improved delivery and dedicated project leadership. We also intend to collaborate with each of our members more closely in order to gain a better understanding of their current and future business needs and to ensure that they are mapped into the best ways of participating in the buildingSMART ecosystem to satisfy those needs.
I would be remiss not to include a call to action. We are extremely grateful for your continued support. At the same time, we also need your help please in expanding our network of members and sponsors to further fund our work. If you know of any other companies within your partnerships or supply chain that could benefit from contributing to the creation, promotion, specification, or adoption of our open standards, please introduce them to us. Connecting them with the bSI leadership team and encouraging their involvement as new members or sponsors would significantly strengthen our efforts. Every new introduction helps and will be greatly appreciated.
I am looking forward to seeing you all in Singapore at our March Summit (with early bird registration now open here).
Sincerely,
Ian Howell
Executive Chair, buildingSMART International