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“Senior leadership needs to have the belief themselves that adopting a digital information management approach is the right thing to do. There are many great reports out there, for example Accenture’s Winning with Analytics, that states that organisations and, more importantly, the leaders of those organisations are significantly more successful when they use data to make decisions and track delivery. It's not a big bang that's required, you can take baby steps to enable a low cost.”

Terry Stocks,
Director UK Head of Public Sector, Faithful+Gould, Member Local Authority Digital Working Group

“The golden thread takes us on a digital journey and a level of digital maturity that will help organisations deliver much, much more efficiently and with greater benefit moving forward.

There are wider organisational benefits of enabling golden thread, as an organisation starts to create a fully digital information management and planning process. For example, there are benefits in being able to make more insight for programming decisions to drive operational efficiencies and as we start to move towards zero carbon. Regarding delivery requirements, having that sort of reliable data set is going to derive benefit. “

Terry Stocks,
Director UK Head of Public Sector, Faithful+Gould, Member Local Authority Digital Working Group

“The Construction Playbook is a great entry to helping digital adoption, and sets out key policies and guidance for how public works projects and programmes are assessed, procured and delivered.
For those not familiar with it, the playbook has 14 policy reforms, recommended to public agencies and they include some procedure and organisational changes, including the way we procure frameworks for delivery of consistent services, and how we look at outcome-based requirements. “

Marek Suchocki,
Engagement Lead, Autodesk

“Frameworks can play a beneficial part in sharing the experience from others and previous projects. What the regional, local government frameworks have learned is that you've got to properly pre-qualify consultants and contractors. To do not just digital but also meet all kinds of requirements around construction work, such as financial standing, and health and safety. BIM and digital is one aspect of the frameworks. The digital element has formed a key part of all local government frameworks, since about 2012 - 2013.”

Keith Heard, 
Commercial Manager, Hampshire County Council, SCF Framework Lead, Chair NACF.

“The digitalisation of assets can take many forms, the existing information could be paper/digital drawings, 3D models or scan data, all of these can be used as the starting point to digitalisation with the use of suitable workflows. The key to the Golden Thread and any data collection is consistency, gather the same data in the same way for each building/asset wherever possible. Consultants, specialist software and scanning companies can assist you on that journey.”

Dave Peacock,
Technical Director, TÜV SÜD, UK BIM Alliance, UK BIM Framework

“You must make the commitment to move from a 2D way of working to a 3D data structured approach. What you can do is start small and follow the guidance in the BIM Early Steps Roadmap and Toolkit for Local Authorities.

To start small, for example, one of our business partners called Oculo can build a three-dimensional representation, using a camera on a site helmet and you walk around, and it can either do progress monitoring or just build your 3D model and that's something that can come with really low investment.”

Marek Suchocki,
Engagement Lead, Autodesk.

“For many local authorities it's not about just getting the information digitally from a contractor or a consultant. It's understanding what you're going to do with it, how you're going to store it.

You need to think wider about your digital adoption for the wider estate. There's all kinds of different FM models out there. If you don't have the skills to procure that kind of thing the LGA would like to support and help people through that.”

Keith Heard, 
Commercial Manager, Hampshire County Council, SCF Framework Lead, Chair NACF.

“Skills are important. if you don't have somebody in-house that already has that sort of digitization skill, then you possibly need to bring somebody in for the short or medium term.

You also need buy-in from people at all levels. If you only get buy-in from say the top tier of people within an organisation, then it often fails, because the people below don't have that buy-in and don’t feel part of the journey”

Dave Peacock,
Technical Director, TÜV SÜD, UK BIM Alliance, UK BIM Framework

“Understanding the end-to-end processes is important. I think, from a national perspective we're probably looking at 1 to 2% of our Infrastructure and buildings are constructed each year, so we do need to look at what we've already got. I think that touches on the bigger issue about the structure of the organisation, how do the departments work together? If planning still requires two dimensional mock-ups then that really isn't a great starting point, because that sets a precedent for how the design side supplies information in the first instance.”

Marek Suchocki,
Engagement Lead, Autodesk.

“Start small and follow the guidance in the BIM Early Steps Roadmap and Toolkit for Local Authorities to build on top of good practice.

Start with the end in mind. Take baby steps, and don’t boil the ocean. Focus on the big-ticket items where you're going to get the biggest return. If 20% is easy, but that 20% gives you a net benefit of a 50% improvement, then again you're moving the needle in the right direction.”

Marek Suchocki,
Engagement Lead, Autodesk.

“I believe the common data environment processes and solutions are a fundamental. Start with the end in mind. Read the standards (ISO 19650) and look at the guidance from the LA Digital Working Group and the Centre for Digital Built Britain. “

Marek Suchocki,
Engagement Lead, Autodesk.

“You've traditionally got the supply chain in silos and even the client bodies in silos. I think there's a growing realization now with the building safety bill you need a fully integrated team from the start to pull all this together. “

Keith Heard,
Commercial Manager, Hampshire County Council, SCF Framework Lead, Chair NACF.