What products do european electrical installers use BIM for?

BIM is playing an increasingly important role in construction, and its usage is growing among various construction professionals. However, as we saw in a previous article, the rate at which BIM is being picked up by European electrical installers majorly differs per country and per size of the installation company. Insights into those differences are essential for the success of marketing and sales strategies of manufacturers of installation products who target BIM-using installers.

Be that as it may, knowing which installer is using BIM does not mean you know the BIM-using installer. It does not answer why they use BIM and in fact, it does not even answer the most fundamental question of all: what do BIM-using electrical installers actually use BIM for? That is what we asked installers from seven major European markets for the Q3 2021 report of USP Marketing Consultancy’s European Electrical Installation Monitor.

BIM is used for a variety of electrical products or application areas

At first glance, cables and wiring are a clear winner. More than half of the European BIM-using installers use BIM for the installation of cables and wiring. But it is also clear that BIM is used for a broader variety of electrical products. More than a third of BIM-using installers use BIM for lighting and luminaries, about a third use it for switches, sockets and outlets, and just under a third use it for electrical enclosures.

BIM application differs per project type

The above shows that, on average, electrical installers use BIM for a variety of electrical products and application areas, but that BIM is used most often for cables and wiring. When zooming in on the type of projects installation companies use BIM in, that image changes a bit. In new-build projects, BIM is used for cables and wiring even more, for instance. In renovation projects on the other hand, BIM is used the most for lighting and luminaries and relatively less for cables and wiring. Aside from that, the division of electrical products and application areas BIM is used for by electrical installers is a bit broader in renovation projects than in new-build projects.

Broad application of BIM means opportunities for manufacturers

Electrical installers who use BIM for their projects will encounter pain points and will have a need for BIM support from other parties. Manufacturers of electrical installation products have an opportunity here to add value to their brands and use offering BIM support as a marketing tool. That is not only true for manufacturers of products for which BIM is used often. Even if your products are not high in the above list, offering BIM support for your products to electrical installers may prove lucrative in times to come, for installers’ BIM usage is expected to continue growing steadily in the coming years.

To successfully use the marketing opportunities BIM usage offers, it is necessary to dive even deeper into the BIM-using installers’ mind, though. It will be a great help to know what problems and annoyances installers encounter when using BIM in their projects, for instance, or what benefits of BIM they perceive and value most. On top of that, and maybe more importantly, it will be invaluable to know what electrical installers actually expect from manufacturers where it concerns BIM support. That information is available in the Q3 2021 report of USP Marketing Consultancy’s European Electrical Installation Monitor.