Succeeding with Building Information Modeling: A Case Study of BIM Diffusion in a Healthcare Construction Project Christoph Merschbrock University of Agder Norway christoph.merschbrock@uia.no Bjørn Erik Munkvold University of Agder Norway bjorn.e.munkvold@uia.no Abstract Technological innovations such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) offer opportunities to improve collaborative work and integration in the architecture, engineering and construction industry. However, research to date has documented how many organizations struggle with how to work based on this new technology, and many implementations fail. In this paper we present a case study of a major healthcare construction project in which the use of BIM was paramount, and where designers claim to have succeeded in integrated design. The designers organized their digital collaboration by establishing 1) change agents; 2) a cloud computing infrastructure; 3) new roles and responsibilities; 4) BIM contracts; 5) an IS learning environment; and 6) by involving software developers. These factors have been identified as influential for the successful diffusion of BIM in this project, and may serve as an example for implementation of BIM in other projects for supporting integrated design. 1. Introduction Today’s major construction projects could not be completed at the necessary speed without the use of advanced Information Systems (IS). Especially, Building Information Modeling (BIM) solutions have proven their value for construction design. BIM is both a new technology and a new way of working providing a common environment for all information defining a building, facility or asset, together with its common parts and activities [29]. Leading architectural and engineering firms use BIM to collaboratively develop virtual ‘prototypes’ of buildings before they are built [14,19]. When used properly, BIM can aid the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry to become a more innovative sector of the economy [5,6]. Construction designers wanting to use BIM in their project need to develop new processes for their collaborative work [15], and many of today’s construction firms hesitate to undertake the necessary organizational changes [24]. Even when firms seek to establish a collaborative environment in their projects, a variety of individual, environmental and technological challenges prove to be difficult to overcome [9,14,30]. Consequently, many firms continue to work in ‘siloed’ environments instead of encouraging a more collaborative culture. Thus, many of the crucial advantages of collaborative BIM design remain unexplored in wider practice [15]. Recognizing that only a few leading firms collaborate effectively based on BIM technology, recent R&D outlook publications by institutions such as the Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) argue for the need to further define collaborative processes between the actors in design [7]. This is echoed by literature reviews arguing for the need to strengthen the research on the inter- organizational work surrounding the modeling activity [20,32]. We contribute to this discussion by inquiring into the reasons for why some AEC firms succeed in their collaborative work while others fail. The research question guiding our work is: How can individual, environmental, managerial and technological challenges be addressed to achieve improved design collaboration through the use of BIM? The article presents a case study of advanced BIM- based collaboration in a major healthcare construction project in Norway. The desired outcome of the collaborative BIM work was to create “[the] biggest, most complete and best digital model in the world.” (BIM manager client) We present the findings of a series of interviews conducted with the key players in the design team in order to understand how they approached their work. Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory [31] serves as a starting point for our analysis of the factors leading to collaboration. The case study approach applied in this study allowed for operationalizing diffusion factors presented in prior work in the empirical setting of a construction project [26], and for building practical and conceptual knowledge about BIM’s diffusion as a collaborative system useful for other projects [8]. 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Science 978-1-4799-2504-9/14 $31.00 © 2014 IEEE DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2014.490 3959