BIM and E-Negotiation Practices in AEC Consulting Businesses

Abstract

Architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) consulting businesses are developing into a specialized industry, and collaborative decision making is essential to obtain the finest design. Everything is now virtual. Building information modelling (BIM) has the most potential to support current practices. BIM is promising for effective and efficient design processes. Negotiation and decision-making processes appear to be activities that are the most difficult for BIM to facilitate. Both activities are hard to complete in person and virtually. Every participant has their own preferences, intention, and pay-off optimum, and conflicts are difficult to avoid. Communication and e-negotiation are main issues in BIM practices. This paper proposes BIM and e-negotiation practices in AEC consulting businesses, with the main intention to reveal critical success factors that enhance the utilization of BIM in supporting communication and e-negotiation. A survey through observation and questionnaire distribution was used to collect the data. Descriptive analysis through a mean and standard deviation scatter plot was used to analyse the data. Two hundred and two respondents consisting of 91 design managers (leaders) and 111 designers/consultants (non-leaders) were involved in the research. Based on the analysis, it was found that there are different perceptions between those two groups. The design managers stated that they were the most vital factor in supporting the e-negotiation in BIM, whereas the consultants (designers) stated that job description was the main essential factor.