Tech Partner Programme March Retrospective

As well as summarising the content we published during March 2022, I want to highlight the recent releases of the latest version of the International Cost Management Standard (ICMS3), which now includes carbon as well as cost management, and the new International Building Operation Standard (IBOS), which represents a new approach to measure and manage how buildings perform for people. 

As our sector continue to move from documents to data, and to rely on the ability of systems to communicate and share that data, it is critical that we move towards consistent data formats to support RICS’ written standards. 

Both ICMS and IBOS are data driven standards, and their adoption needs to be supported with digital data standards.  The March 2022 release, version 3.3.3, of the RICS Data Standard (RDS) now supports both ICMS3 and IBOS and is now available with the schema and example data files available in xml and json formats with html documentation in separate json and xms directories.

This new version replaces the April 2022 release and allows users to capture, share and exchange data on land, property, real estate, and infrastructure assets, covering property measurement, valuation, due diligence, life-cycle costing, carbon emissions, building operation, brokerage, leasing, and building surveying.

The RDS is available under the MIT License and RICS can provide technical support on the implementation of the RDS, for further information and support please contact datastandards@rics.org.

In the world of infrastructure, RICS are working with the Open Contracting Partnership to allow ICMS3 data to connect with their Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS), which is used to describe procurement processes around the world relating to goods, services and public works using their contract and project level data standards toolkit.

In the UK, I continue to work with the Home Buying and Selling Group and their initiative to drive the availability of upfront property information through their Buying and Selling Property Information (BASPI) dataset.  This dataset has been mapped against the RDS and I continue to work with other UK initiatives to harmonize the way data on residential property is curated in digital form to support additional use cases such as retrofit passports, property logbooks, and rental licencing.

Identity and cybersecurity are inherently linked, and in addition to my conversation with Stuart Young of Etive Technologies where we discuss the new MyIdentity scheme for identity verification across the home buying and selling process, I published two articles: one looking at the whole issue of digital identities and electronic signatures, the other reflecting on the vulnerability of e-conveyancing to cyberattacks.

As part of our WBEF series of webinars I hosted a panel to discuss how the move from documents to structured cost and performance data has the potential to transform construction.

I talked about all things data in a podcast with Dan Fucco from Sprift as we discussed the power of the UPRN for the UK market and some lessons we can learn from the valuation process in the Netherlands.

Following on from the discussion I had last year with Declan King of ValuStrat around the use of Automated Valuation Models (AVMs), the RICS Property Journal has published a summary of the themes we covered.

The use of Games Engines is already well embedded in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector and I discussed this trend as well as covering some of the more unusual applications of 3D City Maps with Sandor Petroczi of AccuCities.

Joachim Bertot and Emile Frémont of Interval described how they are using the International Valuation Standards (IVS) and the RICS Red Book to support the development of their new solution and gave me their insight on the challenges of valuation in developing economies around the world.

Wayne Herbert from AI Assets spoke with me as we examined how data and technology is improving the productivity of data collection for asset management and how artificial intelligence (AI) could be applied in the future.

Managing variations in construction projects can benefit from the application of technology to overcome many of the challenges that the sector currently faces.  I talked to Stephen Berridge of IntVal to see how technology can help both client-side cost consultants and contractors

Rob Jackson of Asite took me through the benefits that stakeholders will gain from adopting the new IBOS standard, how technology will support data acquisition for existing buildings, and the role that digital twins will play.

ALICE Technologies’ René Morkos described the opportunity to take advantage of the recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) across pre-construction and construction for major building and infrastructure projects, and shared his personal story of combing practice and academia in parallel to embed the results of practical research.

What kind of data and technology is now available to identify the best interventions for improving energy performance for both residential and commercial property, and what are the barriers in commercial real estate?  Nic Cory of Absolar and I discussed the opportunities to apply data and technology at scale.