ISO 19650 – SGP celebrates achieving “hallmark” BIM accreditation

Stephen George + Partners (SGP) is celebrating achieving industry certification against ISO 19650-2:2018, an international standard for defining the process of delivering and managing information during the capex phase of a project, and widely considered to be a “hallmark” of good BIM practice.

Explains James Blood, Associate and BIM Manager at SGP: “ISO 19650 is such an important standard. It assures our clients and stakeholders that SGP has the capability to work effectively on ‘Stage 2’ BIM projects, and to deliver high quality data, which provides significant benefits for the project and all its stakeholders across the whole lifecycle of the built asset. It is the hallmark of SGP’s digital capability. We have been certified as a Tier 1 supplier covering the roles of both ‘Lead Appointed Party’ and ‘Appointed Party’.”

Achieving ISO 19650 is an important milestone in supporting SGP’s business objectives of improving efficiency and quality across the company, and it has taken over two years of intensive preparation and investment from the dedicated BIM team, business owners and senior managers to gain this accreditation.

Continues James: “Having ISO 19650 is becoming more a necessity than something that’s nice to have. Some frameworks already require it for the practice to be considered for projects and that is likely to become more common in the coming years. Winning ISO 19650 certification will open doors for us, especially in critical sectors like health and public sector builds. Even in sectors where this standard isn’t required, it will provide a good narrative through which to engage with clients and promote the long-term benefits of delivering good quality data alongside the actual physical asset.”

SGP appointed Symetri as an external consultant to assist in identifying and implementing required procedures, documentation, and templates, as well as reviewing new and existing systems, such as content management and learning management systems.

Concludes James: “After consulting with industry peers, we chose to be certified under LRQA’s scheme. LRQA is a leading provider of accredited certification services, and we felt that they would provide the most rigorous test of our organisation. This isn’t just a tick-box exercise for us, but a key step in improving SGP as a business and as a partner. The pandemic made it harder to achieve, but in the end, the new systems are now woven into the fabric of SGP. They are impacting all levels of the business and promoting the understanding of the benefits of clean, consistent, quality data, during the project’s design and build phases and which continue into the operation and maintenance phases after handover. This is where the real value is realised in terms of both cost and carbon.”