Esri, along with other organizations in the facilities management industry, has published a data model for creating, storing, and sharing information about structures and their assets. The building interior space data model (BISDM) is geographic information system (GIS) based and will allow companies to more effectively share facilities data and collaborate with other technologies commonly used for real property portfolio, asset, and facilities management. The model can be easily extended for a variety of other purposes, for example, landscape-level planning and site selection, building-level energy and environmental management, and security and emergency preparedness.
BISDM was created for facility and real property managers who find it difficult to query, analyze, and report information about buildings and assets because it is not stored in a common database. The BISDM overcomes these challenges by creating a foundation for a seamless all-buildings data source, making the information available throughout an organization. The BISDM can be easily integrated with partner technologies for a complete facility information management system (FIMS).
The BISDM supports common standards for defining, classifying, and evaluating building space and assets as well as scalability for all levels of detail; enterprise system interoperability with computer-aided facility management/integrated workplace management (CAFM/IWM), ERP, and EAM systems; and business workflows through APIs, Web services, and service-oriented architecture (SOA).
BISDM will help users in government, retail, real estate, telecommunications, transportation, utilities, and more, manage information about assets and operations more effectively. Increased revenues through opened lease space, reduced operations and maintenance (O&M) costs by better management of facility spaces, more efficient staff moves, and the ability to plan for lower energy costs are just a few of the benefits of applying the BISDM and using GIS for facilities management in general.
The BISDM development program involved more than 30 organizations and has resulted in the first such collaborative effort to apply GIS-based models to different building, real property, and facilities management scenarios.
Esri UC
The BISDM community ratified the data model at the 2008 Esri International User Conference. Esri released the model on behalf of the community, along with supporting templates and documentation, at the end of August 2008. For more information, please visit www.esri.com/datamodels/bisdm.
