The Construction-Operation Building Information Exchange is an open standard that greatly improves project handover and long-term building operation. COBIE2 is the latest version of the open standard data exchange format that uses Excel as the basis for information sharing. BIG BIM little bim author Finith Jernigan, AIA shares his perspective on the March 2010 COBIE2 presentation with Michael Bordenaro, who provides an overview of COBIE.

1. COBIE2 Challenge: Dramatic Building Industry Productivity Improvements
“BIG BIM little bim” author Finith Jernigan, AIA discusses the COBIE2 Challenge with Michael
Bordenaro, who provides a brief summary.
The COBIE2 Challenge in Baltimore on March 17,
2010 added to the 3-year series of building industry
process improvement demonstrations using the
Construction Operation Building Information
Exchange data sharing format based in Excel.
Developed under NASA and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers in support of evolving buildingSMART
alliance open standards, COBIE2 establishes more
robust data transfer standards that promise to be
continuously improved as technology advances.
The Construction Operation Building Information Exchange (COBIE) is an international standard
format and has been demonstrated by industry leaders to dramatically improve the transfer of critical
design and construction information to the operation and management team.
COBIE2 demonstrators described data transfer tasks that previously took 6 hours to be completed in
2 minutes, others noted 85% reduction in data entry time and some showed live, web-based building
data management processes that previously were not possible.
A brief summary of what COBIE2 can be used for now and in the future and links follow the interview.
A COBIE2 Discussion with Finith Jernigan, AIA
Finith Jernigan, AIA wrote the Axiom Award winning “BIG BIM little bim”
and is president of Design Atlantic Ltd, an architectural firm and BIM
consultancy. Jernigan has been testing and implementing advanced
technology in the building industry for 30 years.
He helped write the ground breaking BIM guidelines for the state of
Wisconsin and has won a FIATECH CETI award for use of advanced
design, construction and data transfer processes for the Salisbury,
Maryland Fire Department Headquarters, Station and Museum featured
in his book. Finith Jernigan
Jernigan was a key participant in the AIA BIM Award winning BIMStorm Los Angeles and has been
active in other BIMStorms.
The COBIE2 Challenge in Baltimore on March 17, 2010 afforded Jernigan the opportunity to witness
the presentation of eight (8) software vendors who demonstrated their capabilities to import and
export building data to and from COBIE2 formatted spreadsheets.
Jernigan spoke about the COBIE2 Challenge with Michael Bordenaro, cofounder of the BIM
Education Co-op.
Michael Bordenaro:
Is there an umbrella assessment of the benefits available with proper use of COBIE2?

2. Finith Jernigan, AIA:
All vendors were in agreement with the fact that COBIE2
shortens the data entry time required to populate a CAFM
system. By having the designer and contractor build the
information in COBIE during design and construction,
Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) propagation
time is reduced. One vendor quoted 2 minutes vs 6 hours for
the test project (a small two-story apartment building). Another
quoted a reduction in data entry time of 85% at a level that
completes 85% of the data required for their clients'
operations and maintenance (O&M) use.
COBIE2 replaces much of the manual work effort in developing
as-constructed data, operations and maintenance manuals COBIE2 System information extracted from the model in pre-
design project analysis. This information will carry thoughout
and commissioning detail. COBIE2 makes this information the project and flow to O&M upon completion. ©2010 Design
Atlantic Ltd
easily available without sorting through files or searching boxes
in the boiler room. Savvy building owners will use COBIE2 to
replace and expand what they are given at project hand-over rather than requiring their contractors to
do duplicate work. This requires owners to look at COBIE implementation differently than “little bim”
implementation. COBIE2 is one more step toward “BIG BIM.”
The real power of building information modeling is that with BIM, it possible to achieve significant
benefits in all phases of the building life-cycle. The rapid development cycle of bim tools has resulted
in uses that greatly benefit one industry segment without producing measurable benefit elsewhere in
the process. Use of BIM during design-only or construction-only with little consideration for future
uses of the data embedded in the model, are examples of “little bim.” It’s good when designers and
contractors use bim to do a better job. However, we as an industry can achieve much more. “BIG
BIM” is characterized by data that, once created or captured is then reused over and over throughout
the life-cycle of an asset, making the entire process more efficient, less costly and more sustainable.
Bordenaro:
What is the cost of using COBIE2?
Jernigan:
COBIE is an open-standard available at no cost. Dr. Bill East, who has
been the leader of COBIE development, stated that the Army Corps of
Engineers has been able to do COBIE2 data entry for $1.50 per square
foot for existing buildings. At least one vendor has indicated this seems
to be in the high range. No one has fully documented the time and cost
savings for COBIE projects in relation to square footage. My experience
shows that the savings from properly using COBIE2 will be substantially
Bill East
more than $1.50 per square foot.
Bordenaro:
Building industry professionals are bombarded with messages of “better, faster, cheaper” from
software vendors of all types. Can you name a reason why building industry professionals should feel
comfortable about COBIE2.

3. Jernigan:
COBIE2 data can be generated by many different means, depending on the project phase and
team capabilities. The data can be added directly into the COBIE2 spreadsheets. The Onuma
System offers a clear path for building COBIE2 data during planning, schematic design and design
development. Both Tokmo and Vela Systems offer ways to add the data using web-based tools that
assist data collection. They make it easier to get proper information in the right fields in a repeatable
way during construction. Vela Systems even lets you barcode components and then use barcode
scanning to expedite the process.
Bordenaro:
COBIE2 is intended to assist in the long-term operation of a building. How do you see the transfer of
data to the software programs facility managers are familiar with already?
Jernigan:
Except for a single reference from ArchiBus, there was little acknowledgement of direct integration
between the major engineering BIM applications and Computer Aided Facility Management software
(CAFM) without a intermediary such as COBIE. This has been a long running issue and one of the
major hold backs from achieving “BIG BIM” integration into the O&M process. There have been few
options for moving data from the design and construction processes directly into CAFM.
COBIE2 offers a straightforward way for teams to populate CAFM. Whether COBIE becomes the
interface or is an interim step toward full integration, remains to be seen.
Most of the CAFM and CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) vendors appeared
to be looking at COBIE2 (and BIM) as a feed to their facility management products only. TMA
Systems did present from the perspective of the cradle-to-cradle
approach to advanced building industry processes.
Except for images in Tokmo's presentation, IBM's Maximo was not
represented in the test. This is interesting, as many federal government
agencies have used Maximo for many years. Maximo is one of the legacy
products that federal agencies have been hoping to move into the BIM
arena to leverage government long-term investments in the software.
Hopefully, they will participate in the next Challenge as an effective way
to show what is possible for converting legacy data for use improved
processes assisted with Building Information Models.
Igor Starkov of Tokmo
Bordenaro:
Whether Maximo participates in a COBIE2 Challenge or not, doesn't the use of Excel make data
transfer to almost all software possible?
Jernigan:
All CAFM/CMMS software imported COBIE2 spreadsheets by mapping them to their existing
formats. Any CAFM/CMMS that allows import by way of mapping data fields would likely be
COBIE2 compliant.
It was not possible to determine whether the CAFM vendors have deployed their mapping templates
into their standard products or whether they will use the mapping to increase price or build market
advantage.

4. Since it appears to involve a rather typical effort to map COBIE2 into the systems, we hope that the
vendors will deploy their templates as a standard part of their products.
Bordenaro:
Geographic Information Systems (GiS) Open Standards are more advanced than Building Information
Model Open Standards. Does COBIE2 allow Building Information Models to benefit from the vast
amount of information available from the GiS community?
Jernigan:
Vendors demonstrated using the geographical data in the COBIE2
spreadsheet.
Kimon Onuma, FAIA defined a site in his system, geolocated the test
building and output both building and geographical data in COBIE2
format for the other vendors to use. TMA Systems used GiS data to
generate click-able mapping of facility locations within their system.
Kimon Onuma
Mr. Onuma also demonstrated a direct data feed from a remote building
automation system that concurrently presented graphical operating data in both the Onuma System
and in Google Earth. This creates a “dashboard” that allows remote operations, such as monitoring
and controlling mechanical systems. Remote data from webcams was also shown streaming-in live
within the BIM. COBIE2 is critical in making this type of activity a building industry standard process
that dramatically reduces energy consumption and lets us manage better.
Bordenaro:
Having live presentations by COBIE2 Challenge participants is an effective promotional activity, but
are not intended as serious “test drives” of processes. Results of actual software performance will be
provided soon. What do you think interested
professionals should review before establishing
their approach to gaining benefits from the
COBIE2 format and related business process
improvements?
Jernigan:
I always shy away from presentations that rely
on work done off-line or specifically prepared to
show one aspect of a product. It is much easier
to correct the flaws off-line than it is live, making
it hard to be sure how well a product works. Live
is always best when you evaluate products in
the BIM world.
Bordenaro
Thank you for your time. I look forward to talking
with you when the COBIE2 Challenge results are
published.
Jernigan:
Thank you. COBIE2 geographic information extracted from a planning model shown here in
Google Earth. ©2010 Design Atlantic Ltd

5. COBIE2
A Brief Summary of Construction Operations Building Information Exchange v2
By Michael Bordenaro
COBIE2 data transfer processes are greatly assisted by Building Information Models that allow
professionals to exchange data using open standards. Properly implemented, COBIE2 data
exchanges are an excellent way to share Building Information Model (BIM) data. Only Excel is needed
to obtain and manage usable data about materials, equipment, location and other information
embedded in a Building Information Model. This ease of access to information is a key benefit of
COBIE2.
Using a spreadsheet format, design information, construction submittal requirements, manufacturers'
information and other data is more easily delivered to building owners in a manner that is effective for
commissioning, operations, maintenance and management professionals. Facility hand-over data
transfer takes less time, is more accurate and allows much more valuable use of critical design and
construction information by building managers.
COBIE2 is a way to transfer data. Using a human readable Excel spreadsheet that is structured as a
database, COBIE is also machine readable. Since COBIE is human readable, it can be managed
manually. However, manual management of COBIE2 data likely to be very error prone. As vendors
integrate the COBIE2 format into their
products, the typical user will not need
to understand the underlying data
structure. Rather they will use tools that
create and read COBIE within
commercial-off-the-shelf products.
With COBIE2, it is already possible to:
• Have single-entry of manufacturer's
data that remains consistent from
design through construction to
operations;
• Assign uniquely identified
equipment, furniture, fixtures and
other objects to specific rooms;
• Produce a COBIE2 Excel file from a
Building Information Model;
• Use a COBIE2 Excel file to create a
low-level-of-detail Building
Information Model;
• Change data in a COBIE2 file and
have it automatically change in the
Building Information Model; COBIE2 Spaces information is extracted from building information models or added in a variety of
ways customized to the project and user. ©2010 Design Atlantic Ltd

6. • Change the Building Information
Model and have the data
automatically update the COBIE2
Excel file;
• Have COBIE2 data populate CAFM/
CMMS software and provide many
other productivity improvements.
Eventually, the COBIE format will
evolve to allow schematic design
processes to include cost estimates
that include the price implication and
storage requirements of such items as
floor cleaning products for different
surfaces during the next 100 years.
While there is ongoing development
work that will improve performance and benefits, today COBIE2 allows significant improvements in
data transfer interoperability that provides surprisingly dramatic productivity improvements when
managed properly.
Much detailed information on Construction-Operations Building Information Exchange and all the
COBIE Challenge results are available at www.buildingsmartalliance.org Search for “COBIE” in the
upper right field on the buildingSMART alliance web page.
Information about the March 17, 2010, COBIE2 Challenge is available at: http://
www.buildingsmartalliance.org/index.php/newsevents/meetingspresentations/cobiechallenge2010/
Information about COBIE2 use customized for building industry professions, such as owner,
architect, engineer, contractor and facility manager is available by emailing:
COBIE@DesignAtlantic.com
2010 COBIE2 Challenge Participating Organizations:
U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
Archibus, Inc. www.archibus.com
Assetworks www.assetworks.com
Bentley Systems www.bentley.com
Eagle Technologies www.eaglecmms.com
ONUMA, Inc. www.onuma.com
TMA Systems www.tmasystem.com
Tokmo Systems www.tokmo.com
Vela Systems www.velasystems.com