2022 marked another year of growth for digital adoption and delivery in the UK construction industry. In particular, the increased demand from public and private sector asset owners looking for actionable insights on their assets and wider-estates. It’s perhaps no surprise to us as a leading Information Management (IM) provider that 2022 was also a year of significant growth for Glider. Stuart Bell, Director of Sales and Marketing at Glider takes a reflective look at the past year
Glider in 2022
Following a highly successful 2021 Glider has continued our work with key public and private sector customers. We are delighted to welcome a number of new customers including: ISG PLC, Tilbury Douglas, Ingleton Wood, Mace Interiors and Lovell.
Glider’s growth continues to be underpinned by the maturing of asset information needs in industry, and the drive and adoption of digital delivery approaches to meet compliance and regulatory drivers like the Building Safety Bill. One of the most transformative and progressive clients we are actively working with is the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) as they ramp up their Major Programmes and Projects (MPP) and Future Infrastructure Defence Services (FDIS) contracts. We continue to support significant projects like KGX1 (Google), 21 Moorfield (Deutsche Bank), 40 Leadenhall (Mace & Nuveen), HMP Full Sutton (Kier), The Forge (SRM), Midland Metropolitan Hospital, and Stratford Waterfront (Mace & London Legacy Development Corporation). It’s through innovative projects like these that the boundaries of technical service delivery are developed and the business case for digital is realised.
New recruits
The past year has also seen us add eight new talented recruits to the Glider team in our Product, Support, Development, Marketing and Digital Delivery teams. As a fully remote team so these new additions come from up and down the UK and more new team members confirmed to join us in 2023.
Bringing the Industry Together
As a thought leader in the IM space, we were delighted this year to welcome nearly 50 attendees to our inaugural user conference. We hosted a ‘Glider Gathering’ on 2nd November, where the Glider team and many of our key users met to share in its upcoming plans for the business and industry on a variety of topical points like Smart Buildings, Net Zero, The Building Safety Bill.
Having worked closely with Coventry University on the digitalisation of its built estate, Glider was delighted to hold its user group meeting at Coventry University’s Techno Centre, with attendees from across the sector to listen to a line-up of industry speakers from Coventry University, Kier, Arcadis, Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and the Government Industry Interoperability Group (GIIG). This user conference was an excellent opportunity for industry collaboration, allowing attendees to share a variety of industry insights, as well as allowing us to educate our users on developments on the platform.
You can watch the highlights here:
Supporting an industry to embrace Smart!
Smart buildings (otherwise known as intelligent buildings) and supporting technology are becoming more established, and awareness is becoming more common in the property and construction industry. Although the term ‘smart building’ has been around for a few years, it is not clearly defined and the underpinning technology is rapidly evolving. There is also very little in the way of guidance. Particularly for those who are not practitioners but may want smart technology in their buildings, project manage schemes with smart technology in them, or incorporate it into their design.
Therefore, this year a consortium including Hoare Lea, Glider, Kier, and ScanTech Digital have collaborated with RIBA to provide a Smart Buildings overlay to the Plan of Work. The guidance is from a range of perspectives – that of a specifier, integrator, contractor, and enabler – to provide holistic guidance throughout the process of identifying the need, defining the brief, developing the design, installing it on-site, commissioning, and then operating it. The RIBA Plan of Work is an ideal platform that is used by designers, contractors, project and cost managers, developers, and estate owners. Its application across a range of project sizes and complexity and its focus on outcomes and timely decisions allows the guidance for Smart Buildings to be aligned with other disciplines, particularly through the specification and design stage.
The Smart Overlay to the RIBA Plan of Work has now reached the final draft stage, now requiring a review from peers including clients, manufacturers, trade contractors, and wider designers, with plans to be released in Q1-23. This peer review will refine the guidance and test the principle that those involved in requiring, designing, installing, and using smart technology can understand what they need to do and when.
Recognition in our Field
This was a year of great recognition for Glider, as we were shortlisted for 11 industry awards, and took home two accolades. At the CABE Built Environment Awards, we were delighted to be awarded this year’s CABE Digital Transformation Award. At the Construction Computing Awards, we also received the Collaboration Project of the Year 2022 award for our contribution to HMP Five Wells. We are delighted that our team is being recognised for the breakthroughs we are making, as well as the fact that the spotlight is being shone on what can be achieved through effective Information Management.
Supporting Women in BIM
Presented by Rebecca de Cicco, the Women in BIM podcast is a not-for-profit initiative aimed at supporting and growing the number of women in BIM and digital related roles. The podcast aims to enable a future construction industry where diversity is no longer an issue. Glider’s Managing Director Nick Hutchinson has been one of the podcast’s earliest supporters, and Glider became a Gold Sponsor of the podcast this year, to support their important message. In October, Glider’s own Sarah Marshall and John Adams were delighted to be invited on the podcast to share their thoughts on BIM. In 2023, we will continue to show our support for Women in BIM through our sponsorship.
Every year at Glider we aim to develop our gliderbim® platform and organisation further, and we are pleased to say that 2022 was a year of continued achievement and success that the company plans to keep building on thanks to the hard work of our dedicated team.
To find out more about Glider and gliderbim® call 0203 8268 001 or email info@glidertech.com.
