Frequently Asked Questions

We want to help industry embrace the management of purpose-driven data and information across the whole of the built environment.

Experience has shown us that if we put ‘BIM’ front and centre – many of our target audiences are put off as they (mistakenly) believe this is purely about design, construction and 3D modelling. Our evolved narrative embraces a much wider audience, and enables a safe place for advice and support, however early they are on their digital journey.

We are taking forward all that is good about the UK BIM Alliance while leaving the constraints behind. This requires a fresh, inspiring and welcoming brand.

We needed a fresh, appealing but neutral and agnostic name, that was not an abbreviation.

In our case, nima is derived from the Greek language, meaning ‘thread’. We can play with that as we tell the story of who we are and what we do, given the multitude of information threads running through the built environment. But we don’t intend to make too a big thing of it.

BIM is not dead. What we do say is that the focus and the dialogue needs to shift in order to engage more parts of our industry. We are talking about purpose-driven management of information through the whole life cycle of the built environment. That hasn’t changed. But for too many, that it not what the term ‘BIM’ represents.

The legacy of the UK BIM Alliance is largely embodied by the UK BIM Framework and the communities and networks we facilitate. We continue to be coordinating partners with the British Standards Institution (BSI) on the UK BIM Framework, and are determined to carry the great work forward with nima.