Design firm case study
How BuildEXT used ISO 19650 to grow 8x
BuildEXT, a Hungarian general design firm, took on competitors ten times its size. Its team grew from 6 to more than 50 engineers, and with structured, reusable templates in Plannerly it now handles projects 30 times larger.
The results, in BuildEXT's own figures
- 8xGrowthBuildEXT, Hungary
- -10%Construction and facility management costsBuildEXT, Hungary
- 30xLarger projects, thanks to reusable templatesBuildEXT, Hungary
- 1 dayTo create clear agreements and contractsWith a single BIM/Information Manager
About BuildEXT
BuildEXT is a Hungarian general design firm that began in 2008 with just 6 employees. It first focused on small local projects. The turning point came when it won a large international industrial project and started following ISO 19650.
The challenge
Scaling up brought major hurdles:
- Competing with firms 10x its size
- Disorganised workflows that weren't built for large-scale or international work
- Contracts that said vague things like "complete planning", leaving huge gaps for interpretation
- Subcontractors unfamiliar with BIM, or stuck in 2D workflows
- Clients not providing clear EIRs (Exchange Information Requirements)
The contracts were very vaguely specified... It could mean one thing on our side and a completely other thing on the client side.
What BuildEXT did
BuildEXT transformed its entire operation:
- Adopted ISO 19650 not because of mandates, but because it made business sense
- Used Plannerly to build customised templates for every project type: scan-to-BIM, healthcare, sports and fit-outs
- Digitised and visualised the scope, so responsibilities were crystal clear for each subcontractor
- Created clear agreements and contracts in just one day, with a single BIM/Information Manager
- Built a central object warehouse in Revit to support consistent modelling
- Taught supply chain partners about CDE workflows and standards
- Grew its own skills by bringing former Archicad users onto Revit workflows
The impact
- Team growth: from 6 to 50+ engineers across 4 departments
- Clear processes: visual scopes made roles and responsibilities instantly understandable
- Speed: messy Excel templates became visual contracts, generated in a day
- Scale: projects 30x larger, thanks to structured, reusable templates
- Savings: 10% lower construction and facility management costs
- A new mindset: from vague, reactive processes to proactive, repeatable excellence
In their own words
I cannot imagine using Excel or Word to start writing a BIM contract anymore.
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