Asset Information Modelling & COBie Services for U.S. AEC Firms

Structured, COBie-compliant handover data that your facilities team can open and use on day one, instead of a model that gets archived the week the building closes out.

Most BIM models are built to get a project through construction, not to survive it. The geometry is there, but the asset data, equipment tags, warranty dates, and maintenance schedules either never made it into the model or are buried in a format the FM team's CMMS can't read. Excelize builds Asset Information Modelling into the project from the start, so what gets handed over at closeout is data your building operations team can actually load and use.

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Data your FM team, can actually use on day one What we deliver

What It Is

What is Asset Information Modelling (AIM) and COBie?

Asset Information Modelling is the discipline of capturing structured, non-geometric asset data, equipment types, model numbers, warranty periods, maintenance intervals, inside a BIM model as it's built, so it can be extracted at handover into a format facilities teams can use. COBie (Construction Operations Building Information Exchange) is the specific data schema most U.S. public and institutional owners require for that extraction: a structured spreadsheet format that maps directly into CMMS and CAFM platforms. AIM is the practice; COBie is one common deliverable format it produces. Not every project needs COBie specifically, but most owner-operated buildings need the underlying discipline regardless of which schema the contract calls for.

Why handover data usually fails the owner

Geometry without the data behind it

A door in the model shows its shape and location; it rarely carries the hardware set, fire rating, or warranty expiration that an operations team needs six months in, when something breaks, and nobody remembers which door schedule to check.

The rebuild nobody budgeted for

Rebuilding asset data after handover, walking the building, tagging equipment by hand, and re-entering everything into a CMMS routinely costs more than capturing it correctly during construction would have.

The gap that becomes the owner’s problem

It usually falls on the owner, well after the project team that could have prevented it has moved on to the next job.

Most models are rich in geometry and thin on the data that an FM team actually needs on the day they take over the building. That gap gets expensive in a specific way, and it's avoidable if the data is captured while the building is still being built.

What We Deliver

What our AIM & COBie service includes

COBie Data Plan

A defined data drop schedule and responsibility matrix, set at project kickoff, specifies who enters which asset attributes and when, so COBie data doesn't get treated as a closeout scramble.

Model Data Population

Structured entry of equipment attributes, manufacturer, model number, install date, warranty term, into the model as it's built, mapped to your owner's specific COBie requirements.

Data Validation And QA/QC

A structured check of populated data against the COBie schema before handover, catching gaps and inconsistencies while they're still cheap to fix.

CMMS/CAFM Field Alignment

Structuring the COBie export's field naming and format to align with common CMMS and CAFM import requirements, reducing the manual reformatting an owner's facilities team would otherwise need to do on receipt.

As-Built Reconciliation

A final pass reconciling the model and its asset data against what was actually installed, since field changes during construction routinely drift from the original model without someone tracking it.

Handover Package And Walkthrough

The final COBie deliverable plus a walkthrough of the data structure with your team, so the file's organization is understood at handover, not something your FM team has to reverse-engineer.

Our Process

Our AIM & COBie process

Owner Requirements Intake

We review the owner's project requirements (OPR) or facility data specification and confirm which COBie fields the handover needs to target.

Data Plan And Responsibility Matrix

We set the data drop schedule, who enters which fields and when, so asset data population happens progressively through construction, not in a rush at the end.

Progressive Data Population

As the model develops, we populate and validate asset data against the agreed schema, flagging gaps to the project team while there's still time to close them.

Pre-Handover QA/QC

A full validation pass against the COBie schema, checking for missing fields, inconsistent naming, and data that won't structure cleanly into the final export.

Handover And Structure Walkthrough

We deliver the validated COBie file and walk your team through its structure and field naming, so the handover data is understood, not just delivered.

Who This Is For

Handover data that matches what owners actually ask for

Public agencies and institutional owners often specify COBie explicitly in the contract, sometimes down to which fields are mandatory, so the data plan needs to be locked before modeling starts, not reverse-engineered at closeout. Private commercial owners more often care about whether the data structure is usable in practice than the COBie label itself, which means clean field naming and consistent formatting matter more than schema compliance on paper alone. Design-build teams carry the added complexity of coordinating data entry across multiple subcontractors, each responsible for their own equipment data feeding into one clean file.

The engagement scopes around which of these you're delivering. Consultants work out of New Jersey and California, on U.S. hours, against U.S. facility management standards.

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FAQs

AIM & COBie FAQs

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No. COBie is one common schema, often required on public and institutional work, but the underlying discipline of capturing structured asset data matters on any owner-operated building, regardless of which format the contract specifies.

At kickoff, ideally before design development. Data captured progressively through construction is far cheaper than reconstructing it at closeout, and the responsibility matrix needs to be set before subcontractors start entering their own equipment data.

The export is structured to the COBie schema, the standard most CMMS and CAFM platforms are built to accept. We align field naming and format to reduce friction on import, though validating the actual import against your specific platform is worth confirming directly if your system has non-standard requirements.

Both, depending on scope. We typically build the data plan and responsibility matrix, validate and QA the data, and can either enter it directly or coordinate subcontractors entering their own equipment data into the model.

That's what the as-built reconciliation step is for. We reconcile the model and its asset data against what was actually installed before final handover, so the delivered data reflects the real building, not the original design intent.

Yes, though it's a different scope, effectively a data reconstruction project rather than progressive capture. It's slower and more expensive than doing it during construction, but it's fixable.

It applies to both. Renovation and retrofit projects often need the added step of reconciling new asset data against whatever incomplete records exist for the rest of the building.

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Tell us what you're handing over, and to whom

Whether it's a formal OPR with COBie fields spelled out or just a general sense of what your facilities team will need, that starting point shapes the scope. Send us where things stand, and a sample comes back in 2 to 3 days.

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Asset Information Modelling & COBie Services for U.S. AEC Firms

What is Asset Information Modelling (AIM) and COBie?

Why handover data usually fails the owner

Geometry without the data behind it

The rebuild nobody budgeted for

The gap that becomes the owner’s problem

What our AIM & COBie service includes

COBie Data Plan

Model Data Population

Data Validation And QA/QC

CMMS/CAFM Field Alignment

As-Built Reconciliation

Handover Package And Walkthrough

Our AIM & COBie process

Owner Requirements Intake

Data Plan And Responsibility Matrix

Progressive Data Population

Pre-Handover QA/QC

Handover And Structure Walkthrough

Handover data that matches what owners actually ask for

AIM & COBie FAQs

Related consulting services

BIM Strategy Consulting

BIM & FM Integration

BIM Capability Assessment

BIM Digital Integration

Tell us what you're handing over, and to whom