How much does a BIM maturity diagnostic cost? The three options, and what they are worth

The question usually comes up after a lost tender, or a first client request mentioning ISO 19650: "where do we really stand?". Three options exist to answer it, and they are not in the same price bracket. This article compares them plainly, ours included.

Option 1: an audit by a BIM consultant

A consultant spends one to three days in the firm, interviews the partners and a few project leads, opens models, reads your protocols if they exist, then delivers a report. The fee depends on the profile and depth: roughly €1,500 to €3,000 for a one-day diagnostic with a debrief, up to €8,000 to €15,000 for a full audit with a transformation plan over several months. Plus the internal time mobilised, rarely counted.

• What you get: an outside eye, observations on your real projects, possible support afterwards.
• What you don't get: a reproducible measure. Another consultant, a year later, won't give you a comparable score.
• Who it's for: firms of 30 people and more, or those preparing a certification and needing a dry-run audit.

Option 2: the home-made spreadsheet

The BIM Manager (or the most motivated partner) builds an Excel grid from a template found online, often derived from Anglo-Saxon maturity matrices, and fills it in themselves. Direct cost: zero. Real cost: two to five days of work for a decent grid, then the classic risk of the spreadsheet that is no longer filled in at the second iteration, because nobody remembers the scoring method.

• What you get: a first awareness, adapted to your vocabulary.
• What you don't get: a stable framework, a comparison between firms, an action plan other than the one you write yourself.
• Who it's for: firms that already have a BIM Manager with time, and mostly want to start the internal conversation.

Option 3: the online diagnostic

A structured questionnaire, completed by a partner or the BIM lead in forty-five minutes, on a fixed framework aligned with ISO 19650. At BIMaturity, the overall score out of 100 is free and shown immediately; the detailed theme-by-theme report with the prioritised action plan costs €99 as a one-off, or is included in the plans from €49 per month, which also unlock team member and candidate assessments.

• What you get: a reproducible score, a breakdown by theme (52 questions, 13 themes of which 11 are scored), a dated action plan, and the ability to redo the diagnostic six months later on the same grid to measure progress.
• What you don't get: someone opening your models. The diagnostic measures declared processes, not the quality of a particular model.
• Who it's for: the vast majority of firms of 5 to 100 people, who want an honest measure and a starting point, without a consulting budget.

The right diagnostic is neither the most expensive nor the most complete. It is the one you will redo in a year on the same grid.

What really costs money: not knowing

The cost to compare is not that of the diagnostic, it is that of not having one: a tender response promising a CDE the firm doesn't have, a BIM Manager hire decided without knowing which problem they must solve, or three Revit training courses bought when the real blocker was the lack of a naming convention. Each of these mistakes far exceeds the price of all three options combined. Starting with the free measure, then deciding whether an outside eye is needed, is in most cases the most economical order.