Mike DeLacey, president of Microdesk, spoke about the company’s AECO industry predictions for 2013. Microdesk provides business and technology consulting services to help firms plan, design, build and operate land and buildings. At Autodesk University 2012, the company presented their predictions, which were brought to the forefront by natural disasters such as Hurricane Isaac and Hurricane Sandy that swung the spotlight onto the country’s failing infrastructure.

Top five trends DeLacey outlined are as follows:

1. Rebuilding America “Hurricane Sandy is fresh in our minds, and we think in the coming months people are going to push for the use of technology in building, not only in the wake of Sandy but around the current crisis with infrastructure. Governor Cuomo talked about the advantage of technology and what we think the future will look like, especially with climate change and some of the storms we’ve had hit New York in years past. This push for technology is associated with infrastructure.
2. Regulatory Compliance “We are seeing significant push for BIM for non-traditional use. The appetite for BIM is increasing based on increased ways to use the model. More government organizations are developing BIM-based workflows that will add efficiencies in regulatory compliance and design review. We think the use will influence the industry and further adoption at more levels.”
3. Increased focus on the I in BIM “By that we see a critical mass at this point and more and more purpose-built apps taking advantage of information in the models. Look at the integration of Maximo and Revit or mobile apps that can stream specific parts of the model to your mobile device based on information in the model. BIM has found its way more and more into field operations, material management  and other uses that go beyond project delivery to help with more efficient facility operations and maintenance.”
4. Mobility “Mobility is hitting critical mass but in 2013 will become an industry standard.  This may be the last year it’s on the list. We’re so connected in our personal lives, but in our business word we’re not connected, we are still chasing information around. I think it will change quickly – I think the Microsoft Surface new tablets/laptops that will all run Windows 8 will be the business equivalent of the iPad. It will be interesting to see if iPad can make itself a staple in the business environment. The iPad hasn’ been able to replace my laptop. I haven’t seen Apple make huge strides in the business world, there is still disconnection.”
5. Cloud “The Cloud is still young and will be on the list for the next three years, until we’re actually running our design and construction apps from the Cloud. I think a lot of people who are in the position to make a decision about the Cloud are old enough to remember the Burroughs B25. That evolved from your user space and processing power on a desktop. Now we’ve grown up to a laptop that’s more powerful than that, where no one limits my space or processing power. We have created an independent computing generation and for a lot of people they think of the Cloud as going back to the Burroughs, having limited space. I think the reason that Autodesk put the 12-year-old on stage to was to demonstrate that they are growing up in a world the connectivity – anything they have on any device is so natural to them any time and anywhere.”