Revit in Place of Archibus for FM?

[cityparagon137288]

I know this is an older thred but thought I'd give it a shot any how. We are and Owner User, we have our our Facilities Engineering Department in house and have recently upgraded to the Revit Desgin Suites 2013. We have been trying to determine if Revit can be used as a Facilities Management Tool, in lieu of programs like Archibus. Can anyone help with that answer?

[Revitaoist]

Revit is a building information modeling tool geared for construction documentation. I don't have any experience with Archibus, but I checked out the website, and I think the way it would work is to do the model, construction and planning documents in Revit, then import the revit model into archibus so you don't have to model the building twice. Warning: You'll go crazy trying to get Revit to do things it is not designed to do!

[Wanderer]

Sorry to resurrect an old topic, but, it's a good discussion that deserves a lot of attention. ;)

For more reading on BIM and FM, check out the resources on the FM Community pages:
http://www.augi.com/communities/facility-management-community/bim-and-fm

In my last company, we used Revit MEP (medical facilities engineering, for maintenance and trouble-shooting of buildings and to update with changes), but, I pushed for years to get Archibus implemented as well (for the sake of managing the company's assets most efficiently).

I get asked a lot about whether someone's client can use Revit for Facility Management.
Sometimes the answer is yes, but, it is highly variable. Most of the time, the answer is 'use a cafm system.'

While we can, on a small scale, make tools perform for us the way we want to, if you're talking on the scale of a massive, long-lived, facility, which will have multiple people taking care of the documentation and constant changes, you'll want to use the best tool for the job. And, most of the time, that tool will be more data-centric.

Or, as in my prior case, use both, because the needs are so wide and varied.

As big of a proponent as I am of BIM use post-construction / post-occupancy, I do not see the need to implement it where I currently work. We have office spaces, mostly leased, and the MEPFP systems are not all that complex. If I still worked in a hospital, or if I worked in a university or other complicated facility, then I would still utilize both BIM and CAFM. (see link on the above-mentioned page 'what does an owner want with bim?')

I'd love to hear opinions from others who have provided, or used, BIM for FM.