Developed with backing of the Victorian Government and referenced in the Victorian Digital Asset Strategy, Virtual Buildings Information System (VBIS) provides for the classification and connecting of asset data located in disparate systems. Business Information Modelling (BIM) has high adoption within the Australian construction industry. Sophisticated digital models and data sets are created with a focus on productivity improvements in the design and construction phase of buildings.

The VBIS provides a standard mechanism to link between applications and data repositories, a standard labelling convention for the way data can be tagged, and a logical parent/child relationship for data. This makes possible the calling up of useful information from a range of applications including BIM and Facility Management (FM) systems to link to associated data sets seamlessly.

 VBIS received government grant for its development via the Future Industries Fund Sector Growth Program by the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions. The Victorian government financial backing and acknowledgement of the innovative nature of the initiative through the grant program provided further credibility to the initiative. VBIS was developed in partnership with BIM-MEPAus, the globally recognised industry body for BIM and asset data within BIM models.

The overall benefit of the initiative arises from the solution it provides to the challenge identified in the FM industry. With the scale of FM nationally and the exponential rise in asset data being collected, provision of a simple to adopt standard enables significant opportunities through operationalising the data.

The VBIS website (vbis.com.au) is designed to be interactive and provide downloadable content. Users can use the search function to lookup VBIS Tags for specific assets, download full tables and access other content such as whitepapers.