In this episode of The ConTech Crew, Jeff Sample and Nathan Wood sit down with Jacob D’Albora, Director of Digital Building Operations at VIATechnik, to talk about their newest innovation: Voyager, a digital twin solution built with owners in mind. Jacob shares insights into bridging the construction-operations gap, the shift from BIM as a 3D model to BIM as a data source, and why the facilities side of the AEC industry needs tools designed specifically for their workflow. The conversation also covers cultural change, standards, AI integration, and Jacob's recent appointment to the National Institute of Building Sciences’ Digital Twin Integration Committee.
Key Learnings:
- Digital twins should empower not overwhelm facility teams.
- Interoperability is more realistic and effective than forcing a single source of truth.
- The design and construction phases must hand off clean, validated data to ops.
- Data consumers (like Voyager) increase the value of data creators.
- Change management is just as vital as the technology itself.
Timestamps:
[00:00] - Introduction
[01:05] - Introduction to Jacob D’Albora & the “Voyage to Value”
[03:30] - The origin of VIATechnik and their journey into owner services
[10:43] - VIATechnik’s product evolution: from services to Voyager
[25:09] - Value prompt of BIM
[29:45] - How this helps upstream teams like trades and designers
[33:36] - The need for transparency and culture change
[38:47] - Jacob’s appointment as Chair of the NIBS Digital Twin Committee
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