ANALYSIS: A better year expected for the construction software market

The local construction and architecture software market has stabilized this year, most specialized companies indicating the maintaining of their turnover at the level recorded in 2012. In 2014, the sector might go on an upward trend, if we take into consideration, especially, the increasing of the requirements of architects and engineers for a more accurate and real-time management of the projects in all stages of execution. At national level there are about 20 companies specialized in providing software programs for architectural design and planning for installation works. According to the official information, these have recorded in 2012 a 4% increase in revenue over the previous year to 37 million EUR, after a growth of over 80 % reported in 2011 compared to 2010. It should be noted, however, that the total turnover includes as well the proceeds made from other specific activities from the IT field. The main trend observed by the managers of building software companies is the changing preference from the 2D to the 3D project management visible for several years in Western European countries, more developed in this regard than Romania. A growth of the requests has also been noticed for solutions with an accomplished private "cloud" that can help construction companies to modernize their IT infrastructure without the need for data security and storage space. An increase in demand has been reported as well for systems of Building Information Modelling (BIM), not only for the development of construction plans, but also for the management of buildings, infrastructure and production facilities. Overall, the BIM applications are used in order to improve the results of the design and construction activities, as they provide more detail and an optimum predictability of projects for which they are used. Currently, the engineers which posses an interest for using these modelling tools can opt for versions "in cloud", provided by software vendors. There is also an increasing interest of users for the design solutions within a single platform capable of providing complex-assisted drafting tools.