Manufacturer in Residence: Gert Siekmans, BLÜCHER

BLÜCHER's head of Cast Iron Drains, Gert Siekmans, has been working in house with our content specialists.

Founded in 1965, BLÜCHER is one of Europe's leading producers of stainless steel drainage systems with subsidiaries and sales offices across Europe, Russia, the Middle east, USA & China. 

Since 2013, bimstore have created and hosted all of BLÜCHER's content. Recently, their head of Cast Iron Drains, Gert Siekmans, joined our Senior Content Specialist, Ian Holmes in our office for several weeks to see first hand how our team create their content and tailor it to exactly what they and their customers need. 

Siekmans told us: "bimstore has always been our choice, they are UK based and since our initial requests were coming from the UK, the knowledge of the market and the technology, it was simply the right choice. Now with the new bimstore 4.0, we have a lot more options to guide clients towards the right product. 

We can't wait for the launch of bimstore 4.1 with even more and even better options for our clients.

"The search engine is the key to find the right product. The files themselves are designed with the effective use by clients in mind and the option to change the product within the file, without the need to find a product which is similar, to revise instantly in a single click. We can't wait for the launch of bimstore 4.1 with even more and even better options for our clients."

It isn't just the platform that is important to BLÜCHER though, Siekmans explains, as Ian Holme's expert knowledge played a crucial part in creating proficient content in a cost effective manner: "To understand the process and to make instant decisions at every point of the process the "first hand approach" worked. We can recommend this to everyone simply because it is not bimstore who is taking ownership, it is us, the manufacturer.

BIM is serious business, it's not just another drawing format.

"BIM is serious business, it's not just another drawing format. It will change our industry, the industry we are proud of. We can see many highstreet stores having a hard time to keep the doors open, let's not let this happen to our industry. You will need to start-up your BIM process."

And of course, the atmosphere and workflow in our office, helped maintain an efficiency in such a complex project: "The work with bimstore was great. Just the way we started on the project - to start, finish and launch by one and the same person or department involved. Due to the complexity of our offerings we had to concentrate on the assembly options with both Revit and product knowledge working hand in hand. On the final product we avoided long waiting times as well as endless emails and search queries.

"The work with Ian has been great, the understanding and the genuine interest in the products, it's installation and the flexibility on the agenda. However, we could not have done this without the multiple cans of daily fresh brewed coffee, thanks!"