Major contractor ALEC Holdings embraces, and refines, the IMI

Lewis said the new policy is guided by four principles: being purposeful about the information the company creates; putting people at the centre through training and clear accountability; aligning with ISO 19650 standards; and maintaining quality through good governance and consistent approaches.

He continued: “Every business unit will implement the policy proportionate to their current capability, progressing through a phased rollout to 2030. The policy applies to all ALEC Holdings business units, and everyone involved in creating, managing, or using project information from tender response through to project close-out.

“By working together, we will strengthen our position as the leading construction group in the region.”

Andy Boutle, formerly head of BIM-Construction at UK’s Kier Group, is head of digital construction at ALEC Construction.

“I’m delighted to get this important topic to policy level and I found the four-step IMI process very helpful in framing the policy structure,” he said.

“We are now gathering IM leads and champions from each business unit to work together under a framework to pull in the same direction in a coordinated manner while developing processes, training and tools, and sharing best practice from the different perspectives and scope for each business unit. We will be leveraging the projects and tools being developed under the IMI ahead to support implementation of the policy.”

Shahida Rajabdeen, head of the IMI project team at nima, was in regular contact with Boutle throughout ALEC’s internal conversations.

“It has been helpful to see how an organisation like ALEC has applied the IMI principles and used them in practice to create a well-structured information management policy,” she said.

“ALEC’s processes and their resulting policy have helped us to expand and refine the guidance and template documentation we want to offer to other organisations.

“At Digital Construction Week 2026 in London, we were in contact with a number of organisations wanting to be part of the IMI, and who are now becoming organisational members of nima.

“To further those conversations, we have developed a standard onboarding package – including presentations, guidance and template documents – that businesses will receive once they subscribe to become nima organisational members.”

Rajabdeen added that, over the next few months, nima would be developing a tiered approach to organisational membership whereby businesses can get additional expert support and potentially gain wider recognition of their IM maturity.

She said nima was in discussions with a growing list of prospective organisational members including public sector client organisations, industry supply chain members and technology providers.

They too, she said, could help shape IM direction and encourage pan-industry adoption of common approaches to information management.

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