Alessia  
BIM Manager, 
FRANCE

What is your job?

I am BIM Production Manager, in charge of managing the digital production of the France site dedicated to an international railway project. I’m now working in the construction world, as I have been attracted by technical drawing and science since I was young. Being Italian, I trained as an engineer in civil engineering, building and public works in my home country.

I then decided to come and work in France and after a few years of experience in construction companies I enrolled at the ‘Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées’ in the Specialised Master programme in Building Information Modelling (BIM), Integrated Design and Life Cycle of Building and Infrastructure. In this context, I deepened my studies by publishing a thesis on project information management on the construction site. It was at this point that I began to take an interest in the changes brought about by digital technology in the field of infrastructure, before finally joining SYSTRA.

What do you do at SYSTRA?

I joined SYSTRA in March 2019 to work within the BIM entities.

My first assignment, in April 2019, was to respond to the call for tenders for the construction of a new ‘Aéroports De Paris’ parking garage with a capacity of 6500 places, which we won in a consortium with Léon Grosse and for which the implementation of the BIM approach was required. Right from the design stage of the digital deliverables for the tender, my role was to frame the BIM deployment. I therefore supervised the implementation and maintenance processes for the digital deliverables. What I retain from this first assignment is the solid relationship of the mutual trust and support that we established with the bid management team.

Since September 2019, I have been working on an international railway project for which the client wants to use the potential of BIM. This is one of the most complex contracts ever undertaken in terms of production, coordination and provision of design and built information. SYSTRA has set up a full BIM multi-site deployment: three production centres, each with an international team of experts, are working together to ensure synergies and optimise project management. As part of the technical coordination team, my job is to manage the digital production at the France centre. Together with the multi-disciplinary and multi-localized teams we design, model, produce and update the project’s digital deliverables. We provide real-time access to reliable and accurate data to all users of these digital models around the world.

Alongside my mission, I also train SYSTRA staff on the fundamentals of BIM.

What are the 3 important qualities or skills in your job?

In a context where ambitions for digital development are becoming a reality, we are trying to eliminate the misunderstandings that can surround change and to encourage each actor to consider the digital transformation not as a hindrance to the project but as a facilitator and a definite added value.

Helping employees to appropriate new working methods does not only require technical mastery, it also requires listening and management skills. Forgetting acronyms and focusing on information control allows for the development and empowerment of everyone within the project.

Organisation is also a fundamental skill for this mission. Being a guarantor of the consistency and digital quality of the project’s deliverables, as well as respect for the workflow processes, the coordination of actions, the management of unforeseen events and communication are goals that need special attention.

Why SYSTRA?

SYSTRA is a company which gives me the opportunity, in the context of digital transformation, to collaborate with BIM and CAD Technicians, Coordinators, Discipline Leads and Design Managers who are skilled, passionate and determinate. On a day-to-day basis, I feel like I am part of a community which sees far ahead.

To conclude, after an intense year and a half in this leader engineering group in the infrastructure field, I can undoubtedly affirm that SYSTRA is a catalyst for the construction digital transition.