UNIFI Spotlight: Karen Pierce, SR. BIM Specialist, CM-BIM
Karen Pierce, CM-BIM is a Senior BIM specialist, dedicated to helping customers get the most out of UNIFI. She received her A.S. in engineering from Georgia Perimeter College in 2012 and has had an exciting, versatile career in the building industry since. Before UNIFI, Karen worked as an electrical designer, a BIM manager, and as a consultant. In her different roles, she experienced every facet of BIM Management, from building Revit content, to converting CAD standards to Revit standards, to leading Revit software training for AECs.
Her diverse experience gives her a unique perspective to be able to provide unique solutions to customers across the building lifecycle, due to her intimate experience across the project lifecycle. She is a published CSE author and has contributed several cutting-edge articles to the publication. Most recently, Karen obtained her CM-BIM (Construction Management – Building Information Modeling) certification to further expand her industry expertise.
Why the Building Industry?
When asked why she’d chosen a career in the building industry, Karen said that she’d played with Legos and Erector sets when she was a child, while her father worked various construction jobs before eventually becoming a superintendent. She spent many summers on job sites with her father, which helped inspire her to go into the field.
Her favorite aspect of her job at UNIFI is that she gets to coach prospects and customers on the UNIFI product and finding creative workflows to solve issues around content management.
CM-BIM Certification
The CM-BIM certification Karen recently earned is an assessment-based certificate credential that denotes knowledge and understanding of concepts related to BIM adoption, practice, and process transformation as outlined in the AGC BIM Education Program. After finishing the course, Karen felt she was able to build on her real world experience and add what she was missing from being self-taught in the industry, including increased expertise into process and best practices. It provides a critical resource to share with the UNIFI team and enhances her ability to journey with UNIFI customers.
To obtain her certificate, Karen attended AGC BIM Education Program courses, which culminated in an exam requiring candidates to receive at least a 94 out of a possible 125 points.
From the CM-BIM courses, Karen learned, “As a prior designer and BIM Manager, I’ve worked with many of the multiple toolsets required to accomplish BIM. However, walking through the multiple tools needed across multiple disciplines and throughout each project, phase was illuminating. When you compound the multiple tools required, identifying and maximizing ROI becomes especially critical. By analyzing multiple case studies and tracking our own company’s lessons learned, we can start to see how BIM ROI can be not only measurable but practical.”
Technology’s Influence on the Building Industry
Technology is rapidly transforming all aspects of the world around us. Communication and collaboration technology has been at the forefront of this evolution for the building industry and with the recent pandemic, AECOMs rely on new technologies to discuss and share projects, as well as data, amongst one another more than ever. According to Karen, “In order to stay relevant in this current climate, companies need to cut the red tape and embrace innovative technologies as often as they can.”
Why UNIFI?
Between her role at UNIFI and recent CM-BIM certification, Karen is poised to grow her reputation as a trailblazer in the building industry’s technology evolution. Karen acknowledges that while many AECOs utilize traditional folder systems for digital assets, she’s committed to helping them implement UNIFI to search, find, distribute, and manage their content more efficiently given that project quality starts with the content
In conclusion, UNIFI is a platform Karen truly believes in, “UNIFI solves real problems for the building industry that I’ve endured firsthand. Features such as automatic upgrades, easy version control saved searches, and a built-in content request platform empower users to have a single source of distribution.” Karen is extremely excited and passionate about transforming the way the building industry works with UNIFI, and we’re equally as enthusiastic to have her on our team.