Exchange Information Requirements

Exchange Information Requirements (EIR) set out managerial, commercial and technical aspects of exchanging infrastructure data and information based on the project and asset information requirements. The EIR defines the information that will be required by the agency to be transferred between in-house project teams and external suppliers for the relevant phases of the infrastructure asset lifecycle.

A critical exchange is the asset handover process, e.g. the transfer of information from the Design and Build phases to the Operate and Maintain phase. This is the most significant transfer of information from one phase to the next during the asset lifecycle, which also poses the biggest risk of loss of information. The requirements for authorisation of data access change over the asset lifecycle.

For example, if you are approaching the market in the construct phase, access to some of the digital assets from the design phase may need to be available to organisations registered for the tender to prepare their responses. Once that stage is awarded, unsuccessful tenderers should be de-authorised and their read access cut off. Similarly for maintenance contracts, prospective tenderers will need access to the “as constructed” digital assets to prepare their responses, and then once awarded, the successful tenderer needs to be given read/edit access to the digital assets to maintain them as the physical infrastructure asset is maintained. Passing on of data from one phase of asset management to the next is important, and the use of standards between stakeholders and stages will help ensure the value of data is realised from stage to stage.

The information requirements then define the information model required for each phase of the lifecycle, noting that the project information models contribute to the asset information models, however not all data and information required for the construction of an asset is required to operate and maintain the asset.