Moving towards a truly integrated asset lifecycle with digital twin

17-08-2026

Discover how digital twins integrate BIM, operational data and AI-ready information to optimise assets across design, construction and operations.

MartijnMinderhoud

Martijn is an experienced Product & Portfolio Manager and business consultant in the field of digital twin and advanced (AI based) analytics.
He is Product Manager in Haskoning’s integrated digital twin portfolio and is responsible for integrating different internal and external building blocks to deliver integrated, domain-specific solutions on a scalable and maintainable platform. He also has an internal role as Digital Lead for our Design and Engineering services for Multinationals, working on data driven engineering and the improvement of data and information management across lifecycle phases.

Operating, maintaining, and optimising assets has become increasingly complex. Customer expectations are rising, processes are becoming more interconnected, efficiency pressures continue to grow, and regulations are more demanding than ever.

Digitalisation has helped to address these challenges, but it has also created new ones. Each system across different processes and lifecycle phases produces its own data and its own digital representation of the same assets and processes, often in isolation. As a result, organisations end up with fragmented, inconsistent data, spread across disconnected tools and suppliers.

This leads to inefficiencies, mistakes, and limited insight for decision making. Advanced optimisation, using AI, analytics, or automation, becomes nearly impossible. And keeping all systems up to date with real world changes to assets and processes is time consuming, costly, and error prone. The importance of structured, integrated, machine readable data for the successful Enterprise application of AI is further explained in this blog.

The above challenges become increasingly difficult to manage and solve for companies because they have often lost the ownership of their own data to external software suppliers. Making it difficult to create a unified, strategic approach to solve these challenges.

What is a digital twin and how does it support asset lifecycle management?

At Haskoning, we help clients overcome these challenges using Digital Twins. A Digital Twin enables organisations to shift from isolated point solutions to truly integrated ways of working, optimising asset performance across the lifecycle. It allows them to regain ownership of their data and ensure that information is correct, complete, up to date, and used consistently across all users, systems, and use cases.

At its core, a Digital Twin is an integrated digital representation of all physical assets, systems and processes, and how they are connected to one another. We see the Digital Twin as the central integration layer for all data flowing in and out of these assets and use case specific solutions, across design, construction, operations, maintenance, optimisation, and redesign.

To enable this, we use a central Digital Twin platform that validates, standardises, and integrates all data into one coherent data model. We do this using ontology based knowledge graphs, which provide a shared, machine readable language for all entities, attributes, and relationships. This ensures interoperability, reduces redundancy, and enables seamless integration of data from various sources.

Knowledge graphs allow us to contextualise data and make it inherently understandable for both humans and machines. They can be easily extended (for example, adding new assets or sensor data) and are highly suitable for advanced analytics and AI reasoning across the entire asset landscape.

This approach delivers tangible value, including:

Fast, reliable scaling of Digital Twin based solutions across sites, processes and assets.
Seamless integration of all relevant data types - real time, spatial, engineering, financial, operational, around the same assets and processes.
One trusted source of truth that reduces manual work, avoids duplication, and improves cross team collaboration.
Future proof interoperability, enabling new systems, data sources, and technologies to plug in without rework.
Better, faster decisions and operational excellence through high quality, connected, and context rich information.

Why are BIM and Information Management critical for digital twin success?

Unlocking Digital Twin value does not start with advanced analytics or AI, it starts with creating the right information, in the right structure, from day one. This foundation is built during design and construction. Here, a structured, data driven way of working, based on standards, interoperability, and strong information management, is essential. Without this, a Digital Twin risks becoming an expensive integration of inconsistent data rather than a strategic, lifecycle asset.

This is where our experience in BIM plays a crucial role. Modern BIM is not just about models; it is a structured information management process. When implemented well, BIM ensures that data is created consistently, in a machine readable form, and ready to flow directly into the Digital Twin.

To realise lifecycle value, organisations need enterprise wide, data driven BIM, not project focused, document centric BIM. This means defining clear Organisational Information Requirements (OIRs) focussing at the full lifecycle, not only project, ensuring consistent data creation across suppliers, and validating incoming information automatically through the Digital Twin.

Why Haskoning’s Engineering & Design expertise is chosen by our clients

We are uniquely positioned to help clients succeed because we combine:

Deep domain knowledge of assets, systems, and engineering processes, enabling us to define the right information requirements.
Strong BIM and information management expertise, both organisational and technical, ensuring standards that work across projects and disciplines.
Digital Twin experience, including ontologies and knowledge graphs, ensuring BIM data becomes reusable and valuable beyond project delivery.
Lifecycle insight, gained from designing, building, operating, and optimising assets, ensuring continuity from design to operations and back.

By bringing these disciplines together, we help clients create not just a Digital Twin or a BIM environment, but a fully integrated information ecosystem. One that enables lifecycle optimisation, reduces operational and project costs, and creates a sustainable, trusted foundation for data-driven decision-making, automation, and scalable AI across the entire asset portfolio.

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