BEP hosting/sharing/coordination

[Patrick M]

We have a pretty rudimentary BEP that we use to coordinate, primarily with Structural and MEP consultants; to establish who is modeling what, how/when it will be delivered, and who is responsible for updates, collision detection, etc.

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anyway, currently, it is simply a google doc that the project architect or job captain pilots and distributes to all parties. Is there a better hosting/sharing/format option out there? I know in an ideal world, the BEP is a contract document that we all follow to the T... in a residential firm, things are more fluid and flexible, so it's more like a playbook, subject to calling an audible at any second of the process. So I don't want to rely on PDF's or something more difficult to update.
Obviously, we aren't looking to adopt an integrated design approach any time soon, so we can't just incorporate it into Archicad or on our BIMcloud somewhere, since thats a closed book system.
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whats everyone else doing for their BEP hosting/sharing/editing?

Operating system used: Mac Apple Silicon

[Helio_Avila]

Hi Patrick,

quick question, because it changes the answer: do consultants need to edit the BEP, or just reference and agree to it?

I have been trying to set up the one for my firm using a SharePoint site as a project hub (single hosted document, one URL). The BEP narrative—scope, protocols, coordination cadence, conflict detection ownership—lives either as a page or as a Word document in the library. The volatile matrices (MEA / responsibility matrix, LOD/LOIN table, model exchange schedule) become Lists, which gives you the form behavior you want.

As for the template that serves as a starting point for each new BEP: both the Lists and the site itself can be saved as a template. You can provision a new project with the exact same structure—without starting from scratch or inheriting clutter from the previous project.

The only thing I need to be honest about is external visibility. This is Microsoft's weak spot. People outside the organization can view the site or Lists in two ways:
As a guest (B2B access): the consultant authenticates with their own email and gets view or edit access. It is the best experience and maintains a single source of truth, but it requires external sharing to be enabled in the tenant—which is admin territory and requires a request to the IT manager. For individual files (the BEP Word document, an exported Excel sheet), you can generate an anonymous "anyone" link, but that only works for the file, not the live site or Lists.

You mentioning Google Docs makes me think you guys use the Google environment. I believe there are some similar or even better features that could make this workflow work.

[Patrick M]

consultants do not have edit permissions for the BEP; but that is one advantage, they can be given view only access or comment only.
it just feels like there should be somethign editable, but more formal than a google doc.