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Firm targets public sector with asset-management solution

12th February 2016

By: Schalk Burger

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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The local solution centre of US enterprise asset life-cycle and information manage-ment company Archibus aims to help government departments manage their asset registers of movable and immovable assets with one system.

The firm has more than 33 years’ experience, and has significant insight and experience in applying international best practices to help organisations manage the total life cycles of their assets, including planning, acquisition, operations, maintenance, depreciation and disposal, says Archibus South Africa business development head JC Swanepoel.

“A key problem facing companies and organisations that have not implemented or are unable to manage an asset registry is that they struggle to determine the value of their assets, the value added by projects on assets, the value of depreciation, utilisation rates or returns on investment. “This makes it difficult, if not impossible, for them to effectively manage their asset portfolios and calculate depreciation for reporting purposes.”

The company’s system, also named Archibus, is an integrated real-estate, infrastructure and facilities management system based on enterprise information modelling principles. All changes made by users are immediately reflected in all parts of the programme and information is available in real time for all users. All the changes by users are recorded, providing a complete audit trail.

The company started in the US in 1982 linking data of a building and assets in a building to architectural drawings, which provided a renewed focus on the design, building planning and maintenance of buildings and properties. The system is currently in use in 190 countries, with more than 44 000 customer sites world- wide. It has also been translated into 32 languages.

“The system uses the architectural drawings of the buildings in the portfolio and attaches detailed information to them, including all the assets within a building, from lifts, plumbing, electricity reticulation and air-conditioning systems to assets in the rooms, including the desks, chairs and office equipment, and employees assigned to the room.”

Companies can also assign design or style criteria to various portions of, or rooms in, buildings, enabling facility managers to, at a glance, gauge the requirements of the employee areas of the building and the service and maintenance areas.

This also means that any work orders for the designated areas only have access to the list of designated contractors or suppliers that can supply the requirements for that area.

“Because the system assigns data to the technical drawings, it enables property developers and facility management professionals to manage the buildings even before they have been built, and enables complex and detailed planning to be done at each step of the development and occupation processes,” explains Swanepoel.

However, the true value of the Archibus system is derived from the metadata capabilities, as any portions of the information can be drawn into the information displays, or dashboards, enabling companies to support employees with the data they require to fulfil their functions in real time.

The system also assigns all assets to various company standards and categories, and enables like-for-like replacement.

Managers have access to all the information about buildings and assets within their portfolios displayed on a map as a geographic information system within which further details of assets and asset categories can be interrogated, including supporting documents.

Because the system uses master-data cate-gories to manage assets, it can easily calculate the cost per square metre, utilisation rates and return on investment of any type of asset or a combination of assets, with each asset category assigned specific values and depreciation rates.

“The system provides a holistic, data-driven management system where top-level managers set the various categories and standards, as required by regulations or company policy, which are then applied to all the corresponding categories and uses.”

“Intelligent property portfolio management is a journey, but the benefits of such a system include real-time visibility of all the properties in a user-friendly manner and with an audit trail,” concludes Swanepoel.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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