TURNING DATA INTO WISDOM
Terry Pitt Terry Pitt is Product Manager at Atrium Software Ltd
Turning data into wisdom in the context of property asset management is turning the chaos of poorly or unstructured data residing in a multitude of databases, both manual and electronic, into the serenity of Sophia, the personification of wisdom…
“The goddess Sophia is the beginning, the source of wisdom, and keeper of the knowledge of all that is righteous and just. With her sound wisdom and guidance, rulers lead their kingdoms to prosper. In the darkness and ignorance that thrive in her absence, the proverbial wasteland eats away at the soul and nations perish.”
How do we make sure our souls are not eaten away?
The problem for many property asset managers, however, is not just the quantity of data but the range of data sets they have to deal with. Usually each of these data sets is collected for a different purpose, is frequently stored in different places, structured in different filing systems and sometimes contradictory. The range of data sets can include:
● Acquisitions and disposals ● Asset values ● Capital works ● Condition ● Energy and water consumption ● Emissions ● Operation costs ● Occupancy costs ● Space utilisation
This range of data sets is difficult to integrate and, therefore, almost impossible to understand holistically. It is this holistic approach that is essential.
In order to more easily manage these diverse data sets it is helpful to group them. The groups should reflect the key aspects in which property can support the organisation’s aims and objectives, eg a typical a property asset management aim could be to provide ‘the right quantity and quality of space with secure tenure which is fully compliant and meets the organisation’s environmental, corporate and social responsibility aspirations’.
THE TERRIER - Autumn 2011
In order to judge whether this aim is being achieved the senior asset management team might want to measure ownership, compliance, performance, risks.
These aspects must be organisation specific, and for the current property portfolio need to base-lined in a property scorecard:
This scorecard is for a particular property type, primary schools, but it could be for any or all property types.
shows how the current property portfolio performs against the criteria that are relevant to the organisation, ‘Security of tenure’, ‘Restrictions’, etc.
The scoring and grading should be comparable, eg all based on internal, external or best practice benchmarks, and have the same grades, eg good/green, ok/yellow, etc.
the scoring is as objective as possible, for example ‘Condition’ (far right) is calculated using the ‘Condition Index’.
It is better if The
‘Condition Index’ is the value of condition-related work that is required divided by the replacement value, and expressed as a percentage.
Typically a figure less than 2.5% (eg less
than £40,000 of condition-related work on a building with a replacement value of £1,000,000) would be good/green, for example. score.
The aspects can be weighted to give an overall
Some aspects such as suitability are property type specific, ie the suitability criteria of a primary school are different from, say, offices. However, although the criteria are different, the scoring and grades should be comparable.
This scorecard illustrated here shows that Fairfield and St James are bad overall, with St James being particularly bad with bad scores in ‘Value’, ‘Suitability’, ‘Waste’ and ‘Condition’, while Fairfield is bad in ‘Emissions’ and poor over most other areas.
This information informs the next stage, ie the strategic assessment process, what Professor Stephen Male in his work for OGC identified as the additional gateway needed to precede OGC Gateway 0, which he labelled Gateway -1, in which departmental policy and strategy (performance criteria) are brought together with portfolio as it is.
Strategic Assessment appraises scenarios by evaluating the costs and resulting portfolio performance of policies such as:
● Maintain ● Improve ● Refurbish ● Demolish ● Dispose ● Build ● Acquire
The results of the various scenarios identify the optimal action which in turn informs a performance brief that is then developed at the next stage. The selected scenario data can then inform OGC Gateway 1, Business Justification, which
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