Last week I told Part 1 of USask’s facility and infrastructure Asset Management story.  This week we will jump from 2012 to 2019 when my team and I had the pleasure of going from an observer of the story to an active participant.  

In 2019 USask issued a public RFP for a two-phased FCA program to refresh their data that had been getting a bit stale.  I finally had the opportunity to collaborate with Jennifer on her program.  My team and I were lucky to be the successful proponent to complete assessments of the major buildings on-campus.  When we did the Kick-Off Meeting, Jennifer was surprised that I was on the winning team as the company name at that time was FCAPX (later merged with Roth IAMS).  It was a great way to reconnect with Jennifer and get an inside view into the latest iteration of her program.

The first year we did our assessments using the ReCAPP software.  However, given the outdated nature of the product both our team and Jennifer’s had issues entering and reporting on the Phase 1 data.  As a result, after nearly 20 years, USask made the decision to move away from ReCAPP.  As we were doing the FCAs, and had used the SLAM CAP software to do the Phase 1 assessments (and imported the data into ReCAPP), USask migrated all their existing data into SLAM CAP.  

We then used SLAM CAP to do the Phase 2 assessments and added a Phase 3 (smaller and off-campus buildings) as well as a detailed Surface and Subsurface Infrastructure Assessment to the program.  For more details on the infrastructure project, which included an integration with their GIS database, you can read the article in collaboration with USask and ESRI. Link

We are now working through our first round of reassessments with USask and helping Jennifer and her team maximize the benefits of their SLAM CAP license. 

It has been a great pleasure to first watch from the outside, and then  have the opportunity to collaborate on the inside of one of the longest running asset management programs in any higher education institution (at least that I am aware of).  If you ever get a chance to meet Jennifer, I am sure she would love for you to ask her for a deeper dive than I have been able to give here.  I just really wanted to shine a spotlight on an amazing higher education facility professional and an amazing program that she has developed and led.