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FULTON COUNTY DEPLOYS VFA.FACILITY AS CORE COMPONENT OF FIVE-YEAR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN
County Government Breaks New Ground by Incorporating Facility Assessments in Planning Process
Boston, MA - April 23, 2002 - VFA, an industry leader in facilities assessments and Web-architected solutions for facility planning and budgeting, today announced that Georgia's Fulton County has implemented the Company's Capital Planning and Management Solutions (CPMS™)approach as part of Fulton's five-year capital improvement plan. Fulton County selected VFA to perform a detailed condition analysis of six facilities across the region, totaling more than 900,000 square feet of space.
"As any state government agency knows, there are multiple pressures competing for a piece of the budget, and we need to be able to prove unquestionably where and why funds are needed," said Gayland Osteen, building operations manager, Fulton County Government. "VFA has the technology, proven assessment methodology, and the strategic capabilities to gather building data in a consistent, objective and equitable basis. The approach also includes a predictive component so that we can develop a multi-year view of our facility maintenance program to ensure that our buildings are best equipped to support current county programs and future uses of that facility space."
By incorporating facility maintenance with its long-term capital planning efforts, Fulton County officials can forecast the optimal use and best-practice funding strategies of each building in its portfolio over the building's lifecycle. Using Web-architected VFA.facility software in combination with VFA's facility condition assessment methodology, the county is better able to identify and prioritize deferred maintenance and renewal projects, short and longer-term repairs, recommended improvements and code non-compliance issues. Furthermore, a capital funding analysis, based on the data gathered in VFA's facility conditions audit, enables comparisons of multiple budget allocation scenarios to target optimal levels of funding for building care.
"It is critical that state and local governments provide themselves with valid, accurate and impartial data about their infrastructure in order to develop effective budgets and win public support for long-term plans," said Jerry Kokos, president and CEO, VFA. "Fulton County is setting the benchmark for local governments by incorporating facility care and maintenance in its capital planning initiatives and developing multi-year requirements. This approach represents a sharp departure from the current practice of using rules of thumb or requesting a small, incremental increase over last year's budget. We look forward to helping county officials ensure that their buildings are optimally managed in support of the county's goals and services."
In order to develop an effective capital improvement plan, Fulton officials must be able to quantify the level of funding needed and to identify the repair or renewal projects where the funds should be invested. As uses of buildings change, the county will need to determine appropriate repair projects and their associated costs. Capital plans based on accurate data provide a detailed picture of facility funding requirements throughout an organization. VFA's CPMS approach enables users such as Fulton County to incorporate facility management into an organization's master plan as a decision-making tool to determine optimal use of future resources and increased return on investments.
VFA.facility -VFA's benchmark software solution - is a fully Web-developed enterprise-level FM information repository and decision support tool that enables users to gather and maintain detailed building information across an entire property portfolio to support a coordinated and comprehensive approach to facilities capital management. VFA's CPMS, an integration of technology and methodology, empowers users to assess and measure building conditions; update condition information rapidly; and communicate the data to facility managers and superiors at sites across the country - all in a timely, cost-efficient manner.
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