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U.S. General Services Administration
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| With a total real estate portfolio of 339 million square feet of federally owned and leased workspace, the GSA is obligated by law to report its budget to Congress, including property management, maintenance and capital renewal plans. In order to meet Congress's detailed budget expectations, it was imperative that GSA officials have access to current and accurate building condition information. GSA officials also sought capital planning strategies to help prioritize the projects on its building maintenance/renewal list and distribute limited labor and financial resources optimally. |
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- Traditional methods of collecting building data required the GSA to conduct full Building Engineering Reports (BER) every five years - a time-consuming process resulting in data that was out-of-date almost as soon as reports were completed.
- Given the size of its real estate portfolio, the GSA required a unified way of compiling, maintaining and evaluating data for current and future facility needs. It needed accurate and impartial data, enabling agency officials to gain a strong handle on property condition and pinpoint high problem areas.
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- Working with VFA, the GSA created Web-BER, a Web-based Building Engineering Report program, to identify building repair and maintenance requirements.
- VFA provided a customized version of its Web-based software. In a two month timeframe, this questionnaire-driven software gathered data on every owned building (182 million SF) in the GSA's portfolio. The system consisted of multiple query levels that increased the granularity of data required from the user for data entry. Based on questionnaire results and GSA's overall mission, VFA assessed the buildings in a logical fashion.
- VFA also provided its Facilities/Infrastructure Certification Program (F/ICP), enabling the transfer of VFA's condition assessment methodology to assure consistent data collection regardless if gathered by the GSA or a third-party.
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- With decision-support software and reliable condition information, the GSA established an order of magnitude for costs and deferred maintenance.
- The GSA is able to identify and rank maintenance, capital renewal and renovation projects, estimate financial requirements and establish capital plans.
- Building condition data can be easily tracked and updated across the entire real estate portfolio via the Internet. Using the Web questionnaire design for gathering and prioritizing mass amounts of facilities data, the GSA can see clearly where attention should be given now and where it will be required in the future.
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