When it comes to efficiently managing assets, today’s economic and regulatory climate present complex challenges for municipal governments. Each department within a larger municipality generally manages its own budget and its own diverse assets. Each department is also responsible for managing relationships with a wide range of third-party service providers in very different areas such as highway maintenance and IT support.
A growing concern we hear a lot about in the media is around aging infrastructure, which is largely owned by municipalities – think of stormwater systems, roads, buildings like arenas and other municipal assets – that have all too often been neglected and are now in urgent need of repair and replacement.
We are living in the urban century. Eighty-two per cent of Canadians live in urban areas, and by 2050 that number is expected to increase to 90 per cent. The quality of life of Canadians now and in the future depends upon the state of our cities.
Source: The Vancouver Sun
http://vancouversun.com/opinion/opinion-canadian-cities-in-the-urban-century
How is your municipality coping with infrastructure maintenance and management?
Municipalities have legacy asset management systems that are fragmented with islands of data that cannot be aggregated into information that supports executive-level decisions. These assets are expensive to operate and difficult to change.
Therefore, municipalities can’t afford to persist with a legacy approach to asset and service management.
The solution: An integrated asset and service management solution
Consider an innovative approach to managing diverse physical assets in a way that is environmentally and economically sustainable for the long term.
An asset management solution, built on an advanced, standards-based architecture can mesh with evolving IT initiatives and reduce infrastructure complexity while being highly flexible and configurable in order to support the diverse compliance and accounting requirements of individual departments. Also critically important is the solution’s ability to integrate with other key municipal systems to leverage current IT investments for maximum value.
With a complete asset and service management solution, municipalities will be able to monitor and manage their efforts to address regulatory requirements, improve safety and services, maximize asset performance and reduce IT and operational costs.
Manage the entire life cycle and maintenance of your assets
A fully integrated software solution will provide all the insights you need for your assets: equipment (boilers, elevators), facilities (sports facilities, buildings), fleets of vehicles, infrastructure (roads, sewer systems), statuses and processes. With improved planning you will gain control of your operations by:
· Managing the complete lifecycle of your assets from a single platform
· Aligning service levels with your business objectives
· Providing long and short term preventive and condition-based maintenance
· Planning inventory to meet maintenance demand
· Adapting to changing requirements
· Connecting with other enterprise systems
Key benefits of asset management
Any organization with access to accurate, current and relevant data will be able to analyze and make informed decisions that will benefit them in the long term. In order to plan effectively, today’s municipalities must also gain a good understanding of what the future is likely to hold. Questions arise about the evolution of its population and economy. With weather patterns shifting, how will local weather change over the long term? This will directly impact the projected lifecycle of infrastructure in all municipalities.
"An integrated business approach involving planning, finance, engineering and operations to effectively manage existing and new infrastructure to maximize benefits, reduce risk and provide satisfactory levels of service to community users in a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable manner."
Source: FCM: The Municipal Asset Management Program
Smart Cities and IoT enabling asset management
The smart city concept is in its early stages of development and its potential for public benefit is increasingly being recognized. Smart cities are leading the way to new sets of economies around data gathering, infrastructure decision-making and public utility technology. We can already see, in some of the most common applications for transportation and parking, lighting, and smart buildings, that insights into applications can be applied to asset management.
Using data collected from sensors, infrastructure and networked devices is helping municipalities improve efficiency, boost sustainability and encourage economic development. Collaborative environments are also being created among cities, their employees, their businesses and citizens.
Eventually, the Internet of Things (IoT) will evolve to a more sophisticated, networked ecosystem that brings projects together and provide new combinations of valuable data.
Get on board with the Municipal Asset Management Program
This is a five-year, $50-million program, that will support Canadian cities and municipalities to make informed decisions about infrastructure, such as the planning and construction of roads, recreational facilities, and water and wastewater systems. It’s also an unprecedented renewal phase of critical assets that recognizes that Canadians rely on this infrastructure for their quality of life. Find out more
Watch the video Why Invest in Asset Management?
Source: FCM
We hope this information will provide some insights into the benefits of Asset Management.
