Is Vista Equity Partners’ Acquisitions of FAMIS/ Accruent a Positive Thing for HIgher Education Facilities Management?

Over the last couple of weeks San Francisco based private equity firm Vista Equity Partners caused substantial rumor in the IWMS industry with their acquisitions of Intuit Real Estate Solutions (IRES), and more recently Accruent. Both IWMS vendors are considered to be the in the top-10 IWMS vendors worldwide. Read more courtesy of IWMS News…….

• How will the sale of Accruent to VEP impact Higher Education customers who use Accruent’s FAMIS products?
• Will product development slow or stop?
• What’s the FAMIS roadmap now?
• How will Facilities Leaders integrate the cross-campus information needed to make informed decisions if the backbone of their FM technologies ceases to continue to develop (or ceases to exist in a viable format)?

IWMS Industry Happenings.

BRAINTREE, MASSACHUSETTS, January 26, 2010–- The Planon Group, the global leader in IWMS solutions, today announced the formation of its North American Higher Education practice and the limited-time availability of the Planon Competitive Upgrade Program, a solution for FAMIS Software customers who are facing their second acquisition in just two years. “Higher Education leaders are facing myriad challenges in 2010. Foremost among them are the capital and operating budget pressure linked to the global recession and the aging of the buildings and facilities on their campus – infrastructure which is critical to attracting the best students, faculty and research funding,” said Pierre Guelen, Founder and CEO of the Planon Group. “Planon is committed to bringing higher education best practices to the U.S. to help universities meet these challenges and be responsible stewards for the future of their institutions.” The new Higher Education practice will be lead by seasoned IWMS executive Tony Stack, formerly of FAMIS Software. As the North American Higher Education Manager, he will work closely with colleges and universities to make the goal of an integrated end-to-end IWMS solution specifically for the Higher Education market a reality. The new team is tasked with bringing Planon’s global vision, best practices, experience and success in Higher Education to North America. “We are excited to announce our dedicated Higher Education team who will help deliver the winning combination of deep U.S. higher education experience with global success and best practices in areas like sustainability to our customers here,” said Jim Nauen, Senior Vice President, North America. “Our new Competitive Upgrade Program will add significant value to existing Accruent/FAMIS customers who are looking for a stable, long-term IWMS partner.” Following last week’s announcement that Accruent/FAMIS was sold to Vista Equity Partners, Planon has created a migration solution for FAMIS customers consisting of a 50% discount on software licenses and a fixed price implementation if purchased by June 30, 2010. Planon is the largest and most financially stable IWMS company in the world. In 2009 Planon experienced continued growth and profitability, maintaining the trend it has sustained for decades. With over 1,300 customers, Planon has more than 100 college and university customers, including University of Oxford, University of Mainz, Open University (United Kingdom), University of Antwerp and Sheffield University. The Planon for Higher Education solution has been adding value to our customers since 1985 and offers a completely integrated web-based solution with significant functional breadth and depth. The solution offers a best practice for indirect cost recovery, environmental sustainability, reporting, including OMB Circular A-21 reporting and enables university leaders to manage and optimize physical resources for today’s virtual learning environment.

Facilities Management’s Role in the Sustainability Process

Higher Education Facilities Leaders at colleges and universities need at the forefront of the sustainability process. Approximately 80 percent of a university’s emissions are the result of physical-plant activities, which means the facilities manager’s role is crucial as a resource and expert on campus utilities and physical operations.

So How Much is a Ton of CO2……….really?

So how much is one ton of CO2?

I just learned that there are 617 coal fired power plants in the US emitting  4,643,734 metric tons of CO2 (epa.gov) each. That’s 2.685 BILLION tons of CO2 emitted each and every year.

Defending the Purchase of Facilities Technology

Facilities Budgets have always been limited to the actual operating costs of the department which means that purchasing decisions are based on the savings / benefits in direct proportion to the amount of money available in the Facilities Budget. Achieving this hurdle rate – or ROI is the basis for accessing the viability of competing demands for scarce capital. For certain acquisitions, this is the correct method. However, there are acquisitions made by Facilities that, although primarily used by  facilities personnel, have a far greater economic value to the university as a whole. As such, its acquisition costs (and the financial and societal benefits derived) must be considered in a much wider context.

Life Cycle Costing (LCC) for Higher Education

This article refers to Life Cycle Costing in terms of capital works funding programs only. An LCC approach to other areas of facilities management is also encouraged, however, since capital works tends to have the largest piece of the budget pie, then LCC methodology is an essential business practice.

What is Life Cycle Costing?

Life Cycle Costing (LCC) is a technique to establish the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a project. It is a structured approach that addresses all the elements of the TCO and can be used to produce a spend profile of the project over its anticipated – or functional – life-span. The results of an LCC analysis can be used to assist Facilities Leaders in the decision-making process where there is a choice of options. The accuracy of LCC analysis diminishes as it projects further into the future, so it is most valuable as a comparative tool when long term assumptions apply to all the options and consequently have the same impact.