Higher Ed Facilities Management: Do We Separate Projects From Maintenance?

The IT department has addressed this topic many times – do we separate how we manage large IT projects, such as an infrastructure revamp, from daily ticketing? After years of debate and various models, most Higher Ed institutes will suggest that having separate systems creates a lack of visibility for resource allocation and redundancy in efforts, especially as many projects kick off basic operational tickets, with the reality that some tickets should, in fact, be projects.

By implementing a single project portfolio planning & service management platform, many Higher Ed IT organizations have been able to optimize resources, minimize errors and spend less time re-entering data. They also have achieved a higher level of visibility for reporting.

We are now seeing these same debates take place within Plant Management/Facilities. Obviously, the building of a new library cannot be compared to a request to remove a rodent from the library bathroom. As such, there needs to be tools and systems in place to manage each type of requirement appropriately. However, it is possible to bring these together to a single platform.

A sophisticated project portfolio planning tool can and does exist together with service management. With IT taking the lead, more facilities managers are now looking to adopt this approach.