Education matters Winter 2014 www.pwc.com/ca/educationmatters
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Education matters Winter 2014 www.pwc.com/ca/educationmatters
www.pwc.com/ca/educationmatters Education matters Winter 2014 Contents Foreword1 Case study: Redefining the possible at U of T2 Unlocking potential: Determining the highest3 and best use of your assets 6 In conversation with Steven Gasser, The University of Calgary Rising deferred maintenance costs: Prioritizing10 now to plan for the future Contacts 12 Welcome to Education matters Education institutions are increasingly under pressure to do more with less and many have found a way to do this through improved asset management. Hidden within your assets – be they real estate, land, fleet or physical resources – are opportunities for people, process and technology improvements that can increase service delivery while reducing costs. And when those assets represent more than the second largest expense category for your organization, understanding your real estate asset lifecycle needs can unlock enormous long term value. In this edition of Education matters, we explore some of the key issues education institutions are facing within Real Estate Asset Lifecycle Management (REALM) by looking at what some of Canada’s leading institutions are doing to address those challenges. Our first article explores what the University of Toronto is doing to capture unrealized value in two of their main St. George campus locations. The next article expands on this theme by looking at some key steps to consider when exploring ways to get greater value out of your building assets. In our regular Q&A feature, Todd Rodgers, PwC’s Director of Real Estate Asset Lifecycle Management had a conversation with Steven Gasser, Associate VicePresident of Facilities Management at the University of Calgary to share how they’re addressing their real estate asset challenges. Through an upgrade of their Total Infrastructure Facilities Management system (TIFM), they’ve found ways to improve service delivery, reduce costs and meet their sustainability goals. In the final article and video that you can access through our digital edition, Chris Campbell, a manager in our Consulting and Deals practice focused on REALM, discusses how education institutions can address their deferred maintenance costs by prioritizing projects and planning for the future. While we’ve focused this edition on REALM for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), the same leading practices can be applied at the primary and secondary school level. Many school boards have significant asset holdings, which can create value and revenue generation options as well. Facilities management doesn’t have to be viewed as an expense. In this series of articles and case studies, we’re showcasing how leading education institutions are using their assets as a strategic opportunity for change and revenue generation. We’re passionate about helping education institutions address their asset management challenges, so please feel free to contact a member of our team to talk about how we can work together. Sincerely, Domenic Belmonte Partner, PwC, National Education Lead www.pwc.com/ca/educationmatters 1 Case study: Redefining the possible at U of T The backdrop With 82,000 students per year and three campuses to manage, the University Operations group at the University of Toronto (U of T) needs to act like a small city when it comes to capital planning and facilities management. As the operations management arm of one of Canada’s oldest universities – the group also has the challenge of keeping facilities on par with the university’s global reputation as a leader in post-secondary education and research while operating under tight fiscal constraints. Capturing unrealized value U of T’s main St. George campus is located in the heart of downtown Toronto. Following the development of a campus master plan, U of T’s University Operations group identified two aging buildings on the campus that no longer met the needs of the university from either a teaching or administration perspective. Given the central location of these buildings, there was little doubt the university could drive more value from the two sites; the real question was, “How?”. Evaluating the possible value of the two buildings took investigation – from analyzing development and zoning trends in the neighbourhood to evaluating nearby condo and commercial property transactions. Current trends provided a window into the existing market in the area, while zoning history provided boundaries for potential redevelopment. Together, this investigation gave the university a clear picture of the highest and best use of the two properties – and the significant gap between the buildings’ existing and possible future values. Are your facilities providing highest and best use value to your organization? In fact, the evaluation suggested that the two sites provided only 40% site coverage compared to the highest and best use vision– building a strong business case for redevelopment to create new education, administration and student residential space. Redeveloping the sites to their highest and best use value would come with a hefty price tag. With significant budget pressures and uncertain government funding – such investment seemed prohibitive. So U of T did what it does best: looked for creative solutions to its property conundrum. Rather than seeking direct funding from the government or from donors, the university examined the viability of working with private sector developers on the sites, and at different models that could potentially be used to achieve the university’s strategic vision on a limited budget and with reduced development risks. The central location of the buildings suggested that there would likely be considerable interest in such joint development opportunities. U of T continues to determine how to go about realizing the additional value projected by these two sites – but one lesson it’s already learned: redefining the value of these aging and under used buildings could help offset the investments it needs to make to continue providing the world-class education and research it’s known for. To continue the conversation, contact: Ron Bidulka Managing Director, Consulting [email protected] 416 687 8138 2 Education matters: Winter 2014 Unlocking potential: Determining the highest and best use of your assets Space on many campuses is at a premium – and it often takes years, if not decades, of planning to get new space developed. There’s no doubt universities and colleges in Canada are facing increasing budget pressures. With global competition for students growing and funding from governments decreasing or uncertain, most education institutions are trying to find ways to generate the revenue needed to fund their strategic and operational initiatives. For many, this means exploring ways to build or expand joint partnerships and to attract more money from individual donors. The problem is that with every institution in the same boat, the competition for dollars is only getting higher – making a unique value proposition critical for attracting funds. Flashy, large-scale projects may be able to attract funding but few donors are interested in supporting day-to-day maintenance and renovation efforts. Same old, same old just isn’t going to work when it comes to raising money given the current operating environment for post-secondary education. Universities and colleges need to think creatively about where value can come from – starting with their own backyard. It’s highly likely that schools could find significant value hiding within their existing assets. But how can asset value be hidden? Simple. Given many colleges and universities are half-a-century or more old – it’s likely that some aging assets have either outlived their usefulness or are providing less than their potential value to the institution. Value in this case refers to density – the amount of space that’s currently utilized by an asset on a specific property versus the amount of space that could be used by the asset. Also important is what the space is being used for, because depending on where the property is located, different uses of space could drive more value and possible revenue than others. This is most likely the case for older assets located in large to mid-sized cities where zoning by-laws change regularly and institutions that may have built on a small scale have the ability to build upwards. Even in less-urban areas, facility assets may not be realizing their best value. New or planned commercial developments, sports facilities and transportation options in a particular region can create pockets of opportunity for institutions, no matter where they’re located. The key is identifying those opportunities and knowing when to strike to take advantage of any development potential. But universities and colleges are in the business of education and research – not real estate development. So how can you make sure your organization is capturing the full value of your assets? www.pwc.com/ca/educationmatters 3 Know where you’re going Looking at the value of your assets starts with understanding where you want to be. For leading institutions, this involves developing a campus master plan that sets out where the school wants to be in ten or twenty years, how student enrollment will change, what facilities will need to be renovated or developed and how the campus will expand if needed. In cases where institutions have undeveloped properties, the plan may set out how these will be developed. In other cases, the plan might outline where and how new properties will be purchased for academic, administrative or student residential use. If your school doesn’t have a campus master plan – you should make it a priority to develop one. A campus master plan lets you set out your growth expectations so that you can maximize the timing of any capital investments you need to make to achieve your strategic objectives. A critical part of this plan would involve projecting growth and space requirements specifically from a facilities perspective. Space on many campuses is at a premium – and it often takes years, if not decades, of planning to get new space developed. Knowing what space may be required gives you an opportunity to create higher value assets – either through changes to your existing asset base or through net new builds or purchases. 4 Education matters: Winter 2014 Know your assets – and what you don’t or won’t need Once you know where you want to be in the future and how you expect to evolve and grow to get there, you should be able to determine what facilities aren’t meeting your current needs – or project when facilities might outlive their usefulness. It’s these older and potentially redundant buildings that should be the focus of any valuation work. Determine the highest and best use of surplus or redundant properties One of your biggest challenges might be determining what the best use and value of your older or redundant assets might be. While you may expect properties to hold value based on location, there are numerous factors that might positively or negatively affect asset value (e.g. zoning, transportation, nearby commercial and residential developments). In development, timing is often one of the most misunderstood aspects of creating value. Few universities or colleges maintain the internal expertise necessary to conduct robust real estate valuation analysis or to structure joint ventures or public-private partnerships on specific initiatives. This is where hiring a third-party advisor with significant real estate advisory experience can help. Subject matter specialists understand how to determine best use and value of properties and can help you identify possible options for your assets – and the costs associated with each option. An advisor can also help you determine the best time for you to develop the property in order to maximize value to your institution. Depending on the options identified, a third-party advisor can also work with you to help finance the development. Given the cash constraints of many universities and colleges, this could include working with you to determine whether developers might be interested in your proposed development projects – and what deal structure or structures would best suit such an arrangement. Create a strategy to realize the true value Once you understand the highest and best use of your surplus or redundant properties, you should create a development strategy outlining how you’ll move forward with realizing the value hidden in your assets. This plan should be fully aligned with your strategic objective and your campus master plan. Like with any strategic project, successful implementation is essential in order to capture the potential value identified. One key element of the development strategy will be managing it through to completion. Depending on the maturity of your facilities management team, this might mean identifying an internal lead to act as the project manager throughout implementation and to facilitate any activities related to the strategy. If you don’t have the expertise in-house to manage implementation of the strategy, you should consider hiring such expertise. A strong development and construction focused project manager can help ensure that activities stay on track and can work with all stakeholders to make modifications to the development plan should the need arise. Depending on the number and scale of your potential projects, you may only need to contract support for a short-period of time rather than hiring a full-time individual with this type of specialized expertise. Go for it Once you’ve done all your homework, it’s time to get the project done. Like with any strategic project, successful implementation is essential in order to capture the potential value identified. To help with implementation, understand how progress will be monitored, measured and reported on within your institution. It should be the project manager’s role to keep the proper stakeholders informed over the course of the project and to raise any issues that occur on an as needed basis. Final thoughts Whether you’re a university, a college, or another education institution, knowing what assets you have and whether they are fit-to-purpose or achieving their highest or best value should be an important component of your asset management planning and development process. Evaluating older, outdated and redundant buildings for hidden value could help you generate the additional revenue you need to provide world-class educational and administrative facilities for your students, faculty and staff. To continue the conversation, contact: Ron Bidulka Managing Director, Consulting [email protected] 416 687 8138 www.pwc.com/ca/educationmatters 5 In conversation with Steven Gasser – the University of Calgary One example of how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are addressing the challenges of managing their real estate assets is at the University of Calgary. PwC’s Todd Rodgers, Director of Real Estate and Asset Lifecycle Management, had a conversation with Steven Gasser, Associate Vice-President of Facilities Management at the University of Calgary about some of their challenges and opportunities. Here’s an edited version of that conversation. University of Calgary by the numbers: • • • • • • • • • • • • 6 Education matters: Winter 2014 Founded in 1966 31,800 students 4,800 staff and faculty members 152,000 alumni in 151 countries 14 faculties 200+ academic programs 85+ research institutes and centres $282.8M in research income 71 Canada Research Chairs Third largest post-secondary footprint in Canada 10.2M sq. ft. of space in 140 buildings across eight sites Deferred maintenance backlog (5 year): $ 538M Facilities Management and Development role at the University of Calgary: Facilities Management and Development is responsible for creating, maintaining and renewing the buildings and spaces that enable the research, teaching and administrative activities of the University of Calgary (UofC). With over 947,000 sq. m. [10.2 million sq. ft.] of land and 140 buildings spread across eight sites, strategic planning is essential for the careful alignment of resources for all areas the university owns and operates. Bringing together the skills of architects, engineers, project managers and trades, Facilities Management and Development provides quality environments in support of the overall goals and objectives of the UofC. Knowing what space may be required gives you an opportunity to create higher value assets. Q. Q. With our campus planning team, we’ve been analyzing the space we have today and what we’ll need in the future. We’re now uploading that data into our Total Infrastructure Facilities Management system (TIFM). From there, we’ll build out scenarios to determine the best use for our facilities now and into the next planning cycle. We have to be able to create more flexible learning environments, so that when you’re looking at the next five year planning cycle, we can adjust our spaces more effectively. In 2009, we were facing budget challenges just like we are today. However, we were also undergoing an administrative review to become more cost effective. One of the opportunities identified and approved by the Executive Leadership Team was to undergo a transformation of the ARCHIBUS TIFM System. Their expectation is that the establishment of robust, scalable and repeatable processes and data, best practices, methodologies, standards, metrics and benchmarks for facilities and physical infrastructure management will provide opportunities for: What challenges do higher education institutions face in managing their real estate assets today? It’s really difficult with old buildings to be able to move quickly and adeptly with increasing student and research demands. Trying to balance that with the replacement of buildings that have reached the end of their lifecycle is also a real challenge. With tighter budgets, why did you decide to go ahead with your TIFM ARCHIBUS implementation project now? • financial discipline • Total Cost of Ownership in assessing facilities’ value • understanding our value to our customers That’s why we took on this transformative project. Process improvements would allow us to costrecover some of the impacts of these reductions. However, if you don’t have the data, how do you get better at what you’re doing? Having been involved in selecting a TIFM system in the past, I knew that ARCHIBUS was a top quadrant facilities software platform. Our staff had been working with ARCHIBUS in previous versions since 1998. They understood it and relied on it, so we didn’t want to change what was familiar to them. Through an analysis of modules that would help our business develop and improve most dramatically, we selected a three-phased program. The first phase concentrated on developing the models to help our business get the most rapid response and the shortest ROI. What we got out of it were documented, updateable, end-to-end processes that have been kept ‘evergreen’ since. • assessing and enhancing the Return on Investment (ROI) of facilities assets through higher utilization, especially when combined with continuous improvement www.pwc.com/ca/educationmatters 7 Q. What benefits have you seen since this implementation? We’re able to track external work by contractors and make comparisons with their work, time, labour and cost, compared to our own staff. We’ve aligned ourselves with the Asset Lifecycle Model for the Total Cost of Ownership. Our target operating model comes from the Association of Physical Plant Administrators (APPA), which does a great job of describing the process of managing building and physical assets through their lifecycle. By leaning out our processes, we have significantly improved performance-decreasing our total time on task from an average of 70 days to 17 days. By eliminating paper though the use of web and mobile based technology, we removed the delay in movement of paper from one desk to another, reduced the administrative work to close files and greatly decreased the lag in the interdepartmental billings or chargebacks. We’ve made a direct connection and alignment with our Service Level Agreement (SLA) and the Service Desk Application in ARCHIBUS. As a result, we’ve created greater transparency with our customers. They get full access to their work requests. They receive an email notification at the beginning and the end of the request, but can also log on and see their work request while it’s in their queue. Through this project we have also provided paperless tracking to our technicians. We’ve created an application on their smartphones, so they can enter their time, cross reference notes and complete the work request while they’re responding on the job. Technicians can create sub-work requests for other craftspeople electronically—eliminating hand-offs on desks. In the first four months using our electronic time-slip quick entry workflow, we saved six reams of paper. This is a clear business process improvement, reduction in cost and ecological footprint, all while meeting our business and sustainability goals. It’s a pure triple bottom line example of efficiency—right at the technician and administrative level. Eliminating the paperwork for the task and work request has reduced our average time on task from 70 days to 17 days. Asset Lifecycle Model Programming Project Management Utilization Space Management Space planning Replacements Capital Asset Management Improvements Retrofits/Upgrades 8 Education matters: Winter 2014 Project Delivery Management Operations Management Design Construction Operations Planned maintenance User requested needs Repairs Q. Taking a look across Canada, Facilities Management is generally considered too costly or too slow to respond to issues. How has this project impacted the reputation of Facilities Management? When I started five years ago, there was a lot of disagreement about responsibility – who pays for what, and who has which responsibilities. We went through a process to develop a SLA with support from the Dean’s council. With the SLA up on our website, clients can read it at their leisure. Most of our work requests will get routed to specific technicians and the billing will be deducted by account codes. We’re now working hard administratively to get a connection between our TIFM and enterprise reporting system for the actual costs attached to work requests. Data would be updated every night to ensure our work requests and activities are increasingly transparent with up-todate prices available to clients, finance and service teams. This is helping us build trust with our customers and our finance people. It’s increased our transparency. With a reference number, customers can follow their work request for all projects by status in the end-to-end process. This has improved our image on campus significantly. With departmental and faculty representatives and the ability to monitor requests online, clients don’t have to phone the facility manager. Teaching them how to use this software has eliminated a lot of back and forth communication. It’s increased our transparency. With a reference number, customers can follow their work request for all projects by status in the end-to-end process. This has improved our image on campus significantly. Q. How have you been able to incorporate the voice of the customer into your implementation? We completed customer surveys at the end of the fiscal year and we’re now developing a work request-based customer satisfaction survey. Using the Net Promoter Score system, each completed work request will require a rating of one to 10 and have a comment box. A score of nine to 10 is successful. Seven to eight is good, but a review of the process will be conducted. A score of six and below will result in a corrective action report to complete a root-cause analysis. A standard operating procedure will allow us to improve on every work request and create a dashboard for managers to see how they’re regularly scoring. This will really start improving customer service in the maintenance and operations area. Q. As demands continue to climb, education institutions are cutting costs and finding efficiencies—especially for facilities management. In most institutions, facilities management is the largest operating budget. What do you think the future looks like and how should senior leaders adapt? One of the major areas of opportunity is in space utilization. We need to get the province and administration to understand and deliver on the master plans so that everyone recognizes the common goal of how we use the buildings. If we can align demands for the future with our energy performance initiatives and our refurbishment initiatives, we can put our best investment foot forward. This is where the big dollars are—if you don’t have a good idea about the utilization and faculties plan you won’t be in alignment and you’ll spend your money in the wrong places. To move forward on goals, executives will need KPIs to show them where they’re making improvements, benchmarking and monitoring what’s happening across the organization. They need dashboards at the executive, manager and supervisor levels. Also, the financial and asset management systems must be connected– for increased transparency at the executive level and alignment with the CFO. Your strongest ally is the CFO and this is a key strategy. With their trust in your ability to use money wisely and put aligned programs together, they’ll be able to help you move very large initiatives forward. All of this is connected to global sustainability. At any level, we need to be unified in our support for sustainability initiatives. We must use our money wisely, reduce our impact on the environment and continue to produce future leaders. Putting all of this together is a large task—it can all be done if you have the right business processes in place, the right architecture behind you and a platform to use as a tool. To continue the conversation, contact: Todd Rodgers Director, Consulting [email protected] 403 509 7309 ARCHIBUS provides this data, which allows us to consistently be on top of who’s moving where. Though it takes a lot of work up front, people can start doing ‘what-if’ scenario planning for the next five year period—saving a lot of money moving forward. This is a big win if it’s in alignment with energy performance initiatives—of course, going back to the triple bottom line. www.pwc.com/ca/educationmatters 9 Rising deferred maintenance costs: Prioritizing now to plan for the future Dramatic growth in education enrolment and the demand to meet that growth has been a challenge for Canadian education institutions for more than half a century. Between 1955 and 1974, new postsecondary institutions opened at a rate of one every two weeks and at about the same time, total post-secondary enrolment increased more than sixfold. The demand continues to grow today as the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) projects enrolment to increase by 125,000 students or 14% by 2020. While this is a testament to the value Canadians place on higher education – it leaves a major challenge for cashstrapped colleges and universities. With lower funding levels and increasing student, faculty and research demands, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have had to defer facilities maintenance costs year-over-year. And while the construction of new, more modern facilities continues, reinvestment in aging facilities hasn’t kept pace. 10 Education matters: Winter 2014 The issues The average age of most Ontario university facilities is over 30 years. Critical elements like heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, which are costly to renew or replace are deteriorating in condition. The associated deferred maintenance costs (or the expenditures for operations and maintenance that can’t be conducted within the current year) continue to climb. They may present health and safety risks and can impact an institution’s ability to compete and attract faculty and students. As the delivery of education continues to change, there’s a limit to what can be done to modernize many of Canada’s oldest academic facilities. With an estimated $3.6B required to eliminate these costs across Canada, making informed and future-looking decisions about maintenance projects will have a significant impact on your institution’s bottom line. Where do you start? The first step to prioritize your capital dollars is to understand your current state. What makes up your deferred maintenance costs? Can you easily identify which projects to defer when there are funding constraints? What’s the current space utilization and allocation across the campus and what opportunities are there for improvement? To take this first step, you need to have a true understanding of the baseline of current costs and the condition of your facilities before you can evaluate improvement opportunities. To mitigate risk, reduce costs and accommodate growth, having the appropriate facilities data and information to support your strategic campus plans is critical. Do you have accurate data? A systemic problem for HEIs is in defining the current state of their facilities and using that information to justify investment decisions. A contributing factor is the quality of the underlying data. Many campuses collect data in different formats, or the data is fragmented between departments. Having a true, holistic view of accurate data is key to prioritizing where capital needs to be invested now and into the future. In order to have a complete understanding of facility lifecycle costs across the campus, you need to have the right technology and processes in place to help you achieve your goals. Processes and technology improvements Once you have accurate and trustworthy data, you can start to determine what projects can be prioritized or deferred into future years’ budgets. Business processes and an integrated technology platform need to be put in place to help you make these informed decisions. Do you have the right technology in place so that your facilities management systems can capture and report on the right information? In order to have a complete understanding of facility lifecycle costs across the campus, you need to have the right technology and processes in place to help you achieve your goals. Expertise It comes down to prioritization Education institutions are just as resource constrained as they are financially constrained. Bringing in an experienced advisor with cross-functional knowledge in all aspects of the facilities lifecycle can help you prioritize your deferred maintenance expenditures, identify opportunities for improved space utilization, and implement the right technology to support facilities management business processes. These beautiful, historic, heritage sites are not only difficult to maintain, but difficult to change as the delivery of education evolves. But there are steps that can be taken to address these challenges and ensure stakeholders’ expectations are met. Getting the right people involved, implementing the right technology and capturing the right data will help ensure the most important projects are addressed now, to help you plan accurately for the future. To continue the conversation, contact: Chris Campbell Manager, Consulting [email protected] 416 268 7642 What is driving the need for REALM in the education sector Trend Driver Rising backlog of deferred maintenance costs Capital funding increases must be justified to adapt existing infrastructure to current demand as well as future enrolment growth Aging infrastructure / deteriorating condition The average age of Ontario university buildings is over 30 years, with a Facility Condition Index (FCI) rating of 0.10 (poor condition) The ration of generated space vs. inventory continues to decline Existing university space inventory has not kept pace with enrolment or COU requirements. Multiple stakeholders managing disparate asset systems Homegrown systems and disparate data models lead to challenging reporting processes and a lack of standards Increasing financial constraints Need to do more with less www.pwc.com/ca/educationmatters 11 Who to call Domenic Belmonte Partner, National Education Lead 416 687 8660 [email protected] British Columbia Mike Harris Partner, Consulting 604 806 7711 [email protected] Winky Whelan Managing Director, Consulting 604 806 7832 [email protected] Alberta Jean McClellan Partner, Consulting 403 509 7578 [email protected] Manitoba and Saskatchewan Kevin Berry Director, Consulting 204 926 2439 [email protected] 12 Education matters: Winter 2014 Ontario Maurice Chang Director, Consulting 416 941 8435 [email protected] Bruce Webster Partner, Consulting 416 815 5250 [email protected] Dale S. Zorgdrager Partner, Assurance 519 640 8008 [email protected] Quebec Sebastien Bellemare Partner, Assurance 514 205 5311 [email protected] Sebastien Doyon Partner, Consulting 514 205 5382 [email protected] Atlantic Craig MacDonald Director, Consulting 902 491 7418 [email protected] Editorial committee Domenic Belmonte Maurice Chang Sebastien Doyon Craig MacDonald Mike Harris www.pwc.com/ca/educationmatters © 2014 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an Ontario limited liability partnership. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the Canadian member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. 3399-20-0314