INFRASTRUCTURE INTENSIVE HABITATS

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The city, as the urban sociologist Robert Park once noted, is “man’s most successful attempt to remake the world he lives in after his heart’s desire”. The human story is an urban story and for cities to be successful in the face of urbanisation and climate change, they need to be run efficiently and proactively for the good of their populations.

As infrastructure intensive habitats, cities rely on vast networks of physical infrastructure that enable services such as transport, potable water supply, electricity reticulation and solid waste collection and disposal.

For city infrastructure to remain healthy, engineers need to know: where assets are located geographically; what an asset’s health is; and what proactive measures can be taken to prevent failure.

For city infrastructure to be effectively funded, financial departments need to know what the value of each asset is; where new funds are needed; and how to budget for future developments.

ASSET REGISTERS

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For cities to be smart, resilient and prosperous human habitats, engineers and financial planners need the right information to make the right decisions and ensure effective, unbroken service delivery and project management.

Infrastructure Asset Management (IAM) is a financial approach to managing a city’s assets, including their acquisition, use, safeguarding and disposal. At the base of an IAM system is an Asset Register, a management information system where all asset information is recorded and structured according to a pre-determined asset hierarchy. Stakeholders from across an organisation can access and query information from one centralised database to help make decisions and save time and money.

For example, when a pipe is newly acquired, it is assigned a monetary value that is also linked to its health and expected useful life. The pipe becomes an asset that must be managed over time. The pipe is divided into its key components that are organised according to similar useful lives. The process of “componentisation” allows an organisation to create a hierarchy, much like a family tree, where all assets and their components are grouped, at different levels of complexity, to construct an integrated, enterprise-wide view of asset data.

With the right information, engineers and accountants know:

Where assets are located

When asset should be replaced

What proactive interventions could be implemented to slow the rate of deterioration.

How much all the above should cost .

BUILDING YOUR DIGITAL ASSET REGISTER

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IMQS Software's Asset Management products and Professional Services make the first steps towards holistic lifecycle asset management less daunting.

Expert knowledge and digital tools make capturing, verifying, importing, cleansing and structuring data an efficient, fast and easy process.

A fully compliant digital Asset Register is built according to your business needs and processes.

Your data is geographically displayed on an intuitive user-interface, ready to query, compare and report on.

Software integrates with most major ERP systems, such as SAP, making reliable and up-to-date data available across departments.

With all stakeholders informed, accountable and honest, the right decisions can be made throughout planning, building, operating and assessing phases of infrastructure projects.

If you are looking for a solution to your organisation’s asset management challenges or think your city could be managed more effectively, we would love to hear from you. Contact us today!