Building to Meet Business Objectives

APPLICATION EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE
(Note: Data has been changed to protect confidentiality)


Dynamic Accommodation Management System (DAMS)
Melbourne Water, Victoria

Objectives

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  • To develop planning tools to determine the office accommodation required for the organisation's present and future needs, and existing space available suitable to satisfy those needs.
  • To develop these tools into a user friendly system which can be handed over to Melbourne Water to use for future planning, responding to further change.
  • To develop systems which can respond to change due to restructuring, both on a macro (merging with other authorities, forming additional regions) and micro level (internal changes in control and reporting structures), and changes in composition of the property portfolio due to necessary acquisition and disposal of assets in meeting projected accommodation needs.

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Method

After a needs analysis, two interactive databases were set up. One, which relates to the organisation is based on workgroups, and one is based on each floor of the property holdings.

The Organisational Database incorporates

  • the organisational structure, total number of employees, by classification, by work unit, group and business centre and by forward projection year
  • current location of each work unit or ancillary space
  • specially developed space standards for workpoints, and space planning standards for ancillary, common and circulation spaces and carparking
  • area forecasts for each organisational unit
  • security zoning for each operational area
  • interactive linkages with the Property Database

The Property Database incorporates

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  • site details such as tenure, title particulars, value, land area, purchase price
  • building details such as number, occupants and area of each floor
  • floor plans of each floor

The two files, used together, can report on the total space requirements for any section of the organisation and their total existing accommodation.

A third database sets out requirements for a "model" office building and allows candidate buildings to be scored against the model thereby assessing their functional suitability for use.


Outcomes

From the above data, and inspections of all properties, a rationalisation and consolidation strategy was determined.

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