Following some significant rain events in 2019/2020 that resulted in some serious damage to internal spaces within university buildings, Martin Ayres, Head of Strategic Asset Management at the University of Sydney, started leading a shift to a digital solution.
"Faced with some potentially serious lifecycle issues in the building fabric, as well as the effects of significant weather events over the last few years, we set out on a mission to create an inspection program to document defects and areas requiring repair or restoration," he says.
"We took a considered approach to the program, looking to equip ourselves with the right tools and partners to do the job most effectively now, and in the future."
"Piloting technology solutions over 12–18 months, as well as the traditional abseiling and photography method, together with expert consultants, we identified Trendspek as our solution of choice and presented our recommendations to the executive."
"We broke the project up into phases, and over 15 months we captured more than 100 buildings that had never been fully inspected before. With Trendspek, we have documented evidence of the whole fabric of the assets – we have more data and better geolocated data, so we can now make more informed decisions to reduce future risk."
"While we had done some inspection before, it was more spot inspection, as opposed to 80–90% coverage of the asset facade, and the ropes approach we employed was nowhere near as efficient as drone capture and 3D modeling. We chose Trendspek as it was intuitive and easy-to-use, as well as its ability to enable markups and simplified sharing with contractors."
"Though we tried some other options with concepts similar to Trendspek, we landed on it because we could mark-up the model and share access to the platform with others, and it gave us the ability to capture change over time really comprehensively."
"We can have 80,000 people here a day, from staff to students, so there is a lot of risk that we need to manage. This tool is helping us with that, and feeds nicely into our shift from a reactive to a more proactive asset management approach."
“With Trendspek we have documented evidence of the whole fabric of the assets. We now have more data, and better geolocated data, so we can make more informed decisions to reduce future risk.”
Martin Ayres, Head of Strategic Asset Management
University of Sydney
“With Trendspek we have documented evidence of the whole fabric of the assets. We now have more data, and better geolocated data, so we can make more informed decisions to reduce future risk.”
Martin Ayres, Head of Strategic Asset Management
University of Sydney
In addition to better managing risk, the feedback from the project team was that they found the quality "impressive", and the platform easy to use.
"Different buildings are going to need to be inspected at different intervals due to their age, condition, heritage status and other factors, and the data we’ve captured will help guide that program of ongoing work. Some assets will be recaptured and inspected as often as each year, while others can be inspected every five or even 10 years," says Martin.
The University of Sydney’s delivery team also had regular meetings with Trendspek to receive guidance, develop an issues registrar, and monitor timelines.
"We are really committed to a more proactive approach, and Trendspek helps inform it,. Off the back of the capture, modeling and inspection, we’ve engaged a consultant to develop our very first strategic asset management plan, with full endorsement from our executive. This is something we haven’t been able to get in the past, as we didn’t have the information and insights to build our case."
"We will also now develop an asset management policy for the University, as well as a roadmap and lifecycle program, and deliver capital projections well into the future – we’re aiming for 25 years – all guided by the detailed data now available to us."
"Our thinking has changed, our executive’s thinking has changed, and we are looking to more broadly change the thinking around this space so we can take this to the next level."
"Overall, Trendspek provided a really transparent and collaborative process, and they were also very open to suggestions of possible future features."