Effective Project Closeout

An excerpt from Bricsnet's new whitepaper, "Effective Project Closeout Demands Planning and Monitoring From the Start":

Closing out a construction project is one of the most complex elements in
project management, and the one that most often generates lawsuits. While the
primary goal of any project is a functional facility that meets the needs of its
occupants, a successful closeout of the construction process can help to ensure
that the facility can be operated and maintained effectively through its
lifecycle. Moreover, a carefully planned and conducted closeout process can save
years of headaches, and even litigation, for all parties involved in the
construction process. The closeout phase of a project is meant to ensure
that all contractual obligations have been met by all parties and may include
thousands of line items that need to be completed, checked off and documented.
But more than that, careful project closeout is a means of ensuring that all
information and knowledge collected during the course of the project is retained
so that it can be called upon for future work, including maintenance, repairs
and renovations.

To learn more about this important topic, which constitutes one of the biggest challenges for facilities and construction organizations, order the whitepaper.

Going Green

The importance of "going green" by reducing facility carbon footprints, lowering electricity, cutting down on water use, encouraging carpooling and public transportation has never been stronger, and efforts to limit activities that produce greenhouse gases may soon be law in the United States.
How can property owners and occupants begin the process of going green?
It's all about information -- knowing what your current position is, knowing what your goals are and then looking at ways to get from here to there.
And an IWMS system like Bricsnet can be an important part of the process.
In fact, your system may already be tracking many of the numbers you need in order to assess your current status. If you are recording your energy and other utility costs and consumption in your IWMS system, you already have much of the information you need.
Clients who take advantage of Bricsnet's partnership with VFA may have even more information available to them that will help in the effort to assess their current status and set goals for improvement.
Your leases and other property agreements may also contain vital information. Parking clauses may provide special spaces for hybrid vehicles, or carpool vehicles, or guarantee that public transportation is available within a certain distance of your site. Cleaning provisions may specify the use of agents that don't contain environmentally harmful substances. If your current leases don't have such provisions and they have become a priority for you, a system like Bricsnet can help you to track these priorities through the site selection and transaction process.
OSCRE, the Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate, has recently begun a couple of efforts to standardize data elements and exchanges for tracking green lease provisions and for monitoring and reporting on compliance with these provisions. An OSCRE workgroup is in the process of defining standard elements for data exchange and a subgroup is looking at the reporting side of the requirements. Look for announcements from OSCRE about progress, or better yet, join the effort to define standards that can be used by ny organization interested in tracking their greening efforts.
You can learn more about OSCRE by clicking this link.
And you can learn more about how Bricsnet can help you in your efforts to green up your business environment by contacting us.