Building owners spend money for the upkeep of their facilities in three ways: maintenance (cleaning, minor repairs etc.), operations (energy, snow removal, security etc.) and renewals (major capital expenditures such as roof replacements).  The first two categories, while representing a significant part of a facility manager’s cash flow stream, are fairly predictable in magnitude and do not change appreciably from year to year.   The renewal costs, on the other hand, are generally large in magnitude and occur sporadically throughout the life of the facility.

Morrison Hershfield developed a software package allowing property owners and managers to maintain records of the building’s upgrades, recommendations, establish and adjust priorities, and update the yearly data.  Project reports can typically include not only hard-copy text, but also a software program designed as an interactive database with provisions for future data entry as work is completed or reprioritized.  In addition, the roofing portion of this software allows the user to work with and update AutoCAD roof condition drawings within the database itself.  This eliminates the need for other software and separate hard-copy reports and drawings that require updating independently of the database plan.