Auckland City Council

SPM Assets – Software of Choice for Auckland Council Property

Download the full case study here. 

A longer term relationship and provider

At the forefront of web application development and pioneering latest technology, SPM Assets is recognised internationally for its innovation and leadership and ability to deliver cost effective solutions for the lifecycle management of property assets.

Auckland Council selected SPM Assets software to manage its diverse and complex scale of property assets. It also tasked SPM Assets with the alignment, integration and migration of some of the largest and most complex databases in New Zealand; the property and parks asset data bases from legacy Auckland councils.

The largest council in Australasia, Auckland Council, began operation on 1 November 2010. Uniting the functions of the previous Auckland Regional Council (ARC), Regional Transport Authority and seven city and district councils was a massive undertaking. The associated changes required the organisation and amalgamation of council property assets, reflecting the governance and management structure of the new ‘Super City’.

With combined property assets of legacy councils totaling in excess of $1.8 billion, the company responsible for the migration of asset data would have a complex task ahead of it. There was a clear expectation that assets would be managed effectively, and that asset data would provide information to inform future planning processes.

Why SPM Assets?

Auckland Council Property Department recognised that being familiar with the company and knowing the capabilities of the software was certainly an advantage, and acknowledged SPM Assets’ “great understanding of property assets” and “industry-wide recognised position as provider of a leading tool for property-based asset planning” as key reasons behind the decision to engage SPM Assets.

SPM Assets had an existing relationship with five of the legacy councils - Auckland City Council (ACC), North Shore City Council (NSCC), Waitakere City Council (WCC), Rodney District Council (RDC) and Franklin District Council (FDC). These five councils used SPM Assets software to manage property and parks asset information, (consisting of 5,207 properties and approximately 95,000 components). SPM Assets also provided analytical tools to support planning.

What was the process?

Understanding how databases should be configured to meet the region’s needs involved a number of actions and initiatives. It was initially necessary to confirm the feasibility and level of effort required to align and integrate the databases, and also to identify any potential challenges.

SPM Assets hosted and facilitated workshops with all councils. These covered initial discussions about database configuration requirements and the mechanism to align the five council datasets. Targeted workshops were also held with Manukau City Council, Papakura District Council and the ARC. These councils were using different solutions based on the New Zealand Asset Management Support (NAMS) approach. The targeted workshops enabled SPM Assets to understand their asset management requirements and existing solutions.

SPM Assets developed a consolidated, generic, component reference library from all five databases that reflected the specific components found across the region’s seven councils. The consolidation highlighted the opportunity to improve the quality of component information, including lives, replacement costs and criticalities.

SPM Assets identified a clear opportunity to align assets with the new Auckland Council management and reporting structure, including the need to satisfy SAP data and nomenclature requirements.

Client outcomes

The review by SPM Assets confirmed the feasibility of aligning and combining the associated databases. ACC, NSCC, WCC, RDC and FDC were previously using SPM ASSETS but were doing so in subtly different ways. SPM Assets identified the greatest opportunity for improvement as being the ability to rationalise and align the library covering all property specific assets across the Auckland region.

The resulting tangible outcomes included a consolidated database of 8,000 properties, 105,000 components and a combined replacement value of $965 million. There are 50 licenced users of the database, including users from Auckland Transport and third-party contract surveyors.

Auckland Council now uses the SPM Assets’ software and analytical tools to prepare forecasts and to scope budgets for future Long Terms Plans (LTP). This information informs the basis of Council’s annual and operational property maintenance and asset management plans. Third party building survey organisations are using SPM Assets software to carry out surveys for Council’s libraries, pools, recreation centres, and corporate buildings.

Benefits for ratepayers

Auckland Council recognises that as data integrity improves, planning and asset knowledge will also improve. This will reflect in benefits of improved maintenance and therefore, standard of buildings. This is expected to result in cost savings through more efficient building maintenance strategies. Through analysis, the improved data will enhance decision making and allow Council officers to make more effective use of scarce resources by balancing the quality of assets with operational and capital expenditure.

Auckland Council selected SPM ASSETS on day-one to provide a consolidated register of all property assets from across the Auckland region. Using SPM Assets software, Auckland Council now has access to long term asset planning information and asset intelligence. Council officers state that SPM Assets software provides functionality that is absent in other property asset management products and believes SPM Assets is a leading provider of this technology.