Government initiative
In 1995, the General Services Administration (GSA) made an effort to capture accurate spatial data through the process of measurements of facilities, verification of space classifications, and implementation of data maintenance processes to ensure ongoing data accuracy. This is now known as the Spatial Data Integrity Initiative (SDI).
GSA's SDI has contracted a handful of private organizations to carry out the operation. The response to the initiative has sparked innovative and highly accurate measuring methods in accordance with Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) standards, creating a new, revenue-increasing tool that will carry private building owners, facility managers, and real estate companies into the 21st century.
Using a combination of new technologies, managers and owners can track real estate and enables an organization to use space more efficiently, while at the same time, increasing their annual real estate revenue by up to 6 percent. The revenue is obtained by charging the tenants for the correct amount of space that they actually use.
The SDI project is primarily the combination of two actions; the first is the physical calculation and verification of spatial data. The second action is the use of high-tech software to store and manipulate this information. The SDI project uses highly precise, laser devices for space measurement, accurate to one-eighth inch over 300 ft. Laptops are taken into the field where software is used to electronically manage the measurements. Facility managers obtain real-time information about their facility for marketing and client assurance while monitoring from a single terminal.
The process
BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) has developed a handbook that permits standardized measurements and categorizations of all the spaces within a building, effectively removing all the guesswork. This standard was developed for private sector office buildings and is used by several large corporations. GSA adopted this standard for all of its buildings. The process of spatial validation goes through the following four stages:
• Space measurement: during space measurement, an accurate laser tool, a laptop with CAD software, and a trained team of professionals verify every element of the building. This is accurate one-eighth to one-half inch. The electronic drawing is produced to a standard that will be consistent across all facilities.
• Linking to the database: The resulting drawing is then linked to an external database. Every space acquires its own distinct "tag" that identifies the user, calculates the square footage, and links to the database. Any changes made to the tag in the CAD drawing will automatically occur in the database as well.
• Testing: The drawing and the database then go through an extensive series of tests that weeds out any possible errors. Accuracy of one-one hundredths of a sq.in. over an entire floor are routinely obtained. The database is now ready to generate tenant information reports.
• Maintenance: The existence of the electronic drawing facilitates easy maintenance to reflect changes. This allows the organization to focus on their core competencies.
Advantages
In the realm of costs saving by tracking real estate, facility managers and owners are provided with accurate electronic drawings with endless advantages. Building owners are able to increase their revenue not by raising the rent, but by charging for real space that was previously lost in old drawings. As a manager or owner, not only does your confidence increase in the figures, it also increases the tenant's confidence that rent has been established using commonly accepted building standards. This information is kept neat and clean in one central location; all data is stored in an electronic document management system that can be maintained and easily accessed by the facility manager or property owner. At any time, the facility manager can get a snapshot of the information for that building. With a touch of the mouse, the facility manager can calculate appropriate cost based on square footage and potentially increase their leasing revenue.
By knowing the correct square footage, one could possibly cut back on contracting costs that were initially set on incorrect square footage. Another benefit involves furniture ordering. Typically, furniture is ordered based on inaccurate drawings of a tenant's space. By obtaining the exact size of a space, one can be confident that the furniture will indeed fit. This has been a large problem to private organizations and realty companies where time and money have been wasted. For most facilities the validation process has paid for itself within the first few months followed by future revenue increases. The advantages are discovered daily by companies that realized what spatial validation could do for their organizations.
Like most new technologies, spatial data validation was pioneered by the "big boys," but it is now ready for the private sector at any level. A building can be spatially validated and drawn to the standards as one option. If there are multiple buildings involved in the process, then the addition of new software would help the building owner in maintaining and managing the information produced.
Julian Arhire is a Manager with DtiCorp.com - DtiCorp.com carries more than 35,000 HVAC products, including industrial, commercial and residential parts and equipment from Honeywell, Johnson Contols, Robertshaw, Jandy, Grundfos, Armstrong and more.
