The Asset Management Initiative Is A Worthy One - 1485 Words

Todd, After contemplating the asset management meeting last week, I felt compelled to follow up. The intent, I gathered, was to provide the current status of the project and determine what I could provide in return. Though I felt blindsided and completely out of the loop going in, regarding expectations, I have a fair understanding of the asset management concept and a working knowledge base in regards to utilities. This wasn’t well presented or discussed, my apologies. I’ll strive to be prepared before going into future meetings. Also, forgive the depth of this email. There are multiple points, if any confusion arises, I’m open to discussing them when you have time. The asset management initiative is a worthy one, though it will†¦show more content†¦And the goal should be long-term sustainability, but as with most agencies, regardless of size, there’s usually fundamental breakdowns in communication, unfair distribution of workloads, politics, power plays and legacy issues that management hasn’t effectively addressed, which limits this from being realized. Asset management, can deliver a powerful tool in the aspect of organizational management and strategic implementation of projects, but similar to GIS, it ends up just being another expensive, pretty tool that the majority do not understand, let along use to full capacity. However, on the opposite side, it’s found to provide improved decision making at the ‘best time’. Which to be done effectively will require employment of active data management, streamlined data delivery and strategic procedures to ensure the process is maintained. The City’s GIS ‘could’ now provide many of the benefits which ‘Asset Management’ promises, (though much of it is missing critical attributes and data): †¢ Improved operational decisions as well as operation procedures and actions †¢ Improved ability to plan, budget, construct repairs and additions †¢ Greater emergency response †¢ Improved understanding of the world and how the assets relate to each other †¢ Defined definitions of critical and non-critical assets †¢ Improved communication with citizens, contractors and other agencies †¢ Etc. Are these