CERL Expands BUILDER™ SMS Value with Enterprise Purchase of Gordian’s RSMeans data

Greenville, SC – Gordian, the leading provider of facility and construction cost data, cloud-based software and expertise, announced today a five-year, $3.9M agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) to provide continuously updated RSMeans data, to inform BUILDER Sustainment Management System (SMS) for the Department of Defense (DOD) user community.

The DOD and civilian Federal government agencies rely on BUILDER SMS for facility condition assessments, planning and budgeting activities. By integrating RSMeans data from Gordian into BUILDER, users benefit from North America’s leading construction cost database for material, labor, equipment and productivity rates.

“BUILDER SMS promises to transform real property asset management for DOD in long-needed ways. But without current and accurate cost data driving the outputs, there will still be inadequate and sub optimized funding to maintain DOD’s critical facilities and infrastructure,” says Lisa Cooley, Vice President of Federal Solutions at Gordian. “Gordian recognized that our cost data could solve this problem for CERL and the Office of the Secretary of Defense and we invested the time and expertise to configure and enhance the data for the BUILDER environment.”

A 2017 study by the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) recognized the challenge of current and accurate costs as a significant headwind in realizing the potential of BUILDER SMS. To solve this challenge, Gordian entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Program (CRADA) with CERL to develop an innovative data and technology product to provide cost data delivery to BUILDER SMS. The CRADA scope included the development of a robust mapping and cost data service that resides within Gordian’s RSMeans data platform that allows direct integration with BUILDER, thereby providing ERDC and CERL the ability to update their BUILDER catalogs with Gordian’s UNIFORMAT Level 5 cost data.

The RSMeans data BUILDER Catalog is a unique dataset, fully engineer-validated and developed specifically to support the cost components defined by CERL and the DOD within BUILDER ™. Additionally, Gordian engineers validated and improved the remaining service life data, which drives the heart of BUILDER outputs for component repair and replacement costs, to enhance the BUILDER Catalog.

Cooley adds, “We are thrilled to be part of the evolving BUILDER, and eventually the Enterprise, SMS solution and community through this continued partnership.”