Miami-Dade County Internal Services Department Chooses VFA Assessments and Capital Planning Software

Seeking to maximize impact of capital budgets to improve county facility user experience.

The Facilities and Infrastructure Management Division of Miami-Dade County, the seventh largest county in the United States, has chosen VFA capital planning software and assessment services to extend its facilities condition data capabilities and better inform its capital planning process. Miami-Dade County is the most populous county in the State of Florida and the state’s third largest county in terms of land area. The Internal Services Department (ISD) manages and operates the county’s more than six million square feet of real estate.

Maintenance backlogs impact public facilities across the United States. In 2018, the National Park Service reported that its outstanding maintenance obligations exceed $11.9 billion. In a December 2019 story, the University of California, Davis newspaper reported that the university had deferred maintenance obligations in excess of $1 billion. Likewise, cities and counties across the country face deferred maintenance that must be objectively evaluated and prioritized to maximize the impact of limited budgets.

Miami-Dade County’s south Florida location exposes its facilities to heat, humidity and tropical storms, and many of its facilities have been in service for decades. In its effort to ensure the best customer experience for citizens of the county, Miami-Dade County ISD sought to better understand its maintenance backlog and make the most impactful decisions possible based on available funding.

To deliver such visibility and informed decisions, the department required a capital planning solution that could provide:

• Professional surveys that create initial facility condition assessments of all ISD properties.
• An information repository to serve as the “single source of truth” on facility condition.
• Tools for capital planning collaboration across facilities and finance departments.
• Objective data to justify budget requests.
• Reports and dashboards to facilitate efficient review and analysis of data.

VFA delivers the capabilities sought by the county.

The selection of VFA capital planning software and assessment services will help ISD team deliver:

• Full forecasts of all county facility funding needs.
• Facility condition assessments for each property to assist in decisions on repair or replacement.
• Improved repair schedules and higher impact of maintenance spend.
• Forecasts of the remaining useful life of county facilities.
• Objective data that supports prioritization of facility spending.

“With the number of facilities operated by ISD and the age of many of those facilities, we needed to develop and apply a body of intelligence that would help us maximize the impact of our funding to provide the best service and experience for our residents,” said Jorge Orol, Renovation Services Section Manager, Miami-Dade County. “[Gordian] provides facilities assessments by experienced professionals that will give us an objective baseline to evaluate and software that will help us maintain and complete and accurate data in the years to come.”

VFA capital planning software and Kykloud mobile surveying tool are used by customers to manage capital planning for more than eight billion square feet of commercial facility space. Ever-tightening budgets, often over periods of years, have made the job of managing a public sector property portfolio very challenging. VFA capital planning software will be a powerful tool for Miami-Dade County ISD as they evaluate and manage their facilities portfolio to maximize the impact of public funding.