The system of integrated databases that make up FacilitiesLink originated out of an IT initiative aimed at streamlining access to accurate UCSD facility information. The goal of the initiative was to provide high-quality data via the Web, backed by a coordinated and efficient long-term data management system. The linchpin in the initiative's success turned out to be Roger Anderson, a software programmer with a background in developing geographic information systems—the digital rendering of geographically referenced information—and designing cross-platform applications.

"When I interviewed at UCSD my future boss pointed to a giant aerial photograph of the campus above his desk and said 'we want to put that in a Web browser so people all over campus can zoom in on any part of it and view detailed information on facilities,'" says Anderson, now the director of Planning Data Systems at UCSD.

UCSD had made several prior attempts at getting a CAFM initiative off the ground. Anderson's unique contribution was that he came from the software industry and brought a Web-based vision for improving computing. The development team pulled together stakeholders from departments involved in campus facilities and outlined the goals and methods for creating FacilitiesLink. They then presented the idea to the two vice chancellors and 15 managers involved in managing UCSD's facilities for approval.

"Each department agreed to share the costs and we went straight into development," says Anderson.

Though its core infrastructure is developed and maintained primarily by a staff of three, FacilitesLink distributes more than 750 gigabytes of data to 850 users who are collectively responsible for more than 13 million sf of diverse academic space. The databases that comprise FacilitiesLink are updated by the people responsible for the information. Each entry is verified for accuracy by a human being. No plug-ins or applets are required in order to view or download data, and Secure Socket Layering (SSL) technology ensures that each transaction has bank-level encryption.

Power Through Operability

"When working on facilities issues people primarily need access to four core sets of information: campus maps, accurate floor plans, as-built scans, and space inventories," says Anderson. "That's what FacilitesLink is: maps, scans, plans, and rooms accessible from a standard Web browser from anywhere on campus. No configuration is required and the files download into generic data formats if you need to do more than just browse."

Prior to the initiative, UCSD had five different campus maps that were maintained by five different departments each with varying degrees of detail and accuracy. One of the first steps in the process was to generate a single map set that could be used as a baseline. The pooled funds were used to have aerial photographs taken. The ortho-photos gathered from the flyovers were combined with scans of CAD drawings to produce detailed, accurate vector-based maps of the entire campus.

When users log onto FacilitiesLink they are presented with a wide variety of options, the most notable of which is an interactive aerial map of the University that can be zoomed or panned with the click of a mouse and is accurate to within six inches. Users can toggle between aerial and base views and choose from a variety of overlays showing significant details like power, water, and telecom. FacilitiesLink also offers accurate CAD floor plans of every University facility, 35,000 scanned as-built drawings, as well as illustrative visitor maps and new construction site plans.

Given that UCSD consists of five major campuses, 22 neighborhoods, and 556 buildings spread across 1,200 acres, creating a comprehensive database of multi-layered interactive digital maps is no small feat. But what makes FacilitesLink so powerful is that it integrates maps with more detailed information on facilities, including space inventories, functional use data, and summary reports for the entire campus. Everything is searchable by neighborhood, department, space classification, building name, and/or keyword.

"Space inventories and detailed room pages are downloadable into Microsoft Excel and all the drawings are available in universal formats," says Anderson. "No matter where you are on campus, you can view the data securely in a Web browser."

Of course, the most formidable challenge in creating FacilitiesLink was getting the raw data into the databases. UCSD student employees performed a majority of the CAD drafting, as-built document scanning, and field survey work.

"FacilitiesLink has been a great opportunity for UCSD students—future architects, planners, and engineers—to get hands-on CAD experience before going out into the workplace," says Anderson.

Though utilizing the student workforce represented a project cost savings of around 20 percent, all of the CAD drafting, surveying, and scanning of as-built drawings was a massive undertaking that cost approximately $100,000. According to Anderson the most tedious component of the process was developing the card catalog entries that describe each individual as-built drawing. UCSD determined that purchasing a scanner and staffing it would cost 30 percent less than the lowest bid received to outsource that vast amount of scanning.

"Once the initial data development is done, the system can be managed at a much less expensive rate," says Anderson.

Make it Useful, Keep it Simple

Despite the massive scale of the undertaking, hardly any upgrades or changes had to be addressed in order to implement FacilitiesLink and it was done without interfering in
existing departmental operations.

"Success for us involved getting useful information on campus facilities in front of the departmental-level people who perform the day-to-day work," says Anderson.

To achieve that the system had to be designed in such a way that the costs were as low as possible for departmental participants. No required software platforms, no system configuration, no licensing costs, no training classes, no forced upgrade cycles. Everything on the system is accessible from a browser with no plug-ins, controls, or Java required. Design is intuitive and requires almost no training or end-user support.

Adapting their work to the existing University context, as opposed to the other way around, also proved to be crucial to the development team's success. This includes system compatibility, overall usability, organizational methods, and cost perspectives.

"If you want widespread dissemination, you have to make the system easily accessible in all ways," Anderson says.

Currently, there are more than 900 registered users on FacilitiesLink from over 350 campus departments. FacilitiesLink users include program analysts, business managers, the dean's offices, architects, inspectors and field personnel, the fire marshal, outside consultants, and administrative specialists, as well as faculty conducting research.

Technically speaking, FacilitiesLink is an incredibly high-performance system. The server is a rack-mounted dual CPU unit with a gigabyte of RAM and almost a terabyte of storage space. It runs on FreeBSD (an open-source UNIX operating system) and PostgreSQL, which is an open-source relational database. Anderson wrote all of the FacilitiesLink software including the server code, application modules, user interface, interactive graphics, and database management.

FacilitiesLink doesn't perform the functions of a CMMS system, but it inter-operates with things better than a lot of other systems. It fulfills a very specific niche of bridging the gaps between divergent systems and standardized data in a large organization.

Security is a major issue for facilities information in any network environment. Though FacilitiesLink has always been an account-based system, after September 11 the site was also wrapped in strong SSL encryption—an open platform cryptography protocol developed by Netscape Communications that securely transmits information between Web servers and browsers.

People Make the Difference

The program's long-term data management strategy is based on the fact that FacilitiesLink depends on individual space managers and facilities professionals to maintain the data respective to their areas. Any of the registered users can change or update the system. However, Kirk Belles, a UCSD data analyst and one of the key players on the FacilitiesLink team, audits each change for accuracy.

"Kirk is really our facilities coordinator, he has his finger on the pulse of campus space," explains Anderson.

Belles works with 150 management service officers (MSO) on a consultative basis and audits every single change to the system's inventory. Instead of having a single person be responsible for keeping track of 25,000 rooms, UCSD now has hundreds of people.

For example, a department remodels one of its offices into a conference room. The associated MSO can update the space inventory in real-time using the Web. The changes queue an audit trail, where they are approved for accuracy. If physical changes have occurred, CAD floor plans are updated either from project plans or via field survey work. The University depends heavily on space inventory square footages for budgeting so there is a significant operational benefit to good quality information.

According to Anderson, the project's most significant benefit has come from improved coordination across the organization.

"The soft-skills side of the project has provided at least as much value as the actual software and data. FacilitiesLink has turned out to be a great excuse for going in and improving core business processes and professional relationships among staff," he says. "We had no idea how much people would benefit from these tools."

Not surprisingly, FacilitiesLink is receiving a significant amount of interest from other universities. Anderson has received calls of inquiry from FM and IT people at other academic institutions who have found out about FacilitiesLink entirely by word of mouth. In an effort to transfer FacilitiesLink technology to the marketplace, UCSD recently launched the company Network Digicality.

By Johnathon Allen

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