I was visiting a prospect this week, and we were talking about the challenges of managing a capital programme on a spreadsheet. Nearly every school or trust I speak with uses a spreadsheet, but this leads to problems like data errors and limited collaboration. Additionally, making every penny count becomes challenging, especially when budgets come under forecast.
So why do they do it? Mostly because 90% of the platforms available require spreadsheets for their solution to function correctly.
One thing a full capital programme manager is good at is making sure every pound is accounted for, from helping you prioritise and be strategic in the first place to alerting you when a budget forecast changes.
I’ll give you the example we discussed.
This particular group oversees 39 schools and seems pretty good at completing projects under budget, often resulting in a surplus of funds.
Of course, the school ideally wants to spend that surplus on other wants or needs, but when you’re part of a group, rather than spending this money on non-essential items, it’s wiser to bring it back to the kitty and redirect it to another school facing critical repairs. Which is only fair, right? Especially if it was your school with the critical repair.
This is the problem straight away. Most solutions currently available require spreadsheets, which typically lack the sophistication needed to dynamically manage funding. Yes, they offer some type of project spend tracking and basic reporting, but a robust capital programme manager is on another level, especially as they are typically part of a suite of premises management tools, such as integrating with a survey tool, and together, providing a list of estate-wide projects ranked in order of need.
A good one will go further than that, offering functionality to alert the right person at the right time when there is overspend, or even underspend, then allowing them to actively recuperate surplus budget directly within the capital programme manager and put it to better use for other critical needs across the estate.
So if you're part of an estate team or responsible for financial operations within a multi-site educational establishment, consider how a capital programme manager can save you time, enhance your processes, and reduce stress.
With the right tools, schools and trusts can meet immediate needs and strategically plan for the future, ensuring long-term success and sustainability.
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