Testimonial & Case Study

Interview with BAI XUE,
Project Manager of the Building Condition Assessment (BCA) Program
WEST AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT: Department of Finance

ABOUT WA GOVT DEPT OF FINANCE

The Department of Finance is a central government agency that delivers whole-government policy and influence strategy for the delivery of major Western Australian projects. The agency provides a comprehensive and integrated approach to the

Construction and maintenance of government buildings
Management of major state construction projects
Lead government procurement activities
Administration of revenue, grant and subsidy schemes.

Utilising a hybrid of service delivery and policy focus, the Department of Finance enables the Western Government to deliver construction projects to achieve a high standard of living for all Australians.

The Challenge

The Department of Finance was awarded the contract to complete a Building and Inspection Assessment across 850 schools for the Department of Education in Western Australia

Heading the Project, Bai Xue, the Project Manager of the Building Condition Assessment (BCA) Program needed to streamline processes which required a move away from paper-based reporting to a software application that could be tailored to meet the project’s requirements. With multiple inspectors collecting asset data and information across 850 schools statewide, the BCA Program needed an application that could streamline data collection methodologies, analysis and mapping of future action requirements – and be used easily by inspectors in the field.

“It’s about flexibility. We require a lot of detailed asset data for this program. As opposed to purchasing an off-the-shelf data collection tool, which was unlikely to capture all of the data we needed, we decided to go to an application that would offer better flexibility to capture and build a customised application”, Bai explains.

The Solution

The BCA Program began planning in 2022. It’s anticipated that approximately 60 inspectors will utilise the application to complete nearly 100 assessments per month. Bai Xue explains that “overall, the Mobile Data Anywhere program was very logical. I do not have an IDC or program background. However, designing the forms and designated fields in our desired format was very logical”

“The level of detail required by the customer is sometimes very specific to each asset, making the data collection process very difficult. Working with Michael from Mobile Data Anywhere, we are able to consult him when the data collection requirements are not interchangeable. Michael was able to deliver solutions that our team were satisfied with.”

The validity and clarity of the data collected are critical as they will form the basis of future building planning and rectification alongside considering budget capability, asset prioritisation and improvement programs.

Bai Xue explains, “the reports will be distributed directly across different departments with the Department of Finance and to the schools. The schools will receive a suite of reports which provide visibility to assets that require remediation and enable schools to seek further funding. Whereas the Department of Finance can analyse asset requirements across many schools and determine improvement planning schemes statewide.

“With the MDA platform, we can, for example, identify 200 schools that are in need of roof restoration. We can then filter down into the condition of the roofs, establishing the order of urgency. The data forms the plan’s basis and can be handed to multiple departments flowing in a full circle from initial analysis, to planning and budget analysis, to site remediation”, explains Bai.

The filtering of assets and classifications streamlines future activity and assists with creating a future standard of schools for Western Australia.

The Service

Each project under the Building Condition Assessment Program has unique requirements and customer demands. The BCA began using Mobile Data Anywhere in 2017 due to its unique ability to tailor forms and generate reports to suit requirements.

Bai explained that with the utilisation of MDA in the BCA Program, the team has shifted from arbitrary work management practices and removed all paper reporting and the use of numerous excel spreadsheets.

“Before Mobile Data Anywhere there was still lots of pen and paper reporting alongside a plethora of Excel spreadsheets. It’s definitely been a big improvement since then. We are all happy to say goodbye to the pens, paper and Excel”, said Bai

Whilst working with the MDA team, Bai explained she found the experience very supportive and that the team was dedicated to going above and beyond requirements to deliver on project needs.

“I wanted to say that Michael is definitely a very good person to work with. He is very accommodating. Sometimes we have urgent requirements, and he’ll always pick up the task and never stops working. He even answered emails whilst he was in Thailand. I insisted he didn’t, but he insisted that he wanted to look after us”, explains Bai.

The Outcome

The Mobile Data Anywhere application will form the basis of statewide education budgets, remediation and construction planning. Data accuracy and integrity are critical facets of the success of the program.

“It’s a complicated and massive process but a fantastic challenge. Michael from MDA and I are speaking with many clients and the people carrying out the job functions.

Many are simply amazed that there is such a large operation around streamlining asset curation” concluded Bai.

The Future

With already 12 months of planning for the execution completed, the BCA Program now embarks on the pre-delivery of phase B.
“We have very tight KPI deliverables and must complete the program by February 2024. We began our enterprise subscription on the 1st of December 2022 to begin testing amongst the inspectors and ensure we are capturing consistent and accurate data”.

“Over the next six months, we will require ongoing support from Michael and his team for the initial delivery phase. We know at the start of the project, there are always many questions raised by inspectors and potential troubleshooting.

Across the 850 schools and the need to complete approximately 100 BCAs a month, there will be a lot of data. In my experience, generally, the more data you have, the higher likelihood there will be errors that need to be resolved in the preliminary phase of deployment. We’re totally confident that MDA will make the whole process easier and more accurate”, said Bai.

Conclusion

The data collected in the MDA app fuels everything that takes place from there, so it flows in a circle to the Department of Education, the Head Office of Asset Planning, the Schools, and then eventually back to the Department of Finance for budgeting, and then finally as the blueprint for Scope of Works. “Michael and his team are incredibly conscientious. They’re not just dedicated to what they do but provide a 360-degree service”.

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