How Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo manages more than 5,000 assets with Infraspeak

About IPVC

Based in Viana do Castelo, Portugal, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo (IPVC) also has facilities in the neighbouring municipalities of Ponte de Lima, Valença and Melgaço.

Consisting of six colleges — Education, Agriculture, Technology and Management, Health, and Business Sciences — the IPVC has more than 5,000 students. According to its own 'Vision', it is "an institution of excellence in Portuguese higher education, through its training offer, cooperation, research, projects and partnerships, which enable its sustainable and inclusive growth and that of all its partners."

The Challenges

The distance between different buildings

• Logistics made difficult by the fact that the facilities are spread across four municipalities;

• Central services are 104 kilometres from the Melgaço Sports Complex, for example;

The diversity of facilities

• The six higher education centres correspond to different areas of studies, which require different installations;

• Some buildings house laboratories, others include gyms and infirmaries, requiring adapted operation and maintenance plans.

The size of the operation

• Large number of assets, incompatible with recording the inventory in Excel and with the previous maintenance software;

• Long list of external suppliers;

• Notorious lack of control and visibility over the entire operation.

Intelligence at the service of communication and sustainability.

In order to respond to the demanding challenges identified, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo was looking for a flexible and comprehensive solution that would allow it, among other things, to centrally inventory its thousands of assets; remotely manage maintenance plans and work orders (WO); control deadlines, easily communicate with all those involved, including external suppliers, and integrate the equipment, WO and other tools in use, namely Business Intelligence software.

The choice was Infraspeak, which proved to be the ideal intelligent maintenance management platform to carry out this digital transformation at IPVC. Shortly after implementing Infraspeak, 5,651 assets were already registered on the platform, each associated with the exact location within each building, as well as the respective maintenance manuals and plans.

It is now much easier to manage the long list of external suppliers (maintenance of electrical installations, lifts, HVAC systems, cleaning services, security services and maintenance of green spaces, among others) and their contracts, as the information is perfectly organised, centralised and accessible from anywhere — the suppliers themselves can open and complete work orders. Communication has become clearer and faster, which improves efficiency and control.

The results of implementing Infraspeak at IPVC, particularly in terms of saving resources, began to be felt in a short space of time. In 2020, the Sustainable and Inclusive Campus of the Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo was considered by the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings to be the 2nd most sustainable at a national level — with the best ranking in Portugal for Infrastructure and Energy and Climate Change.

The Institute wants to speed up the reporting of breakdowns even more, as well as to continue on the path of sustainability, contributing to the fulfilment of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. To this end, the data that the platform collects and analyses is fundamental, as it allows, for example, informed decisions to be made about replacing equipment with more efficient alternatives.