FM enhances estimate process
April 13, 2012
Facilities Management continues to enhance service accessibility by introducing standardized forms for estimate requests. As of May 1, the new forms will completely replace all other methods of acquiring estimates through the Division. Moving towards a single process will ensure project requests are put into queue and handled sequentially.
“As the university continues to grow, there is an increasing demand for project estimates,” says George Qubty, Director Facilities Engineering. “The new forms provide the necessary framework to best manage those requests.”
The new process includes two forms; one for scopes involving partial or full capital funding, such as research grant applications and a second for scopes sponsored by departmental funding. Similar to the current follow up process, approved submissions will be directed to the estimator for call backs and site visits.
“At peak times throughout the year, the estimate queue can become quite extensive,” says Qubty. “It’s still recommended that requesters plan several months ahead of project deadlines.”
Requesters should allow time for approvals from their department and Provost (if necessary) with additional consideration to the time of year, such as capital budget planning, summer work, and research grant periods, not to mention other queued requests. In keeping with the mission of the university, requests involving teaching space and those for grant submission deadlines will take priority depending on the project’s urgency.
By bringing in the new system, Qubty believes it will allow users to seek estimates with greater ease. The two forms offer step-by-step instructions and include required text fields to ensure all relevant information is provided. Users can even submit their request electronically by clicking on the submit button without leaving the form.
The estimate forms can be downloaded from the Facilities Management website (). Once they have been saved to a user’s local drive, they can be completed offline until they are ready for submission via email. The application is a macro-enabled MS Excel 2007 form and may require users to toggle their macro settings before using.
