For R1 research universities, facilities technology problems rarely show up as one broken tool. They show up as fragmentation. At the University of South Carolina, where the campus spans two centuries of architecture, 12.5 million square feet, and more than 40,000 students, the Facilities Management team felt this firsthand. At the heart of the fragmentation was a work order system implemented in 1993.
By the time Daniel Rabon joined as Director of Facilities Business Intelligence in 2021, the platform had accumulated decades of workarounds that made basic operational visibility nearly impossible.
Like many large research universities, USC’s core problem wasn't outdated software alone. It was software spread across shops, systems, and departments with no shared source of truth. That gap between tools, more than any single system failure, is usually the root cause behind facilities management struggles on campus.
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Before USC's facilities team implemented their IWMS, four recurring problems were quietly undermining trust in their data and operations.
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Lagging Manual Data Entry Staff keyed utility usage data into the system by hand across more than 250 electricity accounts, not counting water. |
Outdated Space Data Space data was outdated the moment it was shared: "This is as accurate as I can give you, but as soon as I hit send, it's old." |
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Obscured Maintenance Costs Standing work orders consistently masked true maintenance volume and cost, leaving leadership guessing. |
Disconnected Shops & Systems Multiple shops ran on different systems, with no shared visibility into operations, capital projects, or reporting. |
None of these shows up as a single point of failure. Instead, they show up as a slow erosion of trust in the data, which is exactly what USC's facilities team experienced in the years before their implementation. For a research university managing historic buildings alongside active research space, leadership can't secure deferred maintenance funding or demonstrate operational stewardship with data nobody trusts.
When USC began formal market research, leadership wanted one platform, not four or five point solutions competing inside the same department. As Rabon recalled: 'Luckily our administration said, I don't want to do this in seven or ten years. I want this to be one and done.'
The university's solicitation spanned work order management, capital planning, project management, lease administration, space management, and energy. All those areas needed the granular chargeback functionality the university's budget model required.
For a complex university estate, the deciding factor typically isn't feature parity between vendors but integration depth. Can the platform connect to the enterprise systems (PeopleSoft, registrar's office, etc.) that already run the institution?
What set AssetWorks apart in USC's evaluation was connecting AiM's enterprise IWMS to PeopleSoft, feeding live space data to the registrar's office, and replacing manual data handoffs with automated flows. That's something a patchwork of specialized tools couldn't offer.
AssetWorks' track record with peer institutions, including fellow SEC (Southeastern Conference) schools, also carried weight in the decision, a familiar signal for R1 research universities benchmarking against comparable campuses.
The implementation was built on three connected AssetWorks solutions:
Rollout started with work order management and ReADY Request's self-service intake before expanding to capital projects, energy, lease administration, and space management. Field technicians were also equipped with Go mobile apps, replacing the paper-based process that had previously left them reconstructing time logs from memory at the end of each shift.
Curious how AiM's integration capabilities could work with your existing enterprise systems? → Read how AiM connects with PeopleSoft and other campus systems
$60,000 in annual materials savings through a decentralized, point-of-use inventory model with Fastenal
~3 full-time equivalents (FTEs) saved in the call center through ReADY automation
2 full-time equivalents (FTEs) reallocated from delivery runs to floor care, without adding headcount
250+ utility accounts now auto-fed monthly into AiM, eliminating manual entry
A rollout now extending across the university's full eight-campus statewide network
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"We can't say we don't have the technology for it anymore since we do have AssetWorks. Now it's making that light shine." - Daniel Rabon, Director of Facilities Business Intelligence (Informatics) at the University of South Carolina. |
The University of South Carolina's team spent years working around the limits of a fragmented system before landing on the real diagnosis: needing a single platform the entire facilities operation could run from.
For research universities facing the same fragmentation, a unified IWMS doesn't just resolve specific pain points; it builds a foundation flexible enough to keep expanding. In USC’s case, AssetWorks carried them from a PeopleSoft integration to their broader "One Carolina" technology strategy.
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Why do universities struggle with facilities management software on campus?
Most struggles trace back to running several disconnected tools instead of one platform — manual data entry, space records that go stale immediately, and no shared visibility across shops or departments. These gaps widen as a campus grows, making basic operational visibility difficult even when each individual tool works fine on its own.
What integrated workplace management system works best for complex university estates?
For complex university estates — those managing historic and modern buildings, multiple campuses, and granular budget chargebacks — a single enterprise-class IWMS that covers work order management, capital planning, space management, lease administration, and energy typically outperforms a mix of specialized point tools. The deciding factor is usually integration depth: the platform's ability to connect with existing enterprise systems like PeopleSoft or a registrar's office, rather than feature checklists alone.
How much did University of South Carolina save by switching to AssetWorks?
The university saved an estimated $60,000 annually in materials costs through a decentralized inventory model, plus the equivalent of roughly 3 full-time call center positions through work order automation — without adding headcount.
What AssetWorks products does University of South Carolina use?
University of South Carolina runs three connected AssetWorks solutions: AiM (the core IWMS for operations, capital planning, space, and energy), ReADY Request (campus-facing work order intake), and Go (mobile apps for field technicians).