Fentress Incorporated: Innovative Resource Planning Solutions and Asset Management Programs

Asset Management Solutions

The lack of resources often impacts the ability of an organization to effectively perform its mission. Resource decisions are complicated, largely because there are many competing demands for limited resources. Deciding how to balance the funding for personnel, facilities and infrastructure, equipment/technology can be difficult and challenging. Establishing a logical, defensible, and fair way to make resource decisions, while remaining flexible enough to respond to new initiatives and crises, is crucial. In addition, managers are often evaluated on how effectively and credibly they make such resource decisions.

Fentress understands the challenges with effective resource planning and our solution – asset management programs – is one of the core services in which we specialize. Our asset management programs typically include seven key steps and result in effective support for formulating budget requests. These key steps are:

Determining the benefits of an asset to the organization based upon the organization’s mission and operations. Assets can include personnel, facilities, infrastructure, equipment, or technology. Performance measures are developed to assess asset benefits.
Performing a gap analysis that examines the difference between existing resource levels and the current and future resources actually needed to effectively support the organization’s mission and operations. Identifying alternative resources is included in this step.
The alternative resources identified during the gap analysis are assessed during a risk analysis. The components of the risk analysis can include the probability of success and/or the impact on the organization’s mission and operations caused by inadequate funding.
The costs for each alternative resource are calculated as it is important to include total costs based on established benchmarks and budget estimates.
The benefits, risks, and costs are then used to calculate the cost-benefit of each alternative. The alternative with the highest cost-benefit value represents the best resource allocation strategy, or what is essentially the greatest gain in mission and operations for the least cost and risk.
The cost-benefit analysis helps determine the best alternative for a particular asset or location but in situations where alternatives across many asset types and locations must be considered, a priority order must be determined. Rigorous priority criteria based on the organization’s strategic plan, mission, and values are used to define urgency needs and determine the order in which resources are funded. For organizations with national asset portfolios, this step is particularly important.
Finally, budget scenarios and ultimately a strategic funding plan are developed. Using powerful information management tools, Fentress helps our clients optimize their budgets and to achieve the most cost effective resource strategies.

We take pride in the success of our analytical approach to asset management and in our results – our services have resulted in over $3 billion in resource funding for our clients. For more information about our asset management solutions, please contact our Marketing Division or read about some key projects.

To learn more about our asset management solutions and projects, visit the following links: