Financial Management Service

Real Property Standards and Management Information System
The objective of the Real Property Standards and Management Information System (Standards/MIS) project was to assist in the automation of a Real Property Management Information System. The project addressed the limitations of existing systems which did not enable agencies to determine the true costs of holding properties or support the planning and analysis of resources and operations. In addition, existing systems lacked on-line capabilities and integration between accounting, loan, and inventory programs. Conwal’s project team recommendations led to the implementation of a system that corrected the existing deficiencies through the establishment of standards, guidelines, and decision models for the acquisition, management, and disposition of real property and therefore, the improvement of the existing systems.

The Conwal project team defined and documented Government-wide standards, guidelines, and decision models for the acquisition, management, and disposition of real property. These standards, guidelines, and decision models were designed to reduce acquisitions, accelerate the movement of properties from acquisition to disposition, increase net returns on dispositions, and assure control over funds overflow. Conwal’s recommendations fulfilled the goals of incorporating the FMS standards, guidelines and decision-models, providing comprehensive planning and analysis capability to enable agency management to take a pro-active approach to real property management, and providing the capability to interface with existing agency loan processing systems and Government-wide accounting and reporting systems. Specifically, standards and procedures were developed for avoiding foreclosed property acquisitions, reducing the time from default to acquisition, when acquisition becomes necessary, assigning property to staff, and property appraisals.

In determining the selection of agency systems for its implementation plan, Conwal used factors such as degree of satisfaction with current system, effort and resources required to modify/replace current system so it conformed to new standards/requirements, size and value of current and anticipated agency inventory, and cooperation extended by agency and interest in new improved hardware/software. Conwal then recommended implementation plans that included overview and general requirements, assumptions, estimated resource requirements, implementation sequence, milestones, procurement planning, training requirements, documentation requirements and transition elements. The Conwal project team results led to the definition of the functional data and reporting requirements for a comprehensive, fully automated Real Property Management Information System, in order to improve the management effectiveness of all Federal agencies.

• Demonstrates Conwal’s ability to successfully address the limitations of existing Real Property Management Information Systems in determining true cost of holding properties or supporting the planning and analysis of resources and operations.
• Established standards, guidelines, and decision models for the acquisition, management, and disposition of real property.