Vertical: Higher Ed

Universities and institutional facilities offices manage construction, facilities maintenance, and real estate as a blended portfolio. Capital projects compete for limited capex budget alongside deferred maintenance, IT upgrades, and program growth. Decisions move slowly because they involve faculty input, donor constraints, board approvals, and procurement rules.

The work spans new construction, renovations, deferred maintenance, and ongoing facility operations. Most institutions have separate teams for each but increasingly want unified visibility.

• Capex (Capital Expenditure) — money spent on construction or major upgrades
• Deferred maintenance — facility work that's been postponed, accumulating as backlog
• FCA (Facility Condition Assessment) — formal evaluation of existing buildings' state
• Master plan — long-term plan for campus development
• BOT (Board of Trustees) — institutional governance, approves major capital decisions
• CFO / VP for Finance — owns budget allocation and capital planning

• VP of Facilities / Director of Construction — day-to-day owner of project performance
• CFO / VP for Finance — owns capex budget allocation
• President / Board of Trustees — approves major capital projects
• Procurement / Sourcing — gates vendor selection
• Faculty stakeholders — every project touches academic departments

Higher ed procurement is slow. State institutions have stricter rules (RFPs, formal bidding) than private. Expect 6–12 months from first conversation to signed contract on a meaningful deal. Watch for fiscal year end (often June 30) and capex planning cycles in Q1 and Q3.

1. Capex visibility for the board. They want to know where the money is going across dozens of projects, in formats boards understand. Most teams compile this manually.
2. Deferred maintenance backlog. Often hundreds of millions in known need with no system to prioritize against new construction.
3. Facilities + construction overlap. Maintenance, capital improvements, and new construction sit in different systems with different reporting cycles.
4. Stakeholder management. Every project touches academic departments, donors, governance, and procurement. Software has to support multi-stakeholder visibility.
5. Reporting fatigue. Boards, donors, accreditors, and grant funders all want different reports on the same projects.

• "Portfolio-level capex view for the board, real-time."
• "Facilities and construction in one system — no more separate reports."
• "Donor and grant reporting built in, not bolted on."
• "Project teams keep their workflows. Leadership gets the dashboard."

Banner, Workday, or PeopleSoft for ERP. Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for documents. AutoCAD / Revit for design. Maximo / FAMIS / similar for facilities operations. Procore or ACC for new construction (sometimes). Lots of Excel.

See the Select Projects deck in the Resources Hub for current reference customers.

• Don't push speed. Higher ed buys deliberately. Pushing creates friction.
• Don't skip the procurement conversation early. It's the gate.
• Don't pitch only to facilities. The CFO and the board are the buyers on big deals.
• Don't underestimate faculty stakeholders. They have veto power even when they shouldn't.