Pennaf has chosen Real Asset Management to manage its array of property assets and deliver an automated component accounting system, replacing a spreadsheet-based approach. The Asset4000 software is scheduled to go live in April 2014.
Pennaf provides general corporate support services and specialist services to members of Pennaf Housing Group. When SORP regulations were introduced in 2008, Pennaf saw its asset base expand from 5,500 to in excess of 60,000. After trialling a traditional spreadsheet method of recording its depreciating assets, Pennaf recognised the need for a dedicated system that would allow it to record its large array of properties including residential homes and hostels.
Stephen Morris, finance controller, Pennaf Housing Group, said, “The wide variety of our properties was making it difficult for us to keep track of our depreciating assets. We were using a mix of spreadsheets and an in-house housing rental system which, when combined, were simply not designed for asset management. After struggling to produce all the necessary information needed for component accounting, we decided to look for a proper asset management system.
“We quickly realised that RAM’s Asset4000 system was extremely flexible and was exactly what we needed. With different types of properties, each with a different asset base and a different lifecycle, we needed a system which would be able to handle a vast amount of different data.”
As well as implementing Asset4000, Pennaf has also bought RAM’s forecasting module which will create ‘what if’ scenarios for future capital expenditure, revaluations and asset disposals, and create depreciation projections to simplify annual budget decisions.
