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Improving document storage and access for Anglia Ruskin University

University and Campus Documentation
Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public university in East Anglia, United Kingdom. The former arts university has several campuses dotted throughout southern England and counts Pink Floyd guitarist and songwriter David Gilmour among its alumni.

Project requirements:

ARU’s Estates and Facilities team contacted COGNICA, an RSK company, for help with improving digital storage and access. The university had undergone numerous transformations; several campus buildings were demolished and others had been revamped and upgraded with modern décor and technology. At the institute’s campus in Chelmsford and Cambridge, in South-East England, the Estates and Facilities team identified the need for urgent upgrades to storage and access systems for documents in around 30 buildings.

NaviDoc view showing a door schedule document

The Pilot Project

The data for the buildings were stored in both soft and hard copies – a combination of paper and electronic files in various locations that proved difficult to access. COGNICA made its name on a similar project for Severn Trent Water in the late 1990s, so we assembled our highly specialised team and travelled to the Chelmsford campus. Once on-site, we began a pilot exercise in the postgraduate medical institute building, involving the collation of all available electronic and paper documentation. Our desk-based analysts then audited, sorted and indexed the collated data to provide an easy-access USB version of the building’s operation and maintenance manuals.

Approx. 30 buildings

Outdated storage and access methods required a fresh approach

New System

Design and build specific to ARU needs

Compliance Review

Be able to see and take remedial action for missing data

Document Control

Appointed official document controllers for all O&M documentation

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NaviDoc view showing an As Built Drawing

Ongoing Work

Following the success of the team’s pilot project, ARU contracted COGNICA to convert and compile the documentation for several other buildings into a standard electronic format. Our inspectors visited the site to audit the documentation. Later, we extracted all paper and electronic documentation. COGNICA's project team then worked through all the records for each building: reviewing, sorting and indexing information and, where necessary, scanning paper documents to create electronic files. Owing to our well-established and cohesive strategy for the pilot project, we swiftly and professionally concluded the project. In addition, COGNICA were also given the role of redesigning ARU’s ‘Design Principles’ due to our expertise, which is to this day consistently used as a basis across ARU’s projects.

The ARU and COGNICA partnership continues, piloting and feeding into the development of solutions at COGNICA , whilst COGNICA continue to be ARU’s experts on collecting and collating the operation and maintenance information directly from the supply chain.

O&M Quotation Enquiry

Please contact us to enquire about COGNICA's solutions, services and quotations:

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