Sandia signs up capital planning company

Sandia National Laboratories has signed an agreement with VFA to upgrade the lab’s capital planning and federal reporting needs using the company’s Capital Planning and Management Solution Technology.

Under the terms of the contract, Boston-based VFA will undertake comprehensive assessments of more than 400 Sandia facilities at the lab’s Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., campuses. Sandia is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia, a Lockheed Martin company, for the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

The technology combines facility assessments, Web-based software and business consulting services to help clients better manage their capital asset life cycles, from requirements-gathering and long-term planning to capital budget creation and management.

According to the announcement, VFA will also train Sandia employees to use VFA facility software, and the lab will be able to export its data in a format that is compatible with DOE’s real property asset management directives.

“Historically, Sandia has relied on multiple spreadsheets and databases to maintain information about its facilities and to generate the reports needed to meet DOE requirements,” said Lynnwood Dukes, facilities engineering and program manager at Sandia, in the statement.

He said the new program will give Sandia a central repository of up-to-date facilities data that will boost its cost-modeling capabilities and streamline the asset reports process.