Mid and West Wales Fire And Rescue Service selects Asset4000 from Real Asset Management to manage and maintain Over £46 Million of fixed assets

The fire and rescue service that covers almost two thirds of Wales selects RAM’s Asset4000 software to centralise the fixed asset register, ensure compliance with SORP 2007 requirements and improve business efficiency.

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service has announced its purchase of Real Asset Management’s (RAM) Asset4000 module from the Series4000 suite of software tools. Following implementation, this £24,500 order will assist Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service extensively with compliance to the SORP 2007 requirements, whilst also providing a comprehensive and centralised fixed asset register on which to store and manage data relating to its extensive portfolio of fixed assets.

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service’s fixed assets are extremely varied, incorporating 56 fire stations, office buildings, specialist equipment such as communication equipment, and fire hydrant infrastructures. The flexibility of RAM’s Asset4000 module allows this public sector organisation to link asset maintenance cost data with component level accounting, capitalisation and depreciation information. Asset4000 will operate alongside the Agresso financial system which is already in use at the Service, and will facilitate a single point of reconciliation between finance and other departments.

Compliance with new SORP 2007 requirements is now a major concern for the public sector. Asset4000 is specifically designed to assist with this and has proved superior during trials compared to both legacy spreadsheets and competitive products. Steven Flather, Finance Manager at Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, comments, “The deadline for all fixed assets to be recorded on the asset register in accordance to SORP 2007 is March next year so it’s crucial for us to make sure we’re preparing now. There is no way we could manage the number of fixed assets on our register and comply using a spreadsheet system.” He adds, “It is a very complicated piece of legislation and as soon as we started evaluating systems it was obvious that the existing asset register would not be able to cope.”

Covering six counties and 4,500 square miles in Wales, the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service deals daily with potentially dangerous situations associated with petrochemical industries in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire and Briton Ferry, as well as those associated with heavily populated areas such as Swansea, Port Talbot and Llanelli. There is also an extensive farming community within the service’s operational area and many other light industries, together with a large coastal region and an inland waterway network. The fixed assets owned by the fire service have a gross value of £46 million.  In addition to these, there are also many leased assets, such as fire appliances, increasing the value of the fixed asset register by a further £16.6 million.  Once the system is in place, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service plans to use Asset4000 to manage its leased assets as well as those which are purchased.

Flather decided on Asset4000 because of the comprehensive levels of component accounting, report generation and improved reconciliation between departments that the software facilitates. He comments, “I have looked at various other asset management programmes and have not really been impressed. RAM’s software is efficient, cost-effective and deals with SORP 2007 better than any other I’ve seen.”

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