Rouages: "Controlling information on the University's real estate assets".

Philippe Simonin is head of the strategy and asset management department within the DPI real estate department. From fieldwork to the analysis of the innumerable data he collects, not forgetting the production of 2D and 3D plans, he tells us about his job in the "Rouages" video series produced by the University of Montpellier.

To find them, you need to know the Triolet campus like the back of your hand, because Building 27, with its single storey and hangar-like appearance, looks quite modest amidst the huge blocks of buildings dedicated to teaching and research. Yet it's within these walls that the masters of the keys work. Forty-eight people in five departments make up the Real Estate Department.

Served by a single corridor, visitors discover the technicians' workshops, a veritable Ali Baba's cave, where humorous collages speak volumes about the atmosphere that reigns here. This is followed by the office of the director, Monique Lambert-Sebastiani, where the verticality of the countless stacks of files and plans that occupy the entire space are reminiscent of a paper megalopolis. At the very end of the corridor is the office of Philippe Simonin, head of the strategy and asset management department.

Career plan

Rather discreet, Philippe Simonin makes no secret of it: video isn't really his thing, but maps and plans are! In fact, this is the primary mission of his department, which includes four agents. We produce and update plans and technical documentation for all our buildings, in order to manage information relating to the University's real estate assets," explains the department head. All in all, there are more than 200 buildings, or 500,000 square meters, in constant evolution.

Plans of campuses and buildings, plans of buried networks, plans of technical installations locating electrical, heating and plumbing equipment and their connections... Everything is recorded, noted and updated since the construction of each campus. " These plans make it possible to extract building data such as surface area, type of premises and number of staff per office. This invaluable information feeds the database used to optimize the management of UM's assets. "It' s a task that requires a real photographic memory to keep track of the buildings' layout, the configuration of the rooms, etc." continues Philippe Simonin.

Key data

And data management is precisely the second mission of the Head of Strategy and Asset Management and his team. And the list of data to be managed is long. In addition to those already mentioned, there is data relating to land (parcels), property, occupancy, operating costs, energy status and environmental performance, building health, regulatory status (safety commission, technical inspections, etc.), accessibility, and safety (intrusion, attack).

" All this information enables us to draw up reports and provide the information needed for decision-making, as well as responding to inquiries from the Ministry in order to obtain funding for building renovation and safety," explains Philippe Simonin. This data is of interest not only to the various University departments with which the department collaborates, but also to its external partners. These include the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, with the Ministry of Ecological Transition, with the French government's property department...  

All of which reflect the diversity of the tasks inherent in this position. " My missions can range from lifting a cast-iron plate to see which network runs underneath, to producing 2D or 3D plans, to managing databases and heritage-related information". And when Philippe Simonin is asked to recall a key moment in his career, it's an encounter with a stuffed fox that he recounts. Proof if it were needed that the University's heritage is full of surprises.