Baldwin Living: Vibrant and sustainable retirement living
Baldwin Living is an Australian family-owned company specialising in providing high-quality retirement living options for seniors. With a legacy spanning over 40 years, Baldwin Living has established eight boutique retirement villages across major Australian cities, offering seniors a vibrant and sustainable living environment. Its mission is to “provide our residents with rewarding and carefree lifestyles that allow peace of mind, supported by dedicated and caring staff”.
🛑 The challenge: taking a proactive approach to compliance
Baldwin Living is always striving for continuous improvement and meeting the needs of current and future residents. One of its goals is to always remain ahead of the curve when it comes to compliance: meeting and exceeding standards as they emerge.
Staying on top of fast-evolving regulations is challenging, particularly in the wake of various industry reforms that have led to new legislation.
"We see high standards as a competitive advantage, so wanted to ensure that Baldwin Living could meet the new requirements. Not just for the sake of compliance but to ensure we provide our residents with the best quality of service and living experience," says Ben Baldwin, Asset Manager & Executive Director, Baldwin Living.
Baldwin Living operates three villages in New South Wales containing 323 units - representing a huge number of assets to collect data from. Having been reliant on legacy processes and paper-based systems, managers were aware of the need to move to digital asset management. They also faced challenges with maintenance and replacement programs, particularly when it came to reporting actuals.
"We didn’t have the data we needed to enable accurate decision making around maintenance and financial planning. While we’ve got some really talented people at Baldwin Living, they needed more powerful tools to identify what repairs were needed when, and when it would make more sense to replace assets," Ben says.
To enable best practice asset management and provide the best experience to their residents, Baldwin Living selected AssetFuture as its partner to collect the asset information they needed and digitise operations.
✅ The solution: leveraging Asset Lifecycle Intelligence to enable informed decision making
In June 2021, Baldwin Living became one of the first Retirement Living operators to start the journey of Asset Management compliance. With AssetFuture’s help, the work in collecting complete data on their entire portfolio began, building out a comprehensive area hierarchy and asset register.
By deploying AssetFuture’s platform, Baldwin Living was able to transition from using paper-based processes and Excel files to an advanced asset management solution that provides lifecycle intelligence for all villages and their entire asset portfolios.
"The team were really on board with the new technology from the outset, and this support was integral to the success of the project. There was a learning curve initially, but AssetFuture is a very intuitive platform and our team quickly grasped it," Ben says.
Once the detailed asset data was collected, AssetFuture was able to help generate Asset Management Plans (AMPs) to meet compliance. All three NSW village AMPs were ready by October 2021, well in advance of the May 2022 deadline.
AssetFuture also helped Baldwin Living introduce continuous improvement processes to improve AMP reporting on actuals.
"We were amazed at the ease and speed with which AssetFuture helped us reach compliance. Our previous systems were very manual and admin intensive. Digitising and centralising our data has revolutionised the way we manage our assets. It’s no secret that we are subject to various regulations and compliance requirements in NSW. Our Asset Register has helped ensure that all assets meet the necessary standards and that the business remains compliant, minimising legal and financial risks," Ben says.
🚀 The outcome: proactive maintenance and asset lifecycle forecasting
With the comprehensive digital asset registers and the asset lifecycle forecasting generated out of the AssetFuture platform, the Baldwin Living team is now leveraging the technology to proactively plan capital maintenance and replacement programs.
"By recording asset details such as acquisition date, maintenance history, and expected lifespan, we are better able to plan and schedule maintenance activities. This proactive approach reduces the risk of unexpected breakdowns and costly repairs. It also minimises the risk of using outdated or inefficient equipment and ensures the retirement villages remain attractive and functional to residents and staff." Ben says.
"The Asset Register has helped us to identify potential risks associated with specific assets, such as safety hazards or environmental concerns (hot water systems spring to mind). This information enables the business to take proactive measures to mitigate these risks.
Baldwin Living is also using the AssetContinuity mobile application to keep their asset data current and update the asset information in real-time. Accurate asset records also assist in determining the appropriate level of insurance coverage for the retirement villages. This ensures the company is adequately protected against risks such as property damage, liability claims, and natural disasters.
To improve their actuals reporting process for the maintenance, repairs and replacement of assets, Baldwin Living introduced changes to their current business processes to enable contractors to capture and report detailed asset information during the capital maintenance and replacement programs.
This process change helps Baldwin Living team to report all the actual maintenance, repairs and replacement activities as part of the ongoing compliance reporting.
Having high quality data enables Baldwin Living to generate valuable and accurate insights into projected costs, maintenance, and eventual replacement. Taking a lifecycle approach is also extending the life of assets through proactive maintenance, as well as improving cost efficiency, safety and resident comfort.
"Having a comprehensive asset register is essential for accurate financial reporting and asset valuation. This is critically important at times when we plan to secure bank financing, or if our aim is to attract investors, because it provides a layer of transparency and credibility," Ben says.
Request a demo and start your journey today! 🚀
Highlights
Completed entire compliance journey in just four months, well in advance of deadline
Asset Tracking and Management ensures assets are properly maintained, reducing the risk of equipment failure or property deterioration
Asset Register helps identify potential risks associated with specific assets, such as safety hazards or environmental concerns
Accurate financial reporting and asset valuation that provides a layer of transparency and credibility when seeking finance
““AssetFuture helped us digitise our operations and achieve compliance in just three months. Our Asset Register allows us to track the total cost of ownership for each asset, including acquisition costs, maintenance expenses, and depreciation. Baldwin Living’s mission is to offer the best level and comfort of retirement living, and through AssetFuture we’re able to achieve this”. ”
“AssetFuture was able to help Baldwin Living achieve compliance in record time, implementing continuous improvement processes and proactive asset management. This has enabled Baldwin Living to provide the very best living experience and service delivery to residents, as well as get the financial transparency they need for future investment.”