New buildings and restorations as well as comprehensive renovations of properties are part of the work of communal facility management. It organizes, plans, coordinates and monitors such construction projects. Various stumbling blocks such as legal submission requirements can lead to a complexity, which can often not be overcome by existing internal professional and personnel capacities. In most cases, an external consulting service for the builder and builder representation is an absolute must. Comunas offers builder's support and representation during the developmental phase and the project phase, which includes the preparation and execution of architect-designers' competitions and the commissioning of studies in accordance with the legal submission requirements.

Before the actual project plan can be developed, it is necessary to develop important principles, to clarify framework conditions and to review potential variants. In addition, a feasibility study always contains the needs and changes as well as the criteria for reviewing the results from the corresponding planning phase.

Besides a feasibility study, the preparation of a criteria catalogue and the provision of the documents and plans necessary for the project plan are essential principals for the execution of project competitions. These tasks are often significantly underestimated. The funds required to pay for these tasks and the time to prepare these are often missing. Comunas supports you comprehensively and efficiently during these processes.

Communes are legally mandated to maintain their facilities. This must be planned well. It does not only require to plan the repairs for buildings in poor condition but also the maintenance for buildings in as new condition and well preserved structures. Comunas supports you in the development of a strategic maintenance plan and it familiarizes employees in the methodology and application (and management respectively ), in order to ensure an ideal plan for a far-reaching time horizon of 20 to 30 years. Comunas is licensed service provider of Stratus buildings.

Of course, any repairs and maintenance of facilities require capital. Comunas calculates the required financial need as basis for the budget of the following year and on request, it develops a financial plan covering up to 20 plus years.

In particular, it is necessary to consult an expert in case of defects and during earlier planning phases. Based on his or her comprehensive professional expertise and knowledge of the legal principles and standards in construction, the expert is competent to represent the builder.

How many employees are needed for professional facility management and what are the qualifications and competencies these employees must have? How should the job profile be described? Comunas has the tools and key indicators needed to calculate the required personnel capacities and prepares suggestions for the organisation and the required profiles for publishing the needed work hours and requirements specifications.

In cooperation with ZHAW, VLS offers courses to support, optimize and professionalize the management of public facilities. The target audience covers employees in public facility management from government employees up to interested professional groups in the field of property management. The course work has the following goals:

• knowledge of public administrations and interfaces to facility management
• knowledge of the structure, organisation and the scope of services, resource planning of the facility management department
• basic knowledge of holistic facility management
• knowledge of the development of a sustainable facility strategy and financial planning covering several years
• knowledge of the execution of construction projects from the development to the operation
• basic knowledge of public procurement, contracts, tenancy laws and knowledge of historic preservation
• knowledge in the area of safety (earth quakes and fire protection)