Case Study: Appalachian State University achieves streamlined facilities management and $300K+ in recovered revenue with AssetWorks AiM

Pioneering Spirit Drives New Efficiencies

Appalachian State University, a 17,000‑student campus in Boone, NC, faced mounting facilities-management challenges as its legacy, homegrown UNIX system (developed in the 1980s) became hard to maintain, share across departments, and report from while supporting 110 buildings, 5.1 million GSF and more than 12,000 annual work requests. The Physical Plant needed a scalable, web‑based solution that would integrate with the campus ERP, manage preventive maintenance for thousands of assets, support inventory and chargeback billing, and handle vehicle and fuel operations.

ASU selected AssetWorks’ AiM IWMS and went live in 2008, later expanding use to Housing, Campus Police, Emergency Management and central services. The system enabled campus-wide data sharing, preventive maintenance scheduling, vehicle and fuel management (tracking 760+ vehicles), and precise chargebacks; ASU identified over $300,000 in previously uncollected chargebacks, recovered $97,362 in FEMA funds, reduced on‑hand inventory value by more than $2 million, and scaled smoothly as the campus grew.

Appalachian State University

Michael O’Connor

Physical Plant Director