University of Texas at San Antonio cuts through campus space complexity with OpenBlue

From disconnected, manual processes to visual space intelligence

UTSA’s real estate portfolio comprises approximately 22,000 rooms across 6.3 million square feet. Each year, the university certifies its room and building inventories with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), formally verifying that its records accurately represent the facilities under the university’s control. The THECB also conducts periodic audits that compare those records with actual campus spaces, measurements and uses. The information the THECB gathers about space utilization is used to help determine the need for additional facilities funding.

Before implementing OpenBlue, UTSA relied on a legacy database, spreadsheets and manual coordination with individual departments to maintain its space information.

“I would meet with the departments and go through their spaces on a spreadsheet, then use that information to update the database,” explains Veronica Garcia-Lopez, UTSA’s Space Inventory Senior Manager. “We didn't have the floor plans, color coding and employee and space names that we have now.”

The process could stretch across several months because it depended on the availability of numerous campus stakeholders. Adding a new building required physically walking through and measuring every room.

UTSA wanted a platform that could connect its space data with visual floor plans while supporting the specialized reporting requirements of a public university in Texas.

A centralized platform built for higher education

UTSA selected OpenBlue Workplace after Garcia-Lopez saw how the platform was being used at another Texas university. Its visual floor plans, reporting capabilities and Higher Ed Survey feature made it particularly well-suited to UTSA’s needs.

Today, building models can be registered in the platform and spaces can be coded by department, space type and other classifications. Graphic views allow campus stakeholders to understand the data more easily than they could through spreadsheets or database records alone.

The Higher Ed Survey gives departments a structured way to review and update their space information. Administrative import capabilities have also accelerated the process of adding new buildings to the system.

“What would have taken me two weeks instead took just three days,” she says.

Faster reporting, more confident planning and better space decisions

OpenBlue Workplace has significantly simplified UTSA’s annual reporting to the THECB. The platform generates the university’s CBM011 room report and CBM014 building report, which Garcia-Lopez can upload directly to the state website.

The platform has also strengthened Garcia-Lopez’s confidence in UTSA’s space data. Having trusted information in one system reduces the need for frequent field verification and helps UTSA prepare for future audits.

“I feel like I do have better data because we were already using Workplace when we had our last audit in 2023, and everything that we had coded was correct,” Garcia-Lopez says. “We didn’t have any mistakes.”

Beyond reporting, university leaders and planners use the data to evaluate requests for additional space. Having access to fact-based information about how much space a department has and how that space is being used enables better decisions about whether the department needs more.

Space information has also contributed to broader campus planning. For example, UTSA used OpenBlue data alongside input from students, housing representatives and other stakeholders when planning and designing a new residence hall.

About the customer
The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is a multicultural discovery enterprise institution with more than 34,000 students. It is the largest university in the San Antonio metropolitan region, with four campuses across the city. Its growing campus portfolio supports education, research, student life and university operations across millions of square feet.