Building Real Technology Inside Facilities
This Is What Happens When You Assume Good Work Will Speak for Itself
- Quiet systems get treated like optional systems.
- Stability doesn’t defend itself. Someone has to.
- Facilities technology is infrastructure, even when it’s funded like a side project.
- Transformation without narrative is easy to erase.
It’s December 22nd.
I’m technically on holiday break.
I’m writing anyway.
Some realizations don’t wait for clean calendar boundaries.
For a long time, I believed that if I focused on doing the work well, the story would take care of itself.
Stable systems.
Thoughtful integrations.
Fewer manual processes.
Lower operational risk.
What I’ve learned is that good work without visibility is fragile — especially inside large institutions, and especially when the work happens quietly.
This is a reflection on building and modernizing technology inside Facilities Management at the University of Mississippi — informed by a longer professional journey, and shaped by challenges I didn’t fully anticipate.
The Path In Wasn’t Accidental
I’ve worked in technology since 1997.
Before higher ed, my background lived in manufacturing, construction, and software — places where failure is loud, timelines are unforgiving, and systems either work or they don’t.
I don’t have a degree.
What I do have is decades of hands-on experience, a tolerance for ambiguity, and a habit of taking responsibility when things break.
That shapes how I work:
- start with foundations
- make tradeoffs explicit
- respect domain experts
- build systems that survive change
Higher ed doesn’t always make room for paths like that.
Which made this opportunity meaningful.
I Didn’t Just Inherit Systems — I Inherited Risk
When I stepped into Facilities, technology already mattered.
There were servers, applications, scripts, integrations, and data flows supporting daily operations. Some were critical. Some were fragile. Many were undocumented.
A few lived in places born of necessity, not intent — shop environments designed for tools and equipment, not uptime or security.
This wasn’t neglect.
It was history.
Facilities built what it needed with what it had. Over time, that accumulated risk.
Owning that risk became the work.
Operational Systems Need Operational Infrastructure
One decision clarified everything:
If a system is operationally critical, it belongs on operational-grade infrastructure.
So we did the unglamorous work.
Systems moved into proper data center environments.
Virtualized.
Backed up.
Monitored.
Documented.
Development, test, and production were separated.
Expectations were made explicit.
This wasn’t modernization theater.
It was alignment.
Facilities runs 24/7.
The technology that supports it can’t be treated like a side project.
From Survival to Intention
Once things stopped actively falling over, the work changed.
Instead of solving the same problems repeatedly with scripts and one-off fixes, we started building internal platforms:
- APIs that expose Facilities data cleanly
- A second-generation API designed for scale
- Internal applications meant to grow
- A single entry point staff could trust
Nothing flashy.
Just durable.
Integration Is Where the Work Actually Lives
Facilities sits at the intersection of Workday, Banner, Planon, GIS, utilities, fleet systems, 811 locates, and vendors.
No single system was ever the solution.
So integration became its own discipline:
- clear contracts
- explicit data ownership
- documented transformations
- observability instead of guesswork
The goal wasn’t elegance.
It was survivability.
Most of this effort never shows up in demos.
That’s where the work actually goes.
Small Team. Real Weight.
This transformation has been carried by a very small team.
People who learn quickly, adapt constantly, and quietly shoulder operational risk that would be distributed across multiple departments elsewhere.
That only works with trust.
What I Know Now
A few things I now believe without qualification:
- visibility is part of the job
- quiet competence still needs a voice
- Facilities technology is infrastructure
- small teams need protection, not just praise
- and transformation without narrative is easy to erase
Still Building
This work isn’t finished.
It never really is.
But today, Facilities technology here is more stable, more intentional, and more resilient than when I arrived.
I’m proud of that.
And I’ve learned that telling the story — even when it’s uncomfortable — is part of doing the work responsibly.
Write it down anyway.
This piece was adapted from an article originally shared with my professional network on LinkedIn. This version reflects the thinking as it stands now.
