IBM has rereived a contract from the UK Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) to provide applications to help managing real estate property of military bases and housing facilities worth about $36bn.

Under the contract, DIO will deploy IBM’s smarter buildings software and services to reduce building operating costs and find ways to better utilise its existing real estate infrastructure.

By replacing its outdated legacy IT environment with IBM technology, DIO will create a new centralised information management system, allowing faster analysis and informed decision-making to better manage its vast network of real estate.

DIO is an operational arm of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that manages about 4,000 separate sites and includes military barracks, land, air and naval bases and military training grounds.

IBM TRIRIGA application will provide an integrated property management application comprising of software and consultancy services, giving DIO central visibility of its extensive global property holdings and data on how efficiently they are being used.

The geospatial mapping capability, created by business partner Esri UK, provides the real-time visualisation map that gives a complete scope of DIO’s infrastructure and assets.

In addition, the IBM application will also enable processes to be streamlined across the MoD’s diverse organisation by linking with the systems used by DIO’s Next Generation Estate Contracts team.

DIO chief executive Andrew Manley said the new contract with IBM will allow it to work smarter in providing a Defence estate, which meets military needs and supports DIO’s Armed Forces.

"IBM analytics technology helps us continue our work in creating a world-class infrastructure to put DIO at the leading edge of the technology transformation process happening right now across the MoD," Manley said.

The UK MoD has 45,000 buildings, 55,000 houses and 135,000 single living bedspaces which include real estate property in Germany, Cyprus and the Falkland Islands, along with facilities in Norway, Poland, Kenya, Canada, Belize, Nepal and Oman

The upgraded system will be launched in a number of capability releases through April 2014.