Case Study | How We Helped a Kansas City College Rethink Its Commercial Roof Management Process

For many colleges and universities, commercial roof replacements occur through a similar process.

Typically, a roof replacement is identified over time through recurring leaks and service needs. The common response is to request bids reactively, and often, these bids are from contractors that the school already knows, like a vendor that’s already performing the leak repairs or drops lunch off to the breakroom occasionally. The contractors respond and offer pricing, with the resulting bids having slight variations, product discrepancies, and differing methods of adding/subtracting actual value.

At this point, the board is forced to choose one of two options. Either they pick the lowest priced bid and roll the dice on change orders, corner cutting, and delivered value, or they pick the contractor they know the best and resign to paying a premium.

This process is all too common, where contractors with a standing relationship can increase costs over time for organizations that rely on them. The historical solution for an organization wanting to solve this scenario is to bring in a consultant, but this raises another problem. You are now paying for advice on top of the roof. That means you’re still being charged a premium to get the job done.

A Kansas City college recently decided to test a different method. What began as an audition with CRBG has grown into a strategic partnership covering three completed re-roofs and a campus-wide roof portfolio plan now in development. Here's how it unfolded.

The Blind Audition

When we first came into contact with this college, the facilities director and board were experiencing pain points that are often unaddressed, because clear solutions are not readily available. They wanted greater process transparency, increased confidence in contractor selection, and stronger accountability and risk mitigation across their roofing portfolio — without overpaying for projects.

To test whether CRBG's model could deliver, we agreed to do something unusual: run our process up against a roof project they had just bid out through their traditional process.

We conducted an independent roof evaluation and facilitated our unique bid process, delivering an array of options from highly qualified contractors that achieved the desired warranties, building goals, and long-term outcomes.

The comparison was revealing. Our process achieved a 20% total cost reduction while also delivering greater confidence, transparency, and hands-on support throughout the entire project lifecycle.

From Audition to Partnership

Our audition opened the door, but what’s keeping it open now is the experience of a better process.

Working with CRBG introduced the college to a different way of managing its roofs… One point of contact, an objective upfront evaluation, and a comparative & educational summary that the board could act on.

Since the audition, we’ve completed three re-roofs for the college and have run our bid process on five more, with those projects scheduled for completion later this summer. Throughout each, CRBG has served as the single point of contact, streamlining the process, driving clarity, and delivering compelling volume-based pricing and value.

For facility and purchasing teams, this creates tremendous value. Roof projects often pull facility leaders away from their core responsibilities for weeks at a time. The CRBG partnership model restores that time by managing the process with greater clarity, accountability, and support.

The Portfolio View

With priority projects completed or scheduled, our value isn’t stopping there. We're now developing an executive plan covering every roof in the college's portfolio. We’re helping them create a single, current, data-rich view of every roof on campus that clearly outlines condition, expected service life, maintenance needs, and replacement timing.

Instead of reacting project-by-project, the college can now plan capital budgets years ahead, sequence replacements by priority to match capital cycles, and document maintenance to extend the life of every system.

What This Means for Similar Organizations

The shift this college made isn't really about roofing. It's about moving from a transactional approach, where each project is bid, managed, and closed in isolation, to a strategic asset approach: where every roof is part of a documented portfolio with a proactive game plan.

Organizations feel the difference in many small ways that add up. Fewer surprise leaks, and fewer hours lost to coordinating contractors and trying to develop clarity and confidence in significant financial decisions, just to name a few.

While pricing matters, it has never been the primary reason institutions continue to partner with us. They stay because of the confidence our system creates. A clearer process, stronger strategic direction, and a well-defined game plan for both immediate projects and long-term portfolio management. We help institutions make smarter decisions with greater certainty and significantly less risk, all while delivering pricing that doesn't suggest third-party involvement.

Want to see what a strategic view of your roof portfolio would look like? Reach out to CRBG at crbgrp.com.