More Benefits of Facility Management Software

Facility management software offers a number of impressive benefits and helps businesses streamline their operations like never before. Read on to learn how a cloud-based facility management software can help everyone at your workplace.

Facility management software enables organizations to manage their assets, space, equipment, and occupant efficiently and effectively. Most software applications offer a web-based dashboard to manage and schedule the maintenance of an organization’s facilities and assets. As a result, facility managers from nearly every business are now achieving successful business outcomes using facility management software.

1. A quick summary of facility management software:

Facility management software helps organizations plan and effectively execute facility management processes such as repair and maintenance programs. It records details about building layouts, plant assets, and employees to facilitate a range of functions such as:

• Asset management

• Equipment information tracking

• Recurring task management

• Work order fulfillment

• Room scheduling

• Vendor management

• Maintenance workflow automation

• Maintenance cost management

2. More benefits of facility management software:

• Reduces downtime and optimizes operations: Facility management software helps track past, ongoing, and upcoming maintenance services. This comprehensive approach to managing the maintenance workflow reduces asset downtime and optimizes operations.

• Ensures regulatory compliance: There are a multitude of regulations that apply to facilities in every industry. The software helps businesses comply with regulations by prescribing processes, storing supporting documents, generating reports, and confirming adherence to regulations.

• Reduces document hassles: Paper-based approaches are difficult to manage due to the bulk of physical documents generated; the sheer volume of manual effort required to track data on physical documents also increases the chances for human error. Facility management software eliminates or significantly reduces the need for physical documents to capture and report data.

• Centralizes operations: With a centralized system, supervisors can manage operational tasks of an entire facility from one place. A centralized system brings transparency into processes which saves time, enhances productivity, and reduces costs through proper equipment use and better investment decisions.

3. Typical features of facility management software:

• Maintenance management: Create and track work orders for maintenance activities. Plan maintenance operations to ensure the longevity of physical assets.

• Reporting: Record and report audit results in the form of statistical data, visual charts, or standard text content.

• Space management: Supervise, control, and manage the occupancy of physical space in buildings.

• Equipment management: Monitor and maintain equipment; reallocate equipment as per the needs within a facility.

• Facility scheduling: Schedule events or reserve venues and assets within facilities.

• Fixed asset management: Track details of fixed assets with a centralized database.

• Incident management: Identify and resolve service/equipment failures or disruptions.

• Preventive maintenance: Plan preemptive maintenance to avoid equipment breakdown or unscheduled downtime.

• Vendor management: Track and store all vendor-related information such as contacts and services/products offered.

• Work order management: Create work orders and track their status to completion.

4. The cost of facility management software:

Most facility management software products are priced on a per month, per user basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price. Price ranges per month range from:

• $15 - $34

• $34 - $48

• $48+

The above list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or professional product, which is priced higher, may include additional features such as advanced cost tracking, advanced time tracking, vendor portals, account management, and custom reports.

5. Considerations when purchasing facility management software:

• Mobile compatibility: Mobility has become an indispensable part of our lives, not just for personal use but for business needs as well. Mobile-ready facility management software helps managers access systems using mobile phones and allows teams to stay connected when traveling. It helps team members communicate, share data, and stay updated on different developments in work order processing from any location.

• Integration capabilities and associated cost: For better visibility and efficiency, the software you’re purchasing should be able to integrate with your existing tools such as building management or computer-aided design (CAD) systems. While some vendors may offer some or all integration options for free, others may charge for the application programming interfaces (APIs) required for integration.

6. Relevant facility management trends:

• Internet of Things (IoT): IoT is bringing business automation to facility management: Organizations are increasingly using internet-connected devices to support and streamline operations. This is bringing automation into commercial buildings, eliminating manual efforts for tasks such as monitoring temperature levels, security alarms, and lights.

• Drones are taking flight to assess facilities: Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can help facility owners and operators monitor asset conditions. For instance, roof and exterior inspections of high-rise buildings can be done remotely by camera-enabled drones. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can also be used to program drones to fly autonomously on predefined paths.

Mobility and Collaboration

Cloud-based facility management software can help you manage your business activities from remote locations. You can effectively communicate and collaborate with your team or even control your business when you are out of your office. Be it a computer, tablet, smartphone, with a connection to the internet; you can access the resources and assets through cloud-based facility management software.

Improved Productivity and Efficiency

Inefficient equipment and processes can significantly impact business hours and productivity. Facility management software brings overall efficiency by saving time, reducing costs, and adding more value through proper maintenance and usages of the assets. When the employees are able to control their working ambiance through various facility management tools, they can devote more time to the welfare of the organization they work in.

Space Optimization

Space optimization is the key to improved productivity and an engaging workplace. Facility management software has space optimization tools that help you making the most out of your office space. With the help of a space management feature, you can recognize the actual space in your organization and the space it needs. This can help you effectively plan your office space utilization from the dashboard of your software.

Easily Customizable

Facility management software can be easily customized according to your business requirements. You can choose the specific features that are required by different departments of your company. Our facility management software offers you the option to configure and customize your dashboard for data visualization and automated report scheduling. With all the information in your hand, you can create a report instantly, and analyze them critically.

Asset Tracking and Management

Facility management software allows you to efficiently track and manage your business assets and provides real-time data for proper analysis. For example, you know the location of your asset in real-time. The asset tracking feature of your facility management software will allow you to retain crucial asset information like a warranty of your product, maintenance history, and insight into equipment performance. You can also use this data to manage and make a better business investment.

Image courtesy of SCLogic and article content courtesy of Axxerion and Capterra.