Facilities Management Software

Facilities Management Software

With more than 200 vendors in the facilities management software landscape, this market can be difficult to navigate. Vendors use different terms to describe software functionality similar to computer-aided facility management (CAFM), including computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), enterprise asset management (EAM) and integrated workplace management systems (IWMS).

What Is Facility Management Software?

In general, facility management software is designed to perform the following functions:

• Mange assets and track important equipment information
• Manage maintenance costs
• Automate maintenance workflows
• Create and manage recurring tasks
• Increase asset efficiency
• Streamline work order processes (e.g., repair requests, completion tracking)
• Reduce space and maintenance costs

The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) defines facility management as the “practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organization.” This encompasses a range of activities, from portfolio forecasting to equipment maintenance and space planning. 

Common Features of Facility Management Software

A well-implemented system will help companies reduce the costs of maintaining their facilities, improve the flow of information across departments and boost operational efficiency. Common applications found in CAFM include:

Maintenance management

Allows organizations to create and track work orders for maintenance activities. All building maintenance software offers some type of maintenance application, which is sometimes called work order software. Some systems offer facility condition assessment, which helps organizations evaluate the physical condition of their buildings and preventive maintenance, which automates routine tasks. This is like CMMS, but CMMS providers offer more sophisticated maintenance applications than those found in facilities maintenance software.

Asset management

Tracks and manages an organization’s assets—where they’re located, which departments use them, their frequency of use and when they need to be repaired or replaced. This helps organizations understand how to optimize the use and placement of assets, which reduces capital expenditures.

Space management

Helps organizations optimize the physical space in their buildings. It provides holistic and real-time information outlining how a space is used, which assets and personnel are in that space, and how they’re arranged. This helps avoid leasing or purchasing additional, unnecessary space. Many space tracking applications integrate with CAD or BIM files so users can view the information in a floor plan rather than a data sheet.

Move management

Supports organizations in keeping moving costs down by identifying the most efficient and least disruptive moving process. This plays a simple but important role—especially for organizations with hundreds or thousands of employees and assets. This software tracks the move schedule, costs and any related documents, like move requests and approvals. It integrates with space tracking, HR and asset tracking applications so that move liaisons can check availability of space, move the right employees and make sure their assets arrive on time.

Capital project & program management

Helps organizations manage capital construction projects. It allows them to track key business processes and project information throughout all stages of a building’s life cycle, from pre-construction to operations and maintenance. Most systems offer a large set of applications which can include managing funds, bid and procurement, scheduling, document storage and resource management.

Lease administration

Provides a central repository for tracking important lease documents and information. This helps organizations reduce data errors, avoid costly penalties and accelerate data entry by automating lease tracking processes. It’s especially helpful for organizations that manage a large lease portfolio and that track varying lease expiration dates and tenancy terms.

Real estate portfolio management

Tracks everything from square footage to building cost performance and leased versus owned space. Having a single place to track this information reduces administrative costs and helps companies maintain up-to-date information about their properties. In addition, portfolio forecasting tools help organizations predict their future space needs and occupancy costs. These tools assess historical data, and allow users to test “what-if” scenarios to make accurate predictions. Finally, companies can use reporting and analysis tools to analyse portfolio financial data and performance, then compare it with key performance indicators or industry benchmarks to find ways to reduce costs.

Environmental sustainability & energy performance analysis

Helps organizations monitor and reduce energy consumption and their carbon footprint. With more and more organizations seeking LEED certification, energy performance tools are the latest addition to facility management systems. Many solutions have monitoring, reporting and forecasting capabilities. Monitoring tools track how much energy and water is used in an area of a building, and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions or other types of waste the building produces. Reporting and analytics tools aggregate this information so that facility managers can identify consumption trends and make informed business decisions. Forecasting tools help organizations understand the financial impact of sustainability projects (e.g., “green” renovations). These features help save energy costs over time. Additionally, there are best-of-breed environmental, health and safety (EHS) management systems that specialize this type of functionality.

Benefits of Facility Management Software Applications

Reduce “churn” rates and the expenses associated with managing space poorly. Moving is expensive, particularly if an organization lacks formal planning surrounding its moves. Churns—the process of moving employees and assets—require both downtime and investment, which can be significantly reduced by utilizing CAFM applications.

Extend asset lifespans. An attentive maintenance program extends the lifespan of assets while minimizing the total cost of ownership. Reactive maintenance is costly, results in unplanned downtime and can create an unsafe work environment. Developing a rigid asset upkeep schedule ensures that assets perform at their peak while maintaining a smooth operational schedule and employee safety—all without unexpected costs due to equipment failure.

Reduce energy-related expenses. Some organizations are looking at their energy performance for the first time. Reporting dashboards calculate total energy consumption while helping to identify operational inefficiencies. This kind of analysis demonstrates how an organization is performing and where there’s room for improvement, while encouraging sustainable behaviour among a building’s occupants. Organizations can often see an immediate savings in energy-related costs by implementing environmental performance dashboards.