» What is the meaning of facility management?
The facility management meaning points to employing services and tools that support safety, functionality, as well as the sustainability of infrastructure, buildings, grounds, and other such real estates of an organization. It helps ensure that these premises stay functional and efficient without compromising safety and comfort at all times.
» What is Facility Management Software?
Facility Management Software (FMS) is designed to manage and monitor equipment, assets, work order processes, and reduce space and overhead costs. Most Facility Management software offers an automated version of the system to manage the organization’s facilities and assets. It provides high end tools to work efficiently and enter data about parts, repairs, and materials. It also offers a control and visibility check mechanism for managers into maintenance histories and the state of company property.
Facility Management Software is designed to manage assets, equipment, work order processes, and reduce space and maintenance costs. Most such software offers an automated system for managing the organization’s facilities and assets. It provides lower-level workers with tools to work efficiently and enter data about repairs, parts, and materials. It also offers managers control and visibility into maintenance histories and the state of company property.
Facility maintenance software (used interchangeably with facility management software) also plays a role in organizing and managing duties for a lot of sectors, like, government offices, campuses, various institutions, manufacturing centres, corporate offices and so on. The versatility makes facility maintenance software adaptable for almost any sort of use. From schools to offices to government agencies, facility maintenance software is an important aspect to the proper functioning of any organization.
What are The Top facility management software?
1. ServiceChannel
ServiceChannel gives the user complete control of every step of the invoicing process. From mobile creation to automatically generated work orders, the user has visibility throughout the entire organization. Asset Manager, a certain feature of ServiceChannel FMS, enables the user to track all the physical equipment across various locations and create work orders and avoid unnecessary spending. This software helps in making smarter, data-driven decisions.
2. IBM TRIRIGA
IBM TRIRIGA expertise in space optimization, occupant experience, capital projects, and lease administration and accounting. TRIRIGA tracks usage and occupancy by floor, building, and organization. Automated tracking is used to stay on top of critical lease renewals while keeping up with the latest accounting standards and regulations. Budgets, costs &schedules, move requests, management approvals, and tracking information can be managed easily with this software.
3. OfficeSpace Software
Designed to work on any device, this intuitive software helps one to deal with any task in as fewer steps as possible. Being quite speedy and efficient, OfficeSpace lets the user to tailor various processes to perfectly suit the respective workplace and enhance company culture. Scheduling, budgeting, costing analysis, and tracking all entered information; everything is seamlessly done using this software.
4. Hippo CMMS
This is facility management software that focuses and excels at the following aspects: it generates, prioritizes, closeout, and track work orders. You can also manage third-party vendors and suppliers simultaneously. You can set and control inventory levels efficiently through Hippo CMMS. The software is helpful to establish preventative maintenance schedules without any hassle. Through this software, you can allocate labour and resources effortlessly and schedule inspections in an organized manner. You can also produce reports based on customizable KPIs.
5. Axonator FM
Axonator FM is an enterprise-grade, secure, scalable, and award-winning app! Axonator FM helps facility management departments and companies go digital step-by-step using the Micro App strategy! All the information instantly flows to a central location to automatically create the reports to be submitted to the upper management for decision making, performance tracking & compliance monitoring.
6. Infraspeak
Advanced communication techniques, full transparency, and better integration are the attributes Infraspeak boasts of. It helps the user in connecting directly with the customers, decrease maintenance times and proper maintenance of facilities. Infraspeak’s SLA add-on fully complies with all corrective and preventive maintenance quality standards and helps in keeping up with the deadline.
7. TheHouseMonk
TheHouseMonk is a leading SaaS technology provider that helps Rental real estate businesses grow and manage their portfolio. The technology platform powers 100+ clients across 10+ countries and scaling rapidly. Clients include Coliving operators, Student Housing operators, residential rental managers, property and facility managers, and many more.
8. UpKeep
UpKeep serves to automate routine maintenance activities to improve operational efficiency at your facility. It helps in easy identification of bottlenecks and efficiencies with the analytics dashboard. It provides an analysis of which facilities, locations, and equipment are hogging resources and which technicians are closing out the most work orders. UpKeep frees up time for strategic planning and collaboration. Usability, collaboration, system maintenance, reporting are the attributes that play a key role in the functioning of the software.
9. FacilityBot
FacilityBot is a cloud-based Software-As-A-Service facilities management chatbot system that offers a seamless user experience with no downloads and no logins needed. FacilityBot offers a host of features such as fault reporting, preventive maintenance management, asset management, hot desking, surveys, broadcasts, audit trails, visitor management, data analytics, and more.
10. FM:Interact
FM:Interact provides the user with up-to-date and accurate depictions of the current assets. It helps in cutting down on expenditure whilst also generating revenue for the organization. Scenario planning, a key feature of FM:Interact, enables the user to map out with clarity if the user plans on expanding into new locations.
11. QuickFMS
QuickFMS is a robust, scalable and fast Facility Management Software solution. It focuses on increasing the efficiency of employees to impact the top and bottom line. 99.99% uptime on the cloud is available. It is also very easy to install and extremely user-friendly. The user will be up and running in under 48 hours while continuing with normal operations. Data collection is also a very easy task by using this software.
12. Facilitron
The Facilitron platform accommodates both internal and external reservation requests and transforms how facility owners manage their facilities. It organizes all facility scheduling, calendars, and communications into one place. The availability of online application and approval process saves administrators valuable time and make the workflow easy and manageable.
13. TrackPlan
TrackPlan controls and captures all job-related information. It has a scheduler which helps in planning the workflow. Recurring work for planned jobs can be created automatically and helps to stay up-to-date with the legislation. Easy to raise requests and notifications to the maintenance team for any issues. Budget management and document management is very easy. Contractors can be assigned work and the progress and timings can be tracked and checked effectively. Easy installation and breaking down of a particular project into smaller jobs are key features.
Facility Management Software Buyer’s Guide
Facility Management Software (FMS) is software that incorporates several functions to ensure functionality, safety, comfort, and efficiency of the built environment by integrating the 3PT i.e. People, Process, Place and technology.
» What are The Top Facility Management Software?
» What are the features of Facility Management Software?
» What are the benefits of Facility Management Software?
» Questions to ask a vendor when buying Facility Management Software
» What are the features of Facility Management Software?
A Facility Management Software is used to essentially to monitor and manage the various attributes of an environment on a computerized platform. All the various facility management software have a few common features, keeping aside the special features that makes each software unique in its own way. Some of such features of Facility Management Software are as follows:
› Ability to generate, assess, and prioritize requests of work:
Facility managers are loaded with a lot of tasks and it becomes very cumbersome for them to organize and sort each and every task based on the priority, nature, and relevance. Facility management software allows generating a work request with structured and complete details and notifying other units on what sort of service is needed. It helps in the proper support and delegation of a particular task.
An important feature is the ability to put a ‘priority’ tag on important work requests. This way it helps the recipients such as contractors and suppliers to prioritize the high-importance task and complete it first.
› A singular and integrated system:
Being a single and totally integrated system, a Facility Management Software helps in reducing the time and effort required to get a job done. With the proper sectoring of tasks, it prevents the facility managers from wandering and keeping the redundancy in check.
The integrated system comes with a single support network where there is a sole point of support for all facility management software needs. A single point of contact for all software related issues, relationship with the support team and multiple problems can be solved with just a phone call. It also helps in maintaining internal and external consistency at all levels by allowing the easier establishment of best practices, and a smoother and more efficient workflow.
› Tracking of work orders and history of data:
The main motive of tracking work orders is to keep a check on and monitor the trends of work orders for future reference. It gives options to track work-orders on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly basis. This helps the facility managers to evaluate the areas that need more focus and attention.
Facility Management Software also allows tracking the equipment’s data like their history of issues, errors, and problems to prevent the repetition of such issues. This way it lowers the portion of investment in repairing the equipment facing the same issues or defects.
› Helps in tracking consumable inventories:
Facility managers have a load of work to complete on a daily basis. Meanwhile, they forget about identifying the minimal but important consumable inventories that require scheduled orders. The absence of the stock of these essential items can annoy the tenants.
Facility management software helps us to keep a close eye on the stocks of all the consumable as well as non-consumable items by setting up a notification system or a stock updating alarm-like system. This keeps the facility from being short on any essential commodity.
› Preventive and scheduled tracking of maintenance:
Facility managers have to take care of the maintenance of the building and its components. This involves tasks such as painting, carpentry, plumbing, etc. Facility management software keeps the data history of every maintenance work and their next probable date of maintenance. It also keeps a record of the contractors and sub-contractors who supplied the necessary equipment or provided the maintenance service.
The facility manager software is also responsible for maintaining the infrastructure at its best and to ensure that all safety standards are complied with.
› Cloud-based Application
Facility managers need a great help from cloud-based or web-based facility management software to manage many aspects of the infrastructure and from their mobile, computer or any such devices. With this feature facility managers can easily address urgent matters and access important files without the burden of rushing back to their office.
Because the data is stored on a secure server, it provides an added level of security to them in case any disaster occurs in the office building.
» What are the benefits of Facility Management Software?
› Asset tracking and management: Facility management software allows for much more efficient tracking and management of business assets and provides real-time data for proper analysis as compared to the conventional methods.
› Efficiency: Regular maintenance is necessary for the efficient functioning of an organization. It prevents equipment downtime and increases business productivity, thus, providing a greater return on investment.
› Easy Customisation: The user can freely choose the support units and tools that are required for the organization and may discard the ones not needed.
› Mobility: As most of the Facility management software are cloud-based, these days, importing and exporting data is much easier and can be easily accessed from any place.
» Questions to ask a vendor when buying Facility Management Software
1. Is it the correct type of FM (Facility Management) software for my business?
2. Does the FM software include both the preventive and reactive maintenance procedures?
3. What all things its asset management and tracking feature would be covering?
4. Does the FM system offer business intelligence and reporting?
5. Is the system easy to integrate with other software that we use in the organization, such as accounting software?
6. How does the software’s Emergency Planning module work?
7. Is the software scalable to meet the requirements of my business as it grows?
8. Would the software help me maintain my multiple locations?
9. How long have you been in the business?
10. What would be the implementation process?
11. Is the system simple enough to use for everyone?
12. What would be the learning curve?
13. What is the pricing structure? Is there any additional cost for extra features or personalization?
14. Is the training included in your pricing?
15. What kind of after-sales support do you provide? Is the support services inclusive of the pricing or comes at an additional cost?
» What is the cost of Facility Management Software?
Apart from sharing the basic features, each facility management software holds one or more special features. The cost of the facility management software is purely dependent on the size of the organization and the features you want to incorporate.
The cost of a facility management software ranges from $45 per month to $195 per month on an average basis.
Most of the software provides a trial period after which the user has the choice to buy the particular software or opt for some other software.
» Conclusion
Whether one owns a factory or a construction site or a corporate office, numerous problems regarding maintenance and organization are inevitable. This is what facility management software caters to helping facility managers ensure that their buildings are in the desired shape and are being utilized to the maximum potential at all times.
