Managing a whole building needs a lot of time, effort, and money. On the other hand, if the management can succeed in this field, the whole operation could become much easier. In doing this, the right tool to help them must be selected. The problem, however, is that there is a lot of tools to choose from. The best tools might be the software that can facilitate the operation in a certain building.
But what kind of software will a management use to help them in their operations? It may be a collaboration software or a customer management software to collect the information of each person who visits their facility. It can be an administration software or a document management software to help them manage the reports and documents of the staff and customers. Then there are also the maintenance systems to focus on ensuring the hygiene and safety of the building. Or they can simply use a property management software instead.
There are a lot of choices when it comes to software that will help manage a certain building or facility. While all of these might come in handy for the management, it may also cause disorganization and confusion among the members of the management. If they are using a lot of systems which cannot sync all the information, then it will still require a lot of time. They will need to collaborate with each other from time to time, and there will be a bigger chance of misinformation. Therefore, it would be much easier if the management can utilize a single software that can accommodate all the needs of running a facility. This is where the facility management software comes in. But first, what is this type of software, and why it is preferable to use in running a facility.
What Is Facility Management Software?
Asset management is the primary purpose of facility management. It deals with profitable and successful operations, monitoring, and maintenance of a property or a certain building. It involves many aspects to ensure that the property is kept functional. This task can be achieved by the collaboration of all the systems, people, technology, places, and process involved in the facility. As for using a software for facility management, it simply puts the job in a digital system. It can be on a computer or in smartphones. This will streamline the tedious works of maintaining a building including its operations. Just like any other software, it will put together all the data from the facility’s operations into one database so that the management, the staff, and customers can easily access it whenever they need to.
What Are the Advantages of Using an FMS?
We already know that all software can make our jobs easier and faster. This also includes facility management software. For the business owners who run one or more facilities, it is a very helpful tool to streamline all the daunting tasks of managing the whole operations. It’s quite fascinating how a single piece of software can merge those entire tasks into one database to organize all the needed schedules and other tedious paperwork. It allows the people involved in the facility to manage their bookkeeping and reports, sort their finances, monitor the maintenance and utility consumption and a lot more. If you are not yet convinced about the capabilities of facility management systems and what it can do to your business, here are the advantages of using this kind of software.
- Improves Productivity
Facility management systems can distribute the tasks to all the staff and monitor their performance. If someone can manage all the operations in a centralized server, delegating tasks will be more organized and strategic because the user can monitor the productivity of each staff. Using a single database, it can collect all the needed information even in multiple sources. Therefore, it makes gathering data much faster and much easier. The end result is improved productivity on a drastic level.
- Paperless Management
The beauty of the technology today is that it allows us to do our works without dealing with papers. The same goes with computer-aided facility management (CAFM) software. An operation that involves a lot of paper-based records is very difficult to maintain. You will need shelves or any containers that will serve as an archive. It is almost impossible to have a proper bookkeeping if this is the way you record the information. Plus, there is more chance that the records can become disorganized or worse, lose or miss something important. On the other hand, when using a facility management software, all of these difficulties will be gone. Moreover, if the management uses a cloud-based system, it can be more secure because they can simply make a backup data which are saved in a single server.
- Better Security
If a certain type of software can monitor all the activities in the building, track the performance of each staff, limit the access of other members of the management, then it means better security to your business. That is what some of the facility management software can offer. It can give limited access to some users so that only a few can edit the information in the database. Plus, the system can also record who had accessed the server. This is to secure the information to the ones who want to tamper or steal from the system.
- Regulatory Standards
A facility or building must comply with the regulatory standards set by the national and international organizations. There will be random regulatory inspections from time to time. If a building cannot comply with these standards, your facility is doomed. There will be a lot of paperwork to audit to the inspectors and other departments of the government. On the other hand, if your management is utilizing facilities management software, it would be easier to make reports about your maintenance, safety, and legal aspect of your building. It can simply reduce the time consumed in preparing the documents needed to comply with the regulatory standards.
Choosing the Best Facility Management Software
You should be convinced by now that this kind of software can drastically improve your management operations in your facility. However, if you haven’t used this in your building yet, or if you are planning to change your current crappy software, it would be best if you do your research first. As you know, the success of your business greatly depends on the kind of software you are going to use. So, you should be careful in choosing the right one for your facility. You can start your search by reading the facilities management software reviews or read some tips about it.
Now, to help you in your quest in finding the best facility management software, here are some of the features of a good FMS that you might want to consider.
- Tracking of Work
It must have the capabilities to track the schedule, working hours, performance, activities, and other aspects of work. It should have a log or a history of all of that information so that it could be used for future purposes.
- Notification of Work Requests
The system should allow all the personnel to notify someone if they need assistance. It should work in both ways. If the managers need a member of the staff or an employee, they should be able to easily contact that person. And if an employees need to notify them, the system must also allow that. Work requests must also contain the nature of the request so that the receiver can evaluate the situation even before the actual work.
- Cloud-based System
The database must allow the users to access the system whenever and wherever they want. It should support the use of laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. You will not know if you have to attend to something which forces you to leave your desktop in your office. But with the use of an internet connection, you can still manage your facility even if you’re not physically there.
- Maintenance Tracking
This is one of the most crucial parts of managing a facility. Facility management software must focus or at least have the sufficient features that will cover this field. It should allow the maintenance personnel to schedule their day-to-day works so that they will not miss a spot. It must also keep track of the inventory such as the machinery and tools needed in the maintenance of the building. Plus, if ever the system is cloud-based and if someone needs assistance from the maintenance personnel, they can easily notify them to solve the problem.
- Keeping History
The system should keep a history of all the activities in the building aside from the ones who logged in the building. This may include the equipment used and who use them. The works requests should also be recorded. Even with the kind of services that are rendered to the people and the contact information of those persons. Everything pertinent should be kept in case something happens or if the management might need that information in the future.
Managing a facility is hard but with the help of the right tool or software, it wouldn’t be that difficult and redundant. On the other hand, if the system you choose is not the right one for your facility, it might give you trouble instead of help. Therefore, you must do enough research before you select the system that you will use. You can read some facilities management software reviews to gain insight about the top software in the market today.
You can also read the reviews and ranking of the top facilities management software in CrowdReviews.com.
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