Facility Management Software

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Buyer's Guide

The facilities management software market can be difficult to navigate. There are over 200 software companies that would say they offer some type of facility management application. Making it more challenging, many of these companies use different words to describe the same thing. For example, computer-aided facility management (CAFM) could be considered a synonym for facility management software. Computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), enterprise asset management, and integrated workplace management system (IWMS) are also closely related.

During their research, buyers will face the more difficult task of finding a system for their size and type of organization. We wrote this guide to help buyer’s through this process. Here’s what we’ll cover:

What is Facility Management Software?
Application Categories

What Type of Buyer are You?
Market Trends To Understand

What is Facility Management Software

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 can include a wide range of activities from portfolio forecasting to equipment maintenance management to space planning. Facility management software supports these activities with applications for asset management, maintenance management, real estate portfolio management, space management, and more. A well-implemented system will help companies reduce costs of maintaining their facilities; improve the flow of information across departments, and boost efficiency of operations.

Application Categories

Maintenance Management	Every facility management vendor will offer some type of maintenance management application. At a minimum, most offer work order management, which allows organizations to create and track work orders for maintenance activities. Others will offer more specific applications such as facility condition assessment, which allows organizations to evaluate the physical condition of their buildings, or preventive maintenance, which automates routine maintenance tasks. Applications that fall under this category may also fall under computerized maintenance management software (CMMS). These markets are very similar, but CMMS providers offer more sophisticated maintenance applications than what is commonly found in facility management software.
Asset Management	Asset management software is used to track and manage company assets. Specifically, it helps organizations keep track of where assets are located, what facilities department uses them, how often they are used, and when they need repaired (or replaced). This can include everything from artwork, computers, furniture, IT infrastructure, lab equipment, and more. By storing this information in a single place, organizations are able to keep more reliable and up-to-date information about their assets and expenses. Additionally, this information helps organizations understand how to optimize the use and placement of assets. In turn, this helps reduce capital expenditures.
Space Management	Space management software helps organizations track, analyze, and optimize the physical space in one or more buildings. It provides real-time information about how a room is being used, what assets and personnel are in the room, and how they are arranged. This gives companies a better understanding of how they are using their space, which can help them avoid leasing or purchasing additional, unnecessary space. Many space management applications integrate with CAD or BIM files so that users can view all this information in a floor plan rather than a data sheet.
Move Management	As the name implies, move management software helps organizations move from one building to another. Functionally speaking, the software plays a simple role. But, it’s a very important role, especially for organizations with hundreds or thousands of employees and assets. Move management software helps organizations keep their moving costs down by helping them identify the most efficient and least disruptive moving process. Specifically, it provides a central location to track the move schedule, costs, and any related documents like move requests and approvals. It will integrate with space management, HR, and asset management applications so that move liaisons can check availability of space, move the right employees, and make sure their desks, chairs, and computers all arrive on time.
Capital Project & Program Management	Capital program and project management software 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. For this reason, most capital program management systems offer a large set of applications which can include funding management, bid and procurement management, scheduling, document management, resource management, and more.
Lease Administration	Lease administration software provides a central repository for tracking important lease documents and information. It helps organizations reduce data errors, avoid costly penalties, and speed up data entry by automating many common lease management processes. It is especially helpful for organizations that manage a large lease portfolio and that track varying lease expiration dates and tenancy terms.
Real Estate Portfolio Management	Real estate portfolio management performs several functions. First, it provides a central repository for organizations to store and access important property information. This can include everything from square footage to building cost performance to leased vs owned space. Having a single space to track this information reduces administrative costs and helps companies keep reliable and up-to-date information about their properties. The second main function is forecasting. This helps organizations predict their future space needs and occupancy costs, which is quite challenging when you consider employee turnover, company growth, and potential mergers or acquisitions. Portfolio forecasting tools will assess historical data, and allow users to test different “what-if” scenarios to make accurate predictions. Finally, there is a reporting and analysis component. Companies can use this tool to analyze portfolio financial data and performance, then compare it with key performance indicators or industry benchmarks in order to find ways to reduce costs.
Environmental Sustainability	Environmental sustainability is the latest addition to the facility management software market. It’s designed to help organizations monitor and reduce both their energy consumption and their environmental footprint. Most solutions will have monitoring, reporting, and forecasting capabilities. Monitoring tools are used to track how much energy and water are used in each room or area of a building. This can also be used to track the amount of greenhouse gas emissions or other types of waste the building produces. A reporting and analytics tool will 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).

What Type of Buyer Are You?

Before you begin evaluating software, you need to decide what type of buyer you are. We find that 90% of buyers fall into one of these three groups:

Full-suite buyers. These buyers are more concerned with having seamless integration than specific features. They want to replace disparate software programs with a complete, integrated suite.
Best-of-breed buyers. These buyers are focused on specific functions. For example, organizations with a maintenance department may purchase a single, maintenance management application because of its depth of functionality. Typically, specific functional requirements will trump the need for seamless integration.
Small business software buyers. These small businesses want to upgrade basic property maintenance software to support more sophisticated functions like planned maintenance, equipment management, and portfolio planning. They typically seek an easy-to-use system that supports all of their needs.

Market Trends You Should Understand

As you evaluate facility management software, keep these trends in mind. How your vendor fits with these trends could have a big impact on their viability.

Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS offerings are becoming commonplace. An increasing number of facility managers are considering SaaS or cloud-based applications to manage operations because of their low initial costs, increased accessibility, and easy maintenance (i.e. no expensive servers to maintain). Several web-based vendors have emerged on the scene, while other traditional on-premise players are adding cloud offerings to their line-up.
Environmental Sustainability. More and more organizations want to use technology to help them reduce their ecological footprint. As a result, facility management software vendors have added sustainability and energy management applications to their product lines. These applications help organizations track costs of environmental deficiencies, identify assets that need to be replaced or renovated, and lower their annual energy expenditures.

WOW! On the Web

Succussful, efficient facilities management is made possible with WOW! (formerly Work Order Wonder) by Core 7. With WOW!, facility managers have a comprehensive solution to manage work orders, assets and more.

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