Do You Use The Same Tool for Service Requests That IT Uses for Help Desk?
Your software helps determine the health of your facilities. How successful are your facilities management tools? When you use efficient technology to manage your work order requests, your facilities will run more smoothly. Using dedicated facilities management software can help you achieve that goal.
What Software Should You Use for Facilities Requests?
The staff at your workplace need a support team to help them do their jobs. The support team in IT helps 
them manage their computer software and hardware. When there is a problem, an employee can send in a help desk request. Employees are likely comfortable with their help desk system, and to company management it may look as though you can use the same software to make facilities and materials requests. While IT software is an excellent choice if you’re an IT manager, it’s not designed for facilities equipment and booking requests.
Sensible Space Management
As a facilities manager, you need to know who is using your spaces and when. Facilities management software allows you to gather this data and analyze trends. This information helps you make smart decisions about how to manage those spaces in the future. What spaces are well-used? Which ones could be shared with another department or with outside groups? Using dedicated facilities management software can help you use spaces more efficiently.
Keep Maintenance Up to Date
While a help desk request form tells you when people need assistance, it doesn’t necessarily give you all of the information you need to track the age, repairs, and maintenance of your facilities. Dedicated facilities maintenance software allows your staff to schedule and coordinate maintenance and see how their requests are moving through the system. It also helps you schedule planned maintenance during the year or during the life of a building. Your buildings are assets, and your software should help you maintain them.
Track Your Assets and Inventory
When you need to stick to a budget, you need to know what resources you have available. When does that copier need to be serviced or replaced? How much paper did that department use last year, and has it increased? If you’re using a system that’s not designed to track your assets and inventory, you can respond to requests, but it’s harder to be proactive in your inventory management as your software may not be up to the challenge. To really know what assets you have on hand and how your assets and inventory are being used, use software that’s built for the purpose of asset and inventory monitoring.
When you’re looking for software for your facilities, you need to move beyond IT software into the realm of facilities management software. This system will seamlessly integrate with your other facilities management processes and systems, ensuring that room bookings, maintenance, inventory and more stay up to date. Let yourself become proactive, not reactive by using software that works for your facilities. Contact iOffice today to learn more about how our specialized office products can transform your facilities department.
