5 Sectors That Benefited Most from Facility Management Software

by Rebecca Symmank on December 12, 2019
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Facility management is a specialized set of skills and practices designed to help organizations properly manage, utilize, and maximize their facilities such as buildings, properties, warehouses, factories, spaces, and other environments. It also involves the management of utilities and installations within the said facilities, including HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), gas, energy, security systems, communications, and the internet.

With the help of facility management software, facility managers are tasked to make sure their facilities and its systems are in optimum condition to provide a safe and fully compliant environment where personnel can reside and/or perform their functions productively and where organizations can securely store their stocks, inventory, and other assets.

The best facility management software allows facility managers to track energy consumption, maximize utility usage, optimize the use of spaces, schedule repair and maintenance from a single, centralized interface. Among the many benefits of facility management software is the significant reduction of energy and water consumption. Buildings are the largest consumers of the world’s energy (40%) and water (25%). With the right facility management solution, you can cut down your consumption and increase energy and water efficiency by significant margins.

Simply put, facility management is about operating facilities as efficient and productive as possible. To be able to reduce operational costs, shorten and prevent downtimes, strictly comply with existing rules, regulations, and standards, while keeping everyone and every asset safe and sound.

Sectors Benefitting from Facilities Management Software

There are tens of sectors that greatly benefited from the advantages of facility and workplace management solutions. But the following industries take the cake.

1. IT and Telecom

According to a recent facility management market forecast by MarketsandMarkets, the industry is poised to grow by as much as $59.33 billion by 2023. That is a massive growth from a market valued at $32.21 billion back in 2017. Among the industries leading the charge for facility and workplace management platform adoption and implementation is the IT and telecom sector.

Considering how important telecom and IT facilities are to almost everyone on the planet, it’s not surprising why this particular industry spends a fortune on facility management systems. As the industry expands, the demand for facility management solutions grows as well. These solutions are extremely essential to the completion of critical projects, site management, network upgrades, and maintenance of IT and telecom assets.

Communication towers, broadcast stations, and data centers are critical facilities that require constant tracking and maintenance. Downtime could mean a temporary loss of Internet connection and communication, which can be quite disruptive, not just to the operations of IT and telecom organizations, but to their clients as well.

2. Manufacturing

Managing factories, manufacturing plants, and other industrial facilities can be quite challenging. These massive complexes have various types of heavy equipment and machinery designed for assembly and production as well as different systems to manage utilities, heating, cooling, and safety. In more modern factories, facility managers have to include robots and AI-powered systems in their checklist.

The introduction of the computer-aided, factory facility management system has helped facility managers and their staff to have better visibility over their facilities, equipment, systems, personnel, and other assets. Better visibility leads to better, more actionable insights.

This means facility managers and their teams can come up with effective and viable plans for repair and maintenance, submit timely proposals and requests for replacements and acquisition, perform more thorough inventory checks and audits, and keep their facilities up to par with all factory facility management standards and regulations.

With clearer and more actionable insights, facility managers are able to collaborate with plant managers and supervisors to develop better and safer practices that can prolong the service lives of their assets, ensure the safety of their personnel. Employees who feel valued are more empowered, productive, and are able to create meaningful relationships and experiences. They also tend to stay longer too.

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3. Banking and Financial Services

Banks and other financial institutions operate several offices in different locations and carry diverse sets of portfolios of properties, investments, and other assets. Such a setup gives way to a myriad of challenges, considering the many business processes that transpire in each office as well as the systems, software solutions, and other assets that are essential to the operation of said offices.

Managing portfolios can be quite daunting as well, especially when it comes to properties, real estate, and other assets located at small locations outside major banking hubs. To address maintenance and management concerns of these facilities, enterprises in the banking and financial services sector leverage different facility management and the best BPM tools for business, mainly IWMS (integrated workplace management system) CMMS (computerized maintenance management system).

These solutions provide facility management teams with a distinctive edge in managing different operations and business processes, including maintenance management, job order tracking, space management, and asset management.

4. Government and Public Administration

Every government in the world owns and operates hundreds of facilities, including power stations, traffic control centers, hospitals, airports, seaports, military bases, and other related properties. Thus, facility management is now a crucial component for government agencies and enterprises as they are held accountable to the public.

Among the main challenges faced by facility managers in the government and public administration vertical is to keep these facilities fully functional, safe, and secure for both daily and long-term operations as their budget continues to shrink and customer demand grows. The role facility management software plays to keep government-owned facilities operating at an efficient rate can never be overstated.

Aside from making sure these facilities keep running at an optimal pace, facility management solutions help managers and their teams discover opportunities to improve current business processes and services. They can also use the data gathered and analyzed by the software to create and implement new best practices to increase efficiency and productivity while cutting down operational costs to save taxpayers their money.

5. Real Estate

Construction firms and real estate agencies utilize various types of facility management platforms including IWMS, computer-aided facility management, real estate asset management, and commercial property management systems to manage commercial buildings, residential properties, office spaces, and other properties for sale or rent. Keeping real estate properties in great operational condition is key to increasing profitability.

With these systems, enterprises in the construction and real estate vertical are able to schedule and perform building repairs at the most opportune time to limit disruption and impact on tenants and workers as well as attract potential buyers and renters.

They are able to create viable floor plans to maximize the use of office spaces. The software also helps determine budding building issues such as leaking pipes, wall cracks, exposed electrical wires, and faulty fire alarms, and remedy them before they become bigger and costlier problems.

Facility Management Systems Are A Critical Investment

Considering the advantages facility management systems bring to the different verticals mentioned earlier, more and more industries will come into the fold. Other sectors where facility management systems are already considered critical components include the military, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals to mention some

The challenges of running a facility, which includes increasing efficiency and productivity while keeping operational expenses significantly down, will drive facility management system implementation and growth in other sectors. Facility Management Software has proven to help many enterprises remain competitive and significant in their respective industries. Thus, it is a critical investment that other organizations ought not to overlook.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rebecca Symmank

As a member of the Business Development team for iOFFICE, Rebecca is spirited and is quick to take initiative. Previously a customer and daily user of the IWMS provider, she has extensive experience on both the front and back end structure of the product. Rebecca's enthusiasm for facilities management and her tangible experience in the field give her an unprecedented understanding and perception of iOFFICE customers. Rebecca is able to relate to organizations implementing on IWMS, and has a unique perspective on what makes the experience a success.

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