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WHAT IS IWMS?

An integrated workplace management system (IWMS) is a software platform that helps facilities managers, corporate real estate professionals, and other workplace leaders conduct essential functions needed to keep their buildings operating and their workforce engaged.

The 5 Pillars of IWMS Software

Gartner first coined the term “integrated workplace management system” to describe a platform that would seamlessly combine many disparate software systems into one.

(Integrated workplace management system) IWMS software combines essential data into a single system, empowering leaders to make more informed decisions about their workplace and real estate portfolio.

Historically, an IWMS has consisted of five core pillars:

  • Space and facilities management
  • Real estate management and lease accounting
  • Maintenance management
  • Capital project management
  • Sustainability and energy management

pillars of iwms software

1. Space and Facilities Management

The ability to visualize and manage space is essential for creating engaging, productive and cost-effective workplaces. For this reason, space management software is the foundation for all facilities management. Space management software brings floor plans into a single, interactive display for more efficient space planning. The best space management software captures data from multiple sources, including the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, to provide real-time data on occupancy. Workplace leaders can use it to improve space utilization, reduce real estate costs, easily plan moves, help employees navigate the workplace, manage room reservations and more.

floor plan of a company that uses iwms software

2. Maintenance Management Software

To ensure the well-being and comfort of building occupants while maximizing the useful life of assets, facility managers need maintenance management software. This is an essential component of IWMS software because it allows facilities managers and workplace leaders to manage service requests, prioritize preventive maintenance and keep track of costs.

Often referred to as computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), these systems maintain a database of all assets and maintenance activities. The best maintenance management systems have a mobile app that allows any occupant or employee to submit a service request.

3. Sustainability And Energy Management Software

More than 80% of mainstream investors consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) information when making investment decisions, according to a recent study from Oxford University.

Facilities leaders recognize they need to be better stewards of the environment by reducing energy consumption and using alternative energy sources whenever possible. Many also have written commitments to reduce carbon emissions and reach specific targets. If space management software is the heart of the integrated workplace management system, energy management software is the central nervous system.

An energy management platform allows enterprise leaders to see a holistic view of energy consumption for each building and proactively make adjustments that reduce the carbon footprint while also minimizing costs. The best energy management systems rely on IoT sensors and automatically adjust lighting, temperature and other systems based on occupancy. Leaders can monitor real-time energy usage and view historical trends to make strategic decisions about energy procurement and consumption. For instance, they can take advantage of utility programs that allow them to voluntarily reduce their energy usage during peak times. They can also calculate the impact of implementing more energy-efficient heating and cooling systems over time. This helps them achieve their sustainability goals.

4. Capital Project Management Software (CPMS)

The ability to plan for future real estate needs is crucial, which makes capital project management software (CPMS) an essential component of an integrated workplace management system. Capital project management software helps building owners, operators and construction managers keep track of all the documentation involved in construction projects, including blueprints, bids, costs and schedules.

Having all this information easily accessible and searchable within a digital platform improves transparency among many stakeholders and increases efficiency.

5. Real Estate Management and Lease Accounting

Successful real estate management requires a comprehensive overview of every building, along with its square footage, occupancy, and costs. To comply with new IASB and FASB lease accounting standards, corporate real estate managers also need to maintain detailed records of all property and assets. That includes the lease terms, start and end date, owner and lessee. IWMS software allows real estate managers to store all relevant information in a single digital platform so they can visualize every space and asset in their portfolio and provide lease accounting information upon request.

Within an IWMS, different departments can monitor and modify business processes — whether it’s space management, asset management or move management. Housing all of this information in one space creates a foundation for effective communication while reducing costs and improving efficiency.

iwms software move module floor plan

What’s Driving the Need for IWMS Software?

As workplaces evolve, it’s important that the right technology is in place to offer support. In line with emerging workplace trends, many organizations are looking to IWMS software as a tool to add to their box. Here’s a look at some of the biggest trends driving adoption of IWMS software.

Shift to More Flexible Workplace Strategies

In today’s workforce, 82% of millenials look at flexibility as one of the top factors in evaluating employers. To accommodate this, many organizations have made the move to more flexible workplace strategies — an infrastructure that IWMS software helps support.

Need for Data-Driven Decisions

Data is an important piece of the decision-making puzzle. With IWMS software, businesses can gather and merge real-time data into a single system, making it easy for managers to find accurate information quickly.

Desire for Greater Collaboration & Transparency

As businesses realize the benefits of breaking down walls in the workplace, collaboration and transparency are emerging as points of focus. IWMS software delivers tools and features that improve communication across different departments and let them work together effectively to ensure long-term success.
iwms software occupancy dashboard

The Financial Benefits of An IWMS 

An integrated workplace management system (IWMS) helps enterprises save significant time and money. The ability to estimate projected savings is crucial as leaders look to justify their investment. Verdantix outlines nine categories where organizations can expect to achieve the greatest savings from an IWMS:

  1. Real estate and lease management savings – An IWMS reduces the time spent entering and obtaining lease information from IT systems and compiling reports for compliance. One Gartner analysis estimates a 5%-8% savings from professional lease administration.
  2. Space management savings – An IWMS greatly reduces time spent surveying spaces and reporting on space utilization. 
  3. Reduced time on meeting room scheduling – The best IWMS software on the market today has the ability to manage workplace services, as well as building operations, making meeting room booking and other essential functions more efficient. 
  4. Reduced time on maintenance management – An IWMS makes building maintenance more efficient, reducing time spent inputting and reporting on data, taking inventory of assets and performing reactive maintenance. 
  5. Energy management savings – An IWMS reduces time spent analyzing utility bills and reporting on energy usage.
  6. IT savings – An IWMS consolidates multiple legacy systems into one, which eliminates licensing fees, IT hardware and the considerable costs of maintaining and upgrading outdated systems. In a 2018 Verdantix Report, The Business Case for Integrated Workplace Management Systems, vendor data showed the cost of IWMS software can range from $50,000 to $800,000 annually. By contrast, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions are significantly less expensive to implement, manage and maintain
  7. Occupancy cost savings – An integrated workplace management system reveals the greatest sources of wasted space in a real estate portfolio or workplace, which allows leaders to consolidate spaces and achieve significant savings. Gartner notes businesses can reduce costs by 10%-15% with effective space management. 
  8. Energy cost savings – An IWMS enables more efficient space utilization and energy management, which results in considerable cost savings. 
  9. Savings through facility management outsourcing – An IWMS helps leaders negotiate better terms for facilities management and maintenance contracts based on facility data. 

Rather than work harder, IWMS software enables businesses to work smarter. Automated processes help streamline operations, while accessible information saves the hassle of digging for data. Cutting down on these tedious tasks enables companies to be productive and build effective strategies for the future.

Who uses IWMS Software?

An integrated workplace management system (IWMS) helps ​Facility Managers, Real Estate Executives, and Workplace Leaders​ create positive employee experiences and tackle workplace challenges by using technology and gaining visibility into their space utilization, operational efficiency, business costs, and powerful insights into the changing needs of the business.

Leaders within ​Human Resources​ focus on IWMS benefits to help realize the full potential of the workplace. Insights gained from workplace data can be used to unite the human and business aspects of work, leading to happier employees, improved recruiting and retention initiatives, and an overall more productive organization.

IT leaders​ use IWMS software to bring out the best in the workplace. IWMS solutions support the integration and consolidation of many solutions into a single, easy-to-use platform. This software enables the transition to a modern workplace by automating tasks, streamlining workflows, and offering mobile capabilities, strong reporting functionalities, and scalability.

Agile companies looking to achieve continued growth with high efficiency depend on their integrated workplace management system to provide visibility into their organization. IWMS solutions make it easy to forecast future business needs, visualize and plan move scenarios, efficiently allocate resources and budget, and ultimately stay competitive in the market.

When is the right time to invest in an IWMS Software?

It’s the technology that connects the pieces of the puzzle in the workplace. If you need high visibility, actionable insights, and a more efficient, connected workplace: You need an integrated workplace management system (IWMS). Still, an IWMS is a serious investment. So when is the best time to consider finding the right software?

When you are ready to connect the workplace

The greatest barrier to a modern, digital workplace is often the lack of visibility — especially across the different spaces, employees, assets, and resources in an organization. The disconnection between them manifests in poorly designed spaces, repetitive and tedious work, unorganized and uncontrolled data, and expressions of frustration with the workplace experience.

If you want to elevate the workplace experience

An IWMS is built to simplify, optimize and elevate both the employees’ experience and workplace leaders’ experience, while providing you with a measurable ROI. Investing in an IWMS with mobile applications is even more beneficial. When you empower employees to interact with their workplace and access everything they need to be productive — you unify workplace leaders and employees, meeting the needs of both and creating a continual feedback loop between them.

If you need flexible, integrated solutions

It is easy to get overwhelmed when there are too many disparate systems, complicated processes, confusing workflows, or a lot of disorganized information. IWMS solutions can easily integrate with other workplace applications, allowing business leaders to simplify their technology stack and streamline workflows. When you invest in an integrated workplace management system, you can achieve efficiency across the board and remove the roadblocks that are created from using multiple tools.

When you need quick, powerful insights

An IWMS allows you to make the complex clear. It unifies your workplace for better, more flexible, and much smarter management. Invest in an integrated workplace management system and take advantage of the opportunity to discover what your workplace data is ready to tell you.

When you want to optimize the workplace

It is important to find efficient ways to keep your buildings operating and your workforce engaged. It’s the right time for an integrated workplace management system (IWMS) when you’re ready to make business solutions more integrated, remove friction in your operations, elevate the experiences of your employees, and focus on saving time and money.

Where is IWMS Software used?

Due to the nature of change and the potential for disruptions to the workplace, leaders from a wide range of industries must challenge assumptions about how their organizations work in favor of having accurate business intelligence. Using an integrated workplace management system (IWMS), the workplace can be effectively managed by having a single point of access with multiple functions and support tools that bring all the parts together.

Organizations that benefit most from an IWMS

  • Companies in highly regulated and asset-heavy industries.
  • Companies with multiple properties.
  • Companies with a large or distributed workforce.

Some of the industries that benefit from an IWMS

  • Real Estate
  • Corporate Facilities
  • Education
  • Government
  • Non-profit
  • Healthcare
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Telecommunications
  • Utilities
  • Digital Technologies
  • Oil & Gas
  • Industrial
  • Manufacturing
  • Agriculture

What sets iOFFICE IWMS Software apart?

Modern workplace leaders around the world rely on iOFFICE’s family of integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) solutions for insights on how to drive positive business outcomes, minimize costs, and analyze the impact their strategies have on the workplace.

Supports workplaces of all sizes, all over the world

For nearly 20 years, our robust functionality and reporting have helped more than 1,500 organizations around the world prioritize workplace goals, adapt to change, and quickly capitalize on new opportunities. iOFFICE software offers unique benefits to every organization, depending on location, industry, size, assets, and workplace challenges.

A modular system with 10 workplace management solutions

iOFFICE can solve specific workplace challenges or completely transform the way your facility operates. Our modular systems mean you choose your solutions, don’t get stuck with tools that you won’t use, and only pay for what you need.

The convenience of a single platform

The iOFFICE system allows business leaders to simplify their technology stack and combine disparate systems into one, thereby streamlining workflows and centralizing essential data. Our software integrates seamlessly with other workplace management software. Our open APIs make it easy to work with other workplace applications, for example:

  • Energy management
  • Lease administration
  • Project management
  • Crowdsourcing
  • Occupancy planning
  • Digital signage
  • IoT sensors for space planning, maintenance, and more
  • Employee collaboration

Robust functionality

With iOFFICE, your information is in a single location for better organization, high-level visibility at a glance, and the ability to drill into specifics. It’s easy-to-use and gives you the ability to make informed decisions about your real estate, optimize costs, and plan for future needs.

You can leverage the iOFFICE platform across your entire enterprise. Looking to integrate IoT sensors and track a vast array of assets? The iOFFICE platform can handle all of your data and you can keep that information close at hand anywhere, anytime.

Quality of insights

Without accurate data collection, everything falls apart. And without powerful insights, important information can go silently unnoticed in the background.  iOFFICE provides powerful data visualization capabilities that turn your information into quality insights. When you are able to see what is and is not working in the context of your unique workplace, every choice becomes more meaningful and every decision, more strategic.

Impact on Employee Satisfactions

Our IWMS offers workplace leaders a portfolio of solutions that connect your devices, platforms, employees, and business needs. For a truly well-oiled machine, a critical component of managing the workplace has to include the digitally-enabled behaviors of the ones who power it. Organizations need to introduce the technologies that benefit the employees involved. Because we focus on the way employees experience work, iOFFICE’s intuitive user experience makes our IWMS easy to use, adopt, and benefit from.

Employees experience the ability to increase efficiency at work. Everything becomes more efficient with IWMS, including faster meeting room scheduling, more efficient work order processes, to simpler navigation around the office, and many more.

Is iOFFICE the right IWMS Software for you?

Given the many ways you can use iOFFICE to drive positive business outcomes, now is the best time to see what’s possible when with our integrated workplace management system. We give you the tools you need to increase productivity substantially and connect everyone, everything, everywhere.

The Future of IWMS Software

While the core functions of the IWMS remain critical, today’s leaders expect more. They need a cloud-based software platform that is built with the workplace experience at the center. It needs to have an exceptional user interface, allowing employees to access a variety of workplace services from a mobile app, kiosk or desktop. In the latest Verdantix research, 80% of executives considering IWMS software said the quality of the user interface was the most important factor influencing their decision. 

The IWMS of the future should serve as a digital workplace concierge, allowing employees to find people, reserve rooms, request service and receive mail or visitors.

It should also have the ability to integrate seamlessly with IoT sensors and other emerging workplace technologies—including applications that may not even exist yet. And it should have powerful reporting capabilities.

iOFFICE has introduced the next generation of IWMS — a flexible, scalable platform with infinite potential.

It’s built to fit the needs of the modern digital workplace and expand as your organization grows. We’re calling it the integrated experience management system (iXMS) because it’s built with the workplace experience at its core. It’s 100% cloud-based and designed to integrate with virtually any other technology, allowing workplace leaders to continually innovate while maintaining a single, simple platform.

The Value of IWMS After the Pandemic

As you move from disruption to resiliency, keeping your people connected is vitalAn Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) will help you navigate new realities and optimize your return so you can support employees from anywhere.  

The Next Generation of Workplace Management 

New ways of working rely on greater connection, engagement, and performance. An integrated experience management system (iXMS) makes information more readily accessible and helps break down barriers to productive engagement and collaboration. 

Promote Health and Safety 

Workplace management tools with space planning capabilities can help you successfully coordinate a safe return to your office. iOFFICE’s Space Right automates physical distancing and recommends ways to reconfigure your space. 

Support Your Hybrid Workforce 

Companies have realized employees won’t work just from the office, but also from home, and potentially from anywhere. Prioritize employee experience with solutions connect your workforce, whether they’re coming to the office, staying remote, or both. 

Accelerate Response Efforts 

Improve the impact of your return strategy by taking a ‘whole company’ approach. Our integrated workplace solutions can connect data across the enterprise, enabling you to speed up the time it takes to monitor, adapt, and respond during your return. 

Gain Full Real-Time Visibility 

A comprehensive integrated workplace management system (IWMS) platform can help you link all your available data faster. Our solutions help you go beyond traditional facilities management so you can accelerate solutions based on analytics-informed insights. 


To learn more about how it prepares your workplace for the continual next,
request a free consultation today. 

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