8 Must-Know Advantages of Facility Management Software For Building Operations
As an organizational function, facility management integrates processes, people, and places. It plays an important role in enhancing building operations and equipment performance as well as offering a pleasant experience to occupants.
However, when there’s no system in place, facilities start experiencing inefficiencies, often seen in improper space utilization and poor maintenance operations.
Using facility management software has become a sound approach to countering these facilities management challenges. This tool comes as a comprehensive package offering features that are aimed at optimizing facilities processes, improving resource utilization, and reengineering critical operations such as maintenance.
Today, in the overall facility management market, worldwide, software for facility management accounts for 45% market share, as the findings of Future Market Insights show. The significance of this massive contribution lies in the fact that over the traditional manual process of managing facilities, facility software offers several advantages.
Each enterprise implementing a facility software experiences business-specific advantages. However, there are some common but important advantages that every facility business witnesses through the implementation of facility software, which we discuss here.
How Facility Management Software makes difference in building operations
A facility software tool comes with a range of features that equips facility managers with the most-coveted capabilities for streamlining building operation and maintenance. These capabilities come with numerous advantages, as we look at the notable 8 advantages of facility software for managing building operations.
Regulated energy usage
Optimizing energy utilization and higher energy management efficiency is one of the main advantages of facility management software. The tool gives constant insight into how various components such as lighting systems, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning), etc. are consuming energy.
A good facility software helps in controlling the energy consumption of these components, which usually consume energy uncontrollably. You can plan schedules to regulate overall energy consumption. Similarly, you can manage zone-wise energy consumption and also alter the energy usage to meet particular needs, as per the demand of a zone in a building.
Simpler yet powerful maintenance management
Through efficient software for facility management in buildings, managers can spot problems early. The systems are made to collect data from various building zones on a regular basis, making it simple for the building managers to examine it and take the appropriate action. Also, building operators can obtain pertinent data from anywhere – enabled by remote access.
Some ways, the software assist include:
- Using preventative and predictive maintenance
- Tracking facility inventory
- Offering strong checklists and workflows to managers
- Giving regular insights about equipment condition
- Triggering alerts for repair and sending out reminders for audits
- Storing and managing asset data
Highly effective emergency response
The effectiveness of emergency response plays a pivotal role in ensuring the safe existence of a facility. A good tool for facilities management in commercial buildings has all those features which are necessary to react immediately in the face of an emergency.
In the event of catastrophes like a fire, software can aid in averting human casualties or property damage. By turning off elevators in the impacted areas of a building, it can prevent the smoke from spreading. Security professionals might be given access through security doors and the fire suppression systems triggered to take control of the situation. This can facilitate a quick response to emergencies, save the lives of the occupants, and minimize property damage.
Impeccable asset management and mapping
Asset management is one great feature of facility software that facility managers use frequently. The purpose of asset management features is to guarantee that you obtain the best return on investment from each physical asset. They don’t just keep a record or asset data, but track productivity and asset operating expenses.
Having the asset management feature greatly benefits large facilities where locating assets is a big challenge. With this functionality, you can easily track the assets, obtain insight into the usage of each item, and devise their maintenance and upgrade plans. The data that asset management feature stores help facility managers make decisions about asset budgets.
Efficient space utilization
Your business runs the risk of overpaying for space if you don’t have clarity on how you are using your facility space. Here, facility software comes as a ready-reckoner. With its specialized space management tools, you can get a better understanding of the consumption pattern by personnel, assets, room types, and departments.
Space management feature in facility software offers the option of tracking reserved space, shows crowded spaces, and also assists facility managers to identify vacant spaces. Thus, facility managers can easily identify and book vacant space. For a better understanding of how space utilization, software for facility management enables users to build floor plans.
Holistic visitor management
Facility management applications include visitor management capabilities. With it, they automate the check-in process and provide visitor ID badges. Some of these programs can guide guests through a particular check-in procedure that includes movies, visitor agreements, legal signatures, and safety waivers. This feature is especially beneficial for facility management in residential buildings.
Visitors may be able to save personal information in the system using these tools, making check-in quicker and simpler on subsequent visits. Some may also relieve the front-desk personnel burden by automatically notifying hosts when guests arrive.
Accurate capital planning
Being unable to track your resources – time and money – on a daily basis can start persistently annoying you in the long run. With facility software, facility managers can accurately communicate to leadership what funding they will need and whether they will need any additional resources to complete the task.
Facility management software applications basically keeps a track of all important metrics such as the number of completed work orders, hours consumed for maintenance, and the number of assets repaired, replaced, or are to be replaced.
Business-specific features
A quality facility management application is customizable so that businesses can use it to meet their specific needs. For instance, facility software for maintenance management in manufacturing includes specialized modules for handling hazardous materials. These programs can be especially beneficial in terms of safety and compliance because management can better monitor whether staff members are adhering to policy.
Additionally, there are other facility software packages with capabilities intended for property managers. These applications are designed primarily to manage several properties, track lease information for numerous tenants, and examine real estate portfolios. They also include features that report occurrences of incidences of hazards such as fire.
Conclusion
The facility management software market is growing rapidly, at a CAGR of 12%, and will hit USD 72,168.4 Million mark by 2033, as the findings of Future Market Insights reveal. The growth is a clear indicator of the tool’s increasing adoption. Coupled with IoT in facility management, the tool can bring a revolution in the way facilities are managed.
As facility businesses turn to facility software to secure advantages, it’s your turn to check where you are in the adoption race. Implementing a perfect facility maintenance software for managing your facility is essential as advances are occurring fast in the space. Connect with the FieldCircle team to know more.