Facility Management to Keep Your Office Running Smoothly

According to information shared on Statista, there are currently 125.89 million employed full-time in the United States. And although it is estimated that as much as 45% of US employees work from home, that still leaves the majority of workers (about 69,239,500 people) conducting business either entirely or mostly out of the office. With these facts in mind, the importance of properly maintained work facilities becomes very clear. However, it takes more than a few desks and some filing cabinets to ensure that the work environment is conducive to employee productivity. Issues such as those related to ongoing maintenance, equipment use, room scheduling, resource management, work orders, etc. all play an important role in the effectiveness and practicality of an office space. Unfortunately, too many business leaders view this kind of facility management as a secondary consideration, and thus fail to plan for it beyond “it will all work itself out.” But, as the old adage states, when you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. The good news is the potentially costly issues associated with facility management can be easily prevented by investing in facility-asset management software.

Facility-management software is designed to streamline the entire office-administration process. By creating a single, centralized system from which to direct and organize all workplace support tasks, businesses can better track, analyze, and optimize the background functions that keep them in operation.

If this sounds like the kind of contrivance that would only be absolutely necessary for overly complex enterprise businesses, then consider this: it generally costs between $8,000 and $14,000 per year to provide workspace for a single employee. And as for the employees themselves, over 60% are reported as being unsupported, detached, or disengaged. With so involved in providing a productive workplace environment for their workforce, even those organizations who only employ a handful of workers would do well to really consider how much money is being spent, and just how effective that spending is when it comes to providing employee support. Every office requires at least some ongoing maintenance, generally well beyond the capabilities of standard employees and management. Because of this, no matter how large or small your facilities, management software can help you decrease costs, improve efficiency, and maintain your workspace, so that your employees can enjoy the support they need to stay productive.

Facility-maintenance/management software comes in many forms. For some organizations, it consists of little more than a shared spreadsheet and calendar. Of course, there are many disadvantages to such an approach. For one thing, it relies on the initiative of users to schedule and keep appointments for various office tasks. For example, a calendar reminder may pop up and remind the company that it is time to change an air filter, but if there are other, more-pressing concerns, or if there is some confusion about who is responsible for accomplishing the task, then the filter may ultimately end up being forgotten. Additionally, if the entire maintenance scheduling system is the responsibility of a single employee, then everything can easily fall into disarray in the event that the employee suddenly leaves the company. For businesses that want to ensure that they’re keeping up with vital workspace-related tasks regardless of what might happen, there are certain facility-management-software standards that need to be considered.

First and foremost, the software should be cloud-based. Online facility-management software is designed to be operated over a computer browser, which means that it can be used across all platforms and devices, and without the need for any sort of in-house hardware or software installation. The cloud offers other advantages, as well; by providing a single, shared program remotely accessed by all your users, the software is capable of showing any changes or updates being made in real time. So, should a particular maintenance task be rescheduled, all users would be able to see that change as it is being made. Increased collaboration and improved coordination, coupled with the ability to be accessed from any internet-enabled device (including mobile smart devices), makes web-based facility-management software a must.

The main idea behind facility-management software is that workspace-related scheduling and tasks should be simplified through the use of automation. As such, the program itself certainly should not be overly complex. If the system is too difficult to use, or if it offers non-intuitive controls and unreliable support, then your organization will just go back to easier, less effective methods.

For a facility-management solution to be readily adopted and implemented, it should use visually-heavy, easy-to-navigate dashboards, allowing users to take in and comprehend large amounts of information at a glance. The system may also include built-in tutorials, so that your employees can easily get a feel for its capabilities, without having to do any significant research on their own. And, should further assistance be required, the software providers should offer multi-channel customer support, making it possible for users to find solutions quickly, regardless of their prefered communication channel.

For your organization to get the most out a facility-management software solution, it can’t just rely on the capabilities present in the out-of-the-box product. Every business has its own needs, and forcing your company to change the way it works in order to better align with a facility-management program is bad business. At the same time, your business is anything but static, and as it dynamically grows and changes, you’ll need a facility-management solution that can keep up with it.

When choosing the best solution for maintaining your facilities, management software that allows for in-depth customization and configuration can help ensure that you aren’t improving one area of your business at the expense of other areas. Some software options may include built-in configuration menus, while others are designed to make it easy for users to access the system’s inner workings directly, making changes to the program at its most basic level. The best facility software options take it a step further, by allowing the integration of third-party apps, significantly extending the system’s capabilities, and providing additional tools to meet your workplace-management needs. Customization and configuration mean that your management program will always be the right fit for your needs, even as those needs change over time.

The best customer relationship management (CRM) systems already include the advanced, customizable, cloud-based infrastructure that an effective facility-management system requires. Because of this, the obvious solution is to build upon CRM software to create the best facility-management software possible. Salesforce has done just that.

Salesforce’s facility management solution is completely cloud-based, and can be augmented with additional applications found or created on the expansive Salesforce AppExchange. Finally, Salesforce facility-management solutions use data visualization to generate intuitive dashboards, for easy control and comprehension, backed by comprehensive support channels. As any facility-management-software comparison will demonstrate, the best CRMs make the best workplace-operation systems. So, research capabilities, investigate online reviews, and take advantage of free trial periods, because the success of your business is directly tied to the operation of your facilities. Management software can help ensure that everything is running smoothly in the office, ensuring that your employees have a firm foundation from which to reach success.