How Developers / JMB / MC Can Use Property Management System to Solve Major Strata Problems

Property management is under intense pressure to perform. Yet many property management companies are struggling with outdated tools, shrinking budgets, and retiring staff members.

Here are the major problems stakeholders face – and how a comprehensive property management system solution can solve each one.

Problem: My facilities data (including my floor plans) is an outdated mess

Many stakeholders are facing 21st-century problems armed with 20th-century tools and techniques. Does any of this sound familiar?

• Outdated paper floor plans
• Siloed data scattered in multiple locations
• No central repository for all facilities information
• Paper records stuffed in binders and file folders
• Basic Excel spreadsheets and Word documents
• No measurable way to track metrics and KPIs

Without complete, accurate data, it’s incredibly difficult to manage facilities efficiently, safely, and cost-effectively.

Solution: Digital data repository

Imagine all of your facilities data in one place, accessible to your entire team. Need the warranty information for your boiler? Done. Need the maintenance history of the water heater? No problem. Need to share current floor plans with another department? Here you go.

Pretty amazing, right? That’s the power of facilities management system. It stores all of your facilities data in a digital format that’s easily accessible by everyone on your team.

Challenge: I don’t know what’s inside my buildings

Keeping track of rooms and equipment in buildings is no easy task – especially if you’re relying on your memory or outdated lists. How can you hope to efficiently manage multiple facilities if you’re not even sure what’s inside each building?

Solution: Location-based asset mapping

Some types of PM systems can map your assets to your digital floor plans. Whether it’s electrical panels, light fixtures, power generators, drinking fountains, or even trash cans, you can track the location of any asset you want.

It’s easy to see what assets you have in each location and precisely where they live. Now you can:

• More accurately inventory your assets
• Create efficient routes for regular maintenance, cleaning, and inspections
• Show a new team member or outside contractor exactly where to find an asset

Challenge: I’m stuck in a reactive maintenance spiral

Account aging and underfunded facilities contributed to a very reactive, costly, and time-consuming maintenance program.

Of course, stakeholders wanted to shift to a more proactive approach, but paper-based work order processes, inaccurate maintenance histories, and no real way to track their asset life cycles were holding them back.

When reactive maintenance needs start piling up, it can crush your team under a mountain of costly emergencies that seems impossible to dig out of.

Solution: Better work order management

You’ll struggle to implement a preventive maintenance program if you don’t get your day-to-day, reactive maintenance under control first. PM system gives team members instant access to work orders, which eliminates paper waste, improves productivity, and gives you historical documentation of any work completed.

The reporting function of PM system helps you keep an eye on maintenance activities in your buildings. Ensure work orders are being completed. And spot potential problems before they get out of control.

When it comes to preventive maintenance, PM system can automate PM task scheduling. It also gives your techs instant access to any asset information and PM protocols they may need while out in the field. In addition, PM system holds your team accountable to any tasks they’re assigned.

Challenge: I’m overwhelmed with too much manual work

Whether it’s clunky processes that require lots of back and forth or old-fashioned paper-based systems, these challenges slow you down and reduce the impact of your work.

Using an PM system can remove inefficiencies and reduce the need for additional resources to maintain your facilities.

Solution: Streamline and automate processes

In 2021, many property management companies were prioritizing investments in technology to automate repetitive tasks and repetitive workflows. That’s a large part of what PM system does.

By automating historically time-consuming, labor-intensive tasks such as managing work orders, inputting asset information, and conducting regular inspections, PM system enables your team to get more done, get it done faster, and not need as many people to do it.

The service request portal included in PM system is just one example.

• Instead of an occupant calling in or emailing a service request to the maintenance department, they can submit it via the interactive portal.
• You can review and schedule the work order in seconds, with the software automatically updating the occupant on the status of their request.
• Your maintenance tech is automatically notified they have a work order and can pull up any information they need to complete it.

There’s no need for someone to spend their day organizing all the work orders, following up with the techs to ensure they’re completing them, and responding to occupant requests for a status update.

Challenge: If one of my techs leaves (even just for vacation), I’m screwed

When the one person on your property management team with the most institutional knowledge takes a well-deserved vacation, leaves for another role, or retires, where does that leave the rest of your team? Up a creek without a paddle, most likely.

You need a way to share the invaluable information in the brains of your more experienced techs with the rest of your team.

Solution: Effective knowledge transfer

PM system is a repository for all of your facilities data – from the location of that one hard-to-find asset to notes on how to keep the cranky AC unit from acting up. It’s fully digital, so anyone on the team can access whatever data they need right from their mobile devices.

PM system makes it easy for people to process when someone is out of the office. It’s the ultimate knowledge transfer tool. Having all of your facilities data housed in your PM system prevents work from piling up while an employee is out on vacation. If an employee does end up leaving, remaining team members can quickly take over their job duties. And using technology like PM system makes working on your particular maintenance team more desirable to potential new hires.

Challenge: My stakeholders want greater transparency & collaboration

There’s also a push towards more strategic and transparent capital planning. Most stakeholders are working to make capital planning more strategic, transparent, or collaborative.

Your facilities data is the key to greater capital planning transparency and overall collaboration with your team. It’s a powerful tool – if you can leverage it effectively.

Solution: Transparency through data

PM system allows you to track, collect, organize, and share accurate, up-to-date facilities information. It pulls together multiple data streams (maintenance activities, asset conditions, accounts, complaints, move-in move-outs, attendance, etc.) to give a clear picture of your overall situation. Armed with this information, you can:

• Create more accurate capital budgets (and show the data you used to come up with your budget)
• Illustrate the costs and risks of deferring capital purchases and projects
• Give data-backed input to the team
• Serve as a trusted resource for any facilities-related questions

With PM system, you can leverage your facilities data to support greater collaboration and transparency throughout your organization.

Solving Major Strata Issue with Purbly Property Management System

Perhaps, the easiest place to dip your toes into solving the strata issue is using 21st-century tools and techniques.

If you’re ready to streamline your maintenance project management efforts, do >>REACH<<them for more details.