What is Facility Management With the Right Software?

By: Ryan Lee

What is facility management in today’s modern, digitized workplace? Great question. It wasn’t that long ago polylined floor plans and manually submitted maintenance tickets were the norms. Facilities management now requires integrated software ecosystems.

Hardware, software, and physical building

For many workplaces, connected technologies are must-haves. Hardware is the cornerstone of next-generation facility management for collecting and storing data. Temperature sensors help manage building HVAC. Access control systems centralize building security.

If the hardware is the cornerstone, then software makes up the rest of the foundation. Software’s primary function is to turn electrical signals, activations, strings of code, and communications into readable, useable datasets. From there, it’s up to facility managers to use data—and analytics from it—to improve facility management.

Facilities management software tiers

Facilities management software varies depending on the application. You might have a basic program to automate ticketing requests. On a larger scale, you may rely on Facility Management System to aggregate and display data from an array of networked devices.

Essential facilities management system, at the least, should centralize information for high-level insights. Sensor systems provide deeper insights into overall workplace utilization. How deep you want to focus on dictates data demands.

The software makes managing and improving facilities easier

The best facility management software enables facility managers to do their job better. The more data available, the more insights you have to drive improvements. It doesn’t matter if you manage 100 sensors spanning 20 unique data-collection applications—without the right software to deliver that data, there’s no clear path to improvement.

Integrated software is important, too

Beyond the programs and software ecosystems collecting and displaying data, integrated programs are also critical. Just like every facet of your building is connected, so are the many applications used in managing them. Actions like sharing data on the cloud to get feedback from key stakeholders and many more are critical to facilities management and fully dependent on the technology behind it.

Facilities through a software lens 

Facilities management has and always will be a discipline grounded in operational stability. It may seem like that mission is more difficult as buildings become more digital, but it’s actually getting easier.

The software does what humans can’t: find intricate patterns, process huge datasets, and organize complex information in seconds. The software simplifies the traditionally difficult parts of facilities management. It automates ways to better understand a facility’s inner-workings and how facilities managers can make the most of available workspace.