Facility management as a whole is a branch of management that focuses mostly on effective usage of the real-life facilities, as well as logistics and other support services. It is a fairly complex topic that has a goal of ensuring safety, efficiency and comfort of the environment in question by centralizing most of the processes inside of these facilities into a unified system, integrating employees and technology into the work process itself.
As a fairly complex topic on its own, it is only natural that a facility management process would have the means of centralizing and making the overall management process easier. In this context, facility management software is basically essential for any modern facility management process to work at its fullest. However, the topic of facility management software is complex enough on its own, with many different acronyms and software types creating a reputation of an incredibly complex topic for an outsider.
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What is Facility Management Software
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First of all, the facility management software as a topic refers to the CAFM abbreviation most of the time – a Computer-Aided Facility Management software. However, there are several different types of other software that can also be somewhat close to what CAFM does, and this often becomes one of the first topics that confuses people.
There are three other software groups that exist alongside CAFM – CMMS, EAM and IWMS. CMMS is Computerized Maintenance Management Systems software, often acting as the most basic software out of the all four groups. Most of the capabilities of CMMS often revolve around scheduling and asset maintenance tracking, and barely anything else.
EAM is Enterprise Asset Management, a long-term planning software that is both similar and different to how CAFM operates. EAM’s capabilities include a more in-depth asset tracking than with CMMS, since it can also check asset condition and how profitable these assets are throughout their entire lifecycle.
IWMS is the last example of the three, and it stands for Integrated Workplace Management System. It still works in the same sphere as the other three, but this one focuses its capabilities on real estate management, workplace resources, as well as some of the more unconventional topics, such as environmental sustainability and many other ones.
Since we have already described the other three types, it is only fair that CAFM should get its own description. Computer-Aided Facility Management software is a multifunctional tool that offers all kinds of optimizations for services in an organization, be it asset management, facilities service, room reservations, space management, and many others. CAFM is also used routinely to plan and monitor various activities inside of buildings when they are undergoing maintenance phase.
What to Check?
If you are looking for a CAFM for your specific use case, you can be sure that the bare minimum of a Computer-Aided Facility Management software should be capable of the following actions:
- Centralized access to contractor information, including their track insurance and their certificates, payment information, etc.
- Professional customer support is a must for any software with this level of software complexity, and facility management as a whole can be an incredibly complex topic.
- Easier work process management as a whole when compared with software-less methods, especially when it comes to service requests for facility maintenance tasks.
- Extensive spendings analysis is also a necessity since many different operations are required for the facility management system to be effective at its job in the first place. These operations are trend identification, benchmarking, data overview from a historical standpoint, and more.
Multiple integration capabilities with other corporate platforms, be it accounting systems, payment systems, or many other ones. These integrations are essential to ensure proper data transfer between different systems and to make the whole payment process that much more transparent.
Each and every CAFM is capable of providing an entire list of advantages and benefits ranging from fundamental features to relatively small quality-of-life options to make the facility management process that much less complicated. Below you would be able to find some of the most prominent advantages of Computer-Aided Facility Management software.
Advantages of Using Facility Management Software
One of the biggest advantages of the CAFM as a whole is its data-centric approach to management. Data is the most important resource for this kind of software, and the current trend of various data analysis methods makes it easier to make decisions based on the results of data analysis. These decisions have proven themselves to be extremely useful and as “down-to-earth” as it gets. The fact that a lot of modern CAFM software also adds elements of Computer-Aided Design allows for even more features and approaches in the field of facility management at different stages of a project.
Planning and space management might be one of the most commonly used features of CAFM as a whole, since one of this software’s main purposes is resource allocation. This includes correct asset placement throughout different facilities, layout testing and planning for commercial and industrial facilities. All of this is possible due to the way that CAFM works, acting as a centralized hub for different information types – fire and safety info, energy consumption info, floor plans, construction data, material quantities, and so on.
At the same time, CAFM’s capabilities in terms of administrative operations are also rather varied and extensive for the purpose of streamlining the workforce. Human resource tracking is a rare but relatively useful feature that can be used for user logging, finding unwanted visitors, and so on. The resources within the facility can also be tracked in the same fashion via audit trails, procurement, deliveries, and more.
Final Words
CAFM is great at making sure that all of the company’s assets are used in some way or another and there is no deadweight inside of the company itself. It is a great tool for lifecycle management and long-term planning in many different categories – such as capital improvements for the company’s facilities.
More information about different types of facility management software, as well as a list of examples for this software category, can be found by using this link: https://revizto.com/en/facility-management-software/.
