An integrated workplace management system is an extremely powerful enterprise software application that helps you to better take care of your company's real estate portfolio. IWMSs go beyond computer aided facility management (CAFM) and computer maintenance management systems (CMMS) to provide you a single place to analyze every aspect of your company's facilities. Many IWMSs are modular programs that can span many different disciplines, but there are five key features that most of them have:
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Real estate portfolio and lease management.
One of the most basic integrated workplace management system features is the ability to track all of your spaces and the state of their leases. IWMSs are more than simple lease calendars, though. They can automate your accounting and help you understand how your leases work together and how each leased space is performing relative to others in your portfolio.
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Capital project management.
Your IWMS can also help you track the major projects that are under progress in your real estate portfolio. The integrated workplace management system lets you monitor all of the build-outs that your company has in progress, check the status of major capital purchases like HVAC upgrades, assess the condition of your capital stock and even track a capital project's performance relative to its budget.
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Space management.
Given the expense of most corporate real estate portfolios, optimizing their performance vis-a-vis utilization levels, occupancy levels and cost metrics is a necessity for most businesses. An IWMS makes this easy to do since it stores all of the information about all of your sites in one place and helps you align your corporate real estate to your company's tactical and strategic needs.
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Maintenance management.
IWMS goes well beyond scheduling maintenance calls. It can track the assets in your company's facilities to keep preventative maintenance on schedule while also reporting out on which assets are reaching the end of their lives. The software's reports help you analyze who is doing what where and what it is costing you. -
Sustainability.
Although sustainability functions were not a part of the original conception of an integrated workplace management system, it has become a popular feature to include for companies that are focused on their environmental footprint. Usually combined with risk management features, a sustainability module can track your company's waste output, manage its energy use, store Materials Safety Data Sheets to keep your staff safe, and report on your overall sustainability. Some even include a "Total Environmental Asset Management System."
Integrated Workplace Management System Software and Your Company
Installing an IWMS is a major undertaking. Whether you opt to install your own application or use a cloud-based solution, IWMS installations are extremely expensive both to install and customize. At the same time, many IWMS projects end up being a failure because the company that purchased it failed to set up internal systems and buy-in to fully leverage it.
However, if you're ready for an integrated workplace management system and dedicated to utilizing it, it can achieve significant ROI for your organization very quickly. These potential returns are why many companies are investing the resources to prepare themselves to move their facility management over to an integrated solution.
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