Technology can transform facilities management (FM), helping you save on costs and drive efficiencies.
For many businesses and organisations, their three main expenses are:
However, in the rush to recruit talent and keep up with new technology, organisations can end up overlooking their facilities.
But embracing technology through digital transformation should extend beyond organisational and customer-facing functions. It should also include the vital, physical infrastructure that keeps a company running.
What Makes Facilities Matter?
The facilities of a building represent its engine room. Facilities ensure a safe and efficient working environment.
They support productivity and business objectives. They help to embody the brand values of an organisation. Facilities are a crucial means of attracting and retaining top talent.
In fact, with the growth of hybrid working, post-pandemic, facilities are taking on an even greater significance.
Not only must they be safe, secure and suitable but also adaptable. But to maximise your facilities, you need constant and clear visibility of them. Data provides this visibility.
The Importance of Data in FM
One of the most crucial ways in which organisations can use facilities to support change and provide a more flexible working environment is through data.
Having reliable, up-to-date information enables organisations to take a constructive and proactive approach to facilities management.
Buildings require regular maintenance as well as being readily adaptable for alternative uses and ways of working. Data provides clear visibility about the conditions of the fabric and accommodation of a building.
It helps to identify weaknesses or problems and assess things like energy consumption and population concentration.
The more accurate and immediately up to date this data is, the more facilities managers can rely on it for decision making.
What Do Facilities Managers Need?
Buildings grow old. This puts pressure on systems such as heating, air conditioning and ventilation.
The key to ensuring these systems are fit for purpose is in planning properly for when their lifespans come to an end. Knowing which systems can be adapted or will need modernising or replacing is vital for sound facilities management.
The only reliable way of knowing these things is by collecting the necessary data and assessing it.
This puts inspection at the heart of good building maintenance and overall facilities management and planning.
Along with monitoring and managing these systems, facilities managers must ensure buildings can readily adapt to new systems, such as computer networks.
Again, inspection and assessment are essential for this.
How Tech Supports FM
You could see technology as something that throws up barriers or obstacles to overcome in facilities management.
But just as technology places demands on workplace management, it can also provide significant support for facilities managers.
The Inspection Manager is a mobile device app for property and facilities management, that streamlines the inspection processes and eliminates the need for paperwork. With excellent cloud base connectivity, it lets FMs record and report crucial evidence. They can then act decisively on this data.
Try it out for yourself with our FREE 30-day trial. Discover how technology can become your new best friend.
https://www.theinspectionmanager.co.uk/free-trial/
The trial includes full access to all 35+ templates.
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Data standardisation refers to using consistent methods for collecting data, although this is a very basic and somewhat generic description of what it truly is. If we delve in deeper, data standardisation is the process used for transforming data to fit a constrained and predefined set of values – ultimately, relying on uniformity to improve efficiencies.
Data standardisation refers to using consistent methods for collecting data, although this is a very basic and somewhat generic description of what it truly is. If we delve in deeper, data standardisation is the process used for transforming data to fit a constrained and predefined set of values – ultimately, relying on uniformity to improve efficiencies.
The previous year was a roller coaster for the commercial property sector, with both landlords and tenants facing unique challenges. It looks like 2023 is also going to be a challenging year for landlords – with the higher increased rates and Section 21 changes, for instance – and for tenants as well, who are finding it to keep up with rental demands owing to the inflation and the current cost-of-living crisis.
When an economic shock or recession hits, all properties are impacted. However, commercial properties must bear most of the brunt because a lower demand in the building, sale, and letting of commercial properties means that businesses cannot function as effectively and contribute to the economy as they normally would.
There’s no escaping technology and the impact it has had on our lives, making everything from ordering something online to power up our home appliances from several miles away really easy. Technology has also fundamentally changed how landlords and letting agencies, for example, buy, manage, and operate spaces – making lives easier for tech-savvy homeowners and demanding tenants alike.
The public at large believes that housing inspections should be in the hands of local councils – at least, according to this survey. Conducted by the APSE (Association for Public Service Excellence) reported that 59% of the public are in favour of Building Inspections by local councils, while 23.4% support private inspections.
In 2021, UK commercial properties contributed on average, 20% of carbon emissions, according to a report published by the Committee on Climate Change. Furthermore, in larger cities, including London, commercial buildings were responsible for more than 70% of the city’s emissions on a whole.
The UK happens to be the most influential property technology or ‘PropTech’ hub in the world, despite Brexit-related problems and uncertainty. As well as the global pandemic, which hit the UK just as hard as some of the worst-hit countries.
The commercial property sector has an important role to play in the UK economy, not only in terms of a direct and indirect output generator, but also in terms of helping retailers, financial services and other businesses boost production.
Facilities managers must adapt to changing recommendations, regulations and legislation. There has been Government consultation for the Future Buildings Standard, on proposed changes to fuel and power conservation and ventilation in building regulations.
