For a community/building to run effectively, every cog needs to provide support. But the larger and more complex your community/building becomes, the more cogs there are to manage. It’s the role of a facility manager to keep track of them all. The benefits of facilities management are easy to see throughout the community/building—from the balance sheet to the community/building culture.

Overseeing the community/building gives facility managers plenty of insight into opportunities and inefficiencies. Take a look at the biggest benefits of good facilities management and how they help a workplace run at maximum efficiency.

1. Asset tracking and management

Tracking assets and budgets through spreadsheets is about as convoluted as it gets.

Take something like determining the cost per year of a copy machine. Here’s a snapshot of how you might’ve figured this out before modern platforms:

Look up annual maintenance logs
Compare maintenance logs to invoices
Review purchase orders for copier supplies

In this example, there are three different spreadsheets or document archives to search through—all to ballpark the annual operating cost of a single asset.

Today, there’s a better way. Top-down asset management is efficient and easy. Repairs, maintenance, supplies, and other costs are coded to a specific cost center. The system provides instant insight no matter what’s being measured.

2. Space optimization

One of the biggest benefits of facility management software is knowing what you’re actually getting for your money and how to make the most of it.

Facility managers can look at data to figure out A) why that space isn’t being used, and B) what it might be repurposed for. FM data outlines the best way to recoup your cost per square foot and capitalize on it to improve revenue.

The extra space in your community/building is your largest single overhead cost. Maximizing value is the difference between your facilities being a cost center and a competitive advantage.

3. System of record

Your facilities’ needs evolve over time, making a system of record crucial in understanding and meeting these demands. Tracking historical costs, trends, and changes over time is one of the key benefits of facility management systems. Take a look at a few of the hundreds of data points a facility manager needs to track:

Space occupancy growth over time
Employee locations or assigned workstations
Asset costs and life cycles
Utility costs
Building repair and capital improvement costs

This small portion of data represents the ebb and flow of a workplace’s needs, as well as those of the people within it. Systems like Purbly.com and others understand these changes over time. Well-managed data is at the center of accurately predicting effective facilities management.

4. Cost analysis

Cost governs everything in the community/building. Knowing how much something costs or what recurring costs you face is important, but these amounts are far from the total cost of operating a building. Facilities management analysis provides keen insight into the real costs of keeping your community/building running.

Understanding and analyzing various community/building costs drive effective cost planning. You’ll know how much you spend annually on utilities. You’ll know how to properly budget for the year.

5. Integration

Your community/building is getting smarter. The benefits of integrated facilities management support a growing office Internet of Things (IoT). Investing in and managing connected devices is a recipe for even better facilities management and decision-making.

IoT is a rapidly growing segment of facilities management. In many ways, it’s also making facilities managers’ jobs easier. Sensors provide insights without manual intervention. This is the case for most integrated, automated technologies—but only if they’re properly integrated and well managed. Facility managers play an essential role in making the most of IoT.

Culminating in a better workplace

Each of these benefits contributes to a community/building that’s well-run, efficient, and productive. Through proactive facilities management, facility managers know more about the most important parts of the community/building. And with that insight comes the ability to make better decisions about how to improve it.

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