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If you are looking into facility management (FM) solutions, you are in the right place. Companies should consider software investments carefully. In addition to monetary investment, a lot is riding on decisions like facility management solutions since a myriad of the company’s people, processes, and automation will tie into it.
Particularly this year, the importance of facility management solutions has never been more evident. FM professionals had to shut down workplaces, reconfiguring office floor plans, and reorganized factories and warehouses almost overnight to institute social distance.
According to Verdantix, spending on these kinds of solutions is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 12% over the next six years. The greater need to justify existing real estate and the opportunity to consolidate played a big part in this growth. The necessity of additional workplace safety protocol, including social distancing and increased cleaning, is also driving the acquisition of facility management solutions.
In the end, it begs the question: how much would it cost?
Few things to consider before choosing facility management solutions
Almost 60% of FM professionals rely on manual processes to do their jobs. This includes tasks such as visual inspections, floor walks, and one-on-one discussions with colleagues. However, the rising number of FM tasks makes the manual processes too complicated and time-consuming, as well as costly too. On top of that, if FM managers continually monitor social distancing measures in addition to their pre-existing responsibilities, then their ability to do their jobs effectively is compromised. And this is where facility management solutions come in handy.
On that note, here are a few things you should consider when budgeting for facilities management solutions:
Single-point vs Comprehensive Facilities Manamagent System
From service requests software to basic asset tracking systems, facilities management solutions now come in various types but are designed to achieve a particular single purpose. These kinds of solutions are suitable for smaller organizations or one-person maintenance departments. If all you need is a solution that serves one purpose, you can expect to spend considerably less.
But for growing organizations, single-point solutions aren’t usually sustainable. Also, having many different solutions that do not integrate makes it difficult to report on FM KPIs. This is especially true if you have multiple facilities. All these siloed applications slow down decision-making and processes. Not to mention, there are licensing fees and other costs.
On the other hand, an integrated facility management solution that serves many purposes like CloudApper’s Facility Manager will help you save money and improve efficiency by eliminating redundancies.
Hosted vs Cloud-based
On-premise solutions are more expensive than cloud-based solutions. Especially for large organizations, the need for a team to develop, test, and deploy updates as required, including the cost of IT infrastructure, overall costs can quickly add up. Cloud-based solutions are more budget-friendly and eliminate upfront capital costs in exchange for a monthly or annual-based subscription fee.
Cloud providers usually cover the cost of hosting, maintenance, and upgrades, or at least we do. This helps companies to not worry about budgeting later.
Number of People
Almost all facility management solutions are priced based on the number of users, so it’s crucial to consider how many people will need access. Different users may require different permissions. For example, technicians would need access to work orders and scheduled maintenance. Managers need to keep track of inventory and labor costs. C-suite executives will more likely want to see the overall building occupancy and maintenance costs.
Opting for solutions that provide easy to read dashboards and lets staff relay reports to managers regularly is a wise choice. The number of assets and the size of your organization will also impact the cost. The higher the number of assets, the higher the number of information staff will need to gather, verify, and upload within the software.
Essential Features
Paying for more than you need is unnecessary. At the same time, you don’t want a solution that cannot scale up with your organization.
Here are a few important features you should need:
- Asset management
- Emergency management
- Maintenance management
- Maintenance scheduling
- Inventory management
- Facility monitoring
- Facility Maintenance
- Training Management
You should also consider estimating your company’s growth in the coming years and how that will impact your needs.
CloudApper – Making Innovation Simple
CloudApper’s facility management solutions like the Facility Manager or CMMS are cloud-based and 100% customizable. You will only need to pay $10/month per user to use our solution, and in addition, you will have access to all our solutions (no extra/hidden charge for other applications).
If you are having a hard time choosing a solution between ten or twenty providers, try our product for 14 days free of charge. To learn more about the Facility Manager, please get in touch with us today or leave a comment below!