Real estate and facility costs make up a fifth of the average company’s expenditure, which is why Covid-19, the lockdowns and hybrid working accelerated the need for an integrated workspace management system (IWMS). Fast forward to 2023, with large swathes of the workforce returning and the urgency to effectively manage facilities heightened.
By Warren Miller, solutions architect at Altron Managed Solutions
It’s not just landlords that need to be sure that their inventory is being used or monetised to its maximum potential. Companies have a floor plan that includes open areas, office areas, collaboration spaces, meeting rooms, parking areas and much more. Each of these needs to be properly managed, lest a floor or region in the building is being underutilised or not having a grip on maintenance leads to poor air or light quality and an exodus of workers.
This goes beyond a building management system (BMS), though works very well alongside such a setup. To bring the point home, consider this example which no doubt speaks to many people reading this.
Before the pandemic, a business, or business unit, may have taken up an entire building and so another, or half of another was leased to make space for the growing workforce. Along comes the pandemic and everyone, bar critical workers, was sent home. During this time, companies and their staff learned very quickly that a large portion of work could be performed remotely.
And so, as leases came up for renewal, new space requirements were negotiated. What was once a building and a half may have been reduced to a single floor. As the lockdowns ended and restrictions were lifted, many opted to continue working remotely or, as has become increasingly popular, a hybrid model was adopted.
This may still have been fine, except that perpetual load shedding has sent many workers back to offices, while many businesses have come to terms with the reality that excellent customer service and company culture requires more hours to be spent in the office. All of a sudden there is a scramble for space – if someone arrives five minutes late they may not have a place to sit and work, never mind park their car.
But the problem goes beyond this. Most businesses in South Africa use spreadsheet-based systems to manage their real estate and facilities. Beyond being tedious and time-consuming, there is a lag that disempowers managers from real-time management and decision-making to optimise the business and save money.
Tenants need to make the right decisions when leases come up for renewal, and a mistake can end up being very costly for a business. Similarly, if a business owns the building it must be on top of preventative maintenance. This is where the absence of a BMS could cause massive headaches for businesses, but an IWMS is well able to do the task of managing the facilities either in place of or alongside a BMS.
Why does this matter? The workspace supports the workforce, and not the other way around. The environment – lighting, humidity, air quality – has a direct impact on forcing workers out of certain spaces. Using an IWMS to its potential, a business can use heat maps to track how the environment is affecting the workplace, and how various areas are being utilised. By building up this analysis, the right decisions can be made to turn the situation around. On the other hand, facilities that are under-utilised or not utilised are a costly drag and can be dropped or repurposed.
Research & Markets estimates that facility maintenance costs drop 14% with the implementation of an IWMS. The same study found that workplace management improves 40% and facility usage efficiency goes up 42%.
When businesses work with partners to integrate an IWMS into their systems, they must demand a modular approach. In other words, a business must be able to do workspace management, planning, tie into projects, manage moves and much more. Beyond this, access to visualisations and dashboards empowers decision-makers with the actionable insights they need, as well as gives them the ability to report, and answer questions when quizzed by higher levels of management.
To be able to run a system that is device agnostic and scalable with the ability to provide a central view in real-time, it must be cloud-based. The cloud-based system should have the ability to plug into IoT sensors or any other hardware-as-a-service solutions aimed at adding texture to the overall picture of the facility and asset management.
What sorts of things can be improved by integrating a quality IWMS with the right partner?
* Workplace management – which includes space, sustainability, office moves, maintenance, project management, asset management and scenario planning. Hybrid working is also better managed through more effective and real-time desk booking, room scheduling and more.
* Visitor management – this would include making bookings, parking management, self-service check-ins, integration into large-scale access control systems, workspace safety induction and notification of guest arrivals, among more.
* Facilities management – this is as the name implies and involves proactive and preventative maintenance, real-time repairs and maintenance of unforeseen issues, efficient work order processes, and integration with other platforms such as BIM and CAD.
All of this is data-driven, which, when using a powerful IWMS, is presented in easy-to-understand visualisations and dashboards, which are then customised to exactly each business’s context. The next step, naturally, is analytics where insights support effective decision-making.
A lot has been written about digital transformation over the years. One of the recurring themes is that a technology investment must have a measurable ROI and lead to meaningful improvements in efficiency and competitiveness.
The ability to manage assets and facilities effectively to make substantial savings and improvements in efficiency most certainly make an IWMS a compelling investment in an organisation’s digital transformation journey.