
Procore
EZOfficeInventory is a dynamic asset and maintenance management solution tailored for companies of all sizes. The cloud-based software works as you do and is accessible from anywhere and at any time. Track items across locati...Read more
AssetWhere is a cloud-based school property information software designed to help businesses record and view information related to properties. Key features include contract/license management, preventive maintenance, inventory ma...Read more
SpaceRunner is a cloud-based facility management platform that helps small to large enterprises monitor employee occupancy across corporate workspaces. It enables users to maintain employee logs with details including room number,...Read more
Hippo CMMS is a powerful, easy-to-use cloud-based computerized maintenance management solution for a wide range of industries. The company started in 2004 and currently works with a growing base of more than 1,300 customers. Hippo...Read more
CAFM Explorer by McLaren Software is a leading, end-to-end facilities management product that combines a help desk, space planning, preventive maintenance, asset management and more into a single solution. CAFM Explorer allo...Read more
Easy to use and affordably priced, FaciliWorks will help you reduce costs, maximize productivity and ensure greater asset uptime. FaciliWorks CMMS software makes maintenance smooth and efficient. FaciliWorks tracks all of the var...Read more
EnvVisual is a cloud-based facility management system with an emphasis on issue management, offering technology to help locate problems and then dispatch the right technician to solve them. The system's visual platform lets c...Read more
FTMaintenance Select is a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) that helps businesses of all sizes manage maintenance on their equipment, facilities, and other assets. With FTMaintenance Select, maintenance professiona...Read more
ServiceChannel is an integrated suite that helps manage facilities tasks: from finding a contractor to overseeing work orders to closing the project with transaction processing....Read more
With more than 200 vendors in the facilities management software landscape, this market can be difficult to navigate. Vendors use different terms to describe software functionality similar to computer-aided facility management (CAFM), including computerized maintenance management software (CMMS), enterprise asset management (EAM) and integrated workplace management systems (IWMS). We wrote this guide to help buyers through the selection process.
HippoFM offers CAD mapping tools to track assets and maintenance requests
Here’s what we’ll cover:
What Is Facility Management Software?
Common Features of Facility Management Software
Benefits of Facility Management Software
In general, facility management software is designed to perform the following functions:
The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) defines facility management as the “practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organization.” This encompasses a range of activities, from portfolio forecasting to equipment maintenance and space planning.
A well-implemented system will help companies reduce the costs of maintaining their facilities, improve the flow of information across departments and boost operational efficiencies. Common applications found in CAFM include:
Maintenance management | Allows organizations to create and track work orders for maintenance activities. All building maintenance software offers some type of maintenance application, which is sometimes called work order software. Some systems offer facility condition assessment, which helps organizations evaluate the physical condition of their buildings and preventive maintenance, which automates routine tasks. This is similar to CMMS, but CMMS providers offer more sophisticated maintenance applications than those found in facilities maintenance software. |
Asset management | Tracks and manages an organization’s assets—where they’re located, which departments use them, their frequency of use and when they need to be repaired or replaced. This helps organizations understand how to optimize the use and placement of assets, which reduces capital expenditures. |
Space management | Helps organizations optimize the physical space in their buildings. It provides holistic and real-time information outlining how a space is used, which assets and personnel are in that space, and how they’re arranged. This helps avoid leasing or purchasing additional, unnecessary space. Many space tracking applications integrate with CAD or BIM files so users can view the information in a floor plan rather than a data sheet. |
Move management | Supports organizations in keeping moving costs down by identifying the most efficient and least disruptive moving process. This plays a simple but important role—especially for organizations with hundreds or thousands of employees and assets. This software tracks the move schedule, costs and any related documents, like move requests and approvals. It integrates with space tracking, HR and asset tracking applications so that move liaisons can check availability of space, move the right employees and make sure their assets arrive on time. |
Capital project & program management | Helps organizations manage capital construction projects. It allows them to track key business processes and project information throughout all stages of a building’s life cycle, from pre-construction to operations and maintenance. Most systems offer a large set of applications which can include managing funds, bid and procurement, scheduling, document storage and resource management. |
Lease administration | Provides a central repository for tracking important lease documents and information. This helps organizations reduce data errors, avoid costly penalties and accelerate data entry by automating lease tracking processes. It’s especially helpful for organizations that manage a large lease portfolio and that track varying lease expiration dates and tenancy terms. |
Real estate portfolio management | Tracks everything from square footage to building cost performance and leased versus owned space. Having a single place to track this information reduces administrative costs and helps companies maintain up-to-date information about their properties. In addition, portfolio forecasting tools help organizations predict their future space needs and occupancy costs. These tools assess historical data, and allow users to test “what-if” scenarios to make accurate predictions. Finally, companies can use reporting and analysis tools to analyze portfolio financial data and performance, then compare it with key performance indicators or industry benchmarks in order to find ways to reduce costs. |
Environmental sustainability & energy performance analysis</a | Helps organizations monitor and reduce energy consumption and their carbon footprint. With more and more organizations seeking LEED certification, energy performance tools are the latest addition to facility management systems. Many solutions have monitoring, reporting and forecasting capabilities. Monitoring tools track how much energy and water is used in an area of a building, and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions or other types of waste the building produces. Reporting and analytics tools aggregate this information so that facility managers can identify consumption trends and make informed business decisions. Forecasting tools help organizations understand the financial impact of sustainability projects (e.g., “green” renovations). These features help save energy costs over time. Additionally, there are best-of-breed environmental, health and safety (EHS) management systems that specialize this type of functionality. |
Infor is an example of a vendor that offers energy performance dashboards
Reduce “churn” rates and the expenses associated with managing space poorly. Moving is expensive, particularly if an organization lacks formal planning surrounding its moves. Churns—the process of moving employees and assets—require both downtime and investment, which can be significantly reduced by utilizing CAFM applications.
Extend asset lifespans. An attentive maintenance program extends the lifespan of assets while minimizing the total cost of ownership. Reactive maintenance is costly, results in unplanned downtime and can create an unsafe work environment. Developing a rigid asset upkeep schedule ensures that assets perform at their peak while maintaining a smooth operational schedule and employee safety—all without unexpected costs due to equipment failure.
Reduce energy-related expenses. Some organizations are taking a look at their energy performance for the first time. Reporting dashboards calculate total energy consumption while helping to identify operational inefficiencies. This kind of analysis demonstrates how an organization is performing and where there’s room for improvement, while encouraging sustainable behavior among a building’s occupants. Organizations can often see an immediate savings in energy-related costs by implementing environmental performance dashboards.