A facility management system is a software solution for an organization’s management and maintenance of real estate facilities. The purpose is to keep the assets in optimal condition to achieve long life and maximum return. With an FM system, you can manage residential or commercial buildings, shopping centres, hotels, clubs, community centres, and industries.

An FM software controls scheduled repair and maintenance, inventory management, space usage, streamlining of the work request process, and improvement in tenant services. 

This article explains why a facility management system is the key to innovative and efficient real estate operations.

Components of Facility Management Systems

FM systems are dynamic and versatile software capable of managing all aspects of your facility. Their fundamental components include the following.

Asset Management

Asset management means looking after, maintaining and disposing of the assets on time to maximize the return on real estate investments. For this, the FM system ensures properties look stylish and are equipped with the latest features to grab attention.

Maintenance Management

In real estate, maintenance is an irreplaceable part of property management. An FM system includes both preventive and reactive maintenance. The repairing or replacement of defective tiles damaged floors, roofs, broken glass, and paint work also falls in the same scope. 

With An FM system, you can issue work orders, set timelines, and assign specified tasks to the technicians. After that, you can do continuous performance evaluation with the interface.  

Energy Management

It includes the management of utilities like natural gas, electricity, and the complete HVAC system of a building. 

The FM system monitors energy consumption, allowing you to work on reducing energy consumption. It includes scheduled maintenance of mechanical components like chillers, air conditioners, humidifiers, water heaters, etc.  

Space Management

Space management analyzes a real estate portfolio from a spatial perspective. With this, you can decide on tenant occupancies, expansion plans, and other upgrades.

The organization can manage space requests from other departments with data available at their fingertips. 

Security Management

An FM system should provide centralized, integrated security solutions from all properties in one place. The purpose is to centralize security operations. Modern systems allow online monitoring as well.

An efficient security system should include video surveillance, identity management, visitor management, and online monitoring. 

Benefits of Using Facility Management Systems 

A functional FM system is a gateway toward real estate success. It sorts and categorizes all departments to work under their respective job descriptions.

Here are a few of the significant benefits of an FM system.   

Streamlined maintenance

Maintenance is responsible for the durability and long life of a property. With an FM system, you can perform all types of maintenance activities. The maintenance scope, vendor hiring, material delivery, and time lag can be planned on a centralized HMI display.

Better utilization of resources

An FM system records the functionality and performance of all installed resources. You can track the utilization of land, energy, utilities, rooms, incoming materials, fleet vehicles, and human resources.  

Based on the data, you can pinpoint the loopholes and align these resources to achieve desired results.

Increased Efficiency

An FM system increases the process efficiency by manifolds. You can monitor building conditions, maintenance, renovation, and future plans with real-time inputs. You can decide whether the quality of work is as per standards or not. 

Since FM is a centralized system, you can rank the performances of on-site teams based on their implementation of property management policies.

Enhanced security

An FM system provides foolproof security features. It uses QR scanners to track visitors and the workforce daily. A well-defined data integrity policy safeguards critical information from external and internal threats.

Increased transparency

Transparency is an essential element of any real estate operation. Misinformation leads to uninformed decision-making, resulting in the loss of capital or human resource. With a facility management system, you get actual field data to make decisions.

How to Choose the Right Facility Management System

Plenty of facility management systems are available in the market, each claiming to provide the best real estate solution. However, you should set a selection criterion to make the right choice. 

The criteria should include these points.

• The FM system must fulfil your specific needs. The required management style and maintenance activities vary for residential and commercial properties. You should select a system as per your requirement.
• The software should include the latest technology features ensuring AI-based data compilation. You can also compare the scope of supply from multiple suppliers for better evaluation.
• An FM system should be compatible with installed systems. If it isn’t capable with already installed chillers, electronic or security systems, it won’t be able to extract all data in one place.

• The interface should be simple and easy to understand. So that the managers and workforce can understand and record their performances.

• The supplier should provide 24/7 customer support in the initial stages. The supplier should be able to provide workforce training with his local team.

If a system passes these criteria, you can give the green signal for installation, or you can simply choose ePMS real estate software. We bring the experience of managing 250,000 properties across the UAE, which makes us the region’s no 1 property solution.

Case Study: Adoption and Success of Facility Management Systems

The adoption of a facilities management system benefits every organization. According to a study, the customer experience in multi-tenant shopping centres in Ghana reached a satisfactory level after implementing FM systems. The study took 117 customers on board and got questionnaires filled out for 12 months to reach this conclusion. All users were satisfied with offered services without any exceptions.

Thanks to these advantages, the global FM service market has reached USD 42.2 Billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 76 Billion by 2026. 

Conclusion 

A facility management system keeps the real estate portfolio of any organisation in optimal condition to achieve maximum productivity and return on investment. With centralized control, property operations become streamlined and more efficient. 

EPMS  provides the top real estate facilities management services across the UAE. Contact us for a demo or an FM implementation on your properties.