2023 Facility Management Excellence: Choosing the Right FM Digital Solution
Digital transformation has become a must for all industries and Facility & Operation management is no exception to this trend. As Facility Management companies are defining their digital transformation roadmap, it could be useful having a compare/contrast analysis done to understand the differences between the three main implementation strategies.
If you are leading the software selection process the first thing to be look at is an assessment of all existing processes of your Facility Management business and to review the “already implemented” systems used to deliver the required services.
Once the above is done and before going any further, you might think of evaluating and identifying pros and cons of adopting a commercial Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, typically available on a one-size-fits-all set of functions basis, or instead a digitalised Facility Management specific industry solution or computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).
If the choice is for the latter, you will be facing another decision making crossroad; to go for a commercial solution available and ready to be implemented within days, or to select a good software house and get your fully tailor made digital platform.
A generic ERP solution might be a tempting choice. However, a Facility Management specific commercial solution will provide you with a tool to support long-term operational process optimisation and raise your ability, as Facility Management service provider, to meet the ever evolving user/ tenant’s demands while securing a higher profitably of your business.
The following are some strong supporting reasons of why an Facility Management specific commercial solution is a much better choice.
Leveraging on Facility Management specific expertise
You might be already using a general ERP one-fit-for-all-industries solution for accounting and invoicing purposes and, that I know, several accounting service solutions have added basic and very generic ERP functions following the growing market demand.
These systems are designed to provide excellent services for accounting and invoicing, greatly standardized for all industries, but might not be ideal in supporting a top-down digital transformation process and adoption for Property and Facility Management.
On the other hand, an industry specific commercial solution designed and developed with Facility Management SOPs in mind, is the ideal way to enable your teams in delivering the right services when needed.
For example, an issue, incident & work order management function will allow work scheduling optimisation based on real-time field technicians availability and skills, resources, and other commitments, resulting in an improved Facility Management operational performance while the cost of delivering services will be reduced.
According to international experts, punctual and seamless work scheduling, could contribute saving up to 15% to 20% cost by sending the appropriate technician to complete the jobs.
Choosing Commercial over Tailormade
Once the decision to move forward with a fully integrated digital solution for Facility Management is taken, next is to decide whether to choose a customised software solution or instead pick the most suitable and configurate it for your specific needs.
Even though the first choice might be the most attractive, better to keep in mind that customizing a software generate extensive writing of computer code to force the software to support your business processes and consequently much higher costs. Consider carefully the time, resources and money that will be allocated if the decision will set on a customized solution.
Software configuration, on the other hand, is just that. The selection of the right Facility Management commercial solution based on specific needs of the business and actual features of the many available and ready to use digital solutions is the important part of a digital transformation adoption, configuration of the chosen one will happen in the blink of an eye at very reasonable costs.
ServeDeck all-in-one integrated digital solution for Facility Management has been developed to be easily implemented, normal onboarding phase lasts no more than 2 to 4 weeks, and training for the users is provided on a regular basis to help facility managers to have their teams always updated and able to leverage on all the provided features!
Flexible Integration and Future-ready Platform
Property, Facility Management and Operation service providers need to keep up on a daily basis with a fast changing landscape of demand for additional services, from one side, and continuous release of new digital solutions at the other end.
When selecting the right digital solution, it is a must to confirm the possibility of integration and extendibility with other third-party solutions for processes, data reading and managing such as IoT, AIoT, facility equipment performance monitoring and fault detection, and more.
Integrability is a key feature that not all the available commercial digital solution for Facility Management are offering and, in future having or missing this option might be strategic in acquiring new business and expand, for instance, towards overseas markets.
Solution’s flexible adaptability and integration allows to deliver high quality service and performance and to monitor who is doing what, when, and the consequent impact on invoicing.
Make Service and Operational Excellence Driving the Decision
When approaching the market to select the right software, operational excellence should be the target to have in mind. Easiness, speed and cost-efficiency of delivering high quality facility management services will be the desired outcome.
ServeDeck internal team of software developers has created the all-in-one fully integrated digital solution specifically for Facility Management to achieve just that. Our modular solution enhance the efficiency of all processes with intelligent planning schedule, communication and cross-checking features making the future of all Facility Management businesses bright and easy. Beside this, ServeDeck is future ready with its open platform able to integrate any technology for services delivery and is set to become the perfect monitoring tool towards ESG ratings.
As a Property and Facility Management service provider in charge of selecting a Digital Solution, you might be unsecure on how to make the right choice. ServeDeck is here to support and advise you!
Being able to “see-how-it-works” before making the final choice, could save time, costs and possible failures. This is why ServeDeck has a 360 degrees demo tool that will help you understanding the full potential first and making the right choice later. Book a session with us, we’ll be happy to meet you soon.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The opinions expressed in this article are solely of the author, Dr Daniele Gambero.
Dr Gambero has been an expatriate to Malaysia from Italy, since 1998 and has more than 35 years of real estate experience. He is the co-founder and group CEO of REI Group of Companies, the Co-founder of Propenomy.com and the deputy president of the Malaysia Proptech Association.
In the past 10 years Daniele, as international and TEDX speaker, has engaged several hundreds thousand people talking about Property, Economy, Propenomy, Digital Marketing and Motivation. He is also a bestselling author and columnist on several magazines and main stream media. You can reach him directly through his LinkedIn page here.
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