Integrated workspace management software extends beyond building management to bring together all workplace resources incorporating the management of real estate, infrastructure and facilities. The aim is to gain insights into how the business can gain efficiencies, understand usages, and set up maintenance schedules. An integrated workspace management system (IWMS) enables the business to reduce costs and improve productivity.
Research from Research & Markets states that the deployment of an IWMS solution leads to:
- A reduction of facility maintenance costs of 14%;
- An improvement of workspace management by up to 40%; and
- A 42% increase in facility usage efficiency.
Initially marketed as integrated facilities management, an IWMS is usually packaged as either an integrated software suite or as individual modules that can scale over time with the business’s requirements. Some modules may overlap between the building management system and the IWMS, but the business can choose to integrate these functions or keep them as individual modules.
Warren Miller, solutions architect at Altron Managed Solutions, explains: “An IWMS platform is used to manage resources within your building. It manages the physical workspace, such as where people sit, the available floor space, floor planning and resources tied to a particular floor space.
“It also integrates data from desk and room booking solutions, then generates analytics to monitor things like occupancy and usage behaviour. For example, if a room is booked, you can see how many of those meetings take place or how many of those invited attended the session.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses are discovering that they have too much office space. IWMS can measure a building’s general occupancy and usage using sensors to determine how many people are using the space, empowering the business to make informed decisions on how to set up its workspace.
Miller says: “At least 20% of a business’s expenditure is on real estate or office space and the associated facilities, so it makes good business sense to address where people work. Some businesses function well with a hybrid workforce, while others need people to be onsite.”
The more effectively a business can manage the cost of its office space, the more money it can save. A business can introduce productivity efficiencies by having a better working environment: providing comfortable lighting and temperature levels, reducing facility maintenance costs and improving workspace management and facilities usage. The aim is to ensure the business doesn’t have wasted space or excessive rental bills.
“Too many businesses use a spreadsheet to manage their lease contracts, maintenance schedules and to keep track of assets, service providers and service level agreements. The challenge is that this approach doesn’t provide them with access to good data and there’s a lack of transparency, which is a big concern. Having information on how to set up the workspace, do you have enough meeting room space, is there enough desk space…can lead to better efficiencies. It can also support decisions around the amount of real estate you require. The more data you collect, the better you can use it to make decisions going forward.”
The business can incur significant cost savings by reducing its real estate, improving lease administration and because it’s cheaper to run routine maintenance services instead of fixing catastrophic failure.
A successful solution has several elements:
- Workspace management and hybrid workspace management. Where employees are hot-desking, the business may realise that it needs less real estate once it has access to data on the building’s general occupancy levels. The ability to book desks and rooms remotely, even going so far as to book a seat in a meeting.
- Visitor management, whereby visitors to the building have parking arranged ahead of time and are provided logins for the guest WiFi. They are automatically registered before arriving at the reception, they can provide a photo if required and will be recognised for future visits using facial recognition technology. If a card is required for access, it can be generated ahead of time. All the visitor needs to do on arrival is scan a QR code on their personal device. If safety induction is required prior to access, this can be done digitally.
- Facilities management, which includes routine maintenance, including the ability to set reminders and notifications, as well as asset management.
- Workplace analytics using temperature and humidity sensors to assess and control indoor air quality, as well as monitor basements and parking for carbon monoxide levels.
- The ability to make operational, tactical and strategic decisions based on reports, analysis, dashboards and benchmarks. As well as standard reports, IWMS allows organisations to test future scenarios to see whether they’re viable for the business.
Miller concludes: “The bottom line is that the building must support the workforce, and not vice versa, all of which comes down to managing the space optimally."
To understand more about the benefits of being able to manage your workplace and space, watch this video.
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