The use of an IWMS solution is becoming more and more widespread among organizations that manage workspace or real estate. If you haven’t yet taken the plunge and are looking to understand what IWMS software can do for you, check out the various benefits of this type of solution below.
What is IWMS software?
The term IWMS stands for Integrated Workplace Management System.
IWMS software is a digital platform that helps companies optimize how they use resources to manage the workplace, including real estate, infrastructure, equipment, and human resources management. The solution generally packs several modules.
Property management module
The Real Estate Management module covers all business lines relating to the purchase, leasing, financial management, and disposal of real estate assets managed by a company.
The property management module that comes with an IWMS includes portfolio management, lease accounting, tax management, transaction management, and strategic planning.
Workplace management module
The Space and Workplace Management module delivers features that are used to manage workspaces (space organization, room and workstation bookings, air and energy management, and more). Featuring built-in 2D or 3D plans, this module can also include data from sensors (presence, temperature, etc.) and can be connected to the maintenance management module.
Suggested reading: Next-gen IWMS facility management software that connects with the IoT
Maintenance management module
The maintenance management module monitors, analyzes, and schedules different types of maintenance: corrective (or reactive), preventive, conditional, or predictive.
An efficient IWMS software solution must integrate all maintenance teams, whether in-house or external, when it uses service providers.
Integrated services management module
The integrated management module featured by some IWMS software solutions provides the company’s potential customers with a service portal through which they can make callout requests, book workplaces, or offer external content.
Energy management and sustainability module
The latest IWMS software features a module dedicated specifically to managing and controlling energy consumption to help organizations reduce the amount and cost of energy consumption.
Why adopt an IWMS software solution?
Deploying and using IWMS software can significantly reduce the costs associated with real estate and facilities management while improving productivity.
These costs, which generally amount to almost 20% of overall expenses, can be limited by:
- reducing equipment maintenance costs (up to -14%);
- improved use and occupancy of workspaces;
- more efficient use of facilities (up to 42%).
How to make the most of IWMS software
The potential benefits of IWMS software are considerable. However, before making your choice and adopting a solution, it is strongly recommended that you precisely list the benefits you expect from it, so you can start building an effective specification.
To help you do this, the 5 main features generally expected from an IWMS software, such as the solution proposed by the market leader Spacewell, are listed below.
Suggested reading: Spacewell Recognized as a Leader in the IWMS Market
Gain true knowledge with IWSM software
A lot of companies are aware that a poor understanding of the real estate portfolio – in the broadest sense of the word – leads to significant cost, compliance, and business continuity risks. If you find yourself in this situation, an IWMS solution will significantly help you to plan your maintenance, manage your suppliers, assess the value and characteristics of your assets, etc.
A tool as powerful as this provides you with an eagle’s eye view of your business by creating a standardized database for all space, equipment, and property management processes: you get a picture of the precise surface area you occupy and will be able to track your subcontractors’ work in detail.
Guaranteed compliance
Ensuring compliance with legislation and regulations is increasingly becoming a never-ending puzzle for facility managers. Whether they involve safety, maintenance or the environment, standards are more and more numerous and stringent and their changes are difficult to track.
To make sure your facilities are compliant and to be able to prove it in the event of an audit or incidents, it’s crucial to have well-organized and easily accessible documentation on hand.
IWMS software generally delivers features that guarantee compliance with standards and make the necessary documents available to all employees who need them to complete their tasks.
Suggested reading: How to improve your workplace management with IWMS?
Better space management
A lot of companies underuse their workspaces, sometimes without managers even realizing it. An IWMS can be used both to make a reliable diagnosis of the occupancy rate of offices, workstations, and meeting rooms, and to implement a different working pattern to reduce the surface areas made available to employees, and therefore the costs.
The diagnosis analyzes and identifies inefficiency, unnecessary losses, bottlenecks and budget overruns. In addition to the initial diagnosis, an IWMS software solution can be used to assess and continuously improve processes to boost productivity and customer/user satisfaction.
IWMS software provides decision support
Today, it is increasingly vital for business leaders to be able to make informed and timely decisions. To do this, they must be able to depend on data that is accurate, complete, reliable and rapidly available.
With an integrated workplace management solution, they have all this data at their fingertips thanks to various types of reports, analyses and dashboards. They even have access to forecasts to support their decision-making.
Reduced costs
All the benefits listed above affect costs. While it is difficult to put an exact price tag on all of them, some studies point to a reduction in space costs of 10-15%, process costs of 5-8%, and rental costs of 5-8%. More generally, the savings on real estate and facilities thanks to data control and transparency are 10 to 20%.
Acquiring an IWMS software solution empowers companies and organizations to make considerable progress in terms of space arrangements and management, and to substantially reduce their operating costs. This approach must be prepared, built, and shared to maximize its effectiveness by choosing the right tool and involving all future users.
To do this, the Spacewell teams are at your disposal to help you formulate your expectations and determine your requirements, to offer you a solution that fits your organization and your needs.
