Focused facilities stewardship and capital planning is more critical than ever.
Accurate data in facilities management and capital planning reporting is important. The way managers present this data is even more important.
While the future is uncertain, having a comprehensive capital investment plan in place will help to alleviate some of that uncertainty. Now is the time to utilize powerful digital tools that will ensure your organization is prepared to leverage the best use and optimal performance of all capital resources with Intellis' solutions.
When producing a report is not enough to simply present the information, it is essential to engage your audience and tell a compelling story about what has been achieved and what your team plans to achieve in the future.
Accurate reporting is also a means of defining next steps and the necessary steps to get there. This is especially important when the next steps involve procuring financial, programmatic, and staff resources.
As a facility manager, you use a variety of tools and systems every day including, physical equipment to perform manual repairs and data systems that are essential to the operation of your facilities and physical assets. Managing a facility is a process that involves using the right tools at the right time in order to achieve optimal results.
However, the single most important tool that is essential for your organization's success is your reporting system. Data collection, management, and storage is integral to the facility management industry. Here we discuss why accurate reporting is so important.
1. Maximize Productivity and Efficiency
Maximizing the operational output of your facilities and physical assets while simultaneously minimizing operating and capital costs is the main balancing act for the facility team. In order to achieve this, a facility management system that incorporates real-time reporting and offers data visualization is highly beneficial.
In order to understand just how efficient your maintenance practices are, it is possible to measure your team's completed work orders against the total number of work orders filed. This simple data set will illuminate whether your maintenance operations are effective or if your team is stalled with too much backlog.
Learn how to improve your preventive maintenance program >
It can also reveal how quickly these repairs are being carried out. This is an easy way to mange downtime and improve productivity. Data collected using facilities management software is key for swiftly identifying potential operational weaknesses and fixing them well before they become a problem.
2. Get Your Projects Funded
In general, facility managers depend on building administrators and finance departments to determine things like operations budgets or future capital expenditures. This means that every facility manager should become an expert at extracting useful operations data and using it to demonstrate efficiency.
Establishing the right metrics and explaining your capital projects using the right financial analysis terms is critical to ensuring your projects get funded and approved. Without the right financial models, it can be difficult to accurately explain to financial stakeholders why certain projects need to be funded.
Learn more about asset management and capital planning with Intellis >
In order to successfully sell your capital improvement project, it is essential to present a compelling business case that is backed by intelligent data. It's crucial for facility managers to understand not just the hands-on aspects of operations, but also the financial underpinning.
A facility management system with robust data collection capabilities will help you to demonstrate your facility's return on investment, return on assets and return on equity – all of which are affected by how you run your building.
With a facilities management system like FOUNDATION.Plans, it is easy to convert your vision into operational objectives and to link your capital project plan to individual performance, strategic planning, while highlighting the outcomes for ongoing improvement.
3. Future-Proof With Data Analytics
Buildings and infrastructure begin to deteriorate as soon as they come into use. As buildings age, they go through a process of deterioration, which can be categorized into five life-cycle stages that correlate to asset renewal:
- Prenatal: less than 1 year
- Childhood: 1–16 years
- Adolescence: 17–29 years
- Adulthood: 30–49 years
- Old Age: 50-plus years
It is important for facility managers to know when larger repair and maintenance issues will begin within each of these phases. It is possible to greatly improve the efficacy of your capital planning through collecting data on equipment life cycle, repair schedules, against industry standards and benchmarks.
All of these factors can influence when you'll need to have money saved up for a major renovation or replacement. This will make the planning process much smoother and help your department keep to a schedule.
Data is key in helping facility managers determine the best approach to motivating supervisors and technicians to stay on track with a high-functioning preventative maintenance program.
One of the best features of FOUNDATION is that it is a cloud-based data collection system, which has the capability to update physical asset information in real time or even on the go.
Read our guide to mobile technology for facility managers >
Mobile data-collection technology empowers facility managers in many ways, including managing work process flows, tracking physical assets, and supervising building facilities. Mobile tech helps facilities managers to communicate, collaborate, and manage workloads more efficiently.
Ready to learn more?
Intellis can help you prioritize investments, plan your next project and drive meaningful outcomes for the community you serve.
Schedule a Demo with our team to learn how we can help
From unlocking actionable insights in facility condition assessment data to capital planning, FOUNDATION by Intellis has proven functionality and capabilities to ensure that all campus facilities are prepared to deliver on your school's mission: education.
Intelligent Implement smart, automated software that you can rely on.
Predictive Identify issues before they arise so you can create action plans sooner.
Innovative Share reports quickly and easily to gain buy-in from key stakeholders.
The less time you and your facility management team spend on tedious administration, excel, and data entry, the more time you can focus on delivering an empowering student experience. Find out how we can help your institution optimize its assets and plan for the future.
