IWMS 2.0 – Driving lower costs and speed through integrated best in breed systems
According to Gartner, the “traditional, siloed management of the facilities life cycle is being challenged by bimodal business, the digital workplace, a mobile workforce and the Internet of Things (IoT).”
With the emergence of new workplace models and technologies, we are starting to see a shift away from traditional Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS) to stand-alone software systems integrated through common APIs in order to achieve true best of breed capabilities across multiple service needs. In fact, one of the original founders of the IWMS concept, Michael Bell, has defined this shift as IWMS 2.0. According to Mr. Bell, IWMS 2.0 has the potential to achieve lower costs, faster implementation and valuable data-driven insights.
At Lighthouse.io we are strongly aligned with Michael Bell’s IWMS 2.0 vision. We are focused on solving very specific challenges for facilities managers such as;
- How to improve the visibility of facilities services delivered?
- How to improve efficiency and quality of services delivered?
- How to use data to optimize delivery of facilities services?
Watch Lighthouse.io in action:
For a facility manager, these challenges form only one part of their overall remit. Whilst it’s tempting to build out a system that covers the entire facilities management function, we realize that by doing so we would be sacrificing the quality of our core product. Therefore, our preference is to integrate with complimentary products that are best of breed and solve a different set of challenges for facilities managers.
To illustrate the IWMS 2.0 model in practice, let’s explore how Lighthouse.io could integrate with another best in breed software product – Serraview. Serraview is a leader in space planning and management. Lighthouse.io is a leader in commercial cleaning software and optimizing delivery of facilities services. Combined, these two products can provide facility managers with an end-to-end solution for managing employees, assets, and delivery of facilities services.
Faster work order resolution through crowdsourcing issues
Serraview empowers employees with a wayfinding mobile app that allows them to find co-workers, locate open conference rooms, find meeting rooms, and navigate buildings. With a small amount of effort, this app could be extended to allow office employees to report maintenance, safety and cleaning issues. The issue would be sent to Lighthouse.io, via an API, and the appropriate responder would be notified via the Lighthouse.io mobile app. The issue would be managed via Lighthouse.io automated workflows until resolved, at which time the original employee who reported the issue would be notified via the Serraview mobile app.
Benefits:
- Faster identification of building issues through crowd-sourcing
- Faster resolution of issue through API driven cross-platform workflows
- More satisfied employees through faster issue resolution and cleaner and safer work spaces
Employee feedback on standard of facilities
The traditional model for assessing the quality of facility services, such as cleaning, is via manual auditing. In simple terms, walking around a facility and scoring cleanliness for different areas of the facility. However, when you think about it, the facility services are provided to satisfy the needs of the end users, being the employees. Therefore it makes sense to let employees rate the quality of service delivered, and for facilities managers to use this data to assess the performance of service providers.
Employees could use the Serraview mobile app to rate the standard of facilities. This data could be sent to Lighthouse.io, providing facilities managers and service providers with a real-time quality score of facility services and employee satisfaction. Scores could be bench-marked across different facilities and low scores could trigger intervention by the service provider.
Benefits:
- More reliable measurements for state of facilities and service provider performance
- Ability to respond quicker to quality issues through real-time data and alerts
- Ability to benchmark employee satisfaction with service across multiple sites
Improved employee satisfaction through demand-based cleaning
Serraview uses IoT sensors to understand how space is being utilized. This real-time utilization data could facilitate new service models such as demand based-cleaning. For example, Serraview could detect increased levels of activity in shared spaces such as meeting rooms, bathrooms, kitchenettes and send this data to Lighthouse.io via an API. If the activity levels exceed a defined threshold, Lighthouse.io would automatically create a non-scheduled task for a nearby cleaner.
Benefits:
- More efficient use of resources, only cleaning areas that need attention
We hope that the examples provided demonstrate some of the benefits of an IWMS 2.0 approach to facilities management using two best in breed software systems. Even without tight integration, at Lighthouse.io we are firm believers that choosing a set of best in breeds systems has the power to reduce costs and increase speed and quality of services provided.