Understanding the True Total Cost of Facilities Work

What does the future have in store for multi-location facilities?

As business models change, facilities management as an industry is experiencing disruption.

Multi-location businesses are taking a hard look at how they acquire, build, manage, and maintain their physical spaces. With changing consumer habits and operational needs, facilities management practices are under the microscope. The entire industry is navigating a wave of transformation—and disruption is the new normal.

In line with this, the global pandemic pushed businesses to innovate faster than ever. Teams had to reimagine store layouts for social distancing, manage new occupancy limits, and introduce multi-channel options like BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store) and curbside pickup. Facilities teams were thrown into overdrive, balancing compliance with customer experience.

These changes aren’t just temporary fixes—they’re shaping the future of retail. Consumers now expect flexible buying options, and businesses will need to continue optimizing operations to meet those evolving demands. The ability to adapt quickly will determine who thrives in this next era of facilities management.

How can you use technology to do more with less?

With rising cost pressures and evolving business models, making smart decisions is more important than ever.

Modern technology built for facilities management is always valuable, but in times of rapid change, having a flexible and adaptable solution is essential.

To optimize costs and efficiency, businesses should focus on key factors:

• Does the system provide the right data and metrics to guide smart decisions, balancing cost, quality, and brand standards?
• Is it agile enough to support communication and workflow changes needed to drive business outcomes?
• Is it intuitive and easy to adopt so teams across multiple locations can quickly start using it and improve efficiency?

When making decisions related to adopting new operational models and tools for facilities management work to achieve financial outcomes, it is critical to understand the Total Cost of Work.

How to evaluate the true total cost of work?

True Cost of Work calculations incorporate a comprehensive end-to-end view focused on costs, performance, and quality outcomes.

It may be tempting to evaluate costs by averaging work order expenses or using basic metrics to measure quality. However, this approach often misses the full picture of your facilities’ true costs.

To achieve real cost savings, consider these key areas to guide your decisions:

Context matters. Make sure the data is contextual for type of work by priority, reactive vs. preventative, class of work (commoditized to more skilled trades). A single vendor comparison is not representative of your portfolio of providers and services as a whole.

Make sure you understand any hidden costs that may be lurking. When your business needs to adapt to changing market dynamics and your workflows need to evolve, will there be development charges for changes? Will you be forced to use inefficient workarounds?

Dig deeper into lower hourly rate promises. Competitive hourly rates may look enticing at surface level, but may not include hidden fees such as trip charges, material mark up, passthrough administrative or per invoice fees, etc. Your unique geographical footprint and the correlating location density and technician density are key factors in true total costs.

Understand mix of simple vs complex work. Operational and cost optimization opportunities in multi-trade or project work benefit from a solution that can manage this type of work as inter-related.

Does the assessment effectively incorporate technology automation to help achieve savings. Triggers, notifications, and alerts delivered using the channel that is most efficient and tailored for each role involved in the work aid efficiency.

Identify who bears the burden when mitigation is required. In the day-to-day real world of facilities management, mitigation is often required. It is critical to identify how elegantly the processes can adapt and mitigate issues that lurk beneath the surface as they appear. And, specifically, to be clear on which resources will handle them.

Conclusion

Shifting industry demands create both urgency and opportunity for multi-location businesses to adopt better facilities management solutions.

Optimizing operations can cut costs and improve service quality, directly supporting business goals.

When revising your facilities management model, selecting vendors, or implementing new software, it’s essential to understand all factors driving the total cost of work. Identifying the true total cost will uncover meaningful, long-term savings. Beware of providers making flashy promises of savings that may not be realistic or sustainable for your business.

Fexa’s advanced CMMS capabilities allow for businesses to overcome the challenges of traditional work order management and achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in their operations.