What is Work Order Management Software?

Managing your facilities without solid Work Order Management (WOM)  software is the perfect strategy for falling behind your competitors. 

While you’re struggling with manual work order management processes or cobbling together your own approach, your competition is structuring their approach to facilities maintenance. If they’re using a CMMS platform with great WOM integration, that means they’re generating work orders quickly and seeing faster work order fulfillment. Weak work order management leads to losses; great work order management leads to growth.

Using manual processes like spreadsheets and paper-based systems may have worked in the past, but today’s Work Order Management software has the potential to revolutionize your approach to facilities management. Not only will you save time on the tasks associated with creating and fulfilling work orders, but you’ll also see more savings and decreased operational downtime. 

What is Work Order Management Software? 

Any facilities manager will be familiar with their own organization’s approach to creating and managing work orders. However, you may not realize just how effective other available options can be.  If you have been struggling to maintain your work order system with manual processes, investing in Work Order Management (WOM) software is your next best choice. 

Work order management software is a digital platform that centralizes and automates the complete lifecycle of maintenance tasks, from initial request to completion and documentation. 

This specialized tool enables facilities managers and their teams to track, schedule, and manage maintenance activities across multiple sites, which in turn ensures efficient operations and a reduction of downtime. Both efficiency and reduced downtime are important to your bottom line! 

Think of work order management software as a command center for your operations that allows you to: 

• process maintenance requests
• dispatch technicians
• track progress
• document completed work

Paper-based and spreadsheet-only systems are prone to mistakes and redundancies, and they limit your access to instantaneous, real-time data about work order fulfillment. Upgrading to a WOM software-governed digital workflow will eliminate bottlenecks and improve accountability in your organization. 

How Does WOM Software Support Facility Operations?

For facility operations, work order management software delivers several essential functions:

• Centralized maintenance request processing
• Automated dispatching:
• Real-time status tracking
• Documentation and history
• Resource allocation

Work order management integrates these functions into one cohesive software. WOM software transforms what is otherwise a chaotic and reactive maintenance operation into a proactive approach that supports facility operations across all of your locations and teams. 

Why is Work Order Management Software Important for Multi-Site Facilities Teams?

Multi-site facilities teams are the biggest beneficiaries of great work order management software. It’s not just a helpful tool; it’s essential for cost control and growth. 

Facilities managers understand the unique challenges of coordinating maintenance across multiple facilities, whether those facilities are in one city or spread across the country. A strong digital solution to work order management will streamline operations and provide real-time visibility into the operations of every single facility in your network. 

Let’s look at the three key benefits for multi-site teams:

1. Streamlined maintenance
2. Reduced downtime
3. Improved visibility

Streamlined Maintenance Across Locations

Without proper software, facilities teams often struggle with communication overload from various vendors. After all, if each vendor has their own point of contact, fulfillment protocols, and approach to invoicing, that can quickly add up to wildly different work orders from one task to the next. Critical details may be omitted from work orders, invoices, or reports. 

Work order management software addresses these challenges by:

• Standardizing workflows across all facilities with configurable templates
• Automating triage processes to eliminate duplicate work orders/unnecessary service visits
• Establishing clear communication protocols using multiple channels based on user preferences
• Creating consistent vendor management practices across all locations

Reduced Costly Downtime

What happens when an asset goes down because of an emergency maintenance issue or a catastrophic failure? Operations screech to a halt, and it can feel like money is flying out the window. Not only are you facing the expensive costs of fixing the asset quickly, but it’s also common for operational downtime to cause income losses. 

For example, shoppers aren’t going to stick around a luxury store when the A/C is broken and everyone is sweating. Power outages cause closures, and what happens if a plumbing disaster forces you to shut down for days until the flood damage can be remediated? 

Effective work order management software minimizes downtime through: 

• Prioritization of critical issues 
• Faster response times thanks to automated dispatching
• Real-time visibility into repair status
• Preventive maintenance scheduling to address issues before they cause failures

Improved Visibility and Control

A big challenge for multi-site facility management is maintaining visibility across the full scope of operations. Traditional approaches to work order management create information silos, and it’s difficult to track performance, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions within those silos. 

Modern work order management software eliminates these silos by:

• Providing real-time dashboards showing maintenance activities 
• Generating comprehensive reports on performance metrics 
• Offering mobile access that keeps field teams connected 
• Creating a centralized database of all maintenance activities and asset histories

With all of this improved visibility, multi-site facilities teams can identify best practices, address recurring issues, and optimize resource allocation across their entire portfolio.

What Features Should You Look for in Work Order Management Software?

Let’s say you’re ready to make the change to a new and better work order management software solution. What do you need to look for? How can you choose software that will support your facilities management operations while controlling costs? 

These are great questions---the kind that will put you on the right track to savings.  You can also check out our guide to the ROI of great facilities management software for more information on many of these features!

Smart Automation

There’s no uncertainty about this: If you’re not automating as much of the work order process as possible, you are spending far too much time on your work orders. 

Automation is the cornerstone of efficient work order management. It reduces manual tasks and ensures the consistent execution of maintenance processes. 

Look for software that offers:

• Automated generation of work orders (for both reactive and preventive maintenance)
• Rules-based workflows that route work orders based on priority, location, and trade
• Automatic escalation of high-priority repairs and emergencies
• Automated compliance checks for vendor insurance, certifications, and rate agreements 

Smart automation eliminates bottlenecks and reduces administrative overhead while ensuring that critical issues receive prompt attention. For example, automatically inserting a triage process can eliminate duplicate or unnecessary service visits, saving both time and money.

Think of the time you and your team can devote to other important tasks when you’re not spending hours and hours on automatable work order tasks. 

Mobile Accessibility for Field Teams

Today's maintenance teams operate in the field, making mobile access to work order information essential. Effective work order management software should be accessible to facilities team members in the office or in the field, as well as certain vendors and contractors. 

WOM software should: 

• Provide native mobile applications for both iOS and Android devices
• Support offline functionality for areas with limited connectivity
• Enable real-time updates and photo documentation from the field
• Offer geofencing technology for accurate check-in/check-out tracking

Mobile capabilities enhance technician productivity while providing real-time visibility into maintenance activities. This "mobile-first" approach ensures that field technicians have immediate access to work orders, asset histories, and documentation, enabling more effective service delivery. 

Real-Time Tracking and Notifications

We’ve already discussed how increased visibility can improve your operations. Your WOM software should support this through real-time tracking and effective notification options. Look for software that provides: 

• Real-time status updates on work order progress
• Automated alerts and notifications through email, SMS, or in-app messaging
• Customizable notification rules based on user roles and preferences
• Dashboard views showing active, pending, and completed work orders

Vendor Coordination and Management

For most organizations, coordinating with external service providers is a significant aspect of facilities management. Large companies with multiple sites often use third party vendors and contractors to complete work orders as quickly and effectively as possible. 

Effective work order management software should include:

• Vendor performance tracking and scorecards
• Compliance monitoring for insurance, certifications, and licenses
• Integrated communication tools for vendor coordination
• Multi-vendor assignment capabilities for complex projects 

Comprehensive Reporting and Analytics

Lastly, data-driven decision making requires robust reporting capabilities. Look for work order management software that offers great reporting features, including: 

• Customizable reports on key performance indicators
• Cost analysis by location, asset type, or maintenance category
• Trend analysis for identifying recurring issues
• Export capabilities for sharing reports with stakeholders 

How Does Work Order Management Fit Into a Modern CMMS Platform Like Fexa?

It's true that standalone work order management tools can provide basic functionality and keep your operations running. But chances are, you wouldn’t describe this functionality as running smoothly, and certainly not at peak performance. 

The more complex your facilities, the more sophisticated your approach to work order management needs to be. Fexa offers the most flexible and responsive CMMS platform on the market, integrating work order management with other critical functions to create a unified operational ecosystem. 

Work Order Management Should Be a Core CMMS Function

Within a modern CMMS platform like Fexa, work order management serves as the foundation to operations, connecting to and enhancing other essential facilities management functions. 

Fexa’s CMMS merges all of the core functions of facilities management, including:

• Work order management
• Asset management
• Preventive maintenance
• Inventory management
• Vendor management

This integration eliminates data silos and creates a single source of truth for all maintenance activities. Instead of piecing together different solutions, an integrated CMMS with strong work order management capabilities offers a more efficient and cost-effective approach to facilities maintenance. 

Transform Your Facilities Management with Fexa's Work Order Management Solutions

Ready to revolutionize your facilities management operations? Fexa offers a comprehensive CMMS platform with robust work order management capabilities that are designed for today's complex multi-site operations. 

Our solution helps facilities teams by streamlining maintenance workflows, reducing downtime, and providing unprecedented visibility into your operations. 

Don't let inefficient work order management hurt your bottom line. Contact Fexa today to schedule a free demonstration of our CMMS platform, which can transform your facilities management operations.