The ROI of Flexibility for Facilities Management Software

Now more than ever, facilities teams and their functional partners across the business face new opportunities and challenges each and every day.  To achieve real value and ROI from a facilities management software solution you need a solution that is highly configurable and flexible to meet the needs of your business.

While there are common characteristics for nearly all facilities management needs, the needs do not fall into a one-size-fits-all solution as markets are dynamic.

There are a lot of software solutions out there these days, but some of them are deceivingly rigid.  If your team is considering solutions, it is critical to understand what you might be getting into.  A lot of solutions require constant developer or professional services support to achieve even the smallest changes when the business demands them.  This rigidity comes with real baggage – it slows you down and there are numerous hidden costs.

Flexibility and configurability get you the best of both worlds.  First, you get what you need and deserve as a facilities professional.  Second, but hardly less important, you get a solution that enables you to deliver measurable value and ROI to your business.

In case you are wondering, what exactly does “flexible” look like for facilities management software, we can whet your appetite with just a few starters that make up the very long list of possibilities.  All of these items give you back valuable time and fuel your bottom line –  saving you real money and lots of time.

Flexibility, to us at Fexa, means that the business has a facilities management software solution that affords them the flexibility to:

Adapt automatically generated work orders from existing preferred vendors to new preferred vendors when a contract is re-negotiated as part of your configuration options.

Adapt cleaning protocols or any PM (preventative maintenance) programs to unique needs by location as regional (municipal or state or region or country) mandates or company objectives for safety protocols change.

Adapt proactive communications as changes take place that keeps everyone informed – keeping the well-oiled machine working without a hitch due to confusion or lack of awareness of the rules.

Tailor the workflow and protocols used in your retail locations or distribution center locations or warehouse locations all uniquely to what matters in each unique environment for optimal efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and more!

Track custom fields – by location, by asset class, by work order classification (urgency based, or trades based) that give you that extra insight on the things that are important for your business.

Track related work orders, checklists, and tasks through highly customizable projects capabilities. Taking this further, these customizable projects can be leveraged as templates  – making compliance and repeatability easier than ever for your unique process for things like a new store opening or turning a store dark or reconfiguring stores to new concepts.

Build granular permissions based on a myriad of roles – from a preferred vendor for warranty-based work on a particular lighting fixture, to store and regional operations personnel, to regional-based FMs, accounting partners, construction partners or more!

We even have a name for all of this.  We call it Fexability!

For a facilities team, there is no shortage of detailed tasks that have to get done, overseen, or validated.  And at the other end of the spectrum, there are also requirements to step above the noise and evaluate trends to find new opportunities for cost savings or efficiency improvements.  And then there is the constant stream of requests from collaborators across the business needing information about the facilities.

At the foundation of any facility management software solution worth claiming that title is a foundation for “best practices” workflow.  The foundation that allows teams to take advantage of repeatable processes to manage hundreds if not thousands of locations and the work orders, assets, invoices, compliance requirements, and more efficiently.  But at Fexa, we know you need more than “best practices.”  You need a solution that takes your ability to bring your nuanced combination of scalable repeatable disciplined execution with the intuitions that only experience can bring about to the next level to meet today’s challenges.

And while foundationally a best-practices workflow framework is very valuable, it is simply just not enough for the modern facilities management teams of today.  Work is dynamic.  The business environment is dynamic.  The provider landscape is dynamic.  Technology is dynamic.  Business models are dynamic.  There is really nothing that is not in flux today for managing facilities.  A recent article  in Entrepreneur Magazine noted “The way we live and work every day or manage operations in physical space is no longer simple. So, FM is a key area we must diligently consider and adapt for the future by adopting newer strategies and measures.”

Dynamic new strategies and measures are only possible if you have a solution that is adaptable and configurable to the changing needs and priorities.  So whether your challenges are coming from your marketplace or business environment, the policy environment, or a plethora of other factors, flexibility will equate to better outcomes.