In a previous blog, I discussed some highlights from the latest Verdantix research report about four major real estate and facilities IT strategies that organisations are currently deploying. According to this Verdantix report, Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS) form part of three of the four main strategies today. For instance, an IWMS can be used as a single system in your IT landscape, or it can be used in combination with other large systems or point solutions. In this previous blog, I explained what an IWMS is and its key benefits.
For this follow-up blog, I wish to further illustrate the benefits of using an integrated solution to support real estate and facilities management processes. I will do this by sharing the experiences of Gasunie, King’s College London and Maastricht University Medical Center (MUMC) after implementing Planon’s IWMS solution.
Although organisations differ in their specific solution needs, three categories of savings can be identified that cover the main benefits related to an IWMS deployment:
Below are three case studies that illustrate how Planon clients achieved at least one of these main benefits – and often a combination – after implementing our IWMS.
Gasunie, the main network of natural gas transportation in The Netherlands, discovered it had 90 different systems in place to manage its facility processes. It realised that it had to consolidate its systems. With the structured and phased approach from Planon, Gasunie implemented Planon Integrated Workplace Management Solution, including Self-Service, Asset & Maintenance Management, Move Management, and Project Management modules. This meant that the amount of systems for facility management processes could be reduced from 90 to 1! That means 89 licences that no longer need to be managed or paid for.
King’s College London, one of the top 20 universities in the world, has a real estate and facility team responsible for operating and maintaining about 4.3 million square feet of space across 130 buildings. It had already recognised the positive impact of the Planon Universe platform for its maintenance management, but also knew that the solution was not being used to its full potential. King’s College London was still struggling with: 1) no detailed records on reactive maintenance workload, 2) only a few measurements of planned preventative maintenance, 3) no clarity on how resources were really being used. These issues highlighted that processes could be further optimised and that actual use of the system needed to be revitalised. The college really wanted to increase its ownership of the system and its processes, and to gain an even better understanding of its perceived complexities.
With the use of Planon’s IWMS platform it gained control and transparency which reduced maintenance backlog by 50% within only three months. In addition, it also allowed the move from a reactive maintenance model to a preventative one. King’s College London’s BIM Manager said: ‘The solution brought us real insights and we can now benefit from faster processing, improved communication, and better work allocation, as well as meeting our SLAs and improving customer feedback.’
MUMC, an academic hospital in the South of The Netherlands, has the ambition to provide the best possible care and improve health in the region by integrating patient care, research, and education. It’s Facilities Unit (FU), consisting of 340 employees and owning a 36 million euro budget, aims to contribute to this goal by taking care of supplying and managing premises, engineering, logistics, catering and security.
Since it started using Planon’s IWMS, obtaining one repository with all the necessary source data for these processes, MUMC was able to gain a much higher efficiency in its business operations. Planon enabled it to eliminate ambiguity in its processes and the system provided better insight and transparency. In addition, the Self-Service solution within Planon’s IWMS helped MUMC greatly reduce the amount of customer queries. Planon has become its core system – not just for the FU – but for the entire organisation including its suppliers.
The main goal of this blog – in combination with my previous one – is to highlight the added value of IWMS – and explain how it can play a vital role in your software strategy for real estate and facility management. Still looking for more information about IWMS? We have a free white paper ‘What is IWMS?’ that you can download now and explore!
At the end of the day, understanding your business needs and pain points will help guide you to the right real estate and facility management solution. You must be able to answer questions about your core needs before investing in software for the long term. If you’d like to contact us directly, we have an expert team that can help you find the root cause of your organisational RE and FM challenges, and identify the right solution to solve them.
