IWMS | Integrated Workplace Management Systems

Typically, real estate and facility management costs make up more than 20% of a company’s total costs. Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS) are software solutions that enable executives and managers to reduce those real estate and facility costs significantly and increase business productivity simultaneously.

The major benefits of IWMS systems are increased efficiency, transparency, flexibility and customer satisfaction in an organization’s facility management processes. In fact, research from Research & Markets states that the deployment of an IWMS solution leads to a reduction in facility maintenance costs of 14%, an improvement in workspace management by up to 40% and an increase in facility usage efficiency of 42% (source: Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) Marketplace: IWMS Platforms, Software, and Solutions Market Outlook and Forecasts 2018 – 2023, 2018).

Integrated Workplace Management Systems support business processes in real estate management, asset & maintenance planning and control, space and workplace management, services management, project management, and sustainability management. True IWMS software, as defined by Gartner, is an enterprise class software platform that integrates five key components of functionality, operated from a single technology platform and database repository. The functional areas all IWMS software companies need to support are:

• Real estate and lease management
• Facilities and space management
• Asset & Maintenance management
• Project management
• Environmental sustainability

When an IWMS is used effectively, it ensures high quality management information, full compliance, and maximized monitoring and control. If you are interested in learning more about Planon’s IWMS software, please contact us to schedule a demo of Planon Universe.

White Papers

What is IWMS?

An IWMS is a single software platform for real estate and facility management that combines integrated functionality for the management of real estate, space planning, asset & maintenance, integrated services, and sustainability.

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What do you really need to know when starting an IWMS project?

How do you ensure you’re selecting the best software for your business’ needs? And how can you maximize the benefits from the best integrated workplace management system?

1. Choose software that meets your needs

Your organization’s facility management and real estate strategy determines the scope, functionality, and processes an IWMS needs to support.

Webinars

What, Why and ROI of an IWMS

In this co-hosted webinar, Verdantix shares the potential ROI of an IWMS. In addition, they share a framework on how to develop a numbers-driven business case for an IWMS implementation. Planon elaborates on the benefits clients have seen by implementing an IWMS. 45:10

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White Papers

ERP versus IWMS: Compete or Complete?

Does your current software or ERP system handle your secondary business processes effectively? Weigh your options and take a look at ERP and IWMS from three different perspectives: business, IT, and investment.

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Webinars

How to leverage your IT strategy for real estate and facility management

Planon hosted a webinar with Verdantix to discuss four key real estate and facilities software strategies in the market today. It explores the added value of incorporating an integrated solution like an IWMS, and where this could enhance the use of point solutions. 44:17 English

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In addition to processes and workflows, it is important to understand the required output, reports, KPIs and management information from an IWMS and to validate these requirements carefully when selecting your solution.

For global organizations that operate in multiple countries or continents, the necessities from IWMS software vendors will typically include requirements for multi-language, currency, time-zone and measurements. To see multinational companies' considerations, watch this webinar on implementing a global IWMS.

_{2. Use a standard solution}

Just as IWMS has evolved to encompass more business processes, more companies have started shifting to standard software solutions. Because business processes will change over time, most organizations choose an integrated workplace management system that is able to adapt to changing needs within the standard software. Customized and tailor-made software have shown to be expensive, time consuming, and extremely hard to maintain, so instead of customizing software, an IWMS should be configurable using a standard solution. This increases flexibility, reduces total cost of ownership (TCO), and ensures compatibility with new software versions.

_{3. Select an IWMS that integrates}

Not only should an IWMS be based on market sustainability standards like IPD, BOMA, CEN or LEED and BREEAM, it should also connect to other IT solutions, like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Human Resources (HR), Building Management Systems (BMS) or Smart Meters. These systems, including SAP and Oracle, contain data that is relevant for facility management and real estate management processes. For example, the IWMS should send financial charge back information to ERP, or update room- and phone information in the HR system. In addition to data exchange, today’s technology like Service Oriented Architecture (SOA or SOAP) even supports real-time process integration between software systems.

Five measurable benefits to build your IWMS business case

_{1. Full transparency}

Not knowing your portfolio, its value, size, occupancy, planned maintenance, lease contracts, service suppliers, SLA’s, etc. brings an enormous risk in terms of costs, compliance, and business continuity. An IWMS gives you transparency in all relevant aspects by creating a standardized and structured data repository for all your processes. You know the exact amount of space available for future growth, the floor areas for contracting the cleaning, the expiration of lease contracts, and when the next maintenance order needs to be executed. With this type of management information, you are back in control.

_{2. Efficiency}

Facilities, office spaces, meeting rooms, and workplaces already seem to be well utilized, however practice shows that their occupancy is on average just between 50% and 60%. An IWMS offers you the tools to measure and analyze your utilization and increase the effective use and value for your organization. This even allows you to eliminate underperforming facilities and spaces or change their functions. As an IWMS supports your business processes, you can easily analyze the performance of these processes and ultimately improve efficiency and quality of output. This type of system helps you identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, excessively spent time, exceeding budgets or any other parameter that impacts your business. IWMS allows you to continuously improve and benchmark these processes to achieve maximized efficiency and customer satisfaction.

_{3. Proven compliance}

In today’s society, legal issues are having a bigger impact on real estate and facility management. Health & safety, maintenance, security, sustainability, and IFRS and FASB lease accounting are just a few examples of areas with an increasing need for compliant processes and reporting. Structured administration and documentation needs to be in place to prove compliance in case of any audit or other incident. An IWMS ensures compliance, protecting you from any legal consequences.

_{4. Decision support}

In today’s business climate, it is extremely important to make the right decisions fast. Mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, budget constraints, and other economic factors put high pressure on facility managers and real estate managers. This increases the need for reliable and integrated management information to support decision making processes. IWMS supports operational, tactical, and strategic decision making with reports, analyses, dashboards, and benchmarks. In addition to standard reports, IWMS allows organizations to create specific output or analyses based on historical trends and future forecasts.

_{5. Cost savings}

All of these IWMS benefits include direct and indirect cost savings and revenue increasing benefits. Gartner published an analysis on IWMS savings, which states that organizations can find a 10-15% cost reduction in space by effective and efficient management, 5-8% costs savings by process improvements and better contracting, and 5-8% savings in lease costs by professional lease administration. Other research indicates a result of “10-20% savings in real estate and facilities operations due to transparency and control over data and information.” (Gartner, Market Guide 2016)

Build your business case for IWMS

Before selecting and implementing an Integrated Workplace Management Systems, we recommend making a business case including internal and external costs and monetary and non-monetary benefits from a three year perspective. In many cases the IWMS software costs are a minor part of the total investment. Data collection, change management, internal costs, IT infrastructure and project management should be considered.

Also, specific customizations or integrations can impact the Total Costs of Ownership (TCO) heavily, depending strongly on the vendor and solution of choice. The IWMS deployment and support model is also a part of the business case: is the IWMS installed within your organization or hosted by the vendor? Is application management done internally or outsourced to the vendor? These choices will impact both costs and benefits.

> Do want to know more about building a credible business case? Read this white-paper.

Client Cases

Unilever

Ian Dunning, Global Facilities Director: “Planon’s global IWMS enables us to achieve our goals.”

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Client Cases

JTC Corporation

Mark Koh, Director Facilities and Estates Management Division: “Transformation to an efficient, scalable and customer-centric estates developer, enabled by innovative software.”

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Client Cases

Bayer Real Estate optimizes Real Estate and Facility Management

Read this case study to find out how Planon helped Bayer to optimize their processes and to do more with the same staff.

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All client cases