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From Chaos to Control: How IT Teams Can Streamline Real Estate & Facility Operations
As digital transformation progresses across businesses, IT leaders in the United States are spearheading efforts to modernize key enterprise functions, such as manufacturing, procurement, finance, HR, sales, and marketing. However, a critical area that often gets overlooked is real estate and facilities management (RE/FM).
Today, many organizations in the U.S. rely on outdated, fragmented systems for managing their real estate. These legacy systems not only cause inefficiencies and security risks but also lead to unnecessary costs for IT teams. Additionally, they limit visibility and complicate decision-making for business leaders..
With the growing adoption of hybrid work models, rising real estate costs, and increasingly stringent sustainability regulations, it has become imperative to modernize real estate and facilities management. An integrated real estate (RE) and facilities management (FM) platform simplifies IT complexity by providing a single source of truth across departments. It connects IT infrastructure, real estate portfolios, and workplace operations into a unified digital ecosystem. This approach allows IT teams to deliver seamless operational support while maintaining strong security and compliance standards.
The question remains: How can organizations modernize real estate and facilities management and move from chaos to control? In this Guide, we’ll cover:
- Key challenges for IT teams in managing real estate and FM software
- What is an Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS)
- How IWMS can simplify tasks for IT teams
- Five steps to implement an IWMS
If you’re an IT leader navigating ERP systems, cloud migration, or workplace optimization, this guide is for you.
Key Challenges for IT Teams in Managing Real Estate and FM Software
Real estate and facilities management is often disconnected from core enterprise IT systems, despite their critical contribution to business costs. In addition to restricting visibility for leadership and finance teams, this isolation also creates significant challenges for IT teams.
1. Data silos
Traditional systems often result in dispersed real estate and facilities data, across spreadsheets, legacy software, and disconnected point solutions. Without a centralized platform, IT teams struggle to efficiently support RE/FM and finance teams. This lack of interoperability leads to data duplication, errors, and inefficiencies across departments. As a result, IT teams spend significant time and resources providing accurate information and facilitating cross-functional collaboration.
2. Security and compliance risks
Real estate and facility systems store sensitive data, including lease agreements and asset values. Outdated systems often lack advanced security features, increasing cybersecurity risks. In the U.S., compliance with standards such as CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), HIPAA (for healthcare facilities), and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) is essential. Traditional systems that do not support role-based access controls complicate compliance efforts.
3. Costly customization and technical debt
Legacy RE/FM systems often require extensive customization to fit into modern IT environments, leading to high maintenance costs and technical debt. This diverts resources from strategic IT initiatives, delaying innovation.
4. Cloud-first and scalability needs
Many U.S. organizations are adopting cloud-native strategies. However, legacy real estate systems are often deployed on-premises, complicating scalability. Integrating these systems with cloud-based ERP, HR, and finance systems becomes complex and costly.
A Solution: Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS)
An IWMS offers a comprehensive, integrated, and secure solution to address these
challenges.
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