All-in-one platforms benefit field-based teams, back-office staff, accountants, and clients. All-in-one triumphs over single-use solutions in nearly every category.
While most building maintenance and facilities management (FM) firms focus on helping buildings to run efficiently, your business needs to run smoothly too.
2023 is no time for legacy thinking, or using outdated and disconnected processes.
From job scheduling, to invoicing, and planned and predictive maintenance, the right software can be a real game changer for building maintenance and facilities management businesses.
The real question is: what software tools are critical to business success?
This guide shares the answers. We’ll cover:
- What software do building maintenance and FM businesses need?
- Types of building maintenance and facilities management software
- How to choose the right software solution
Let’s get into it.
What software do building maintenance and facilities management firms need?
Building maintenance and facilities management firms need to make their assets and equipment, streamline work order processes and reduce maintenance costs.
This enables building maintenance and FM businesses to:
- Allocate field engineers and external contractors to the right jobs
- Facilities managers can monitor the live status of jobs
- Add value to services by providing real-time web access to customers through a self-service portal
- Create, send, and receive invoices
- Manage assets and vehicles and keep track of service schedules
- Manage Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) smoothly
The problem: Most building maintenance and facilities management businesses manage these tasks through a series of disparate and disconnected software and processes.
Below, we run through the key software tools you need to run a smooth building maintenance business and the benefits of an all-in-one solution.
Types of building maintenance and facilities management software
- 1. Work management software
- 2. Time-tracking software
- 3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software
- 4. Communication software
- 5. Invoicing and accounting software
- 6. All-in-one job management software
Pssst. If you’re ready to cut straight to the most efficient solution, check out our all-in-one tool here.
1. Work management software 🔁
Work- and project management is one of the most essential components of any building maintenance firm.
This type of software provides users with the ability to organise work projects by breaking them down into jobs and tasks, while still allowing a comprehensive overview of the project.
Not only does this improve the management of your business, but it will ensure that you know exactly how, where, and why your resources are being used with a given client.
2. Time tracking software ⏳
Time is one of the most important resources a building maintenance business has.
Keeping track of workers’ hours allows you to get direct insight into time expenses and have more control over project and client costs.
Time tracking software allows you to log timesheets in and out of devices and better manage resources as a whole. For example, you can set different charges at different times for engineers and equipment, giving you full accountability for a cost breakdown for a customer.
3. CRM software 🧑🏻🤝🧑🏼
CRM systems connect all the data from your jobs, projects, and customers all in one place.
It can also consolidate documents, quotes, and tasks associated with each client.
Some solutions even enable you to create ‘job groups’ – where all of the jobs for a specific project are 'bundled'. This means invoices can be created individually or in consolidated form, depending upon customer preference.
And where a certain type of contract has the same job types associated with it regularly, it can be created as a ‘set’, allowing you to drag and drop it as a single entity onto the schedule, including any stock, equipment or systems they require.
All this information, attachments, images, invoices, etc are then in a single place in the CRM.
4. Communication software 📲
Effective communication is vital for field service businesses.
Apart from job management software, there aren’t any specific tools available for field service management businesses.
Some businesses overcome communication challenges with communication tools, such as Slack, and even WhatsApp. But these tend to lack access to key information in one place.
5. Invoicing and accounting software 💷
Accounting is an integral part of any building maintenance business.
Online accounting software essentially performs much of the work that an accountant or bookkeeper would do.
This includes keeping track of income, expenses, invoicing and generating documents for tax returns and VAT.
6. All-in-one job management software ⚙️
All-in-one software brings together all the tools a field service management business needs, facilitating communication, streamlining processes, and sharing valuable information much more easily.
The best bit is, every department of your business – whether in the field or back office – can make use of an all-in-one platform.
After all, it comprises tools for job scheduling, PPM, billing, CRM, and much more.
This helps improve:
- Accessibility and usability: An all-in-one job management platform has super easy usability, and users don’t need to jump from one system to another. This makes information more accessible and easier to make sense of.
- Scalability: A cloud-based all-in-one facilities management tool is ideal for companies that want to grow their business. It offers scalability and as a result, businesses boost productivity, find better ways of working and improve efficiencies.
- Safety and security: A cloud-based all-in-one solution is usually highly secure. Some platforms contain many security measures, including access limits based on team roles, and consistent forms for health and safety checks.
- More robust database: An all-in-one solution ensures the creation of more reliable databases. Through integration, managers can combine data from different tools to gain business insights and improve customer service, and process execution.
- Standardised processes: Finally, it’s important to note that processes become standardised as a result of bringing your tools together – further mandating best practices.
In summary, businesses working in the building maintenance and facilities management sectors are increasingly looking for comprehensive and reliable solutions to streamline business processes, job management, and planned predictive maintenance.
All-in-one software prevents information loss or process silos.
If you want to see what good looks like, you can check out the BigChange platform here.
All-in-one vs single-use solutions 🤔
Single-use software might work for businesses that only need to solve one problem. However, building maintenance firms rarely have only one problem to solve, which is why they end up with so many solutions.
Since field-based businesses need the functionality to solve many problems at once - in the field and the back office – the best way to meet this need is with an all-in-one job management solution.
Choosing the right software can take time, but it’s worth it to get it right before rolling it out across your entire business.
When deciding which solution to use, it’s important to consider what kind of work your team does, how many people are in your organisation, and how you want to run your business.
With a reliable all-in-one solution in place, it’s easier for people to collaborate, plus, business owners can get useful insight into how their teams work, whether jobs are on track, and how to guide them back to a successful place if they slip.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who uses all-in-one building maintenance management software?
Cloud-based software tools can help businesses of all sizes run smoothly. Whether you’re a building maintenance or a facilities management firm, you can find cloud-based software tools designed with you in mind.
Which building maintenance software is best: All-in-one software or single-use solutions?
All-in-one platforms provide advantages not just to the field-based teams using it on-site, but to their managers, back office staff, accountants, and clients. All-in-one triumphs over single-use solutions in nearly every category, so as time goes on, it’ll certainly become the norm.
If you’re ready to make the move to a more efficient way of working, talk to our sales team today.
