Are you wasting a valuable asset? You can't see it, you don't trip on it, but its cost can be substantial. With any other asset, you work hard to make it deliver results for you and senior management would ask why you spent money for nothing.

Yet many Facility and Property Management systems, including CAFM, CMMS, Work Order management and Help Desk systems, aren't being used to their potential after implementation.

Implementing Property and Facilities Management systems is the most important thing you can do to improve service, reduce costs and preserve your assets, including reducing future costs. The range and flexibility of available systems, including stand-alone, integrated or hosted web based systems, put this capability in the hands of even small organizations.

The business case for implementing a system includes at least four key benefits, however you need to consider the impact on your business process before you decide what system to buy and how to effectively implement your new FM system in your organization.

You can make your end-to-end processes for your service delivery more efficient, less prone to communication errors and more consistent using computerized processes and planning, web based work request entry, automated work flow and even direct dispatch of work orders to contractors or your own staff through handheld devices.

You can get access to important data and information such as the number of work orders by service, floor, department and other characteristics, response times, equipment information, workstation allocations, and more. You can use it to shorten and simplify your capital planning and space planning activity. It can automatically calculate your chargeback charges and eliminate manual processing and manipulation that costs time and money.

You can see what's going on in your operations with the right system. Track work orders issued, who is doing what activity, see comments on work and know who or which department is absorbing most of your resources. Understand the volume and type of moves and relocations. Track spending on equipment repairs and immediately know whether your legislative compliance requirements are met.

Since everything is tracked, you can generate reports and access raw data to analyze for patterns and issues that identify areas you need to take action on, building the information you need to decide on key responsibilities such as resourcing, communication, process issues and costs. It can also provide the evidence you need to justify initiatives and build business cases, not to mention benchmark results

Most organizations run into a common problem after they implement. The systems aren't as easy to use as they first seem and chances are, organizational roadblocks make it even harder. These can include existing processes that make it difficult to integrate into your operations, interfacing it with current systems, organizational design and operational challenges, the effort needed to populate it with accurate information up-front, the cost of maintenance and upgrades, resources to enter information and keep it up-to-date and even resistance from the staff who need to use it.

These problems are magnified when systems are implemented without first understanding why you need the system, what you will use it for and how it will integrate with the rest of your operations, including effective processes and training to ensure your staff buy-in and support the initiative.