Comprehensive Guide to Building Maintenance Software For New Businesses

What is Building Maintenance Management? 

Building maintenance management includes planning and organizing actions to maintain structures in excellent condition. It includes inspections, repairs, the use of CMMS Building maintenance software, and the management of physical assets. 

A good maintenance program reduces interruptions while extending the life of building components. It also monitors systems such as HVAC, electrical, and plumbing and responds quickly to problems. Effective maintenance offers a safe, pleasant, and long-lasting environment, retaining the value of the building over time.

Areas of Building Maintenance

Numerous critical areas demand attention when it comes to building maintenance: 

Electrical Systems

A building's electrical system is made up of many components such as lighting, safety systems, electrical equipment, and power distribution. Regular maintenance of these systems is critical to provide well-lit environments, appropriate electrical equipment installation, and the avoidance of safety issues connected with electrical failures.

Electrical maintenance has become even more important in today's quickly expanding technology scene, especially for older structures. These constructions often need electrical infrastructure improvements to facilitate the installation and operation of contemporary equipment and technologies. 

Building owners and managers can guarantee the effective and safe operation of their electrical systems while responding to the demands of evolving technology by addressing electrical maintenance requirements.

Plumbing Systems

Plumbing maintenance includes much more than just bathroom equipment like sinks and toilets. Building maintenance management specialists are in charge of maintaining a wide range of systems. 

This comprises critical features like as water heating systems, storm pipes, roof water runoff systems, and fire suppression sprinkler systems, in addition to the conventional fixtures found in bathrooms.

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)

When it comes to making a building a pleasant and secure place to live, HVAC systems are essential.

Not only do these systems regulate the temperature of the air, but they also regulate its circulation, dust filtration, relative humidity, and air quality. Aside from repairing the air handling systems, HVAC maintenance also includes making sure the building is airtight and has enough ventilation.

Efficient and sustainable functioning of the building's heating and cooling systems is also ensured via the maintenance of these systems. If buildings want to keep their interiors comfortable and their energy use to a minimum, regular HVAC maintenance is a must.

Water and Wastewater Treatment

Water and wastewater treatment system upkeep is an important part of building maintenance management and can be done with the help of building maintenance software. A reliable supply of safe drinking water, as well as water for other uses, is the responsibility of the maintenance staff.

The correct disposal of human waste, chemical runoff, and other potentially dangerous chemicals relies on well-maintained sewage and wastewater systems. Building maintenance workers promote a healthy and sustainable environment by keeping these systems in good working order, which guarantees that the water supply to the building is safe and clean.

Energy Management

Particularly for older buildings, efficient energy management is an essential aspect of building maintenance management. Optimal energy management strategies allow facility maintenance teams to save energy costs, improve occupant health, and increase comfort.

This can only be accomplished if staff keeps a close eye on critical areas like insulation, doors, windows, and roofs to find any ways the heat or cold is escaping. If building maintenance experts take care of these problems, the buildings will be more energy efficient, which will lead to better performance and less environmental impact.

Interior

There are many important components inside the interior building structures that form the basis of attractive and practical areas. All of these parts—the walls, floors, ceilings, and stairwells—work together to make the room what it is: attractive and sturdy.

Careful upkeep is required to keep these locations in pristine shape for as long as possible. 

Exterior

Since the outside of a building is the first thing that people see when they visit or live there, owners must maintain it in good repair. The foundation, roof, walls, doors, and windows are all part of a building's external components that need upkeep so they may continue to fulfill their purpose and look good over time.

Besides the building itself, building maintenance managers are also responsible for the upkeep of the grounds around it. Lawn care, parking lot or building upkeep, drainage management, pest control, and landscaping are all part of this. 

Types of Building Maintenance Software

The top building maintenance software will include features that make it simple to communicate from the office to the field, keep tabs on progress, and communicate maintenance changes efficiently. Your goal in selecting software should be to streamline time-consuming company processes. The best software can streamline your process and save you time and effort by automating important aspects.

Your company's unique requirements will determine which of the many varieties of management software is the best fit.

• CMMS: The top of the list is a CMMS.  Using a CMMS like Xenia can help you keep all of your ducks in a row. You'll be able to follow processes, report on repairs, keep an eye on the budget, and decrease expenditures as needed.  

Consider how convenient it would be to be summoned into a meeting at the last minute and simply provide input on the FM team's work. It greatly simplifies maintenance by simplifying and automating all maintenance activities.  Make use of your CMMS to: 

• Improve the efficiency of your work order management
• All maintenance work should be planned and monitored
• Keep track of spare parts inventories and estimate future inventory requirements
• Manage your assets effectively
• Manage suppliers and contracts with ease
• Run whatever report you need or can think of from your personalized dashboards‍
• Facility Management Software (FMS): This software's foundation will be on asset management, location tracking, and preventative maintenance.
• In terms of functionality, this program is rather comparable to CMMS.‍
• Work Order Management Software: On the other hand, some smaller businesses rely on their workers' ability to understand their tasks alone. At this point, software for managing work orders really excels. Improving the efficiency of the work order process is the main goal of this straightforward solution.

Simplistic as work order management software can appear, high-quality software may have a significant impact on a small business. Reduced size makes a solution more cost-effective and simpler to use. 

• Computer-Aided Facility Management Software, or CAFM: CAFM software assists facility managers in carrying out key responsibilities. CAFM technology blends principles from business administration, behavioral science, architecture, and engineering to improve the efficiency of your company. Consider computer-aided facility management to be a complete commercial facility or building maintenance instrument with several features and functions. It employs a variety of models to address:
• Information maintenance management 
• Physical building administration 
• Floor plans and space management
• Leasing and real-estate management 
• Asset lifecycle management and administrative assistance

The primary distinction between a CAFM and a CMMS is that a CAFM focuses on physical space and objects.

A CMMS, on the other hand, concentrates on maintenance management.  If you want more from your CAFM software, you may combine it with a CMMS to provide more assistance to your team. 

• Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS): This program is useful for businesses that deal with real estate, assets, projects, or lease maintenance, as it helps to minimize wasteful processes. Your company may benefit from these kinds of solutions when it comes to tracking and storing information.‍
• EAM (Enterprise Asset Management): Workflow-related information about locations, inventories, and assets will be included in enterprise software. While both EAM and CMMS make use of similar ideas, the former is better suited to keeping tabs on assets and their histories. It has more functions than a CMMS, although the majority of them are geared toward the maintenance department:
• Labor management MRO 
• Inventory management 
• Contract management 
• Asset lifecycle management
• Analytics and financial management reporting 

Planning, optimizing, executing, and tracking all maintenance tasks with the related priorities, skills, materials, equipment, and cost can all be achieved via the use of enterprise asset management by production-oriented businesses. And EAM software is built to support that notion.

• BMS/BAS/BEMS: First, let's go over the acronyms:
• BMS stands for building management systems‍
• BAS stands for building automation system
• BEMS stands for building energy management system

Because they fulfill the same goal, BMS and BAS are often used interchangeably.

They use a combination of hardware and software solutions to manage various building systems such as lighting, heating, HVAC, access control, and so on. They can additionally be used to assess the effectiveness and energy consumption of HVAC systems and other assets.  

Energy usage must be monitored by facility managers since it accounts for a significant portion of their facility's operating expenditures. Building energy management systems assist them in measuring energy use across the property and identifying faulty systems and assets.  

While BEMS and BMS can function together, they are often built as independent systems. Having said that, they do get along well. The major role of BMS/BAM is to control building systems and assets. The major function of BEMS is to gather and evaluate data on energy use (it can track anything from device power consumption to water, gas, and steam consumption). Do you want to learn more? Here's a more in-depth look at the distinctions between these two systems. 

Components & Benefits of Building Maintenance Software

As of 2021, about 53% of facilities use a CMMS to monitor their maintenance. Additionally, 55% use spreadsheets and schedules, and 44% still use paper.

A few key characteristics of an BMS are as follows; nonetheless, it is true that a "one-size-fits-all" approach to facility management systems only entails eliminating USPs. Now we will examine the typical features and advantages of facility management software:

Asset Management & Tracking Function

Asset management is an essential component of facility management software because it provides a central location from which businesses can see and manage all of their physical assets, including spaces, equipment, and data about them. 

This offers the best possible functionality at the lowest possible cost while also increasing the system's long-term cohesiveness, boots' dependability, compliance, and efficiency. Make use of GPS and other web-based technologies to include an asset management module into your building maintenance software. This will allow you to keep track of all the physical assets and equipment of your firm.

Preventive Maintenance & Scheduling

Maintaining optimal performance and avoiding unanticipated system shutdowns or failures is possible with the help of your facility management software, which can automate regular preventative maintenance (PM) and scheduling for all of your assets and equipment. 

Automating this process greatly reduces manual labor and time spent on the analysis of asset and equipment patterns and operations, which in turn eliminates a large margin of error.

Data Reporting

Appropriate data gathering and report creation skills are prerequisites for data reporting. These have to be included in all comprehensive maintenance software packages. 

The reports must be easily accessible, and the information should be easily readable. Having accurate data reporting is crucial while attempting to grow your company.

Simple Automation

Maintenance software should, in one way or another, enable you to do away with labor-intensive chores that take a lot of time and are often completed by employees. This might include monitoring shipments with a single click, automatically updating your inventory counts, and more. It can also involve distributing the relevant reports to the individuals who need them.

Predictive Maintenance

One kind of condition maintenance called predictive maintenance makes use of sensors to keep an eye on an organization's assets. It works well with a quality maintenance software plan and may also be utilized to reduce issues at work. 

Predictive maintenance is highly cost effective, saving roughly 8% to 12% over preventive maintenance, and up to 40% over reactive maintenance

Companies should be able to build up predictive maintenance methods inside the same overall system thanks to the sensors and data collecting that are essential components of a maintenance software system.

Personnel Management

The ability to build and update an exhaustive database of all of an organization's workers is another critical function of personnel management. 

Included in this might be their qualifications, personal characteristics, history of work, and background information. Better judgments, more efficient use of resources, and the team's and organization's long-term success are all possible with this functionality.

Maintenance Calendar

To help the team communicate and work together more effectively, FM software keeps track of all the relevant schedules for facility management and the people involved. By using this tool, your staff will be able to better comprehend and manage the facility's planned operations, as well as work together on various duties.

Work Order Management

Streamlining work order processing and project management using facility management software is possible via the use of job logs, performance metrics, and comprehensive documentation. 

It has an all-inclusive dashboard where team members may make requests for work, delegate jobs to other team members, and monitor the time, materials, and inventory used to complete a task. Along with maximizing the efficiency of assets and machinery, this function has the potential to substantially boost worker output and responsibility.

Building Specification Management

For enterprises looking to streamline the administration of big facility areas, building specification management is a useful tool. This is like having a master plan for all of your buildings in one convenient location. 

With this function, you may get all the data related to your company's property in one spot, including the blueprints, models, and floor plans of the buildings. By optimizing energy use, it may help keep employees safe, make better use of expansive facility areas, increase the building's lifespan, and save operational and maintenance costs.

Inventory Management

Organizations can benefit greatly from inventory management software's ability to assist them in keeping track of all of their equipment components and supplies in one place and keep track of consolidated stock levels. 

It helps the facility manager to better manage inventory by giving them insight into what components and equipment are in stock. This, in turn, cuts costs, shortens lead time and boosts staff productivity.

Facility Scheduling

When it comes to managing a vast area, facility scheduling is a fantastic tool for enterprises. The program enables members to schedule the reservation of a facility space or asset for a certain time and date. 

All of these elements work together to make building processes go smoothly by improving workflow, making better use of resources, and making everything more transparent.

Facility Management Analytics & Reporting

Managers can evaluate the performance of their assets, equipment, and team members with the use of the FM analytics tools & reporting panel, which gives them access to a number of operational data. 

Managers benefit from this because it clarifies company patterns, improves their data-driven decision-making, lays out the potential areas for development, and helps them save money without sacrificing quality.

Mobile Work Orders

With the help of integrated mobile apps, your organization's distant activities may be operated and managed with the use of custom facility maintenance software.

With this, your crew members may participate in field-related service operations from any location using the mobile app to submit, reply to, and handle work orders. 

Facility managers may keep tabs on their crew members in the field and stay in the loop with them with this function, which helps everyone work together more effectively. In addition, it facilitates and enhances responsibility for employees, real-time synchronization, task allocation, and tracking across several locations.

Off-The-Shelf FMS vs Custom FMS

Having learned about all the advantages facilities management software can bring to your organization, you must be excited to integrate this incredible technology into your company, am I right? 

Sure, you can discover a variety of ready-made FM software options on the market nowadays with just a quick Google search. I can also see why you would be tempted to go with an off-the-shelf solution since they are readily installable, can be less expensive, and may take less work initially. 

However, consider the unique benefits that only bespoke facility management solutions can provide before acting hastily, and determine if you're willing to lose up on the following benefits for your company in the long run:

Performance, Quality & Flexibility

Since they are designed to accommodate a wide range of businesses, off-the-shelf facility maintenance software can be less expensive than custom-made software. 

However, this comes at the cost of not being able to effectively address your specific business needs. In contrast, although bespoke facility maintenance software can come with a greater upfront cost, it may optimize the essential features to suit your organization's particular needs and pain spots, resulting in much better performance. 

The bottom line is that your company will benefit more in the long term from investing in tailor-made FM software.

Scalability 

Your facilities management software will need updates and additions to accommodate your expanding company needs. However, you won't get the versatility and flexibility you need with OTS software. 

The reason for this is that although an OTS is created to help several organizations achieve a shared goal, not every company has the same needs when it comes to scalability. 

Going the bespoke path with FM software is the way to go if you want to make sure it will be able to handle all of your current needs and any additions down the road.

Convenience 

With bespoke software, you can expect a seamless integration with your organization's specific processes and workflows, all while avoiding complexity. This means that learning the program will be a breeze. Instead of trying to alter your company processes and individual needs, a competent development team will focus on digitizing and enhancing them. 

All of your staff will be able to use it easily and modify it to their needs, which will increase production and save time. However, OTS isn't going to provide your company and workers that kind of freedom and flexibility as it makes you apply the same old, old, market-wide methods without any personalization.

Integration 

In today's technological world, it is critical for companies to set up reliable communication channels and guarantee that software integrates smoothly with other organizational systems. 

Effective facility maintenance software relies on real-time data analytics, awareness of business trends, and robust communication systems throughout the whole facility. 

Standard software has limited compatibility with other programs, which means it won't be able to meet your specific and extensive needs in the long run (unless your organization is into copycatting). 

An excellent bespoke software development team will create the program in a way that supports your company's fundamental operations and allows for easy integration across the board.

Competitive Advantage 

To meet the demands of the greatest number of companies possible, ready-made software takes into account the most basic requirements of the majority and makes these features readily accessible to your rivals. 

Unfortunately, OTS software can't take into account the specific procedures and methods that your organization does, which might hurt your USP. 

But if you take the bespoke way, you'll obtain FM software tailored to your company's unique needs, complete with tools and capabilities that no other company has. 

In light of this, a tailored FMS will assist you in keeping your company's unique selling proposition (USP) and providing you with a competitive edge.

What to Look for When Choosing Your Building Maintenance Software?

The best maintenance software solutions have been briefly reviewed so far. Although this makes sense conceptually, what should businesses concentrate on when presented with a variety of options, only a small number of which will really work?

Integrations with Existing Systems

If you use mainstream solutions, it is very important that your maintenance software program integrates with your other systems. Having said that, maintenance software need to be ready for integration with unique business procedures. It should never be the other way around—the solution should always be able to benefit the business.

Integrations With Physical Products

The difference between maintenance software with limited usage and a strict deadline and software that can withstand the test of time is its ability to integrate with physical products, such as sensors. It is true that not every business can build up a fully functional IoT network, but even so, their maintenance software must be able to interface in some manner with tangible assets, goods, and objects.

Availability on Mobile Devices

The use of a phone for tasks is becoming standard. What makes your CMMS any different from this one? Nearly all aspects of maintenance are streamlined by mobile access to your CMMS, EAM, or other maintenance system. Employee time spent on administrative duties, including manual tracking or organizing, may be reduced thanks to it.

Ease of Use

Last but not least, new hires and staff should find it simple to learn how to utilize maintenance software.

While there is a place for very complex systems, they are usually not maintained. In case you're unsure, request an example. Though it may not display the whole product line, it can give you a decent idea of the system's complexity and whether or not it would work well for you.

Xenia | Best Mobile CMMS & Building Maintenance Software in 2024

Xenia, the premier CMMS, excels in frontline workforce management and facility maintenance.

Featuring both a desktop interface and a mobile app, Xenia is tailored to address various challenges in operations, people management, and maintenance tasks. With its user-friendly mobile interface, Xenia efficiently manages basic asset tasks, work orders, inspections, meter readings, and preventive maintenance. 

It extends its support to other frontline departments, offering integrated conversations and customizable tools for cleaning, sales, customer service, security, and more.

With our system, you can easily manage service orders and do preventative maintenance. You can also attach templates to help make things clearer. 

Learn how to streamline your operations with the help of our large public template collection, which contains hundreds of logs, checklists, inspections, and standard operating procedures. Our template builder makes it easy to personalize processes, which promotes constant development. Users can attach an infinite number of photos to their work orders, promoting transparency. Comprehensive information is guaranteed by detailed data recording, and analysis is made easier with simple report arrangement and exporting.

Xenia stands out as a lightweight solution, delivering essential CMMS features at a significantly lower cost compared to its competitors. In fact, the monthly cost of alternative CMMS services is more than twice as much as Xenia's, making it a cost-effective choice for businesses.

Bottomline

There may be a lot of options when it comes to building and asset management software, but ultimately, a few stand out.

Our building maintenance software is an all-inclusive solution that streamlines your operations from start to finish. So, what are you waiting for... 

To find out more, contact one of our product experts or schedule a demo right now.