Efficiency to Savings: How Facilities Workflow Solutions Cut Costs
Efficiency to Savings: How Facilities Workflow Solutions Cut Costs
As businesses begin budget planning for the new year, preparing and strategizing for the changing needs of your team, partners, and clients is imperative. As we navigate life somewhat post-pandemic, many businesses have found themselves uprooting previous business models to focus on the ever-growing field of technology. The hybrid workforce is becoming a norm, and software or other modern technology has replaced many tasks previously done manually. For facilities and operations managers, this is no different. Using an outdated facilities workflow solution is no longer just a slight inconvenience but a daily hassle that costs your team time and money. Here, our team of logistics software experts at SCLogic discusses five ways you can actually end up saving money by implementing a facilities workflow solution, such as Intra.
1: Predictive & Preventative Maintenance Planning
For companies or universities working with a large number of assets, maintenance can be a particularly time-consuming and grueling task. Without an easy way to monitor the health of assets across your facility or campus, you often end up working reactively to fix an asset after it malfunctions or breaks. This results in a longer delay in asset use and increased costs for fixes or replacement. In severe cases, asset malfunctions may also pose a safety threat to your business and, if not corrected in a timely manner, could lead to non-compliance issues and hefty fines.
Predictive and preventative maintenance are tools used through modern facilities workflow solutions, such as Intra, to help alleviate this problem. There is a difference between predictive and preventative maintenance, as predictive maintenance is done by using data analytics and modeling to “predict” when an asset may malfunction and intervene before a performance issue occurs. Preventative maintenance is similar but is done using data and scheduling tactics (i.e., annual, quarterly, monthly) to develop asset maintenance schedules. Both techniques can be extensively helpful for your team, as you can plan around these occurrences and obtain additional materials and manpower prior to an issue arising. This saves your team the frustration of working without needed equipment and the confidence that your assets are running to the best of their ability.
Through our facilities workflow solution, Intra, you can conduct a myriad of maintenance tests and create a configurable dashboard to continuously monitor asset health, location, and maintenance schedules. Whether you are working in a small university setting or managing assets for a world-renowned healthcare facility, Intra is there to keep your assets in superb condition.
2: Extensive Task Automation Options
Automations is a buzzword that has been taking the world of technology by storm. Automations, just as they sound, use technology, including machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), to complete monotonous tasks previously done manually almost instantly. Now, if all this AI talk is freaking you out, don’t worry! Facilities automations are used to assist with time management and efficient task completion and can be a fantastic addition to your team.
Think about it like this – how many days have you spent manually entering purchase orders into multiple software platforms? Pulling room or maintenance request tickets from various locations? Spending hours in your mailroom searching for packages through an outdated organization system? All these tasks force you to lose time and often negatively impact relationships with customers, students, or employees due to inefficiency. All these tasks can be easily automated through a facilities workflow solution such as Intra, significantly reducing human error and giving you needed time back.
So, how can these automations save your team money? First, automations through a comprehensive software platform merge the capabilities of multiple single-use platforms into one, creating an all-encompassing solution. If you are paying for hosting and maintenance from multiple single-use platforms, this cost is likely more expensive than paying for one comprehensive solution. Additionally, each company you’re working with may have different policies and procedures, leading to frustration as you work through different channels of communication for each one. Furthermore, if you are working at a large-scale facility, this can alleviate overworked employees, protecting their well-being while improving efficiency. With the shifts in the labor market, overworked employees lead to a frustrated and lagging workforce. Automations allow for almost immediate task completion, giving your employees a break and reducing your need for immediate hiring. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
3: Optimized Space Management for Your Facility
One area that often goes overlooked, but can provide many financial benefits, is space management. Space management is a broad term referring to the tracking and managing of your company’s physical space. This can be done through space management of people through hotdesking, as well as asset storage practices. As the hybrid workforce continues to grow in popularity, it is important to have a welcoming and safe space for employees while potentially reducing your office size. By using hotdesking software through facilities solutions such as Intra, your employees will have space to communicate and collaborate in a safe environment, all while helping you cut costs on office rental expenses.
When it comes to asset storage, there are many ways to cut costs and ultimately gain revenue for your organization. This is especially true for the higher education sector or those in a central receiving department. Having the ability to organize assets and mail through barcoded folders or smart lockers and create a customized system for shelf organization in your central receiving warehouse saves an ample amount of space, reducing costs spent to store items in other buildings or through outside organizations. Additionally, you can gain revenue for your team by charging departments for taking up excessive storage space. You can also identify how many surplus items you have stored in your warehouse and sell unneeded items to create space and obtain some extra revenue as well.
4: Enhanced Security Features to Prevent Breaches
As the years pass and technology continues to increase in its complexity, so does the ability of hackers. One of the worst experiences an organization can have is falling victim to a cybersecurity breach. Our job is to make sure that your company is thoroughly protected from any threat. One of the common misconceptions of cybersecurity breaches is that they only happen to certain industries with sensitive information, such as government or healthcare facilities. However, hackers tend to target smaller businesses, as they are generally more vulnerable. Did you know that 43% of data breaches involve small to medium-sized businesses? Or that 61% of all small to medium-sized businesses reported at least one cyberattack within this past year?
Not only do cyber-attacks result in immediate harm to your organization, but they can do irreparable, long-term financial and reputational damage if not handled properly. Cyber-attacks can result in non-compliance fines and legal repercussions if your organization is found to be non-compliant, and if personal data is leaked, you may be required to pay victims as a result. The more outdated your current software is, the more weak points it will likely have, giving potential hackers various places to strike. When you invest in modern facilities management software, the likelihood of these breaches decreases significantly, and this protection will save you money long-term.
5: Comprehensive Data Analysis to Improve Budgets
The last and one of the most important areas in which facilities management software saves you money is through data analysis. Data capture and analysis is an incredible way to help your team identify gaps, establish goals, and create a concrete, data-driven strategy for the future. In a broad sense, data can help you identify employee workflow trends, time spent per task, patterns within your daily workflows, and developing industry trends. Using a facilities workflow solution such as Intra, you can create a configurable dashboard that monitors the unique metrics your company wants to report on, so you can focus on exceeding KPI and SLA requirements.
For example, if you are a mailroom or central receiving manager, you can measure delivery time for each route, as well as delays or expedited deliveries from partners. Identifying ways to minimize or combine delivery routes helps you reduce the number of delivery personnel and save money on transportation for large-scale organizations. As it relates to partners, you can identify patterns of inconsistencies or delays in delivery, and if they are not meeting SLA requirements, decrease or ultimately remove your spending in that area. These business intelligence tools provide metrics for you to save money by identifying gaps and inefficiencies and obtaining more funding for your department by bringing a comprehensive history of exemplary performance by your department to superiors.
See Why SCLogic is the Right Option for Your Facility
If you’ve decided to take the next step into updating or implementing a new facilities workflow solution, it can be difficult to know where to start. With seemingly endless software platforms, it can be overwhelming to figure out which solution is right for your company. If you’re looking for an all-encompassing facilities workflow solution with unmatched customer service standards, we have you covered. As small to medium-sized businesses ourselves, we understand the complexities of scaling your business. With a team of passionate and knowledgeable technical services analysts, we don’t just provide your software; we establish relationships to ensure your team is successful for years to come. To learn more about how you can save money by implementing modern facilities management software like Intra, email [email protected], or schedule a demo with us today!