An FM system is one of two products wearing the same name, and the buyer's first job is to tell which. The maintenance FM system keeps the asset register, the work orders and the preventive schedule for the plant that keeps the building running, and on this estate that product is fmlane.com. The workplace FM system keeps the floor, the desks, the attendance and the contractors cleared to be on site, and that is this hub. FM software solutions, facilities software and facilities software programs are sold under both meanings; software for facilities management and software for facility management differ only by the plural. This guide is the workplace side: what the record keeps, what a facility management platform has to hold under it, and what a facility management dashboard should show.
Telling the two apart in one question
Ask what the central object is. If it is the asset, with work orders against it and a preventive interval on it, the FM system is a maintenance product and its buyer is the maintenance manager. If it is the floor, with desks on it, bookings against them and people cleared to come in, it is a workplace product and its buyer is the facilities or workplace manager. Facilities software programs that claim both usually do one well and the other as a module; buy the one your central object is.
What the workplace FM system keeps
Four tables: the inventory of floors, rooms and desks with areas and uses; the desks with shared and assigned marked and each booking as one person on one desk on one day; the attendance week by week; and the contractors cleared per building with their insurance, induction and expiry dates. Every workplace figure is one of those tables read down a column: 84 in against 140 desks is 60% utilization, 126 on the busiest day is 90%, and the attendance supports 7 desks per 10 people.
What a facility management dashboard should show
Five numbers and no more: average and peak utilization for the period, desks spare on the busiest day, square feet per person actually in, and the count of contractor clearances expiring within thirty days. Those are the figures the lease and the Monday morning decisions need, and a facility management dashboard that shows a map and a mood instead has skipped them. The free space utilization worksheet works the first four from the counts you enter; the paid plan keeps the counts and the clearances.
What a facility management platform has to hold under it
The inventory, so every figure has a denominator that can be checked; export as tables rather than reports, so the record is yours; and a flat price, because a workplace team of any size owns the same four tables. HardFM Pro is that platform for the workplace side at $24 a month for the whole team, and it is not a maintenance system, on purpose; the maintenance record for the same building is fmlane.com.
Questions people ask about fm system
What is an FM system?
Either a maintenance record (assets, work orders, preventive schedule) or a workplace record (floor, desks, attendance, contractors on site), and often one with the other as a module. Ask what the central object is. HardFM is the workplace one; fmlane.com is the maintenance one.
What should a facility management dashboard show?
Average and peak utilization, desks spare on the busiest day, square feet per person actually in, and contractor clearances expiring soon. The free space utilization worksheet works the first four from your own counts; HardFM Pro keeps the counts and the clearances.
Is software for facilities management different from software for facility management?
Only by the plural in the search. On this estate the plural is the workplace toolkit at hardfmly.com and the singular maintenance product is at fmlane.com; the products differ, the phrases barely do.