An integrated workplace management system is the long name behind IWMS: one database under five modules, real estate and lease, capital projects, facilities and space, maintenance and sustainability. Integrated workplace management is the case for buying them together, that the lease, the project, the floor, the plant and the energy figure all describe the same building and should agree with each other. The case is real for a portfolio and thin for a team with two floors, and this guide is written for the second reader: what the facilities and space module of an integrated workplace management system IWMS has to keep, what integrated workplace management software owes the workplace team regardless of the other four modules, and what to ask of an integrated workplace management solution before the suite price is a surprise.
What integrated means, and what it costs
Integrated means the lease's square footage, the project's floor plan, the space module's inventory, the maintenance module's asset list and the sustainability module's meter readings all point at one record of the building. That is worth a great deal when five teams argue about the area of a floor, and nothing at all when one team owns the floor and the other four modules go unused. Integrated workplace management systems are priced for the first case; ask what the second case pays.
The space module: four tables, the same as anywhere
The inventory of floors, rooms and desks with areas and uses; the allocation to teams; the desks with shared and assigned marked and the bookings against them; the attendance counts week by week; and the contractors cleared to be on site with their dates. The arithmetic is the workplace team's usual: 120 people at 7 desks per 10 need 84 desks; 84 in against 140 desks is 60% utilization; a three-day rule for 180 people clusters to 158.4 on its busiest day. The free worksheets on this site work each of those with no account.
What integrated workplace management software owes the workplace team
Export of the space module's tables as tables, not reports; assigned and shared desks side by side with the ratio visible; attendance kept week by week rather than as a live map; and contractor clearances with expiry dates and a reminder before one lapses. An integrated workplace management solution that does all four in the space module is a good buy for the workplace team even if the lease module is never opened; one that does none of them is a suite around an empty room.
The unbundled version
HardFM is the space module without the suite: the inventory, the desks, the counts and the clearances kept against the building for $24 a month for the whole team, with the arithmetic free on the page, and no lease, project, maintenance or sustainability module at all. The maintenance record for the same building is the neighbouring hub at fmlane.com. When the organisation needs the five under one roof, buy the integrated workplace management system; when one team needs its own module kept honestly, this is that.
Questions people ask about integrated workplace management system
What is an integrated workplace management system?
A suite of five modules under one database: real estate and lease, capital projects, facilities and space, maintenance, and sustainability. The value is that all five describe the same building; the cost is paying for modules other teams own.
Which module of an IWMS is the workplace team's?
Facilities and space: the inventory, the allocation, the desks and bookings, the attendance and the contractors cleared on site. HardFM is that module unbundled, free to work and $24 a month to keep.
What should I ask of integrated workplace management software before buying?
Whether the space module exports tables rather than reports, holds assigned and shared desks with the ratio visible, keeps attendance week by week, and dates the contractor clearances with reminders. And what the workplace team pays if the other four modules go unused.