IWMS stands for integrated workplace management system, and the IWMS meaning as the analysts wrote it is a suite of five modules under one database: real estate and lease, capital projects, facilities and space, maintenance, and sustainability. What is IWMS software, for the facilities and workplace manager asking the question, is narrower: it is the facilities and space module, the inventory, the desks, the occupancy and the contractors on site, sold together with four modules that other people in the organisation own. This guide is about the two of the five that are the workplace team's, what an IWMS system has to keep for them to be worth having, and what to ask of IWMS solutions before the demo so the price of the other three modules is a decision rather than a surprise.
The five modules, and whose they are
Real estate and lease belongs to the property side; capital projects to the project office; maintenance to the maintenance manager, whose product on this estate is fmlane.com; sustainability to whoever reports the energy figures. Facilities and space is the workplace team's: the inventory of floors and desks, the allocation to teams, the bookings and the attendance, and the contractors cleared to be on site. An IWMS system is the decision to buy all five under one database; the question for the workplace team is whether the fifth part is worth the other four.
What the space module has to keep
The same four tables as any workplace management system: the inventory with areas and uses, the desks with shared and assigned marked and who is booked into each, the attendance counts week by week, and the contractor clearances with their dates. The arithmetic over them is the same too: 140 desks with 84 in on average is 60% utilization, 126 on the busiest day is 90%, and the attendance supports 7 desks per 10 people. IWMS software that does this well in the space module and poorly in the others is still the right buy for the workplace team; the reverse is not.
What to ask of IWMS solutions before the demo
Three questions. Does the space module export the inventory, the bookings and the counts as tables, or only as reports. Is the price per module, per user or per desk, and what does the workplace team pay if the other four modules go unused. And can the space module hold assigned and shared desks side by side with the ratio visible, because a product that hides the ratio hides the number the hybrid rule depends on. IWMS systems that answer the first with a report and the second with a suite price are the wrong shape for a team that owns one module.
When an IWMS is the wrong size
A workplace team with two floors, a hybrid rule and a dozen contractors owns one module of five and needs the arithmetic more than the integration. The free worksheets on this site work the space a headcount needs, the utilization from attendance and the desks a rule needs with no account, and HardFM Pro keeps the inventory, the desks, the counts and the clearances for $24 a month for the whole team, flat. That is the space module without the suite; when the organisation needs the lease and the projects under the same roof, the suite is the right buy and this is not.
Questions people ask about iwms
What is IWMS?
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 facilities and space module is the workplace team's; the other four belong to other people in the organisation.
What is IWMS software for a facilities team, in practice?
The space module: the inventory of floors and desks, the allocation to teams, the bookings and attendance, and the contractors cleared to be on site, with the arithmetic that sizes the space and tests the desk rule. HardFM is that module without the suite, free to work and $24 a month to keep.
Is HardFM an IWMS?
No. It is the facilities and space part only: the workplace record and its arithmetic. It has no lease module, no project module, no maintenance module and no sustainability reporting, on purpose, and it publishes no other vendor's figures on this site.