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BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
IWMS: Taking Facility Management
to the Next Level
Phil Wales consolidated data set makes reporting difficult. All this contrasts
CEO with IWMS’ one unified, normalized data set with the system
eBusiness Strategies regulating both data ownership and management, while being
available to everyone needing information across the entire plat-
At a mind-numbing pace, new classifications of technol-
ogies are launched into the competitive marketplace. form through an asset’s full lifecycle.
It should be no surprise that some will succeed and IWMS users do not have to deter-
others will fail. One of those technologies was introduced in
2004 when the independent research mine who owns which data and are
firm Gartner, Inc. created the defini- not burdened with deciphering why
tion around IWMS and introduced their data may not match data in
a focused platform for service other disparate systems. With IWMS,
management. the data always matches because it is
standardized and available across the
Today, serious debate about IWMS’ platform for reporting and analysis.
success is over as this software Although virtually no major CRE orga-
platform has become the recognized nizations still elect the ‘create my own
default IT solution for corporate IWMS’ approach through integration
real estate (CRE). Spelling out the of point solutions, some continue
acronym, every word—Integrated with disparate legacy tools and struggle to both effectively keep
Workplace Management System—is them current and work with them. IWMS is so robust, with all
powerfully meaningful to facility the functionality built out, that the potential delta of increased
managers. System capabilities, especially at large corporations functionality found in point systems is so negligible, it is simply
with complex operations deliver a lengthy benefits list, with four not worth it.
being very critical ones. #2 A second key IWMS benefit is operational efficiency. One
such aspect is that organizations can train staff exclusively on
Four key system benefits one system, thus knowing fully how to operate it to get the
#1 Unified or consolidated data sets are a major benefit information they need when it’s needed. Interaction between
for any service spanning an entire enterprise such as CRE. A maintenance activities, a facility condition assessment, and
critical nature of CRE is the substantial interaction between capital projects to address deficiencies, is a good example. When
various functional activities or domains. These include a condition assessment identifies a deficiency, the decision as
space management, operations and maintenance, energy to the asset’s maintenance history and potential need for major
management, leasing and transaction management, and repair or replacement crosses at least three different service do-
projects/ project management. All these activities and others mains. A manager needs access to all those data sets. With IWMS
handled by the real estate facilities group cross over, i.e., interact. they only have to be trained on one system (one set of training,
no multiple passwords or accounts) because all the data is in one
The most common alternative to an integrated system such place.
as IWMS is a series of point solutions. Although point solutions Once they learn how to use the system, it can be utilized
may have a marginally better capability than their internal IWMS across the board. In contrast, using a disparate series of tools
counterpart, they are a standalone system. Therefore, the signifi- would require the manager to be trained on at least three—or
cant negative with a point solution is the disconnect between all else have someone else run reports to be manually analyzed.
other operations within the organization. Additionally, because all data is centralized, everything can
be modeled as one. Following the example above, deficiencies
As a result, with point solutions organizations must make an
outsize expenditure to integrate many different systems, then
create policies and procedures (which must be maintained) to
guide the ownership and distribution of key data components.
So, it costs more, unnecessarily creates risk—and having no
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