What does a Facilities Manager do? Discover FM Solutions

The Facilities Management market is growing. Despite the pressures of inflation, hybrid working and staff shortages, the market is worth $68 billion in the UK alone, and is expected to grow by 1.65% in the next 5 years.  

The managers in charge of this growth are already becoming smarter about data, and market trends suggest that digital tools for operational management and analysis will be the drivers of successful companies in this highly competitive space. 

But what do facilities managers do? If you’d like to understand the importance of this role, and what software solutions are available to support it, this is the article for you. 

What does a facilities manager do?

IFMA (International Facility Management Association), defines Facilities Managers as follows: 
 
“Facility or facilities management (FM) is a profession dedicated to supporting people. It ensures the functionality, comfort, safety, sustainability and efficiency of the built environment - the buildings we live and work in and their surrounding infrastructure... Facility managers are the people who make sure we have the safest and best experience possible, by coordinating the processes that make the built environment succeed.” IFMA 

In short, facilities managers are responsible for coordinating the services that maintain our buildings and make them productive, comfortable, safe and pleasant spaces. 

For more details, here is a list of responsibilities that facilities managers typically have: 

• Coordinating all installations, refurbishments and maintenance for assets (telecoms, HVAC, electrical) 
• Asset maintenance 
• Inventory management (equipment, supplies, employee uniforms) 
• Building fabric inspections and maintenance 
• Manage and supervise all facilities staff (cleaners, technicians, groundskeepers, security and third-party contractors) 
• Space allocation 
• Contract and customer management 
• Compliance management and insurance plans 
• Procurement 
• Analysis, reporting and forecasting 
• Workforce management 
• Cost control  
• Service delivery 

That’s a lot of responsibilities – facilities managers have to be hard working, flexible and multi-disciplined to get the job done.  

Facilities Management Solutions 

It wouldn’t be possible to spin all these plates using traditional paper processes. The FM industry knows that digital is the future – data analytics is now a core part of the value proposition, and managers need software to automate scheduling, reporting and compliance. 

How can facilities management software help? 

The facilities management market has never been tougher, with tighter budgets, increasing compliance complexity and greater expectations in service, you’re expected to do more with less. 

Thankfully, facilities management software has been designed to help you do just that. The right platform helps to ensure you stay on track with compliance and win new contracts through excellent service. 

It’s possible to digitalise almost any process, marrying mobile field service management with a platform that makes sense of the data so that you stay in control regardless of how remote operations are. 

Here are just some of the things facilities management software can help you with: 

• Asset monitoring, a live register, life-cycle analysis and maintenance scheduling 
• Paperless evidence for compliance, staff absences, costs and reporting 
• Automated corrective actions, task scheduling, service requests and reporting 
• Job scheduling and works coordination 
• Third-party contractor management 
• Data visualisation for internal use and external clients 
• Document distribution and signatures 
• Compliance reporting, data gathering and alerting 

Facilities management software in action   

The Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust is a great example of the advantages of facilities software. Previously, the trust had an overburdened maintenance helpdesk to manage their third-party contractors and works. 

Since using mpro5 to automate task scheduling, job chasing and invoicing, the facilities team has been able to cut the helpdesk from nine staff to just two. This has freed up substantial departmental resource to focus on evaluating the quality of work. 

Double data entry has been removed, with contractors using the mpro5 app to prove their work and send data straight to the cloud. Reporting is also far easier with a structured database and straightforward reporting functions. 

Now that the system has been well-established, the trust is gradually bringing in more and more functions to the platform, including logistics jobs and fire door checks.