The responsibilities of a building and facilities management team will encompass maintenance of the physical and structural systems as well as administration of soft services such as cleaning, security and other human-resourced activities.
Depending on the scale of the infrastructure being managed, you will require varying degrees of visibility into how, when and why specific zones are being used by occupants in order to efficiently manage the building, but many commercial property owners overlook this necessity and rely on outdated management models. Unfortunately, this often results in more compensatory and costly reactions to unanticipated issues what will inevitably occur.
To avoid disruptions, save resources and plan for the future of your business, you need to have an efficient building management process that is supported by a reliable and versatile infrastructure.
So what are some of the issues that may be preventing your maintenance and operations teams from making sure that your building is always running optimally?
1. Securing budget for upgrades and improvement projects
Your building maintenance team is a vital cog in the machine that is your business, but, like all other departments, it will be competing for a slice of the annual budget whenever it’s up for review.
It’s easy to sideline maintenance improvement projects, believing that as long as everything is ticking over, there is no need for expensive new upgrades. This is where many companies get stung. An ill-equipped maintenance team will cost your business more in the long term every time a big issue arises, one that could have been prevented had you had the information to take the necessary measures. True Occupancy data can help you create a bigger picture for stakeholders, helping them to understand why the plans you propose when trying to improve the building’s efficiency are necessary.
2. Resource drain and energy inefficiency
Depending on the size of your commercial property, you are likely to have many appliances, lighting, heating and cooling devices plugged in, switched on and whirring away. This, of course, is completely necessary when all of these technologies are being used productively, but it’s also a huge financial sinkhole when left unattended.
Heating and lighting empty rooms could be an excessive cost for your business. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy found that when using smart lighting and smart HVAC, cost savings between 24%-32% can be realised.
A True Occupancy system can be integrated with HVAC and lighting systems to ensure that vacant spaces in your building are not using energy unnecessarily.
3. Hot-desking chaos
In theory, this is an excellent system when trying to maximise the utility of your commercial space; hot-desking is a fantastic way to save energy resources, minimise expenses, maximise space utilisation and create more of a communal feel in your office, but a well thought out implementation process is required to get everyone on board.
Your employees will want visibility of the availability of equipment and occupancy levels of the office when having to choose whether to work remotely or on site. With a True Occupancy system, sophisticated people counting sensors collect real-time occupancy data. This data can then update other IoT applications, enabling employees to quickly check whether there is an available desk or meeting room.
In addition, being able to study movement throughout your premises can help you to plan out the most suitable layout for your office, ensuring that everyone is comfortable and happy.
4. Human resource management
Your maintenance team is likely to process a huge volume of daily requests, as well as address emergency issues around the clock. Depending on the size of your facility, you will have to schedule and deploy teams to complete tasks efficiently, and with minimal disturbance to the occupants.
Through lack of visibility on how certain parts of the building are being utilised, you may end up getting the scheduling totally wrong. Furthermore, by not having an up-to-date view of incoming problems, you will have to deal with more urgent issues at less suitable hours.
True Occupancy data can help you to get a clear perspective of movement throughout the facility so that you can schedule routine maintenance at convenient times.
Undoubtedly, it can be challenging to transform older properties into comfortable environments that meet the needs of modern occupants, but with the right tools, it is achievable. It’s essential to leverage the information that your building generates daily in order to make fast, effective decisions. True Occupancy by Irisys can help you to tackle many of the issues we’ve discussed by supplying your maintenance team and key stakeholders with valuable data about your commercial property so that you can transform your assets into functional, efficient and eco-friendly smart buildings.
Download our eBook The Truth About Workplace Occupancy and learn; key insights into the smart building market, benefits of occupancy data analytics and real-world applications from the National Grid.
