Did you know that at the very heart of traditional medicine systems like Chinese Medicine is the belief that no issue happens in isolation? What does this mean in practice? That emotional/energetic imbalance can impact your physical body. For example, your neighbour’s angry streak could be caused by blockages in their liver meridian lines.
No. This isn’t to say we’re adding acupuncture to our list of services; we’re just setting up an analogy. Stay put…
Just like the body, companies are also interconnected. When admin and operational departments are imbalanced and data doesn’t flow, there are knock-on effects on seemingly unrelated processes, i.e., invoicing inefficiencies impact maintenance. It’s all connected, and this is backed up by a recently published study by Vanson Bourne:
- Annual losses from managing, or better put, mismanaging disconnected data equate to roughly €128 billion.
- 47% of interviewed managers felt that data silos were negatively impacting their company’s ability to innovate and 46% felt it was impacting their ability to respond to client needs.
- 41% of companies suffered from obsolete and disconnected data points stuck in the cloud.
So yes — those blockages in your angry neighbour’s liver 6 are in many ways similar to the disconnect suffered by so many maintenance and finance/purchasing departments. It leads to numerous “ailments”, including uninformed decisions, slower MTTR, poorly executed planned maintenance, and ultimately, higher costs and dissatisfied customers. How can we treat the body as a whole?
Strengthen your FM and financial operations through integration
The logic is that by releasing energy at one pressure point, you will relieve stress and blockages at another. Rather than sticking needles in your company, you can use integrated, complementary platforms, like Infraspeak and Sage. These two platforms are designed to guarantee that your finance and FM departments operate smoothly, and through integration, these two departments can operate as one, in harmony.
Sage started out as a local startup in the UK and has since become a global powerhouse. They specialise in all-in-one systems for accounting, payroll, and payments. With over 11,000 employees, Sage helps customers in more than 20 countries manage their finances.
Digitalised finances bring collaboration with FM into clear sight, at last
A 2024 study by the Fundação José Neves, cited in Público, found that companies with a more advanced level of digital transformation are 43% more productive than their counterparts. Equally, a study by Eurostat showed that companies without financial digitalisation and automation had 40% more difficulty in scaling and suffered from 18% of reduced revenue due to inefficiencies.
Research suggests that many of these inefficiencies stem from technical and admin teams working in isolation, with their backs turned to what the other team is doing. Once finances and maintenance are digitalised and properly connected, they can share critical data points in real-time and a new lease of life is given to the operation — no more dead ends and no more data silos.
Like putting on glasses for the first time and seeing everything clearly for the first time (last health analogy, we swear), digital transformation and integration are game-changers. Integrating Infraspeak with Sage opens a whole new world of opportunity for you, one you never even knew was there! It brings efficiency, productivity, and growth in abundance.
What are the points of failure for a company lacking integration between maintenance and finance?
- Decision making – Basing decision making on incorrect data, for example, scheduling a repair based on an out-of-date metre reading or using an item that’s no longer in your stock, can lead to unnecessary hold-ups and confusion.
- Service delays – if technicians can’t effectively communicate their needs quickly to the finance department, procurement and purchasing will be a clunky process. This means work orders are completed at a delayed rate.
- Increased costs – When maintenance and financial information are not synchronised, it leads to excessive purchasing, stockouts, and poorly calculated budgets. This generates unnecessary expenses.
- Human error – Failing to automate processes and sticking with outdated methods—like relying on spreadsheets for management—is a recipe for disaster in modern-day FM. Your staff will be overloaded, and mistakes will happen
There’s only upside to integrating finances and maintenance
Data silos are removed
When departments are connected, everyone has access to the same real-time information. Communication becomes faster and more fluid, improving resource management and accelerating response time. The result? Faster and more accurate invoicing, and more autonomous and efficient maintenance.
Transparency breeds control
With full integrated operational visibility, facility managers can make faster, data-driven strategic decisions, thanks to insights from finance. This slashes the time from problem identification to action, leading to greater control, efficiency, and productivity.
Professionals get back their time
System integration frees CFOs, administrators, facility managers, technicians, indeed, anyone from manual, low-value tasks that kept them under immense pressure. The sheer number of available automations can save dozens of hours of admin each month.
Operations become easier to manage
Synchronising stock, orders, and contracts gives you a single, up-to-date view of your operations. All this key data sits in one central cloud spot, accessible from anywhere. With time, key processes like procurement and contract management are simplified, eliminating double invoicing or bad budget planning.
Compliance is easier than ever
Pairing up FM and finance systems makes it easier to meet client expectations and ensures compliance with SLAs, standards, and current legislation. It also allows for simpler, more complete, and more rigorous audits.
Transparency and profits will go up
Sharing data boosts transparency and trust between partners. Integrating maintenance and finance lets you track, control, and reduce costs more closely, enabling you to negotiate better deals with suppliers.
Action-driven data is here
Data is only useful when it generates relevant, actionable insights. That’s exactly what Infraspeak’s powerful analytics achieve, especially when boosted by integration with an accounting management solution.
You get real-time reports that combine data from both areas, providing insights, alerts, and practical suggestions. This simplifies decision-making and drives continuous improvement.
Maintenance and finances: an integration for the future
For too long now, finance and operations have operated in isolation, completely disconnected. This can’t go on! The more these areas interact, the more value is brought to businesses without any real downside. It is a competitive requirement in today’s market, which is driven by high-demand KPI, invoicing, and reporting standards.
Integrating Infraspeak with a partner offering advanced accounting and finance management solutions provides a winning approach to these challenges. When you have a fluid FM operation where all parties – internal teams, clients, and suppliers – collaborate and are aligned, the outcome can only be growth and success!
