All about Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS)

The modern workplace demands effective management to maintain uptime and productivity. 

Managing a workplace involves a broad range of tasks, such as maintenance, security, asset management, space planning, and more. After all, a productive workforce relies on back-end processes running smoothly. 

Some 82% of companies experience unplanned downtime every year, and the disruption resonates throughout the business and its employees to severely impact revenues and profits. 

To combat this, Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) joins a whole host of software technologies designed to solve common workplace challenges. 

IWMS combines asset management, building and energy performance, space planning, and other work management functions into an integrated platform. 

Here’s everything you need to know about IWMPs.  

What is an Integrated Workplace Management System?

An IWMS enables organisations to manage their facilities, assets, and real estate from a centralised platform. 

IWMS encompasses various facility management (FM) functions and modules, such as Computer-Aided Facility Management (CAFM) and Computerised Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). 

However, IWMS is focussed on ‘hard facility management’, which relates to the technical functionality and performance of a building. 

Features of Integrated Workplace Management Systems

An IWMS is focused on the workplace and environment. This might be an office block, warehouse, factory or hotel. 

Modern workplaces are more complex than ever, and they’re heavily regulated. 

For example, workplaces in the UK are extensively regulated for everything from working temperature to noise, screen time (e.g. to prevent eye strain) and fire and electrical safety. 

Managing these functions and processes manually or without a singular software platform is extremely tricky and leaves little opportunity to leverage data for optimisation. Moreover, creating transparent, auditable trails of tasks and processes is often mandatory. 

An IWMS helps organisations overcome these challenges. Here are some of their main uses:

1. Centralised planning: IWMS enables real estate management, e.g. managing leases, rents, taxes and accounting. 
2. Space management: An IWMS helps optimise space tracking occupancy, manage space allocations, and reconfigure floor plans to meet shifting demand.
3. Maintenance management: IWMS extends to facilities management and maintenance operations by automating work orders, scheduling preventive maintenance, and managing inventory. 
4. Asset management: An IWMS solution enables facility managers to manage assets by tracking their location, condition, and usage.
5. Security and compliance: IWMS helps track access control, security incidents, and emergency response. A robust system of recording and tracking incidents is often required for compliance. 
6. Reporting: An IWMS enables facility managers to generate reports on various aspects of their facility management operations, such as maintenance, occupancy, utilisation, and more.

So, what benefits do these features yield? 

Benefits of a workplace management system

IWMS simplifies complex workplace management functions and processes, and also unlocks opportunities for optimisation and innovation. 

Here are some of the many benefits of using an IWMS:

1. Improved efficiency: Time-consuming manual admin takes some 14 hours of a manager’s weekly workload. An IWMS enables facility managers to automate various tasks to reduce paperwork and save time. 
2. Data visibility: Process automation improves communication between systems. IWMS provides facility managers with real-time data and analytics, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and improve data visibility.
3. Enhanced productivity: Utilising an IWMS enables facility managers to prioritise and manage business-critical tasks.  
4. Better compliance: The modern regulatory landscape leaves little margin of error. IWMS creates transparent, auditable trails covering repairs, safety inspections, etc. 
5. Cost savings: Efficient processes reduce maintenance costs by saving time and maintaining high uptime. IWMS can reduce facility costs by 14%. In addition, IWMS combined with a facilities management system vastly cuts maintenance and energy consumption.

Workplace Management Systems and CAFM

Computer-Aided Facility Management (CAFM) is closely related to IWMS. 

Like IWMS, CAFM plays a holistic purpose in managing a facility’s various people and processes. For instance, CAFM enables facility managers to track occupancy, allocate space and usage, schedule preventive maintenance, and manage inventory. 

However, CAFM doesn’t provide the same functionality for managing real estate and enterprise-wide processes.

In essence, IWMS offers wider functionality for large and enterprise-level businesses. 

Here’s a brief comparison of the two: 

• Both CAFM and IWMS use digital processes and data centralisation to manage both digital and physical assets related to workplaces and facilities. 
• Both can be used for asset management, maintenance scheduling, tracking, etc.
• IWMS adds additional functionality for real estate management, e.g. if an organisation manages several buildings or facilities. 
• IWMS is more inclusive and flexible for large-scale workplace management, e.g. organisations with many buildings dispersed across different clients and jurisdictions. 
• Conversely, CAFM is somewhat more focused on individual facilities – ideal for smaller businesses. 

Workplace management and asset management 

Asset management involves managing an organisation’s assets (both physical and digital) throughout their lifecycles. This includes everything from procurement and deployment to maintenance. 

Asset management is foundational to workplace management. After all, a workplace depends on its assets. 

An IWMS typically includes features for tracking asset usage and maintenance schedules, including triggering maintenance requests, work orders, job assignment cost tracking, etc. 

Integrated platforms like Infraspeak Gear™ enable managers to optimise their facilities and assets to unlock competitive advantages. 

Workplace Management Systems and IMMP

Another acronym?! Hear us out. 

As workplace management has become more complex and diverse, demand for streamlined, all-in-one tools have rocketed. 

Yes, you’ve got CAFMs, IWMS, etc, but the Intelligent Maintenance Management Platform (IMMP) is the ultimate set of tools for managing workplaces of all kinds. 

What an IWMS often lacks is intelligence, scalability and interoperability. 

In contrast, IMMPs add best-in-class tools for extracting and transforming management data to: 

1. Make maintenance data visibility usable for insights and analysis.
2. Elevate compliance to new levels – vital for meeting or exceeding regulatory demands and advertising performance to clients and customers.
3. Create new opportunities for managing, controlling and optimising workplaces to boost productivity and uptime. 

Infraspeak’s IMMP enables Maintenance 5.0, where workplace management is transformed by AI, IoT and other cutting-edge technologies. 

To learn more about Infraspeak’s IMMP, schedule a demo with one of our specialists.