It’s understandable why excel spreadsheets are used everywhere, including in the FM industry – they are inexpensive, easy to use and require minimal to no staff training. But are they the most trustworthy and efficient way to manage your facilities?

These spreadsheets start by being an easy solution to your problems but with time they become very difficult to maintain, there are multiple versions and often get lost in your hard drive. So you begin questioning whether the effort and time put into them is worth your while.

When an FM operation is very small, as in single operator, an excel spreadsheet is a tool can be not bad to manage your FM processes but it is not a complete software solution – it will not integrate with other systems, help you see the bigger picture of what is happening in your organisation or provide you with great insights. As a result, you end up losing the ability to find growth opportunities while increasing the risk of inaccurate and corrupted data or human error.

The same problem happens with siloed databases – critical information is often lost and you don’t get integrated business intelligence resulting in a lack of transparency and miscommunication between departments, a drop in efficiency which therefore impacts your revenue.

When it comes to facilities management, transparency equals efficiency as it minimises duplication. That is why you need a truly integrated FM software solution where silos are broken down and everything related to your property operations are stored in one single place, available across all levels of your organisation. To be effective though, it needs to be able to be implemented with minimal training and can be used by everyone, not just a few power users. By having this you give back hundreds of hours to your employees and let them manage their time wisely while focusing on other activities that will help develop and grow your company.

Another advantage of using an integrated FM software is the mobility given to your staff. They will be able to remain active while in the field becoming more agile and productive by using a single app solution instead of different tools or excel – we all know that many FMs hate being dragged back into the office to ‘do the paperwork’.

Furthermore, this integrated single-source-of-truth solution will provide you with data to help you make assertive decisions based on historical and forecast information allowing you to put together a strategic plan which will provide even deeper financial benefits to your organisation.

If you are still in doubt of which way to go, we would love to show you how FMClarity is easy to use and can be tailored to your business needs. Book your demo today at contact@fmclarity.com.