15 December 2020

What are the Key Features of CAFM?

With computer-aided facility management (CAFM) software, facility managers are able to plan, execute, and monitor every activity involved in space and workplace management, operational facility services, asset management, proactive and planned preventative maintenance, and much more.

CAFM software basically allows organisations to manage, track, and report on daily business operations. The many benefits of CAFM software include prolonged asset lifespans, cost savings, centralised and validated data, decrease in energy-related expenses, proactive/strategic planning, improved communication and performance, etc.

CAFM is a specialised technology that is used for the purpose of management. The software can be integrated with different platforms. It has the following key features.

1. Asset Management

Assets and equipment ensure facilities keep running in a smooth manner. If assets are not maintained properly, a lot can go wrong. With the help CAFM, you can plan preventive, reactive, or predictive maintenance for your assets based on their performance.

2. Maintenance Management

Maintenance management is another feature of the system. You can schedule maintenance for different assets at different time intervals, meter intervals, and so on.

3. Vendor Management

When you add vendors to your system, you can track which projects they are working on, along with their progress. You are able to assign work to them as well as communicate with them via the system to make sure all data stays in a single place.

4. CAD Drawings

CAD drawings are integral in how CAFM works. By giving you a clear visual blueprint of how the space on offer is being utilized, it empowers you to create an action plan to manage your facility in a more effective and efficient manner.

5. Analysis of Energy Performance

By monitoring utility bill data (including non-energy and energy sources), the CAFM software tracks your energy usage as well as performance. The software then benchmarks this against other facilities that are of the same size in order to gauge your environmental footprint. Such insights help you in determining whether or not sustainability projects are required to be executed to decrease costs and enhance performance.

6. Capital Project Management

It is never easy to get a huge project up and running. Between the environmental factors, budget constraints, space constraints, construction needs, project objectives, and much more, this is a task that needs more than an Excel sheet. This software offers you the organisational structure for the planning and management of these new projects right from the start till the end. By storing crucial information on assets, buildings, and equipment, your team is able to make data-driven decisions to make sure that the project runs in a smooth manner with little to zero errors.

7. Other Features

CAFM is a database that has asset information, equipment location, floorplans, etc. to present you a well-rounded picture of the use of your facilities. Such software is capable of providing you answers for your space planning needs.

The CAFM software spans project management, preventive maintenance, space management, building operations, and much more. At the end of the day, the insights offered by the CAFM software enable managers to re-assess and tweak their approach when it comes to planning of space in the long term, maintenance expenses, services being offered, budgets being set, and how facilities operate – all this in line with the way a business works.

CAFM has undergone developments in terms of technology and functionality, and its objective is to make the organisational processes more efficient. Therefore, companies only stand to benefit from its inclusion within their way of working.