ImmoTrack as the ideal supplement to conventional CAFM systems

Why a CAFM system is vital for facility management today

Anyone who looks at facility management for the first time without industry know-how will picture very different things. Depending on their background, the focus is on commercial, technical or organisational tasks. A truly holistic view is still rare.

Technical aspects accompany a building throughout its entire life cycle: planning and construction first, then maintenance, renovation or conversion during use. At the end come demolition and proper disposal or recycling. In parallel, commercial and organisational processes run through all phases.

They ensure the necessary cash flow and, at the same time, smooth execution of all technical measures. Within the building many different processes must work: commercial staff secure the financial side, technicians maintain systems and ensure windows, doors, lighting and safety systems function, while organisational services include surface and building cleaning, and sometimes security or catering.

In short, facility management is a whole cornucopia of tasks—far more than it seems at first glance. Looking at individual tasks in isolation is neither feasible nor sensible. A holistic view is required; without it the system cannot work. A CAFM system can noticeably optimise these processes, with savings of up to 30% already proven.

What characterises a modern CAFM system—and where must it support customers?

A CAFM system is the digital platform for the different work areas of a property management or facility management organisation. It covers legally compliant maintenance, organising recurring inspections, statutory documentation duties, accounting requirements, reporting and more. Compatibility with existing software solutions is also important.

The system must also cover individual requirements—for example interfaces to specialised applications, CAD systems, or monitoring and reducing energy consumption. To truly implement digitalisation, all applications should communicate and work together smoothly.

Flexibility is another key factor. From a strategic perspective, modular versions have proven particularly effective: you can start with a smaller solution and expand it with additional modules as requirements grow.

Today everyone understands that efficient building management is hardly possible without integrated IT systems. Yet older standalone solutions are still used even though they rarely promise long-term success. This applies to all organisations that manage properties—municipal administrations, private or public housing companies, industrial and retail companies, banks, and specialised FM providers.

If we take a holistic approach, we speak of CAFM systems with technical and organisational components. From a construction-technical perspective, the portfolio must be captured seamlessly, and the relationships between measures taken and benefits must be transparent. Organisational features must also map the common commercial sub-areas of building management.

CAFM systems are based on databases

The foundation of CAFM systems is databases—ideally well modelled and open. Redundant data should be avoided to prevent system errors. Database structures vary by system, but they record all locations, defined both geographically and geometrically.

The smallest location might be a room in a property. Parking spaces, paths and green areas are also defined as locations. These smallest units are stored in the database and are aggregated on the next level into logical units such as apartments and floors, and then into a building.

One level higher, multiple buildings can be grouped into a plot, which then forms a section. All structures defined here should remain flexible and changeable later. In facility management, people move around these locations to carry out specific work—internal or external staff such as:

• Caretakers / building supervisors
• Gardeners
• Cleaning staff
• Tradespeople
• Employees of security companies

They are assigned to the organisation they work for. At these locations, people either belong to your own organisation or to external partners. They therefore need to be linked to an organisation—making them an important part of the database.

Intelligent work planning with ImmoTrack rounds out CAFM systems

This is where the theory of database structures meets day-to-day operations. Here, the interfaces between owners, tenants, employees and facility management come together. ImmoTrack is a fully automated and continuously optimised work-planning tool for all FM tasks.

It addresses the needs of the different people involved in the process. We built ImmoTrack as a tool from practice for practice—and it shows. As developers, we worked in FM ourselves and know the industry’s requirements and challenges well. ImmoTrack is aligned with the high expectations of our customers.

Thanks to the software’s intelligent structures, FM managers can significantly reduce customer complaints together with their teams. Resources are used far more efficiently and productivity increases. Across the industry, around 30% of assigned work is not carried out at all or not carried out correctly.

One reason is that, despite ongoing digitalisation, work orders are still often issued in an analogue way—making them hard to monitor. The result is a large number of complaints. Processing them ties up resources, either to check whether a complaint is justified or to rework. A negative spiral quickly develops that affects facility managers, property managers, employees and tenants.

For us, ImmoTrack as an add-on tool is a way to support facility management on its path into the future. At the same time, protecting employees is particularly important. With digitised work processes, ImmoTrack ensures a systematic workflow. Photo documentation increases quality; customer complaints are automatically reduced—proven by up to 60%—and employees are protected from unjustified accusations.

Transparency of work processes with ImmoTrack

With ImmoTrack we offer a practice-oriented solution that already enables the facility management of the future. We use the benefits of a digitised, optimised and automated workflow. You can digitise your property-specific specification of services just as well as the associated details.

You record how often certain activities recur and plan them sensibly and efficiently. ImmoTrack’s algorithms support route planning for your employees. Recorded tasks and requests are transferred seamlessly to the smartphone. Transparency and quality control come from GPS tracking, which reports activities per property to you in real time.

When setting up ImmoTrack, property data is entered into the system once. This includes the associated specifications of services with recurring activities and employee competencies. You can assign one or several properties to a specific employee as the main person responsible. This initial effort is necessary to use all software benefits and effectively supplement your CAFM system.

What must a CAFM system deliver to effectively support all areas of facility management?

As described above, the range of tasks in facility management is extremely broad, and each area follows its own rules and legal requirements. Supportive CAFM software like ImmoTrack therefore has to be highly flexible.

To relieve the facility manager and their team, the CAFM system must map every recurring activity—so-called tasks—per property. All required data such as deadlines, maintenance intervals and legal requirements are entered per property into the database. From this, the software generates sensible work plans and logical route planning.

This is straightforward as long as everything goes to plan. But as soon as delays or shifts occur, the system must respond and update planning as quickly as possible. With ImmoTrack this happens continuously and in real time.

To implement parameters across all activity areas in parallel, CAFM software must be extremely flexible. Very different influences must be considered to deliver work according to contract—for example, there is a big difference between tasks carried out inside the building and tasks on the outdoor grounds.

How does CAFM software help with unplanned tasks?

On outdoor grounds, weather adds another—sometimes uncontrollable—factor. This is the case when winter services are part of the contract. If snow or ice appears suddenly, these tasks must be prioritised. Depending on staffing, schedules and resources may need to be reshuffled.

It may not be just the employees usually responsible who are needed, but the entire team. Work paused elsewhere then has to be rescheduled.

The situation is similar with clearing work after heavy rain, hail or severe storms. They can cause flooded basements or serious and dangerous damage to trees. Here too, fast and decisive action is required.

With ImmoTrack’s CAFM software, this remains a temporary problem that can be compensated quickly. Work plans are adjusted accordingly and are immediately available to employees. Everyone knows right away what to do, where to do it and how to get there—so employees benefit from a structured workflow at all times.

ImmoTrack – mobile work made easy

Through the mobile app, employees receive their work plan and can quickly see the location and type of task. The plan includes all activities with their frequencies. Ad-hoc work coming in via emergency management with a ticket system is always integrated into the plan in real time.

Employees document progress via status updates and can mark tasks as completed. For documentation they upload a photo of the site with the smartphone. They can also reschedule tasks to a date of their choice—for example if a job takes longer than planned—and they can flag work that was not completed.

Monitoring and reporting create transparency for facility managers and property managers

ImmoTrack’s innovative dashboard provides a sophisticated view of different work plans and their progress. FM managers can navigate between properties and filter tasks by work plan or by employee. The map view shows the real-time locations of properties and employees as well as job status.

Benefits for property managers, facility managers and employees

Property managers can use ImmoTrack to manage all properties from multiple facility management providers in a single tool. They get a real-time status overview and can easily submit and commission unplanned tasks. Digitised reporting with all current status updates is included. For facility management, ImmoTrack helps use working time effectively and reduces the need for many on-site visits.

Real-time control features with photo documentation, GPS tracking and a clear dashboard ensure quality control and seamless documentation. With ImmoTrack you also gain a highly effective planning module for daily operations over several months. Reports can be transferred to the CAFM system and reused there. Employees also benefit: workflows are structured via the digitised specification of services.

On the smartphone, employees can navigate through tasks and always keep the overview. Photo documentation reduces complaints by up to 60% and increases maintenance quality by 50% at the same time. The software also allows tasks to be rescheduled or handed over to another employee. ImmoTrack runs on multiple platforms: as a cloud-based web application and as apps for iOS and iPad from version 12.

Android is supported from version 5. This makes ImmoTrack a supplement for almost any CAFM system. As a software tool focused on organising the work of facility management leaders, ImmoTrack is the ideal addition to existing CAFM systems. It supports facility managers, property managers and employees in handling daily practical work—thanks to fully digitised processes.

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