How is technology changing the facility manager’s role?

The responsibilities of facility managers have expanded far beyond the traditional functions of managing work orders, vendors and assets. Today’s FMs must understand software, sustainability, energy management and procurement while also being able to present multimillion-dollar budgets and calculate ROI. Communication, leadership and supervisory skills are a must.   

FM software, with its ability to automate and accelerate repetitive tasks and workflows, helps FM teams boost their productivity, even with all their responsibilities and while still shorthanded from the pandemic. Chronic FM labor shortages forecast for this decade will exacerbate workforce understaffing and amplify the need for FM software to deliver gains in efficiency.  

FM software helps FMs:  

• Streamline legacy workflows and free up FM staff for higher-priority work  

• Compare work-order costs and service providers against market benchmarks    

• Analyze operational data and generate insights for boosting FM performance  

Corrigo, JLLT’s industry-leading FM software, enables FMs to manage their operations at scale with 99.98 percent system uptime. Configurable dashboards and workflows enable industry-specific solutions. The unified mobile and desktop experiences update in real time for efficient facility management on the go.   

To discover how Corrigo benefits FM job roles, visit www.jllt.com/corrigo.    

How are FMs using technology to deal with rising costs?

It is no secret that the convergence of inflation, supply-chain disruptions and labor shortages are driving up FM costs. Since the beginning of 2021, work-order costs have increased almost 18 percent. Material costs alone have jumped 25 percent, even 40 percent for high-demand items.    

Professional FM software offers insights into assets, especially how much you are paying and when replacing an asset is a better option than repairing it. Software can control costs using preventive maintenance and benchmarks that compare your costs to those of peers, filtered by region and trade. Software with business intelligence, like JLLT’s Corrigo, can identify costly installations and assets and suggest strategies for saving money. It can also pinpoint underperforming or overpriced service providers and recommend alternatives.    

New tactics for sustaining budgets and ensuring equipment uptime have emerged, like pre-ordering and warehousing essential parts and equipment. Consolidating service calls conserves fuel. “Band-Aid” maintenance — repairing when replacing is likely a better option — saves money but validates the problem that replacement equipment is in short supply. FMs are demanding justification for fuel surcharges and renegotiating contracts, NTEs and SLAs.   

All options are on the table for FMs to mitigate the impact of rising costs, long lead times, shortages and understaffing.  

How does JLL Technologies help FM leaders and practitioners?

JLLT’s FM software and related technologies use real-time data for insights that would be difficult, if not impossible, to discover otherwise. Not all equipment wear and tear is visible; but FM data, especially when paired with sensors, illuminates seen and unseen problems that threaten equipment uptime and useful life.    

Software products from JLL Technologies help facility managers harness data from their own operations to inform decisions about maintenance, assets, workflows, vendors, spaces and productivity. Data is essential for substantiating multimillion-dollar budgets, capital expenditures, and critical repair versus replace decisions for expensive equipment. It replaces opinions and anecdotes — the default justification when hard data is not available.  

Time is a scarce resource for FM teams left understaffed by the pandemic — especially those needing help with time-consuming tasks that software cannot easily accelerate, like creating vendor networks in new or distant markets. Fortunately, these teams can partner with Corrigo Managed Services whose hands-on, experienced FMs specialize in completing common and challenging FM tasks, including sourcing and vetting quality vendors.  

JLLT offers a menu of software that complements existing technologies and/or fills strategic gaps with solutions, like CMMS, IWMS, sensors, energy management, lease management, workplace experience apps and more. JLLT helps practitioners sort through the Proptech landscape to create a tech stack that reduces costs, accelerates results and achieves important FM goals.    

Interested in learning more?   

Reach our people at HelloJLLT@jll.com and jllt.com/facilities-management.