{"id":10079,"date":"2025-07-15T09:41:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swg.com\/na\/?p=10079"},"modified":"2025-12-11T15:20:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T15:20:29","slug":"maximizing-roi-from-cmms-contractors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swg.com\/na\/blog\/maximizing-roi-from-cmms-contractors\/","title":{"rendered":"Maximizing ROI from CMMS: Contractors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Facility management is a huge cost to business – according to CBRE<\/a>, buildings and facility management services represent up to 25% of some organizations\u2019 total cost. It\u2019s little wonder then that FM is often under the spotlight when it comes to cost-cutting measures, despite the fact that this department\u2019s responsibility is wide and growing. Gone are the days when FM was solely responsible for maintenance and cleaning, teams are now tasked with improving sustainability, meeting copious compliance measures and adopting smart building technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CMMS software is helping FM teams manage their sites more effectively than ever before through rapidly evolving functionality and the provision of in-depth data analysis. It offers a multitude of ways to monitor, control and even reduce costs but teams often don\u2019t use their systems to maximum effect and therefore miss out on substantial, ongoing savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the first in our new monthly blog series, providing ideas on how CMMS software such as QFM can save sites thousands of dollars (and pay for itself in the process).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A necessary expense<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This first blog in the series will look a subject that can pose large costs as well as risks to FMs: contractor management. Whether for in-house teams or service providers, contractors provide specialized knowledge, skills and tools that allow FMs to focus on their core activities. However these services come at a price \u2013 a contracted engineer could cost double the equivalent daily rate of a salaried engineer \u2013 and as they don\u2019t work directly with the main team, service levels can be hard to manage. For more on this, read our blog: Contractor Management Made Easy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can CMMS help manage contractor costs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Contractors are paid to do a job, often with several different companies employed to work on different assets and services. It\u2019s often assumed that the work is completed as agreed but with the right data in hand, QFM allows you to see what\u2019s actually happening.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. How much contracting costs<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    At a fundamental level, CMMS makes it easy to see the total amount spent on contractors over any given time period, without digging through paperwork. And from here, the savings can begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Users can filter what they need, such as spend per contactor, service type (for example cleaning or water treatment) or by site. But the biggest savings are often made when looking at spend vs estimate; users can drill down through the data to see any services which have significantly exceeded the estimate, which contractors are regularly over-changing, and evaluate specific contactor performance to see how well each job is being done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The examples below show a large discrepancy in June between estimated and actual costs, mostly coming from HVAC services.  We can further drill down and see it\u2019s Contractor 6 who is over-charging. This data provides the opportunity for discussion to make improvements in this areas, or alternatively, look for a different contractor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    \"Estimated
    Estimated vs actual costs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"Costs
    Costs by service type<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \n
    \"Costs
    Costs by contractor company name<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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