A recent survey conducted by Service Works Group in collaboration with the industry’s leading event, the Facilities Show, revealed key insights into how FM software is being used within the UK. Collating feedback from over 500 facilities professionals across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, the survey identified how organisations utilise FM software, the key benefits which have been established and how technology aligns with their wider business strategy.
Conclusions drawn from the survey include the following:
- There is a growing trend towards shorter contract lengths, with 49% of organisations having purchased software licences for up to 5 years, as opposed to 37% of businesses who purchased their FM application outright
- Typical implementation time for FM software is between 1 and 6 months (52% of respondents), with 22% of organisations opting for a phased approach
- Despite the growth in cloud technology, currently only 24% of businesses utilise a hosted / cloud based application for facilities management
- 73% of business have improved FM efficiency using FM software
- 72% of business stated that FM software allowed for better auditability and 60 % agreed it had improved health & safety compliance
Expanding upon earlier research conducted by Service Works in 2014, the survey revealed that CAFM is the acronym most commonly used (55%), followed by FM Software (16%), IWMS (8%) and CMMS (8%). 41% of respondents believe the acronyms describe products with similar functionality.
The research also highlighted a number of key trends which are driving technological innovation within the sector, including mobile technology (65%), web self-service (54%), energy monitoring (43%) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) (25%). It would appear, however, that the adoption of mobile apps within the FM sector is still a considerable way behind the consumer market, with only 45% of respondents currently using tablet and mobile devices as part of their wider FM strategy to manage contractors and operatives.
