The ROI Calculator:
How Facilities Maintenance (FM) Management Can Prove the Value of Web-based Software
Managing properties for retailers, facilities maintenance (FM) and property management companies can be costly, labour intensive and time consuming, tying up staff with paper files, faxes and phone messages. Now there is software for property managers that can save you up to 70 per cent of the cost for these tasks.
And there’s a tool to tell you how well it works -- a Return on Investment (ROI) Calculator that puts the savings from automated maintenance management at your fingertips for you to analyze.
Until now, property management and Facilities Maintenance Service (FMS) companies and retailers have had to do a lot of manual processing to keep track of work orders and stay on top of facilities maintenance. It’s a hidden cost—to process a work order manually, without maintenance software can cost up to $70 for every work order.
An ROI Calculator provides a full maintenance management system. Instead of requiring a manager to find a contractor, organize a work order and keep track of whether the work is being completed and paid for, Facilities Maintenance (FM) software takes care of it all.
Facilities maintenance service (FMS) and property management companies can save time and money. Here’s how.
Under the old, manual system, facilities maintenance service (FMS) and property management companies may need to engage the following people simply to fill a maintenance work order:
- Administrative assistant (to process the request)
- Call centre agent (for intake of order)
- Store manager (manages the order)
- Head office manager (approvals)
- Accountant (keeps track of costs and payment)
This time-consuming work order management, involving all these people, can take up to 2 hours and 52 minutes per work order and cost more than $70 per work order.
Facilities Maintenance Software (FMS) cuts this time to 23 minutes and the cost is less than $20 per order. That’s nearly 70 per cent cheaper.
For typical facilities maintenance (FM) departments property management companies who process many work orders each month, the savings add up fast. Using Centah and its software to process 10 work orders a month can save nearly $510 per month—a 72 per cent saving.
In a year, this adds up to $6,117, over three years more than $18,000. Also, with Centah, you can track the job at each stage instantly, from your desktop, laptop, mobile phone or tablet.
Companies that use maintenance software like Centah’s to create and manage their facilities maintenance and repair work orders also come out ahead in terms of TCO—the Total Cost of Ownership. This is a management accounting concept that smart companies use to gauge the viability of any investment. It’s a good way of looking at the financial impact of deploying information technology over its life cycle.
Even when property managers realize that it’s more effective to software, it’s important to do a TCO comparison of the tools you choose. The question is whether to buy and install your own maintenance software and store your work order data on site, or to work through a web-based software company.
Inevitably, these TCO comparisons find that a SaaS provider will bring you out ahead. For example, typical facilities maintenance service (FMS) and property management companies, which require 20 software licences for their staff, will need to outlay cash just to upgrade software in order to be sure that all the processes are kept up to date—the contractors’ s schedules, work orders, contact information and so on. Multiplied by a staff of 20, this can translate into hundreds of extra dollars per work order.
By using software for property managers and facilities maintenance (FM) managers supplied by a Software as a Service (SaaS) company for a low monthly fee, your computerized maintenance management system is always up to date for a fraction of the cost.
A TCO comparison can also reveal other, more hidden savings. There are so many costs for handling work orders manually, for example, keeping paperwork, following up on work deficiencies, following up invoices, purchasing and maintaining equipment such as printers, fax machines and storage facilities. All of these are incorporated into a maintenance management system using software for property managers.
Which is cheaper? Which is faster? Which is most efficient? Ask your ROI Calculator:
- For property management or facilities maintenance (FM) departments – Is it better to keep staff tied up trying to find contractors, determine if they’re available, follow up on work orders and payment and keep track of storage on site? Or would you benefit from an automated solution?
- For retailers – Which is better—to have your work orders tied to one location, stored in filing cabinets and boxes? Or is it better to manage multiple locations using a SaaS company at a fraction of the cost, 70 per cent cheaper? Isn’t it better to see online, from any location, what services are being bought, when the customers are being served and how the orders were fulfilled?
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