What is CAFM?

The invasion of technology is evident in all sectors. The world is tracing its journey from paper to digital. And, facilities management is a part of this transformation. It’s a real task to manage a commercial or residential entity. There are many aspects of managing a building or a facility. And relying on paper or legacy systems is a thing of past.

To meet the challenges of modern buildings, the ‘CAFM’ solution is necessary. CAFM is often pronounced as “caf-em” by the subject experts. In essence, Computer-Aided Facilities Management is a technology-enabled solution to govern facilities management.

CAFM serves as an all-in-one platform for the business owners to manage their business facilities, assets, maintenance operations and space utilization together. It helps facilities managers to streamline the working and make use of data. Facilities managers can deliver effective and efficient results. CAFM solution is slowly replacing all conventional methods to manage inventory and work-orders.

Explore the next section to know what is CAFM, its benefits, and future scope.

What is CAFM and what it is not?

Many people confuse CAFM with CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System), BMS (Building Management System) or IWMS (Integrated Workplace Management System). There are many similarities between these systems. But, there are differences as well. Let us have a look at the basics-

• CMMS – Computerized maintenance management systems are mainly related to the maintenance of equipment. It involves maintaining and regulating the stock of spare parts and repairs of critical equipment.
• BMS – Building Management or Automation System can be considered as a complete system to take care of buildings (commercial or industrial). It encompasses mechanisms to control and monitor every aspect of the building. It includes safety, temperature, humidity, electricity, fire systems, etc.
• CAFM – Computer-Aided Facilities Management is mostly a cloud-based solution tailored to deliver digitalized facility management services including planned preventive maintenance, space utilization, workforce coordination, room booking, reporting and inventory management.
• IWMS– Integrated Workplace Management takes a broader form of CAFM. It encompasses features of CMMS, CAFM and Property management like lease management, environmental planning, energy control, financial management, etc. It is more generalized.

CAFM focuses on using resources effectively, scheduling jobs to the right teams, and extracting meaningful information. However, it excludes extensive property management functions. The cloud-based CAFM solutions are catching all the attention to maximizing revenues.

What is CAFM and what are it’s benefits 

As stated above, CAFM aims to ease the work of a facility manager. It is a cost-effective solution that streamlines the processes in present and gives actionable insights with following benefits-

1. Better Space and Resource Utilisation

CAFM offers the capability to add CAD drawings to ensure better use of space. The occupants are more organized. There exists no conflict in room booking as the system automatically updates the correct time and availability to the users. The system also presents a clear picture of all the available resources, enables accurate asset management with automated steps and generates a unique number for every booking to assist payment.

2. Reduced Extra Costs

Planned preventive maintenance helps the facility managers to reduce any damage to the assets and equipment due to breakdown. It follows the ‘fix-it-before-it-breaks’ approach. CAFM promises extended asset life and reduced equipment downtime. It also helps to maintain regulatory compliance and meet the standards. It is possible to set timely alerts and reminders according to the asset lifecycle. There are no repeated or wasteful visits.

3. Enhanced Satisfaction

‘Helpdesk’ features are incorporated into a CAFM solution. It aims to manage requests in a way such that none of them are missed. It enables to meet KPI’s and deliver promised service level agreements. There are quick and accurate answers to customer queries. There are knowledge-based documents to impart training to new staff. Self-Service also plays a vital role in enhancing the satisfaction of stakeholders.

4. Meaningful Reports

CAFM platform stores and manages data in a centralised manner. It frees the managers from the burden of files. Besides that, this data serves as a treasure to informed decisions. Facilities managers can use and analyse this data extensively to understand the issues. Then, make decisions for future for a better outcome. The reports also help to measure productivity and benchmarking the performance.

5. Greater Control

The CAFM system promotes effortless administration. It provides greater control to the facility managers to track the work in real-time, customise the platform to suit their requirements, and upscale or downscale as per the need and work. There is no dependency. The cloud-based solution is accessible from anywhere. The authorized people can use it and carry out their work and update their job status. The staff can also communicate and send updates using their Mobile. The solution also allows integration with third-party systems.

Future of CAFM

Technologies like IoT (Internet of Things), AI (Artificial Intelligence) and robotics will revolutionize buildings and facilities. Intelligent machines will replace the older ones. Gartner, Inc. forecasts that the number of connected things will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. Smart appliances and intelligent buildings can be foreseen. These developments will require a platform to communicate, collect and analyse data extensively, and trigger automated actions.

CAFM seems to be a first step to connect, collaborate and coordinate the operations. As technology advances to make lives easier, more will be the need to organise and deliver services. CAFM is not only an answer to present day challenges of facilities management, but, it also holds potential for a profitable and productive future outcome.

CAFM solution can support the in-house and outsourced facilities managers. They can gain efficiency and garner maximum ROI.

CAFM is here to stay!

CAFM system is an essential solution for long-term planning. It will have the upper hand over the manual-oriented systems. Computer-aided facilities management will be the game changer. It will cut down the repetitive work. It will be easier and smoother to manage facilities. But, the key is to select a right solution or cry later. Watch out for our next post to know about the key considerations in selecting the right software. Till then, if you’ve any queries or would like to know more about a comprehensive CAFM solution, then request a free consultation with our experts.

Say hello to CAFM!