Stay on Top of Day-to-Day Operations Through A Web-Based IWMS with Portfolio Management

When you think about the traits that make a business successful, you might consider financial prowess, passion, and patience as crucial attributes. However, an oft-neglected trait has become increasingly crucial to defining success in a post-pandemic world: flexibility.

The ability to adapt to changing situations is extremely underrated yet extremely important. If the changing rules and regulations over the past year in reaction to Covid-19 have taught us anything, it’s that nothing is permanent, and everything is “figureoutable.”

It is naturally easier to talk about adapting than it is to actually make those changes to your business; when you have to manage an entire global portfolio with different property types and functions as well as the people who populate those spaces in a virus-sensitive society, space usage and availability can change in an instant. In addition, staying on top of day-to-day operations, spotting trends, and analyzing all of the data can be overwhelming, to say the least.

Portfolio managers who want to address current problems while identifying opportunities to better use their spaces can turn to an integrated workplace management system (IWMS) for insights. An IWMS with portfolio management provides oversight for any size real estate portfolio, improves root cause analysis to easily isolate problems and uncover potential opportunities, minimizes cost, and maximizes current commercial real estate (CRE) holdings.

A Triple-Win Scenario

A web-based IWMS with portfolio management affords businesses on-demand access to a centralized collection of data, which empowers more informed decisions about CRE.

A common operating framework of land, structures, buildings, and leases creates a more collaborative, better-informed workflow that enhances flexibility and increases scalability. This can have a trickle-down effect, benefiting all stakeholders and establishing a precedence of dynamic, situation-proof problem-solving.

Operationally, there are three positives to an IWMS with portfolio management. This triple-win includes benefits for:

    • Your Business: An IWMS can improve the analysis and management of real estate assets and align them with the company’s long-term mission. A key strategy is maintaining current spaces or invest in new ones as hybrid work – including remote work – grows.The opportunity to evaluate and track facilities as a dynamic asset allows companies to take advantage of vacancies and investment opportunities. An IWMS empowers business unit managers to easily review assets and space assigned to them. In turn, they can rationalize capacity, identify spaces that are no longer needed, and redesign or repurpose spaces to fit the changing needs of employees or potential subletters.Data visualization via the optional geographical tool to link to GIS functionality in the IWMS delivers map-based perspectives of properties. Real estate managers can then visualize the total impact and effectiveness of real estate spending and decision-making across business units. This makes it easier to develop quick, informed strategies based on the portfolio’s ability to fulfill the organizational mission. Additionally, seamless integration with other IWMS applications like capital budgeting, project management, space management, and enterprise move management maximizes CRE optimization for the business as a broad unit.
    • Your Employees: Data analysis and space planning are critical to prioritize the changing needs of employees in uncertain times. An organization’s ability to remain flexible and competitive for the benefit of its employees is pertinent to its success as a whole; higher employee satisfaction leads to higher engagement and productivity.Careful consideration of safety and health precautions, and opportunity for collaboration, are cornerstones of any return to the workplace plan. An IWMS tracks space usage, which allows employers to meet the unique needs of their employees. This data may result in creation of quieter, distraction-free spaces where employees can concentrate on work or the development of a hybrid work environment that makes it easy to switch between working from home and working in a group setting. The overall goal stays the same: decrease a potential loss of productivity.
    • Your Customers: Time is the only asset you can freely spend… but can’t ever create or purchase more of. Because of this, it must be used wisely.Less time spent on decision-making allows businesses to spend more time on customer service. An IWMS allows managers responsible for real estate assets to command every detail of a CRE portfolio and proactively offer better customer service.Client expectations have evolved with COVID-19. The growth of the digital landscape now requires businesses to be responsive 24/7. An IWMS provides unit managers with a self-sustaining platform available at their fingertips to answer client questions and concerns more quickly.

Face the Future with Flexibility

Creating an agile workplace that is able to withstand change and sustain positive business-employee relationships, as well as business-client connections, is crucial for continued growth. But it’s not a simple task.

The ability to be flexible is paramount and the only way to be recession-proof and ensure forward momentum. Implementing a SaaS solution like Archibus to securely modernize and up level is a means of committing to continued business improvement, employee productivity, and customer satisfaction – no matter what uncertain times might bring.

The result? An organization in control of accurate property and performance information that is designed to meet the needs of every party involved, from the business as a broad entity to individual employees and customers.

To learn more request a demo.

By Danielle Moore
Director, Channel Marketing
iOFFICE + SpaceIQ

About IMS Consulting
For more than a decade, IMS Consulting has delivered the full scope of ARCHIBUS-related services to both government and commercial clients. As a Virginia Certified Small Business, IMS Consulting provides our clients with personalized attention by experienced ARCHIBUS certified consultants. Our experts work with our clients to thoroughly understand how they do business, identify their unique needs, and pinpoint opportunities to better manage their infrastructure, employ more efficient work processes, and make smarter capital budgeting decisions—both today and over the long term.

IMS Consulting specializes in the implementation of ARCHIBUS, the #1 real estate, infrastructure & facilities management solution in the world. ARCHIBUS is the global leader in streamlining how you manage your real estate, infrastructure, and facilities. Centralize your data, planning, and operations onto one seamless platform backed by 35 years of innovation and the world’s largest support network. Reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and create a better workplace by transforming how you connect with people, places, and processes.

Webinar – What’s New In Archibus v.25.4

 

Archibus understands that bringing your employees back to the office safely is a priority. That is why they continue to add features that will help you do so.

In Archibus V25.4, they have added the ability for facility managers to:

– Limit bookings on any floor to reduced capacity targets
– Restrict hoteling of desks after capacity is reached
– Limit users from booking more than once for the same period

Other features introduced in this latest release include the ability to:

– Create user-defined fields for equipment and equipment standards
– Access checklists in the Maintenance Console
– Manage and update move projects with an easy-to-use interface

Archibus v.25.4 - IMS Consulting

Our On-Demand webinar dives deeper into what’s new in Archibus v.25.4.

For more information about Archibus v.25.4 contact IMS Consulting: hello@ims.consulting or find us online at http://ims.consulting Connect with us on LinkedIn.

About IMS Consulting
For more than a decade, IMS Consulting has delivered the full scope of ARCHIBUS-related services to both government and commercial clients. As a Virginia Certified Small Business, IMS Consulting provides our clients with personalized attention by experienced ARCHIBUS certified consultants. Our experts work with our clients to thoroughly understand how they do business, identify their unique needs, and pinpoint opportunities to better manage their infrastructure, employ more efficient work processes, and make smarter capital budgeting decisions—both today and over the long term.

IMS Consulting specializes in the implementation of ARCHIBUS, the #1 real estate, infrastructure & facilities management solution in the world. ARCHIBUS is the global leader in streamlining how you manage your real estate, infrastructure, and facilities. Centralize your data, planning, and operations onto one seamless platform backed by 35 years of innovation and the world’s largest support network. Reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and 日本藤素
create a better workplace by transforming how you connect with people, places, and processes.

Archibus Back-To-Work Offers

Back-to-Work Offers & Features

Health & Safety

We want to ensure that our Customers have every resource available to see their workplace through the COVID-19 crisis. We are offering the Archibus Health & Safety application at no cost until September 30, 2021, so you can more effectively:

  1. Easily track onsite and offsite COVID-19 cases and quickly identify trends and provide reporting
  2. Enable your managers to quickly associate incidents with locations and personnel
  3. Reduce the overall cost of administering a comprehensive, defensible health and safety program

Dates: The Archibus Health & Safety application will be available at no cost through September 30, 2021, regardless of the start date. Customers wishing to continue the use of the Health & Safety application after September 30, 2021, may add it to their maintenance subscription.

Eligible Participants: This offer is available to all existing Archibus Customers with an active software subscription contract.

Versions: This offer is available on any version of Archibus Web Central where the Health & Safety application is available.

Support: The application is subject to the same support as other Web Central applications.

IMS Consulting Back-To-Work

Full Phase Support

Planning to safely welcome employees back to the office has been on many Facility Manager’ minds. To help with the planning and execution of a back-to-work strategy, Archibus has developed a “Dynamic Workplace” home page that includes all relevant back-to-work information in one centralized view. It pulls this information from the Space, Hoteling, Maintenance, Health & Safety, Emergency Preparedness, and Condition Assessment modules.

Eligible Participants: This offer is available to all existing Archibus Customers with an active software subscription contract or new Customers.

Versions: This offer is available on any version of Archibus Web Central where Space, Hoteling, Maintenance, Health & Safety, Emergency Preparedness, and Condition Assessment applications are available.

Support: These applications are subject to the same support as other Web Central applications.

NOTE: The Dynamic Workplace home page is available as a part of V25.2. The content presented on the home page is based on modules such as Space, Hoteling, Maintenance, Health & Safety, Emergency Preparedness, and Condition Assessment. If a Customer wishes to add any of these modules, they may purchase them per usual. If they are on V24.1 or higher and do not want to upgrade, they would need to purchase the backport option.

For more information about these offers contact IMS Consulting: hello@ims.consulting or find us online at http://ims.consulting Connect with us on LinkedIn.

About IMS Consulting
For more than a decade, IMS Consulting has delivered the full scope of ARCHIBUS-related services to both government and commercial clients. As a Virginia Certified Small Business, IMS Consulting provides our clients with personalized attention by experienced ARCHIBUS certified consultants. Our experts work with our clients to thoroughly understand how they do business, identify their unique needs, and pinpoint opportunities to better manage their infrastructure, employ more efficient work processes, and make smarter capital budgeting decisions—both today and over the long term.

IMS Consulting specializes in the implementation of ARCHIBUS, the #1 real estate, infrastructure & facilities management solution in the world. ARCHIBUS is the global leader in streamlining how you manage your real estate, infrastructure, and facilities. Centralize your data, planning, and operations onto one seamless platform backed by 35 years of innovation and the world’s largest support network. Reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and create a better workplace by transforming how you connect with people, places, and processes.

Webinar – What’s New in Archibus v.25.3

 

With Archibus V25.3 introduces these new features:

View Configuration: Enable and define new fields directly from views​

Define new fields

  1. Enable existing fields (promote fields)
  2. Use promoted fields and user-defined fields in forms, reports, and floor plan highlights

 

Maintenance: Integrate checklists into maintenance workflow

  1. Define checklists and associate them with the SLA workflow
  2. Use checklists in the field for surveys, procedures, and inspections
  3. Review checklist results in reports

Archibus v.25.3 - IMS Consulting

Archibus v.25.3 also includes these improvements:

Compliance: User interface update for Extended Questionnaires

Continuous Improvements:

  1. Benchmarks and Allocations Report
  2. Workplace
  3. Numerous bug fixes that address key support issues across the product line.

 

For more information about Archibus v.25.3 contact IMS Consulting: hello@ims.consulting or find us online at http://ims.consulting Connect with us on LinkedIn.

About IMS Consulting
For more than a decade, IMS Consulting has delivered the full scope of ARCHIBUS-related services to both government and commercial clients. As a Virginia Certified Small Business, IMS Consulting provides our clients with personalized attention by experienced ARCHIBUS certified consultants. Our experts work with our clients to thoroughly understand how they do business, identify their unique needs, and pinpoint opportunities to better manage their infrastructure, employ more efficient work processes, and make smarter capital budgeting decisions—both today and over the long term.

IMS Consulting specializes in the implementation of ARCHIBUS, the #1 real estate, infrastructure & facilities management solution in the world. ARCHIBUS is the global leader in streamlining how you manage your real estate, infrastructure, and facilities. Centralize your data, planning, and operations onto one seamless platform backed by 35 years of innovation and the world’s largest support network. Reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and create a better workplace by transforming how you connect with people, places, and processes.

Webinar – What’s New in ARCHIBUS v25.2

Webinar – What’s New in ARCHIBUS v25.2

ARCHIBUS V.25.2 is the first full-software release that is on our target quarterly cadence. ARCHIBUS V.25.2 contains the following major enhancements:

Return to Work

Planning to safely welcome employees back to the office is a concern for all facility managers. To support a return to work, ARCHIBUS V.25.2 supports:

  • Space planning cases
  • Social distance validation
  • Auto-cleaning after hoteling

Additionally, to support maintaining a safe environment after employees return to work, V.25.2 includes the Dynamic Workplace home page.

This is available for both ARCHIBUS Cloud and the full ARCHIBUS product.

Space Enhancements

Many enhancements designed for Return to Work were trends before the pandemic and will continue going forward.

Even if you do not use the Space features specifically for managing Return to Work, you can use the features for general space planning. For example:

  • Assigning employees to phases and days of the week

  • Designating employees as working remotely

  • Assigning room statuses

Application and User Interface Enhancements

Maintenance

You can now access reference docs for archived work using the Search and Manage Work Requests task.

Capital Projects

When working with projects, you can now import and export Microsoft Project 2016 projects.

Company Logo

Administrators can now display their customer logo in the view header using the System / System / ARCHIBUS Administrator – Application Configuration / Edit Logo task. Previously, a company entered its logo by overwriting \ab-core\graphics\customer-logo\customer-logo.png. Since sites working on a hosted Cloud deployment did not have easy access to this file, we have added this task so you can upload your logo file to the database.

Workplace

The self-service Workplace view has the following enhancements:

  • Customers with a Corrective Maintenance license can now define problem types that will appear in the Workplace Service Catalog.
  • Workplace can now display a company logo, as described above.
  • Administrators can override the default Workplace colors to match customer brand colors. For example, you might configure Workplace to use a shade of yellow to match your company branding or use a red color scheme.

For more information contact IMS Consulting: hello@ims.consulting or find us online at http://ims.consulting Connect with us on LinkedIn.

About IMS Consulting
For more than a decade, IMS Consulting has delivered the full scope of ARCHIBUS-related services to both government and commercial clients. As a Virginia Certified Small Business, IMS Consulting provides our clients with personalized attention by experienced ARCHIBUS certified consultants. Our experts work with our clients to thoroughly understand how they do business, identify their unique needs, and pinpoint opportunities to better manage their infrastructure, employ more efficient work processes, and make smarter capital budgeting decisions—both today and over the long term.

IMS Consulting specializes in the implementation of ARCHIBUS, the #1 real estate, infrastructure & facilities management solution in the world. ARCHIBUS is the global leader in streamlining how you manage your real estate, infrastructure, and facilities. Centralize your data, planning, and operations onto one seamless platform backed by 35 years of innovation and the world’s largest support network. Reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and create a better workplace by transforming how you connect with people, places, and processes.

2 Minute Drill – Space Management v.25

2 Minute Drill – Space Management v.25

Optimize your workplace around the needs of your workers with ARCHIBUS Space Management v.25.

While space is a top 3 expense for most organizations, more than half of all office space is wasted. That is because space planners and corporate real estate professionals have incomplete insight into how workers engage with their environments throughout the day. Archibus boasts the industry’s most powerful solutions for optimizing workplaces around the needs of modern workers. Eliminate wasted space and create a better place to work, collaborate, and grow.

•Align workspaces with real needs

•Elevate your employee experience

•Eliminate wasted space

•Increase real estate capacity

Studies conducted in the US and around the world tell us that between 50% – 60% of workspace sits empty at any given moment. This waste not only highlights a lack of inability to accurately track and assign space in the corporate real estate landscape, but it also demonstrates a lack of visibility and understanding on behalf of organizations into how spaces are actually used. For example, most meeting rooms are designed for 6 people, yet average meeting attendance is closer to half of that, while private offices are empty more than 70% of the time on average. Most companies still assign one seat per person, but modern workers are just as likely to be away from their desks, working remotely or collaborating elsewhere.

These insights have awoken organizations to the opportunity in data-driven space planning to drive real estate savings and realign workplaces around the needs of their workers.

IMS Consulting - 2 Minute Drill - Space Management v.25
ARCHIBUS v.25.2 supports return to work occupancy plans with social distancing functionality.

For more information contact IMS Consulting: hello@ims.consulting or find us online at http://ims.consulting Connect with us on LinkedIn.

About IMS Co威而鋼 nsulting
For more than a decade, IMS Consulting has delivered the full scope of ARCHIBUS-related services to both government and commercial clients. As a Virginia Certified Small Business, IMS Consulting provides our clients with personalized attention by experienced ARCHIBUS certified consultants. Our experts work with our clients to thoroughly understand how they do business, identify their unique needs, and pinpoint opportunities to better manage their infrastructure, employ more efficient work processes, and make smarter capital budgeting decisions—both today and over the long term.

IMS Consulting specializes in the implementation of ARCHIBUS, the #1 real estate, infrastructure & facilities management solution in the world. ARCHIBUS is the global leader in streamlining how you manage your real estate, infrastructure, and facilities. Centralize your data, planning, and operations onto one seamless platform backed by 35 years of innovation and the world’s largest support network. Reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and create a better workplace by transforming how you connect with people, places, and processes.

ARCHIBUS Company Rebranding Announcement

ARCHIBUS Company Rebranding Announcement

 

A few months ago, the Archibus + Serraview family welcomed SpaceIQ into the fold. We’d like to share some exciting news on their behalf: the new combined company will be called SpaceIQ.

SpaceIQ was chosen because it represents the full range of all three powerful product lines. As you know, Archibus is recognized worldwide as the industry-leading IWMS and the company does not want to dilute or confuse this distinct product identity by making it the company name. By the same token, Serraview is widely considered the best space planning tool on the market and they don’t want to interrupt the 15 years of momentum behind this product name.

SpaceIQ is a relatively new name in the market, but those that know the brand associate it with leading-edge technology and aggressive innovation—qualities that represent the direction they are taking for all product lines. For this reason, they are renaming the existing SpaceIQ product SiQ.

In the next year, you will see our brand evolve to reflect the changes mentioned above. We’ll launch a new website for the umbrella SpaceIQ brand and all three product lines.

Why are you changing the name of the company?

When Archibus + Serraview acquired SpaceIQ, we determined that each company name best represents the products and services it provides. After much research, debate, and future planning, we chose SpaceIQ for our combined companies.

We chose SpaceIQ because it represents the full range of our powerful product lines. As you know, Archibus is recognized worldwide as the industry-leading IWMS and we do not want to dilute or confuse this distinct product identity by making it the company name. By the same token, Serraview is widely considered the best space planning tool on the market and we don’t want to interrupt the 15 years of momentum behind this product name.

SpaceIQ is a relatively new name in the market, but those that know the brand associate it with leading-edge technology and aggressive innovation—qualities that represent the direction we are taking for all of our product lines. For this reason, we are renaming the existing SpaceIQ product SiQ.  

 

What is changing for me?

Business for you will continue as usual. Our emails, however, will change to the SpaceIQ domain. Any email you send to our Serraview, Archibus, or Archibus-Serraview emails will be routed to our new SpaceIQ email addresses. Please keep an eye on your inbox and junk folders for replies and messages from our new email addresses.

 

Will I see changes in the product?

Over time, you’ll see slightly modified logos for the Archibus and Serraview products accompanied by a SpaceIQ company logo. A slight change to each product’s  color palette will slowly be integrated. 

 

Will this change or disrupt my service?

There will be no service disruptions due to rebrand initiatives.  

 

Will there be a new website?

Yes. In the coming months, we’ll launch a new website for the umbrella SpaceIQ brand and all three product lines.

 

For more information contact IMS Consulting: hello@ims.consulting or find us online at http://ims.consulting Connect with us on LinkedIn.

 

About IMS Consulting
For more than a decade, IMS Consulting has delivered the full scope of ARCHIBUS-related services to both government and commercial clients. As a Virginia Certified Small Business, IMS Consulting provides our clients with personalized attention by experienced ARCHIBUS certified consultants. Our experts work with our clients to thoroughly understand how they do business, identify their unique needs, and pinpoint opportunities to better manage their infrastructure, employ more efficient work processes, and make smarter capital budgeting decisions—both today and over the long term.

IMS Consulting specializes in the implementation of ARCHIBUS, the #1 real estate, infrastructure & facilities management solution in the world. ARCHIBUS is the global leader in streamlining how you manage your real estate, infrastructure, and facilities. Centralize your data, planning, and operations onto one seamless platform backed by 35 years of innovation and the world’s largest support network. Reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and create a better workplace by transforming how you connect with people, places, and processes.

 

Webinar – What’s New in ARCHIBUS v25.1

ARCHIBUS, the Most Trusted IWMS, Just Got More Powerful and Intuitive

In May ARCHIBUS released version 25.1 of its industry-leading solution for facilities, real estate, and workplace management with a dramatic new user interface.

Watch this 30 minute webinar hosted by Dan Miller of IMS Consulting exploring the redesigned Archibus – now more powerful and intuitive.

RIGHT-SIZE YOUR REAL ESTATE
ENABLE YOUR TALENT
OPTIMIZE YOUR OPERATIONS

See what the new ARCHIBUS v25.1 has to offer.

For more information contact IMS Consulting: hello@ims.consulting or find us online at http://ims.consulting Connect with us on LinkedIn: For more information contact IMS Consulting: hello@ims.consulting or find us online at http://ims.consulting Connect with us on LinkedIn.

About IMS Consulting
For more than a decade, IMS Consulting has delivered the full scope of ARCHIBUS-related services to both government and commercial clients. As a Virginia Certified Small Business, IMS Consulting provides our clients with personalized attention by experienced ARCHIBUS certified consultants. Our experts work with our clients to thoroughly understand how they do business, identify their unique needs, and pinpoint opportunities to better manage their infrastructure, employ more efficient work processes, and make smarter capital budgeting decisions—both today and over the long term.

IMS Consulting specializes in the implementation of ARCHIBUS, the #1 real estate, infrastructure & facilities management solution in the world. ARCHIBUS is the global leader in streamlining how you manage your real estate, infrastructure, and facilities. Centralize your data, planning, and operations onto one seamless platform backed by 35 years of innovation and the world’s largest support network. Reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and create a better workplace by transforming how you connect with people, places, and processes.

COVID-19 in 1.9 Minutes: The Nine Stages To Track Coronavirus In ARCHIBUS

 

The Workplace Maven Alliance (WMA) is excited to be starting our new Knowledge Series, “COVID-19 in 1.9 Minutes”. Today’s article is an introduction to the series and will give the audience the following:

  1. A broad overview of the content that will be covered.
  2. How the WMA has broken up the coronavirus into three main stages and nine steps within that.
  3. A quick description of each stage, each step, it’s Archibus application, and why that application is beneficial to a company.

Our purpose in this series is to demonstrate how Archibus is the only IWMS that can comprehensively track every stage and step in the process of responding and recovering to a coronavirus incident in any organization. Because of its well-established customization capabilities, it can mold to any need an organization may have. This allows it to be the IWMS that can answer that can track any and all stages of a health and safety incident, no matter how an organization decides to split up the stages.

We’ve decided to split up coronavirus reporting, responding, and returning stages into nine steps that we think every company will experience when preventing exposure to the virus. Every solution in the steps discussed can be accomplished with a standard, out-of-the-box, no-customization-required Archibus license.

 

Coronavirus COVID-19 - The nine stages of how to track coronavirus with Archibus applications.

Report

The steps in this stage are the steps taken in the initial phase of being exposed to coronavirus or taking preventive action to stop its spread.

1. Report the Incident With Environmental Health and Safety

Let’s say that someone in an organization starts showing symptoms of the coronavirus during the workday. What are the organization’s health and safety management plan? Is there one in place, or does one need to be created? How are all stakeholders in the incident going to be notified of the response protocol so every safety step is executed?

Archibus Environmental Health and Safety allows incident management personnel to answer these questions, relay necessary safety information, and inform all stakeholders as quickly as possible upon reporting an incident. The application allows staff to create a report and fill in basic and granular information about the incident:

  • where and when it took place
  • any assets that were involved or affected
  • the type of incident (in this case coronavirus)
  • who was affected by the incident
  • who responded to the incident
  • what the response was
  • medical information and tracking
  • employee training for future incidents of this type

The strength of Archibus Environmental Health and Safety in this step is integration and connectivity; the software will pull in existing data—such as employee and location data, asset information, work order management, and more—to make the reporting process faster, easier, and more accessible to essential, key players.

What’s more, this application is currently free. Visit the landing page for more details, and talk to your Archibus provider to learn how to implement it.

2. Disinfect the Premises With Building Operations

Once you’ve reported an incident, immediate action needs to be taken to take care of any consequences from the incident—in the case of coronavirus, a thorough disinfection of any affected areas.

Archibus Building Operations provides comprehensive capabilities for properly responding to incidents instantaneously. Using this application allows users to complete actions such as:

  • Automatically generating a work request to clean the area.
  • Sending a work request through the proper Service Level Agreement (SLA) to either speed up the completion process or guarantee that it gets the proper permissions.
  • Responsive/mobile functionalities for instant update on work order status, records, schedules, and more.
  • Creating location-based preventive maintenance schedules and procedures so that a location is cleaned and disinfected regularly, meeting any organizational or governmental requirements.
  • Keeping a record of cleanings and maintenance procedures for inspections.

Leveraging the cause code within a work request allows users to quickly indicate whether a work request is related to a COVID incident without having to write a detailed description of such. We highly recommend this feature because it reports can be generated from this data, allowing an organization to understand how many incidents have occurred that are related to COVID-19.

A feature that we have found sometimes gets underutilized is the reference documents. This can be used to provide a standardized process for carrying out work orders, such as disinfecting and cleaning, so quality is maintained, and health and safety can be certain.

Respond

This stage involves the steps that allow an organization to take appropriate measures in keeping their employees safe and healthy.

3. Track Remote Employees With Emergency Preparedness

Archibus Emergency Preparedness provides users with features to take appropriate preventive action, whether an incident has occurred recently or not. Pertaining to the COVID pandemic, some use cases we’ve found that are what Archibus excels at are:

  • Tracking an employee’s previous location in the workplace and whether they are assigned to work from home.
  • Using bulletins to notify when a building has returned to usability.
  • Determining who has evacuated and who hasn’t, should an evacuation, whether gradual or immediate, be necessary.

4. Deliver Employee Assets With Enterprise Asset Management

Archibus Asset Management tracks how many assets an organization has, in what condition they are, where they are located, who uses them, and much more. In the context of the coronavirus, this application can be a game-changer by:

  • Ensuring that remote employees have a complete and ergonomic setup in their at-home offices.
  • Whether your organization already has the equipment needed to supply at-home workspaces.
  • Understanding space utilization for future reporting.

Space utilization can come into play here, as it is connected to the asset and employee that is being tracked.

5. Survey For Compliance With Compliance Management

The next application, Archibus Compliance Management complements Asset Management extremely well in the context of COVID-19. Compliance Management can help users determine and maintain employee health and safety while they are working from home.

The application uses surveys to take the assumption out of determining whether remote employees have access to necessary equipment, such as:

  • Software
  • Hardware
  • Ergonomic chairs, desks, stands, keyboards, mice, etc.
  • Access to necessary servers, websites, and other remote locations.

Users can also send instructions to remote employees to ensure that they are taking care of themselves, such as:

  • Taking proper breaks.
  • Drinking enough water.
  • What type of ergonomic equipment they should invest in and why.
  • Virtual meeting tips, equipment, and software.

Surveys are extremely flexible. Users can customize all questions, response types, documents, and instructions within a survey, as well as the geographic locations that will receive it or affiliation with a specific organization, should this be necessary. Senders can then view summary reports to understand how certain questions were answered, giving greater insight into an organization.

Return

The following steps will aid an organization in executing their recovery plan so everyone can return to full productivity, whether that be through a restack of all facilities, a larger percentage of staff working from home, or a complete return to the original setup before COVID-19.

6. Redesign Your Space With Space Management and Strategic Space Planning

Many corporate and institutional facilities professionals are wondering what buildings and offices will look like when the workplace reopens. Much discussion is revolving around how organizations can create workspaces that promote both productivity and employee safety.

Archibus Space Management applications can be of help in every back-to-work strategy: analyzing, designing and optimizing existing workplaces to accommodate returning employees, and creating a sustainable workplace management plan. These applications provide users with space categorization, department allocation, and occupancy information, synchronized with AutoCAD floorplan drawings.

  • Review and evaluate existing data and conditions
  • Analyze space density and new capacity requirements
  • Review occupancy requirements for Day-1 and beyond
  • Optimize layout & design space complying with 6’ physical distancing
  • Develop occupancy scenarios and schedule Moves (phases?)

Archibus Strategic Space Planning offers scenario planning which allows users to create floorplan schemas in AutoCAD without changing or editing the existing floorplate. Common changes that organizations make include modified furniture, tenant improvements, rearranged furniture, and reassigning spaces between divisions and departments.

Archibus Strategic Space Planning excels at:

  • Identifying space requirements by number of people, area inventory and types of rooms
  • Automatically running scenarios based on specific requirements, like the ones above, allowing organizations to maintain portfolio requirements for the next three-to-five years.
  • Analyzing a portfolio and determining the types of space an organization owns, which are being completely used, and which have space to use. For example, let’s say an organization owns a space that is a warehouse for two months out of the year but is left empty the other 10 months. Can an organization leverage that space, cut costs, and even save money?

In summary, the Archibus Space Management and Strategic Planning applications can play a critical role in this step by tracking space categories, allocation and occupancy, which are key factors when redesigning and restacking your space. This alone will encompass about 80% of the back to work requirements.

7. Reduce Area Footprint With Portfolio Management.

Real estate is usually the second biggest expense for an organization. How does an organization reduce its portfolio for cost savings while restacking floorplans to maintain social distancing? Archibus Portfolio Management gives an organization a detailed view into their real estate portfolio so strategic, cost-saving decisions can be made. Hand-in-hand with Strategic Space Planning, these two applications can help organizations determine exactly where they can save money by re-using or re-organizing space, leasing or subleasing space, buildings, and campuses, and much more. Some features that the application provides are:

  • Global Portfolio dashboard, which will summarize portfolio and lease costs by geographic location, types of space (such as office, warehouse, manufacturing, etc.
  • Cost Reporting, which will summarize and predict how much money an organization spends on real estate so they can forecast the next three to five years and achieve financial and space goals together.
  • Create custom metrics within Archibus to build what-if scenarios.
  • Use category and type to understand how you can reduce your area footprint, sublease, sell, reconfigure, or repurpose.

 

8. Manage Change With Project Management

Archibus Project Management allows organizations to organize and execute the space planning and portfolio projects discussed above: restacking and repurposing space, changing floor plates, and moving divisions, departments, and business units for cost-effectiveness. Project Management allows users to:

  • set up bid packages
  • send bid packages to contractors
  • track the bid
  • select a bidder
  • track project progress with Gantt charts

This application shares information with Archibus Capital Budgeting. All the information for the basic steps of a project—identifying a project, detailed analysis, building out tasks, milestones, determining a team, initial baseline costs, and design costs—can be linked back to the capital budget. The application will then help managers determine what tasks need to be addressed first, the budget for each task, and where any remaining budget can be allocated.

Condition Assessment projects can also be bundled up in the same process above in Project Management, run through Capital Budgeting to define cost parameters, and then executed and finalized in Project Management.

Archibus Environmental Sustainability Assessment and Archibus Clean Building also integrate well with this application to help organizations manage any COVID-19 related building projects by project priority and cost.

AutoDesk has released many applications and plugins that complement this application well. Talk to your Archibus provider for more information about this.

9. Re-Occupy Your Space With Enterprise Move Management

It provides flexible solutions for returning to the workplace and maintaining social distancing; for example, instead of completely restacking a floorplate, an organization could decide to have every third desk enter the workplace on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, rotating employees on those days until the pandemic is resolved.

Other phase approaches are possible and limitless. Many organizations have discussed the idea of only having 25% or 50% of their on-site workforce returning to the office space.

Archibus Enterprise Move Management makes this phase approach effortless by:

  • Creating flexibility by allowing the user to manage single and group moves
  • Recording moves and changes through tickets
  • Scheduling moves by generating work order tickets
  • Coordinating all involved groups in the move process
  • Mobile/responsive functionality for verifying staff’s assigned locations

Archibus Reservations can add functionality by allowing users to create windows linked to work orders between moves and room usage for routine disinfecting to take place.

Archibus Hoteling will also let users stagger hotel space usage; for example some hotel spaces, spaced out for social distancing, could only be available during Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, while others could be available Tuesday and Thursday to allow a disinfection period.

Returning to the Strategic Space Planning step we discussed above, the scenarios created in the Space Planning application can be migrated into a Move Management project. One-click of a button will make this scenario into a move project, saving users time, money, and energy.

Get to Know the Workplace Maven Alliance

Coronavirus COVID-19 - The nine stages of how to track coronavirus with Archibus applications.

The WMA collectively has 150 years of experience in Archibus, AutoCAD,  IWMS, and CAFM solutions. We are a group of certified Archibus business  partners who are committed to finding the best solution for our clients. Formed in April of 2020, the alliance consists of:

2 Minute Drill – Environmental Health & Safety

The ARCHIBUS Environmental Health & Safety application manages the vital components of a company’s safety program, as well as provides a system for tracking workplace incidents when they do occur.

Ensuring a safe working environment that adheres to all government regulations is a priority for any organization, not only to avoid costly violation fines but more importantly, to protect a company’s most valuable assets — the lives and health of its employees.

With the ARCHIBUS Environmental Health & Safety you can:

Ensure Safety and Wellness

The safety and well-being of your staff depends on a comprehensive understanding of the risks in your environment. Track risks for campuses, buildings, and materials, and take steps to ensure the well-being of occupants.

Promote Sustainability

Reducing your ecological footprint means understanding the impact your organization has on the environment and tracking the key processes involved, from energy to waste.

Avoid Regulatory Penalties

Compliance requires accurate information, reporting, and the tools to correct problem areas. Integrate insight with solutions for achieving and maintaining regulatory compliance.

For more information contact IMS Consulting: hello@ims.consulting or find us online at http://ims.consulting Connect with us on LinkedIn.

About IMS Consulting
For more than a decade, IMS Consulting has delivered the full scope of ARCHIBUS-related services to both government and commercial clients. As a Virginia Certified Small Business, IMS Consulting provides our clients with personalized attention by experienced ARCHIBUS certified consultants. Our experts work with our clients to thoroughly understand how they do business, identify their unique needs, and pinpoint opportunities to better manage their infrastructure, employ more efficient work processes, and make smarter capital budgeting decisions—both today and over the long term.

IMS Consulting specializes in the implementation of ARCHIBUS, the #1 real estate, infrastructure & facilities management solution in the world. ARCHIBUS is the global leader in streamlining how you manage your real estate, infrastructure, and facilities. Centralize your data, planning, and operations onto one seamless platform backed by 35 years of innovation and the world’s largest support network. Reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and create a better workplace by transforming how you connect with people, places, and processes.