Maximize your FM budget with simple practices
Successful facilities management (FM) teams use simple strategies and smart technologies for saving money, staying within budget, and boosting operational and financial performance. Interested in maximizing your budget and raising the efficiency of your FM program? Check out these best practices and see how they can work for your company.
Don’t pay service providers for work they didn’t perform
Most service providers are solid partners, but a few may not be reputable. Carefully review the invoices for all your vendors because some of them may be padding—or at least misstating—their labor time. Focus on providers doing work without GPS time-on-site validation. When there’s no record of how long they were on the job, inflated invoices are often the result.
Realize that some internal technicians aren’t as productive as they claim
Facilities managers (FMs) review timecards for their technicians and sometimes wonder why a certain tech consistently takes more time than others to complete common tasks. If only 40–50% of the tech’s work orders are time-stamped “complete” while on-site, the tech either needs more training or more supervision to improve productivity. In either case, time and money are lost, and budgets are impacted.
A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) helps FMs see a better picture of what’s happening on- and off-site. For example, JLL Technologies’ computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), Corrigo, connects work orders, timecards, and payroll systems and then finds patterns and exceptions. FMs can use the results to track if techs are working or wasting time and, if necessary, take corrective action.
Stop paying for equipment repairs when replacement is needed
Does your company run or use equipment on a run-to-fail basis? It works for common assets like office lighting. You simply replace LEDs or fluorescent tubes when they burn out. But as any FM with a non-functioning air conditioning unit on a sweltering day will attest, run-to-fail for critical assets is a prescription for disaster.
There’s a better way. A CMMS can track an asset’s maintenance history, remaining useful life, and replacement cost. The analytics inside the CMMS provide data to support asset replacement and inform capital budgets well in advance of potential asset failure. Quantitative data, justified by industry benchmarking and accurate budgeting, makes the replacement decision far less stressful for FMs.
Don’t pay double or triple for the same work
Imagine a stubborn dribble of water that turns into a pool on a bathroom floor, creating a hazard for employees and customers. A plumber comes out, stops the leak, and gets paid $800 for the service call. The following week, that pesky leak is back. With the wrong tracking system or vendor partnership, you could get hit with “go-back charges”—essentially double-paying for the same work.
Go-back work accounts for up to 10% of maintenance repair expenses every year, per industry estimates. Many FMs fall victim to go-back work because they don’t know what’s covered by warranty, for how long, and by which entity. A CMMS tracks all work under warranty, sparing the FM hours of detective work. In the previous leak example, the CMMS automatically assigns the go-back work to the appropriate plumber, preventing double payment and saving your FM budget.
Take control of your FM budget
The data inside your CMMS informs your budget and helps keeps expenses within that budget. Industry best practices, like the ones we’ve shared here, contribute to better operational and financial performance for FM teams.
Why does that matter? Because the annual cost of facilities management is usually second only to payroll for mid-sized to large companies. An accurate and reliable FM budget gets the attention of your leadership team—in a good way. It demonstrates the contribution of the FM team to the company’s broader business goals and instills confidence in FM stakeholders.
JLLT’s Corrigo CMMS offers automation and data for maximizing your budget. Talk to a Corrigo expert today.
