5 tips to digitize and automate your (work)space and facilities management

Automations are game-changing for smart Facilities Management (FM), reducing the number of steps and individuals in the interlinking processes behind the scenes, for overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Here, we explore tips to automate and digitize facility and maintenance management, across vendor and contract management, room bookings, rapid and intuitive asset maintenance, and camera integrations to enhance both comfort and security in your workplace.

Tip #1: Automate your vendor processes

With Ask James, you’ll be able to automatically assign tickets to the relevant person — even skipping sending your tickets via your Facilities Department, to directly contact your vendors themselves.

Particularly when it comes to services such as cleaning and catering, your facilities contracts are likely to come ready with a menu of services that you can select. These are simple to set up in Ask James, enabling you to directly request specific services that your vendors offer from a user-friendly menu. And there are no billing surprises with pre-set prices!

In the latest version of Ask James, vendors can also add their own products and offers to keep you up-to-date on their service range.

Tip #2: Automate Facilities Management contracts

By setting your contract end dates in Ask James, you’ll be able to receive notifications when it’s time to review your experience of the service level you’ve received. With punctual reminders, you’ll ensure you have enough time to assess whether you’ll be continuing with a certain vendor and let them know your decision in line with your agreed contract notice period.

No more last-minute scrambles to renew contracts, or finding yourself stuck with one that would have been more cost-effective to end. With automated reminders, you’ll have a clear overview to retain control of your smart Facilities Management.

Tip #3: Digitize your workspace management

Ask James is able to automatically book workspaces and parking for your employees, simply by them logging when they’ll be in the office. They don’t even need to make these daily reservations themselves!

Integrations with software such as Workday enables Ask James to pick up on when your people are on-site, working remote, or on leave, auto-reserving their preferred desks and parking spots as needed. And if an employee is off-site, another person can utilize those spaces.

These automatic bookings also deliver on the preferences your employees can log via Ask James. This ensures they’re assigned their favorite workspace — whether that’s the spot with multiple screens, by a window, or next to the coffee machine — for maximum comfort and productivity day to day. Auto-bookings also take into account the work zone each of your employees is best suited to, ensuring they’re near their team for optimized collaboration.

Tip #4: Leverage QR codes for rapid asset maintenance

With QR codes situated next to each of your FM assets, your employees will be able to access the right screen to log any incidents or requests related to them in a matter of seconds.

Perhaps an air conditioning unit isn’t working? Or they find that they need a last-minute meeting room, and can see that one nearby is available as they walk past it? They’ll be able to send a repair ticket for the air conditioning or book the meeting space on the spot, via the QR code function on Ask James for mobile.

Did you know that Ask James also has QR codes for the artwork on your premises? Employees can scan these to find out more about each piece, enhancing their engagement with and experience of your workplace.

Tip #5: Integrate your on-premise cameras with Facility Management software

Whether for security or comfort, Ask James camera integrations elevate your workplace efficiency.

Integrating cameras at your on-campus catering locations, for example, enables your employees to see in real time how busy they are, supporting them to choose their moment to reduce queuing time and enjoy an optimized restaurant experience.

Similarly, Ask James is able to work with your parking lot barriers, opening them automatically based on number plate recognition, for streamlined and secure entry and exit experiences. Your employees can update the number plate assigned to them in the Ask James system quickly and easily, too, to accommodate flexible use of authorized vehicles.

Ask James: Transforming Facilities Management

To find out more about making the right choice to digitize facility and maintenance management, download our Facility Management Software Buyer Guide here.