The keys to creating value with an IWMS: portfolio & space management

“If you think you know, it’s because you don’t know” (Lao Tzu).

Knowing your buildings is essential, but this knowledge takes on its full meaning when it is based on relevant, exploitable and contextualized data.

In practice, as soon as the heritage is significant, it becomes difficult to imagine all the possible combinations to respond to the evolution of the demand for space as this takes on a multitude of dimensions: more or less m², team movements, needs which focus on certain surface typologies and many less on others,…

IWMS gives you access to plans (or BIM models) and allows you, without the complexity of Autocad or Revit, to access views allowing you to graphically contextualize the situation of a floor: m² by typology space, flat areas of color to materialize the occupation of the different teams or even vacant spaces, the furniture in place,…

Thanks to this, it becomes easier to imagine new layout scenarios to respond to changing demands, to test, for example, new workspace configurations.

In the post-covid era, managing real estate by relying solely on the number of employees assigned to a site seems difficult.

Teleworking and flex office blur the vision of real building occupancy. Occupancy data from sensors or access controls must complement information for effective management This data can in particular make it possible to identify spaces in high or low demand.

In practice, occupancy data is underused for the simple reason that it is not always easy to learn from it. The integration ofoccupancy data within the IWMS allows us to give them meaning by contextualizing this data in a tool allowing us to visualize the spaces, the teams who occupy them, the specificities of the arrangements.

Instead of simply adding spaces based on obsolete benchmarks or subjective observations (therefore difficult to oppose to stakeholders), it becomes possible to make the right choices by creating spaces that meet a demand (meeting rooms). meeting? Collaborative spaces? Huddle room? Etc).

By investing only in requested and appreciated configurations, financial resources are optimized.

Measuring the space each team needs, defining the sharing ratios, demarcating the zones of each team are all of tasks that an IWMS can help you carry out to set up the flex office.

When the flex office is implemented, many challenges remain to be overcome over time. Working practices (more or less teleworking for example) and space needs by typology differ depending on the teams.

The “test & learn” becomes the rule and it is necessary to rework the layout, team assignment, sharing ratios in light of a reality IWMS is then a powerful ally to manage these adaptations.

In the absence of reliable information, companies often take a margin of safety in relation to the space required.

One-off analyzes are often carried out (often at the time of a new lease or renewal) but the safety margins remain and the surfaces are under-occupied

are gradually reconstituted.

When we know that real estateis the second largest cost item (with rents and all other real estate costs often directly linked to surface area ), the optimization of this safety margin appears necessary, a even more so when there are multiple locations.

The IT tool makes it possible to manage the complexity inherent in controlling real estate data. By providing dashboards and alerts derived from operational data, the system supports decision-making.

This will first result in long-term cost reductions by optimizing the entire portfolio and addressing related opportunities:

• changes in the company's activity (consolidation of certain locations, deconcentration for others,….) 

• evolving team sizes
  

• under-occupancy and over-occupancy

• contractual deadlines (leases or service providers)

• harmonization of space occupancy practices between sites.

Difficult to objectivize the needs of teams when we do not have basic data. Felt needs are not always consistent with reality.

The first gain of an IWMS is therefore to have the key data which will make it possible to qualify a surface request.

Even more effective: the creation of a virtuous circle where teams are financially encouraged to rationalize the spaces they occupy. For this, the practice of internal re-invoicing of real estate costsis undeniably effective.

It is still necessary to have a tool that will allow this occupancy to be monitored and the distribution rules to be managed without having to monopolize a management controller to carry out re-invoicing!

The IWMS integrates functionalities that will make this re-invoicing more fluid.

The implementation of an IWMS is very often an opportunity to decommission multiple systems which have shown their limits. Thus, the first savingsof the implementation of an IWMS are of course linked to the licenses of the information systems that will be replaced.

Moreover, the implementation of an IWMS makes it possible to avoid relying on multiple sources of information (Excel file, plans, etc.). It structures the data to make available information that will facilitate decision-making.

By interfacing with other structuring systems (ERP, HR information system, company directory, etc.) the system can also be strengthened by contextualizing certain information and allowing ratios to be calculated (costs, occupancies, etc.).

Finally, by supporting daily processes (lease management, space management, small intra-site moves, etc.) the system is updated and feeds decision-making with reliable and relevant information.< /p>

Teleworking and flex office have made property management complex at the same time as they have generated significant optimization opportunities. An IWMS offers concrete and fundamental opportunities to optimize the use of resources, reduce costs long term, and promote rational use of spaces.