DOCUMENT & DATA MANAGEMENT


The argument for such an approach has never been more compelling. Whether documents contain contract details, health and safety reports or guarantees on work undertaken, the difference between an FM function that supports or holds back the wider business often hangs on getting the right information to the right people at the right time. This is why executives are looking to single enterprise information platforms that allow documents in a variety of formats, to be managed on a single system.


Many organisations, which may regard themselves as fully digital, are in fact failing to fully leverage the information with the business, simply because it is trapped in many disparate silos. Even in sectors that have already gone paperless, almost 70% of companies still work across a number of applications – as many as 100 within some organisations.


Such an approach is inefficient and leads to multiple versions of the same information existing on different systems, and this replication dramatically increases the risk of data becoming out-of-date or incorrect. The need is clear for a system that not only stays up-to-date, but automates some of the workflow management, allowing for increased efficiency and a coherent audit trail.


Facilities managers looking to maximise the return on their investment in solutions, such as an enterprise content management (ECM) software, can then go one step further, by taking the opportunity to build new ways of working. While it makes most sense to review and optimise workflows ahead of implementation, a good ECM solution can be tweaked and refined during use, evolving with the needs of the business.


Take, for example a facilities manager who has a number of tradespeople on their staff, each trained to carry out certain specialist jobs, within the company's own policy framework and work guidelines, and potentially to specific standards required by individual customers and contracts. With an advanced ECM solution, all necessary training, policy or contract requirements updates can


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be sent to relevant staff. Additionally, the system can ensure workers have confirmed they have read and understood these documents before allocating a specific task.


While this example would require a level of management input – namely specifying the updates and details of relevance to individual members of staff – some aspects of the flow of data and work can be automated entirely.


“EVEN IN SECTORS


THAT HAVE ALREADY GONE PAPERLESS, ALMOST 70% OF


COMPANIES STILL WORK ACROSS A NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS.”


Once you start to see ECM not as a passive storage system, but as a means of automating and optimising workflows, innovative uses begin to present themselves. One great example, which will be of particular interest to facilities managers with multi-site briefs, involves combining ECM with geographic information system (GIS) technology to manage operations. According to GIS specialists Esri, such applications are frequently implemented as part of a wider strategy to meet sustainability, resiliency or decision making objectives and provide electronic maps that connect locations and utilities to related data. Coupled with the ECM system, this means that field staff assigned to tackle an issue – say an electrical fault or a sewer main leak – can quickly retrieve all documents related to that map feature, including operational manuals and service request details, with a single click.


Naturally, security is also an increasingly important consideration in the move to digital. From data protection laws to increasingly stringent contractual requirements for handling client information – not to mention the old-fashioned reputational calamity that inevitably arises from a data breach – the attitude of many senior decision


makers to any unfamiliar technology is instinctively wary.


Yet modern information management frameworks have tight permission enforcement at their core, allowing businesses to control where each document is sent, with security features ensuring only designated members of staff have access when it arrives. Additionally, enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) systems provide a secure and trusted cloud- based means for users to share sensitive or valuable information with confidence. Because they are specifically tailored for enterprise use, such solutions give organisations the ability to maintain ownership and control disparate data and content.


Implementation of such advanced digital working systems does not require an army of IT staff, as occasional maintenance and upgrades can be managed from afar by the provider. Indeed, a good enterprise information platform should be intuitive and flexible enough to be operated and adapted by the users rather than having to rely on technical support.


Crucially, IT infrastructure should be there in support of the business, not the other way round. Managers considering new infrastructure should think beyond the technology and try to define their vision for the project based on how they see their teams working in the future. Once you have such a vision, you can set about designing the systems to underpin it from a practical viewpoint.


Particularly for organisations that are behind the curve, there has never been a better time to move to a digitally-enabled facilities management operation. At the most basic level, it enables considerable efficiencies over a traditional, paper-based approach, while also eliminating many of the attendant operational risks. Beyond this though, it opens the door to new, more responsive ways of working, with an up-to-the-minute information hub allowing easy, verifiable compliance with increasingly complex obligations and enhancing customer service.


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