CAFM & IT


THE CHURCH OF ASSETOLOGY: PART I


Technology is taking over our lives in a way we could never have imagined 20, let alone 30 years ago. But what difference is it really making to FM? In the first of a two part series, Martin Ward, Director of iSite, touches upon some of the issues and changes we have seen.


Ever since the first personal computer came onto our screens on Tomorrow’s World in the early 70s, technology has threatened a revolution across the workplace. So much has changed that it is difficult to remember what ‘work’ was like even 25 years ago, let alone in the 1970s. Your mail was collected at 4:00pm, you called people from the phone on your desk and drawings were produced with slide rules. Now, we talk in terms of file sizes, demand instant broadband access, our workplaces are more flexible and we have data and information channelled at us from a variety of sources and systems.


26 | TOMORROW’S FM


Technology appears to have changed how we work. But the answer to how much it has influenced us depends on the culture and behaviours of the organisation you work within, or your profession. For FMs, technology offers huge potential rewards. If ever there was an industry crying out for an easy to access and clear database, for structured management information, a tool for enabling a remote workforce, a method of analysis of performance and the projection and forecasts for the operation of building, then it has to be FM.


However, the advancement of technology has been both an asset


and a concern. Putting aside how FMs cope with the democratisation of the workplace, flexible working and concepts such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), one of the main issues for managers of facilities and property estates is the sheer volume of information. Increasingly, we have seen that anyone responsible for asset management wants more accurate, but less information – in short, what they are seeking is a single version of the truth and not a series of data reports from different service providers.


The concept of a fully integrated property, asset, facilities and project environment within the workspace


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