FEATURE
FM GETS SOCIAL Today, technology is synonymous with FM and it permeates almost every facet of industry activity. Iain Murray, Principal at Principle Consulting, investigates the new ‘social’ focus surrounding FM software.
The problem with technology in FM is that, historically, it has been overcomplicated. Our CAFM systems required high capital outlay, continued expenditure on making it bespoke to our needs, and then we added a hefty training cost to make sure someone knew how to use it. The spending continued with licencing costs and re-training costs and further upgrade and development costs. The whole life cost was high.
The second and compounding problem with our technology (and it is not an exclusively FM problem), is that we need people with some degree of technical knowledge to manipulate the technology. It is probably much more important in FM that the call-centre operator entering the helpdesk call into the CAFM system knows at least something about what the caller is trying to report. Couple this with a ‘lay person’ calling to report the problem, and we have a dichotomy. We are stuck, then, in a vicious circle of ever- increasing technological dependence and a coalface of non-technical people.
However, something has changed recently. Technology has, in fact, taken a step back (not backwards), and is now thinking about how it interfaces with the user more simply. Apple have
to be credited with a significant part of this movement, with simplicity of use overriding functionality as a principle design factor. We now see a distinct movement towards technology which is intuitive to use, requires much less training, and recognises that the people who need it may not be geeks like me!
Furthermore, there has been a very encouraging trend of late towards technology which draws its main influence from the emergence of social media. I am coining the phrase ‘Social FM’ to describe it. Social FM is the recognition of human behaviour in relation to technology today. People do not want overcomplicated technology. What they want is clean user interfaces with intuitive functions that enhance their social environment. What they want is Social FM.
I will give you some direct examples of what I mean. Concept Evolution by FSI is a product which in the early days was complex, technical and offered little choice due to the restrictions of the software platform and the systems it needed to interface with. Now, the Evolution product is significantly enhanced by its move to a more familiar web-based, Windows style. It has been further enhanced by the recent GO product designed for all mobile
platforms which allows clients to ‘build fully customised mobile solutions’.
Proxyclick has taken this ethos one step further with the introduction of their latest software as a service (SaaS) web-based platform, which relies entirely on social interaction as the basis for delivering the service. It recognises that people are even more likely to use a system which emulates a social network instead of a system. The manifestation of this is their latest user interface, which imitates a social network, creating ‘conversations’ between people in the business and the FM providers.
My conclusion is simple; the Social aspect is now firmly established as an integral part of technology today and software writers are working hard to make their user interface simple, intuitive and a part of your daily life, without intruding. Technology providers in FM are recognising this, and we are seeing the advent of Social FM. I, for one, could not be happier that we are moving FM closer to our end users by making it more social.
www.connectwithblog.com
08 | TOMORROW’S FM YEARBOOK
twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
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