Today we have a guest post by Jill Duncan, US Sales Manager – Healthcare Legal Corporate for NFS Hospitality. She provides Seven Tips for Choosing an IWMS Solution.
True IWMS solutions are typically comprised of five components:
- Project Management
- Corporate Real Estate
- Facilities & Space Management
- Maintenance Management
- Environmental Sustainability
1. Have internal business processes been adequately developed prior to choosing and implementing an IWMS system?
If you don’t have adequately defined business processes prior to the selection of an IWMS solution, you will have no way of knowing for certain if the system will in fact meet your needs.
Implementation of an IWMS solution also requires well defined business processes, developed and determined via thorough examining of existing processes, figuring out what is and is not working, what you’d like to change, and how that will affect the rest of your processes.
Before you decide on or implement any IWMS solution, do the business processes development work first.
2. Can the IWMS solution be configured to meet an organization’s needs and requirements without the help of IT staff?
Customizable is one thing, configurable is another. Configurable is ideal, as this typically does not require technical knowledge or IT staff the way customization does. Turning to the vendor every time you need assistance with changing something in the system is going to get expensive. It also takes time. For much more affordable and timely changes choose an IWMS solution that is highly configurable.
3. Is the IWMS space management and scheduling functionality comprehensive enough?
Space management seems to be lagging behind the other modules that make up a true IWMS solution. Room and resource scheduling, hoteling or flexible workspace scheduling, employee self-service, and remote worker support are critical aspects of space management. While some IWMS solutions have fleshed out these areas, other vendors are still quite slim in this regard. If this is the case, integration to a comprehensive scheduling solution is a very good alternative. This way you get the IWMS functionality you require from an IWMS-centric vendor, but still have an end-to-end system which includes greater scheduling capabilities than many IWMS vendors currently offer.
4. Does the IWMS solution support data integration between modules with a robust reporting system?
Reports and business intelligence capabilities are a critical component of facilities-relation solutions of any kind. IWMS systems which do not support data integration between modules, or at least have not streamlined it, will cause headaches for users as they try to create reports and run searches. IWMS solutions must support multiple database environments, such as SQL, Oracle, and DB2.
5. Is system documentation thorough and detailed enough to support a smooth implementation?
System documentation is critical to a smooth IWMS implementation. Consultants, project managers, IT staff, and end users all need to be able to get the most out of documentation in order to implement the system correctly from the start, without having to go back time and again to make changes or constantly consult the vendor when proper documentation would have done the trick. Good documentation is also needed in order to expand, configure, and upgrade the IWMS solution, and to get the best use of the system.
6. Will the IWMS solution help streamline the work that must be done in relation to government compliance requirements?
Sarbanes-Oxley and other compliance acts set forth by the government must be adhered to. IWMS solutions must work within this context. The ability to capture and track critical data as needed means that real estate data and financial data must be available together, as part of a comprehensive system, so that this data can easily and quickly be reported on and submitted.
7. Can the IWMS solution easily scale to support global portfolios and enterprise assets?
A flexible, scalable IWMS solution is critical in this ever-changing business environment. With continual mergers, acquisitions, and even expansion and growth as the global economy recovers, the IWMS system must be able to accommodate. The ability to manage new properties, analyze what-if scenarios, and accommodate more users with varying roles is a must. Web-based systems with support for local currencies and languages and other global capabilities are now expected as basic requirements of a quality IWMS solution.
IWMS, NFS Hospitality, Selection Procedure
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