How can Facilities Managers make the most of Big Data?

According to the 2016 Workplace Trends report by Sodexo, Big Data has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of FM services. However, the report warns that in order to use data effectively, FM professionals need to get better at establishing and implementing their KPIs. The report is made up of opinions from a broad spectrum of thought leaders. It states that Big Data – the large volume of data that inundates a business on a day-today basis – is going have a fundamental impact on the nature of business, including facilities management.

Big Data will enable the workforce to make more effective decisions and run departments more efficiently; it will also help FMs identify strategies for increasing employee productivity and engagement.

Thus, as we develop more comprehensive databases and gain new performance insights, we will inevitably see a reduction in the need for middle managers. With systems reducing manual workload, FM will ultimately be able to provide services more efficiently and at a lower cost; this will hold true for the smallest businesses through to international corporations.

However, the report warned that FM professionals need to be educated on how to use big data effectively. Before getting ‘excited’ about Big Data, FM leaders must be clear about the outcomes they want to achieve. Only once they have established their KPIs will Big Data improve their business.

Here at Qube Global Software we understand the necessity of working with KPIs; we discuss some of the most important ones in our blog post What Facilities Management KPIs should you Monitor? Measuring targets such as the cost of maintenance, asset performance and call resolution against SLAs is critical to making significant gains in a business.

Facilities management software will provide you with the ability to measure and interpret your data with easy to understand dashboards and SSRS reporting tools. As the report states, data is nothing but a set of numbers: an enabler, not an end in itself.