A Reshuffling of the IWMS Deck

With the announcement of the opening of Accruent’s new office in Austin, Texas tagged as an “expansion” by Accruent’s marketing team, and further articles on IWMSnew’s website blog by a contribitutor (ex employer and customer – D. Anderson) noting that Accruent’s talent base has been effectively routed by a recent round of retrenchments and layoffs by Vista, one has to wonder what the long term strategy for this firm and their product stream is.

As the blogger said “ having seen capital sources enter this arena without the understanding of the business and its customers,” he is not optimistic about the future of the company. Further evidence in recent weeks has demonstrated that this once strong and viable IWMS player is now a shadow of it former self with many former staff (personally known to the author) retrenched or left of their own accord due to the frustrations of not knowing what was happening within the company. And with many talented people in product development, product management and R&D no longer there to “steer the ship”, what does this say for the future and viability of the product line?

As this blogger said “clients are being asked to sign long term maintenance support/ U&E agreements”. If I was a customer of Accruent or FAMIS and asked to sign one of these agreements, I would be looking long and hard at the company’s long term viability and its commitment to me.

If those things didn’t add up, I’d be looking elsewhere for a more secure option.

Perhaps IWMSNews asked the right question “Has the endgame in the IWMS industry started?

Opinions are those of the author only

(c) 2010 Tony Stack Beyond FM

How to Justify the Cost of an IWMS System for your College

Facilities Budgets have always been limited to the actual operating costs of the department, which means that purchasing decision that require an ROI are based on the savings / benefits in direct proportion to the amount of money available in the budget. For certain acquisitions, this is the correct method. However, there are acquisitions made by Facilities that, although primarily for the use of facilities personnel, have a far greater economic value to the University as a whole. As such, its acquisition costs (and benefits derived) must be considered in relation to the whole.

Interesting IWMS Poll

This is an interesting result taken from one of our surveys. It gives some statistical correlation to the purchase of an IWMS system and improved communication. Although this survey was conducted in a higher education environment, these results could be extrapolated across other market verticals. Note that while internal departmental improved (significantly) just over 30 percent, intra campus (or corporate) communications increased (significantly) a whopping 60%.

 

Percentage improvement in communication after purchase of FM Technology

 

(n=1050)

(c) BeyondFM

IWMS and Higher Education Facilities Survey Trends

Just completed some extensive research on IWMS usage patterns in higher education. Very interesting information………..

Did you know that

• There IS a statistical correlation between Carnegie classifcation, student population and the type of system purchased that can be quantified;
• Baccalaureate and Associates institutions will typically purchase Point Solutions (55%) and higher end institutions buy Integrated solutions or build their own (or a combination of the both);
• Higher end institutions buy over 77% of IWMS solutions and related technology yet represent only 50% of the market;
• Masters, Doctoral and Research universities typical purchase more of the strategic tool sets than the operation tool sets;
• Despite claims to the contrary, most institutions do not perform a pre and post ROI analysis to determine the effectiveness of their purchase.
• FM technology generally over-delivers on expectations in the areas of Maintenance and Operations, Business Process Improvement and Project Management and under-delivers in areas on expectation in the areas of energy and sustainability.
• The majority of institutions purchased Enterprise licences as opposed to User Licences.
• Institutions who purchased some sort of FM technology saw some immediate improvement in internal, external and  cross campus communications which saved them identifiable costs. Less than 10% of respondents did not see an improvement in communications.

The above information is offered as is, and is based on actual data collected from over 1,000 respondents. No opinion has been offered and none will be offered in the blog pertaining to product, module, company, service or solution. This data is copyrighted. Please contact me for permission to reuse .Thanks……….

A Green Building Doesn’t Mean Building Green

So your new building program has been approved. You are going to use that internationally recognized architect to design a LEED certified facility which you are certain will get you a Platinum rating. Ah! The accolades, the bragging rights, the energy savings. Right? Maybe.