Introduction

In a time where people are getting back to work, ensuring that they return to a safe environment is the first priority. Ensuring that the office maintains its operational efficiency and provides a certain level of comfort and functionality to its employees while mitigating the risk and staying compliant is a close second. The new normal brings a new paradigm shift to hybrid workspaces, and with this shift comes the responsibility that all the systems and processes work smoothly and harmoniously with one another. This responsibility falls to the facilities manager.

As more and more companies open their doors to their employees, facilities managers everywhere face new challenges everyday, especially in large-scale companies which have a large number of facilities and personnel. Here, AI-powered Space management software plays a major role in aiding facilities managers. AI technology helps streamline operations and drive efficiencies in managing spaces through automation.

New Challenges that Facilities Managers are Facing

As companies adopt the hybrid working model, facilities managers have unprecedented tasks at hand.

• Manually managing seating capacity in excel sheets/emails
• Lack of data on seating inventory visibility & occupancy
• No prior intimation on workforce rostering plans
• No information on room-based amenity requirements
• No proper system in place to contain infections in case someone gets affected
• Manually blocking seats according to social distancing norms

Under a new hybrid system, facilities managers are struggling to keep up with the information deficit due to lack of transparency across departments. Moreover, manual processes have increased to keep up with the ever-changing norms of social distancing, employee safety and changing work schedules

How a Space Management Software for a Hybrid Workplace can Help

Space management software provide an end-to-end dashboard view of the entire office space across regions, buildings, floors, etc. They capture essential facilities and personnel data in real-time to help facilities managers familiarize themselves with the state of the workspace and make decisions on the go. Let’s go in-depth on how these software can help facilities managers.

• Real-time data and analytics

The more information a company has on its resources, the better they can function. Space management software provides real-time information on inventory, facility usage, frequency of use, etc. It also makes AI-based recommendations and projects what facility or resource is needed more and where. With such data readily available at hand, facilities managers can ensure each room, floor, department and/or personnel gets the right facility at the right time.

• AI-based process automation

Integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into the space management software allows it to automate and optimize processes so that they run smoothly and efficiently. For facilities managers, this perk can be applied for managing seating availability, making informed space allocation decisions based on AI recommendations and assigning amenities wherever required.

• Hybrid features

Facilities managers can also leverage other hybrid features of a space management software like workforce scheduling, seat deployment, etc. This helps them stay on top of things in case of any changes in rostering plans or compliance issues. Requirement of facilities depends on floor capacity, department-wise rostering, etc. and facilities managers can easily access this information through the dashboard view, aiding them in optimizing the utilization of inventory.

This paradigm shift to a hybrid workplace is an opportunity for organizations to implement a system that not only dynamically keeps up with the changing safety regulations, but also helps save money while maintaining operational efficiency. By utilizing space management software, even facilities managers are effectively reducing the cost to the company through AI projections and inventory optimization.

Modern technology like AI and machine learning is helping countless companies resume their day-to-day operations through space management for Hybrid Workplace solutions like Smarten Spaces. This is the future of the workplace, and the sooner organizations get in on it, the better it will be for their bottom line.