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Day 7: Monitor and Analyze Systems’ usage

If you want to improve your IWMS implementation you need to know where problems occur. Although problems hold a certain level of predictability, the only way to truly identify problems is to monitor and analyze the usage of the Integrated Workplace Management System. Today’s task is about monitoring (and analyzing) the usage of your IWMS.

Today’s teaching

Integrated Workplace Management Systems are a significant investment for Facilities Management / Real Estate departments therefore organizations want their investment to pay off either by saving costs or increasing operational efficiency.

In an ideal world this would implicate that the IWMS is used as planned without disruptions however, real life is in most cases far from ideal.

Disruptions to the systems’ usage, due to whatever reason, occur on a daily basis, and should be considered as an eminent threat to your Return on Investment (ROI). As a result, more emphasis should be placed on monitoring your IWMS.

The monitoring of Integrated Workplace Management systems can be divided in four types:

1. Usability testing

Question: how is the Portfolio Management module used by the Real Estate department?

There is a lot of scientific literature available about conducting usability tests that can also be used in the IWMS domain. Usability Testing enables you to identify design flaws in an interface, a module or the Integrated Workplace Management System as a whole.

Monitoring instruments

• Think aloud protocol (Ericsson, K., & Simon, H. (1993). Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data (2nd ed.). Boston: MIT Press.)
• Task Analysis (Crandall, B., Klein, G., and Hoffman, R. (2006). Working minds: A practitioner’s guide to cognitive task analysis. MIT Press.)

In addition to the scientific instruments, modern technology can also assist you in acquiring the knowledge needed to improve the usability of the system.

Monitoring instruments

• Techsmith Morae
• Tobii Studio™ Analysis Software

2. Functional System Monitoring

Question: which module is used the most?

This type of monitoring is used to determine the usage of certain modules or functional domains of the IWMS. Functional system monitoring is very important to decide whether you actually use purchased software.

Monitoring instruments

• Client Log Files
• Application Statistics

3. Technical monitoring

Questions: What is the average response time of the web server?

This IT information is typically logged by the deployed servers. By analyzing server logs, skilled IT staff can retrieve valuable information about possible IT improvements of your Integrated Workplace Management System.

Monitoring instruments

• Server Log Files
• Server Statistics

4. Application security monitoring

Questions: Which user logged in the most, what users needed password recovery?

Most of the IWMS vendors support this kind of management information out of the box as in almost every software selection procedure application security plays an important role.

Monitoring instruments

• Server Security Log Files
• Application Embedded Security Files

Today’s Task

The only way to improve your IWMS implementation is to acquire knowledge about areas that can be improved. Today’s task is about acquiring knowledge about the usage of your IWMS.

• Collect system log files directly from the IWMS or your IT Department of the first half year of 2009.
• Analyze the data in Excel or similar per type of monitoring. Can you discover trends?
• Plan an usability analysis for 5 users of a specific functional domain (e.g. Space Management, Portfolio Management, Lease Management, Maintenance Management)

Good luck!