John Clark (Tririga) has pointed out a wonderful article on buildings.com about space-planning software’s greatest features. In this article Leah B. Garris describes some space-planning myths.

Space Planning Myths

Myth: It requires too much data entry to be effective.
Reality: “New capabilities capture data via automated processes that monitor user actions, which minimizes the data entry required,” says John Clark, director of corporate marketing at TRIRIGA. Some software provides automated processes that track actions in stack planning and use this info to count the number of employees moved, calculate the churn rate, and estimate the cost of the move. The results are automatically compared to targeted goals, scored, and presented side-by-side.

Myth: It’s too hard to produce a visual on a computer. Only engineers can successfully use desktop software to produce business-worthy visuals.
Reality: “We strongly believe that this is a major reason why communication is such a problem for most organizations,” says Jill Roberson, social media manager at SmartDraw. “Can you imagine how hard it would be to communicate a facilities layout for a manufacturing plant without using floorplans or schematics? People don’t communicate with visuals because they believe it’s too hard and time-consuming. This is a total falsehood.”

Myth: You have to have specialized expertise, such as CAD, to use it.
Reality: “Users with CAD knowledge will be able to expedite some of the processes,” says Karen Roller, vice president of services at MicroMain. “However, new space-planning software enables customers to use the system without that expertise.”

Debate

The above three myths are very important, however I am quite sure that there are more space-planning myths. I would really like to hear about what kind of Space Planning Myths you acknowledge. Therefore, this week’s debate is about Space-Planning Myths.

You can use the comment box below this post to describe your myths and realities.

Over the last couple of weeks San Francisco based private equity firm Vista Equity Partners caused substantial rumor in the IWMS industry with their acquisitions of Intuit Real Estate Solutions (IRES), and more recently Accruent. Both IWMS vendors are considered to be the in the top-10 IWMS vendors worldwide.

As a response both Tririga and Lucernex offered migration plans and discounts for displaced customers. To me, the acquisitions by Vista Equity Partners are a clear indication that the IWMS Market is maturing fast. As any industry matures more and more organizations join the party. In the IWMS industry the dance of mergers and acquisitions has begun, therefore this week’s debate is about the recent vendor acquisitions.

Debate

Are Vista Equity Partners’ acquisitions a positive thing for IWMS Industry?

The Copenhagen climate negotiations (COP15) beginning today must yield an ambitious, sweeping agreement to capitalize on pledges by countries to fight global warming, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said yesterday.

The largest and most important United Nations climate change conference in history with diplomats from 192 nations warned that this could be the best, last chance for a deal to protect the world from calamitous global warming.

It seems that most nations have realized the eminent threat of global warming for the world’s population, and will do the utmost to achieve a global agreement. As a result all important world leaders will be attending the conference, and have already announced ambitious programs to reduce CO2 emissions.

This ambitious agreement will definitively have its’ impact on Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS). The question of today’s debate therefore is:

How will the Climate negotiations impact IWMS?

Please use the comment feature below this post to give your opinion.

We have all read the news about Former Bricsnet CEO, Farid Jinian  indicted for embezzlement. Continue Reading

On the promotional blog of FacilitiesDesk I have read an article about web based CAFM.

According to the author:

Most of the traditional CAFM – CMMS Systems are desktop based. You need to install the software on every desktop for you to gain access to the system database. But things have changed for the better, the world is moving towards web. Today, you can find quite a lot of Web based CAFM – CMMS system wherein you only need to install the server on a central location and then connect the client using your web browser(internet explorer, firefox etc).

Apparently the author assumes that traditional CAFM (IWMS) systems are desktop based. I don’t agree with that as most of the IWMS I have evaluated are already web based for quite some time now. The  CAFM / IWMS vendors that have been around long enough initially were desktop based but the majority migrated to web technology.

So what do you think?

The internet is changing the world we currently live in. Video is becoming common good in the IWMS arena and all IWMS vendors seem to Twitter their way around the IWMS community to inform potential customers of new releases, market trends, etc.

IWMSnews.com isn’t blind to these developments and therefore I would like to ask your opinion about the following:

Should IWMSNews.com add product / vendor videos to our website?

I would love to hear your opinion about this. I have published a couple of Archibus videos to the homepage. So what is your opinion about this? Do you like it?

As an independent resource for the IWMS community I try to read as much as I can about developments in our industry. Occasionally you come across some interesting opinions of other professionals such as a publication on the website of FSI FM Solutions from the United Kingdom.

In the article Tony Leppard, MD of FMx Ltd, the author of CAFM Explorer, claims that CAFM is still the strongest acronym to describe an integrated FM solution. Continue Reading

Joel Pearlman has posted a very interesting question on our LinkedIn Group to be discussed on iwmsnews.com. The question that he posted has to do with IWMS Consultancy and your organization. Continue Reading