Building Engines Makes Strides to Target Property Management Data & Communication Gaps
January 25, 2016
These communication gaps, often caused by inefficient work order software management, service delivery practices, and outdated tools, are seen as a major contributing factor to tenant dissatisfaction, and lost revenue for commercial property owners and managers.
Dispatch, the latest in a series of new features from Building Engines, aims to make it easier to track, assign, and redistribute work among members of a property management team. It does this by displaying open work orders, personnel shift availability, and building information on one easy-to-use, drag-and-drop dashboard.
“With Dispatch, we really wanted to put the most commonly accessed information in one place, so that property managers can see the workload of their team members at-a-glance,” says Jody, VP of Product at Building Engines. “A lot of confusion can stem from not knowing that there is a hold on a work order, or that a team member is being overburdened. If we can help managers eliminate that, they can work to ensure that tenant service is always at its best.”
A series of other data and communication enhancements have also been added, including a powerful new mobile equipment task scanner, which displays active tasks associated with a piece of equipment with a quick scan of an attached QR code; new building profile pages; which connect users to a building’s key contacts, open/complete/on-hold tasks and performance charts; type-ahead search; which prompts users with suggested content as they type; employee time cards for web and mobile, and employee out-of-office indicators.
“One of the biggest service delivery inefficiencies we see in commercial property management stems from a lack of communication among managers, owners, vendors and teams, as well as the tenants they serve,” notes Saarmaa. “The sharing of knowledge is pivotal to a commercial real estate organization’s success. If the right data isn’t readily available to the right people, at the right time, it is impossible to make effective decisions. We want to make everyone an expert.”
But as Saarmaa also notes, better property management communication isn’t just for teams: “We also continue to put a lot of work into providing relevant information and tools for tenants, because they’re really at the heart of everything that our customers are trying to accomplish.”
This work includes rich tenant-facing features like self-service invoicing (where users can download and print existing invoices), supporting related tenant companies so they can submit work orders in each other’s space, and a pilot of a brand-new tenant mobile app – due to be released in early 2016.
About Building Engines:
Building Engines’ Property Management Software for the web and for mobile devices, empowers CRE owners and managers to effectively capture, communicate, and report on every aspect of their property performance, and overall tenant satisfaction. The unified platform consists of a dozen integrated modules for everyday tasks, including: preventive maintenance, work orders, and inspections – all backed by the industry’s leading mobile app, BE-Mobile