A Guide to Choosing the Right Facilities Management Software for the Financial Sector

Effective facilities management is often overlooked – when banks, credit unions or other financial locations are functioning normally, customers don’t usually notice. In contrast, when facilities aren’t in optimal condition, such as with a broken ATM or even broken signage, the customer experience suffers.

To keep financial facilities in their best possible state, facilities managers should implement a software platform to help manage work orders and find the right contractors and service providers.

In this post, we’ll provide a guide for selecting a facilities management software solution that will help financial firms deliver a superior customer experience within their facilities while support corporate revenue growth goals.

Unique FM Challenges in the Banking / Financial Industry

Every industry has its specific facilities management challenges, and the banking/financial sector is no different. When selecting the best facilities management software for the banking/financial sector, keep in mind these areas of focus:

Customer Experience

Today, it is not enough to just have your locations open so customers can access their money. With the abundance of banking institutions and the dominance of online banking, banks and credit unions need to go above and beyond to find ways to improve the customer experience, to make them feel special and generate a sense of loyalty.  And this is becoming a central aspect to a financial facilities manager’s role.

This means that at minimum, the branch needs to look and feel comfortable and safe. If the location is clean, well-lit, stocked with coffee and treats, and has a welcoming, friendly aura, the customer will enjoy her experience even more. This is critical, as a customer who has an enjoyable experience with a financial institution is more likely to become a long-time customer and to encourage her network to become customers as well.

To ensure great customer experiences, financial institutions need to give their locations the accurate attention, budgeting, and staffing necessary to keep them in optimal working condition.  

Security

Security is of utmost importance to financial businesses because they are handling money and confidential customer data. This means that secure equipment, such as locks and vaults, must be kept operating optimally. And every financial branch location needs to provide safety for both customers and their information.

It’s also essential that customers entering a branch can tell that the facility is safe. To show the facility is a carefully administered and secure institution, managers should keep locations clean and ensure required equipment like cameras are always functioning for any possible situations.

FM Software Features Financial FMs Should Consider

The right facilities management software can help FMs address the above challenges. To ensure that they select the most advantageous solution, financial facilities managers should seek out a software platform that includes these capabilities:

Work Order Management

Work order management software allows the facilities management team to place service requests, monitor status updates in real-time, and leave feedback. Full visibility into the work order process helps financial facilities managers stay on top of repair and maintenance activity so that their locations are always in the best possible condition.

Software also enables FMs to audit past issues, ensure work is completed in a timely manner, and teams that provide sensitive services like security guards receive the information they need quickly.   The automation capabilities present in work order management software also help financial facilities managers save time and reduce the possibility of human error.  

Asset Supervision

Another important FM software feature to look for is asset management. To ensure security and positive customer experiences, financial branch assets need to function optimally at all times. Asset management software includes a comprehensive database with details about a business’ assets, such as location, age, condition, warranty, and open service requests.

Visibility into detailed asset information helps bank facilities managers track the statuses of their branches and make decisions about what will need work and when. Additionally, sophisticated asset management software integrates with work order management software to automatically generate work orders based on asset conditions. This saves time and ensures that financial facilities always have functioning equipment.  Asset data and analysis also leads to informed repair/replace decisions.

Planned Maintenance Scheduling

Planned maintenance helps prevent costly and time-consuming breakdowns that can stop a financial institution’s productivity in its tracks. Therefore, financial FMs should select a facilities management software solution that includes planned maintenance software.

Planned maintenance software eliminates the risk of failing to schedule routine repair and maintenance. Because financial FMs need to keep their locations in optimal conditions, ensuring that needed recurring work is scheduled and performed is crucial.  

Contractor Solutions

The contractors selected to perform a branch’s repair and maintenance work can make or break a financial business’ operations, depending on their compliance statuses and the level of work they execute. To combat potential issues with contractors, financial FMs should look for a facilities management software platform that prioritizes contractor management.

The selected contractor management software should include easy access to contractor compliance statuses, an effective method of sorting and selecting appropriate contractors, and features that keep track of contractors while they perform their work. These capabilities help financial FMs keep their locations looking their best and operating well.

With the security concerns at financial locations, knowing who’s coming on site and when, and whether insurances are up-to-date are essential.  FMs and branch managers can use FM software for on-site technician identification verification and monitoring location access.  

Contractor compliance management software can also be used to track service providers’ insurance from expiration dates to amounts, so there’s no risk of uninsured (or underinsured) contractors are performing work.

Final Thoughts

Reducing spend can also be another important concern for financial facilities managers, it can also be accomplished with facilities management software. This is mostly due to the streamlined processes and increased visibility into spend analytics that FM software provides. In fact, in addition to automating their work orders, gaining insight into contractor credentials, and increasing business intelligence capabilities, one global financial services provider saw a 27% reduction in their repair and maintenance spend.

By helping support exceptional customer experiences, keeping assets secure and eliminating their downtime as much as possible, and reducing spend, a facilities management software platform with optimal features can contribute greatly to success in the financial sector.

Learn more about the benefits of facilities management software with the white paper, Why Buy a Facilities Management System?