Facilities management is a challenging task, especially in the technologically advanced era we live in. Fortunately, this advanced era includes technological solutions to challenges as well. One that might be especially appealing is open-source facility management software.
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FM involves all the tools and services that promote the healthy and proper functioning of buildings, real estate and infrastructure. It ensures a safe and conducive physical environment to support an organization’s core needs and functions. A wide range of facility management software has risen to meet this challenge. These also come in an equally wide range of development options.
What this article covers:
- What Is Facility Management Software?
- What Is Open-source Software?
- Open-source vs. Free vs. Freeware
- Benefits & Drawbacks
- Is Open-source Worth It?
- Software Selection
- Final Thoughts
What Is Facility Management Software?
Facilities management software, also known as computer-aided facility management (CAFM), property management or building maintenance, is designed to help users manage and maintain their facilities. It offers modules that perform a range of facility-related tasks, including:
- Maintenance work order assigning and scheduling
- Space rentals or booking management
- Preventive maintenance scheduling/planning
- Asset maintenance
- Inventory management
- Fleet management
- Remote and on-premise HVAC monitoring
- Security task performance
- Order and procurement management
- Materials transport management
- Contact/contractor/vendor management
- Health and safety compliance
- Lease administration
- Workspace management
- Decision support
Multi-site facility managers can perform various functions related to ongoing maintenance and repair with a powerful facilities management platform. FM teams can track space usage effectively, analyze spending patterns over time, increase energy efficiency and reduce costs with the right tools. They can even improve communications with service providers and internal stakeholders.
The main goal of facilities management software is to support facility managers in the oversight and maintenance of their facility and everything inside it. It is a subcategory of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) that focuses specifically on facilities.
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What Is Open-source Software?
Now that you understand the definition of facility management, we can discuss what we mean by “open-source facilities management.” Open source is defined as a program whose source code is freely available for manipulation by its users. This means that users can go in and make changes to the fundamentals of the program.
Another element of open-source software is that it is available for distribution and duplication by the end-users. This qualification is not a given as many companies that produce open-source software may have legal restrictions against this. Editable code is the main hallmark of an open-source solution. Some programs may have open-source code and closed-source licenses.
Open-source vs. Free vs. Freeware
Open Source, free and freeware are terms that are often used interchangeably. Let’s define each to understand which type of software suits your needs.
Like open source, free software has editable source code. It is more of a general approach to software than a firm definition — where open source has a specific set of rules, free software is described as any software that “grants the user freedom to share, study and modify it.” So open source is a type of free software, and some free software is also open source.
Freeware is what people often think free software is — it is software that is widely available to license without cost. Some examples are Skype, Adobe Reader and Discord.
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Benefits & Drawbacks
Now that you understand the basics, we can dive into the pros and cons of open-source facility management software.
For users with a lot of resources to devote to the project, open-source facilities management software can be an incredibly rewarding option, but there are many potential pitfalls. You shouldn’t take open-source projects lightly. You can’t implement it in an afternoon; it takes a lot of time and dedication to add and maintain the facility management features you need. You have to designate someone to continually manage the system to ensure it’s always operating smoothly.
Pros
1. Cost Savings
A key benefit to open-source software is its relatively low cost. Because the parent organization doesn’t have to shoulder most of the costs associated with supporting software — training, customization, etc. — they can pass those savings on to the consumer.
Depending on whether the solution is hosted in the cloud or on your premises, the cost will be an ongoing monthly subscription or a one-time fee. Those upfront costs are cut down significantly by choosing an open-source version.
Another place companies can price gouge their proprietary software is via customization. Typically if a client needs extensive customization from a vendor, they will be charged for every adjustment and modification. Doing these customizations yourself is a great way to save some cash.
2. Customization
Because an organization’s own developers are responsible for crafting open-source programs, the customization options are only limited by your budget and skill. With a proprietary solution, the vendor must support all customization, which comes with a hefty price tag.
You can also implement customization at your own speed. If a change isn’t working with your processes, you have that option without the long wait time if you need to make tweaks or additions. This flexibility, freedom and control are no match for proprietary software.
3. Versatility
Similar to customization, open source software comes with significant versatility. It can serve small businesses, large enterprises and organizations in all industries. If your developers are advanced enough, they can make the program do all sorts of unique things that can benefit your organization in ways unavailable to others with boxed solutions.
A benefit of this is that it can be embedded into other software solutions (like a CMMS) to get original feature combinations that are relevant to your facility You can embed their code into other software solutions (like a CMMS) to get original feature combinations that are relevant to your facility without buying anything extra, a common flaw with boxed facilities management platforms.
4. Community
Another great benefit of choosing open-source solutions is the community of other free software users. Open-source platforms, especially free versions of proprietary systems, are almost always supported by a robust community of other users, troubleshooters, developers and more.
Getting support from a community like this is a very different experience from contacting customer support; it encourages users to collaborate and discover, becoming experts on the platform. It also benefits from being free of charge, facilitating barter-like information trading and communicating in creative ways.
5. No Vendor Lock-ins
Dealing with vendor lock-ins constantly can be frustrating for IT managers. Other drawbacks include a lack of portability, high license fees and the inability to customize the software. Using open-source software gives you more freedom and allows you to address all of these disadvantages effectively.
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Cons
1. Developer Requirements
Vendors can often provide open-source solutions free of charge because they don’t have to put in the work to customize, implement or support them. The burden of development, implementation and IT falls entirely on you and your in-house team. They are responsible for running, managing, adding features to and troubleshooting the system.
This means that you will likely have to dedicate at least a small team of developers to work on the system either full time or for a majority of their time. While this might be realistic for a large organization, most small facilities won’t need or be able to maintain this kind of devotion.
2. Resource Drain
Those developers mentioned in the previous section need to be fairly compensated for their time, which can seriously drain your organization’s resources. Competition for talent, especially skills in high demand like coding, is very high. This means you’ll likely find yourself competing for talent with software vendors, which can become pricey. If you aren’t positioned to support excellent developers, your system will be vulnerable to bugs, breakdowns and loss of revenue.
3. UI Woes
Employees don’t utilize software to its full potential because the system isn’t intuitive to use. This gap can be even harder to broach if your users aren’t tech-savvy or don’t work with software very often, as with many maintenance technicians. You can avoid this through extensive training, but that adds cost and takes time to learn, impacting your team’s efficiency.
4. Lack of Support
Support is a huge benefit of traditional vendor-offered facilities management software, so it’s a con of open-source solutions. While there may be a robust community for some platforms, many in less tech-heavy industries (facility management, for example) may not offer the breadth of community required for your support needs. Even if there is a thriving forum community, it might be difficult getting specific answers for troubleshooting questions in a timely fashion.
Another issue comes from engineering support. Something you pay for in the cost of a proprietary solution is the specific goal-supporting engineering that goes into making a solution from the ground up, testing it and keeping it running. This reduces failure rates, decreases downtime and promotes ease of use. You are responsible for doing the research and development that goes into building a facilities management solution from the ground up when you choose an open-source platform.
5. Lack of Security
Open-source software is not created in a regulated environment. Since hundreds of developers work on open software at the same time, some may have malicious intentions. It takes only one programmer to insert malware which might prove disastrous to many. Only the vendor developers can see and edit the source code in closed software.
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Is Open-source Worth It?
For users with a lot of resources to devote to the project, open-source facility management software can be an incredibly rewarding option, but there are many potential pitfalls. Open-source projects shouldn’t be taken lightly. You can’t implement it in an afternoon; it takes a lot of time and dedication to add and maintain the facility management features you need, and you have to designate someone to perform continual management of the system to ensure it’s always operating smoothly.
Software Selection Tips
Whether you’ve decided you want to dive headfirst into an open-source project or buy a system off the shelf, selecting a facility management solution can be tricky. Follow these steps and utilize these resources to make it smooth and suited to your unique business needs!
Select the Right Software with the Free Lean Selection Book
Collect Requirements
The first step is to identify which features of a facility management solution your organization will utilize most frequently or most urgently. This facilities management requirements template lists all possible requirements and helps you prioritize them based on your needs.
Compare Software
Once you’ve identified the most crucial requirements for your organization, you’re equipped to compare platforms based on how well they perform in those areas. You can use a facilities management comparison matrix that offers analyst ratings in each requirement category for many industry leaders. Using this method, you can create a shortlist of the top vendors for you — we recommend choosing around five.
Submit an RFP
To get a customized price quote, demos, trials and more information from these top matches, you’ll want to create and submit a request for proposal. This free CMMS RFP template can guide you through the steps to make sure your RFP will get you the information you require. While you wait for responses, check out this facilities management pricing guide to get a feel for industry pricing entry points and associated costs.
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Final Thoughts
Open-source facilities management software has its pros and cons. You should now be equipped with the knowledge to choose the best fit for your organization — regardless of code accessibility.
What questions do you have about open-source facility management software or how to choose it? Leave us a comment, and we’ll get back to you with answers!