What Are Space Management Systems: A Complete Overview

Workplaces keep changing to meet the needs of their employees. As more companies adopt hybrid work models after lockdown, managing the office space efficiently becomes more important to ensure employee friendliness and cost effectiveness.

What Is Space Management?

The management of physical space in an organization is called space management. Organizations adopt this practice to manage their entire office space, track occupancy information, and create spatial plan.

Space management involves multiple steps such as gathering data, forecasting, analysis, and strategic planning. This concept sounds simple, but it can be quite challenging to implement in practice.

Importance of Space Management in Modern Offices

Space management is an integral part of effective facility management since it is the cornerstone for many activities. It helps with property management, occupancy management, room reservation, move management, and maintenance management.

Strategic planning of space allows you to develop cost-effective solutions while optimizing the availability of workspace, enabling your employees to efficiently manage the space.

Here’re the benefits of space management system in today’s time:

• Significantly avoid the wastage of space
• Expand your workplace as the team grows
• Make the workspace comfortable to achieve greater productivity
• Ensue flexible office setups

What Is Space Management Software?

Space management software assists in managing, auditing, and tracking your company’s physical assets. This is an automated technology that provides a host of features to manage office space or any other premises.

The solution offers a simple and intuitive interface that helps in optimum space utilization. With an effective space management software, you can:

• View workspace occupancy in real-time
• Mark any advance desk reservation or conference room booking
• Manage an efficient workflow for the hybrid setup based on their availability
• Keep track of the log-in and log-out of on-site employees
• Share the latest information about space occupancy with every employee, anytime & from anywhere
• Utilize QR-based contactless digital passes to manage visitors in the office
• Plan & schedule maintenance services according to your space needs

Moreover, the majority of space management software can be accessed via a web browser and mobile app. You can easily manage space availability, location, purpose, capacity, occupancy time, etc. on the go.

Types of Space Management System

Let’s have a look at some of the common types of space management system.

• Room Booking Software

  Automating the room booking process and measuring room occupancy is a key benefit of room booking software. It offers a central platform for booking a conference room and reserving other spaces within an office or shared facility.

• Meeting Room Management System

  A meeting room management system allows work teams to book a meeting room or schedule reservations, lock certain amenities, and conduct post-meeting cleaning automatically. It provides all the details of a meeting room or space whenever you need it.

• Conference Room Management System

  Conference room management systems ensure easy booking of conference rooms and other office spaces for effective management and planning of meetings and discussions.

• Coworking Management System

  A coworking management system is specifically designed for managing coworking spaces. With its powerful hybrid workplace management features, it helps managers create a flexible workspace that can accommodate the needs of a diverse group of individuals.

• Seat Management Software

  Seat management software ensures that there is the right seat for everyone at your workplace while also utilizing the space in the best possible way. Seat allocation software is important for planning where your employees sit in the office as per their work shifts.

Benefits of Using Space Management Software

Modern workplace managers need space management software at their disposal. It empowers organizations to come up with data-driven decisions on how to create an office environment with a positive workplace experience and minimal space wastage.

• Better utilization of space

  Unused space is a common scenario in large organizations. The use of space management system software helps organizations manage underused spaces and reroute resources for its optimum utilization.

• Increased employee productivity

  Every day a lot of time is spent by employees in finding available work desks, meeting rooms, parking spaces, etc. A space management tool tailored toward the need of employees can help business owners ensure that employees have the equipment and location that they need for their specific tasks.

• Better communication

  Data is essential for effective space management. If this data is scattered across different platforms, the communication within specific departments can become siloed. With the help of space management software, facility managers can easily track space usage and take necessary measures.

• Metrics for real-time space management

  Communication and employee satisfaction improve with better transparency in the workplace. One of the benefits of using space management software is that it provides you with information and real-time metrics like the percentage of space utilized, total area available, and operating costs per square foot.

• Cost savings

  Space management software facilitates energy savings by highlighting the unoccupied or unused spaces. Also, it saves organizations from unnecessary facility-related expenses that often go unnoticed and add up to the operational cost.

Must-Have Features of Space Management Software

Essential space management features that you will find with the best software:

• Ability to capture real-time data: Space management software can capture the occupancy data in real-time. Biometric devices can be connected with biometric devices and occupancy sensors to track real-time information. When managers have this type of data at their fingertips, they are well-equipped to make informed decisions.

• CAFM software integrations: The software must be fully integrated with computer-added facility management (CAFM) software like AutoCAD or any other similar solution. This will facilitate your team to navigate through different scenarios and take a look at the impact of any changes before they are implemented.

• Other Enterprise system integration: Your space management software should integrate with the enterprise systems of your organization including HR and accounting. This will enable you to set up spaces in accordance with work shifts and rosters.

• Availability of mobile apps: The workforce today is more mobile than before and wants access to every information at their fingertips. With space management apps, your employees will be able to find available work desks, meeting rooms, and people from anywhere, thus increasing productivity.

• Reporting capabilities: Along with collecting and aggregating the data, the software should also support robust reporting, analytics, and dashboard features. Top-level space management software provides actionable insights to make proactive decisions.

How to Find the Best Space Management Software?

It is important to remember that not every space management software offers the features your business needs. Here are the factors to consider while selecting the best space management software for your company.

• Cloud-based management: You can opt for cloud-based space management software that helps manage and access the space management features from any device and anywhere. However, on-premises space management software ensure greater control over data security.

• Ease of use: An effective space management system should have an intuitive interface and must be easy to use for every employee. Look for a solution which even a person with limited technical knowledge can use after training.

• Integration with other solutions: The best space management solution should easily integrate with other software like AutoCAD, room reservation systems, occupancy planning software, service request software, and more.

• Scalability: A growing business must find space management software that is easily scalable. You must be able to manage the expanding space and ensure optimum utilization.

• Forecast future space needs: The best space management solutions make it easy to visualize your future space needs. It helps you in the planning of space expansion or reduction based on changes in employee numbers as well as the space utilization rate.

• Service and support: Whether it’s on-premise or cloud-based solution, check for the level of support you will get from the vendor in case you are finding any feature too complex.

7 Best Space Management Systems for Modern-Day Organizations

• SpaceRunner
• Accordant
• WorkInSync
• Robin
• Skedda
• Envoy
• SmartDraw

• SpaceRunner

  SpaceRunner helps in developing a new environment for businesses. It helps you in asset tracking, space planning, and asset condition survey. Additionally, the software enables you to visualize your office space in an interactive 3D setting.

• Accordant

  Accordant supports workspace management for traditional, hybrid, open plan, flexible, and zero address organizations. It helps address questions like ‘who is coming to the office’, ‘ when and where will the employees sit’, ‘how to plan flexible scheduling’, etc.

• WorkInSync

  WorkInSync makes it easy for companies to optimally utilize the office space. You can even use it to simplify the booking of new workspaces and sync the necessary amenities that are required in the conference or meeting room.

• Robin

  Robin is a unique space management software that helps manage the modern-day work setup optimally. It tracks and analyses the available office space and helps you in getting started with the hybrid model of working.

• Skedda

  Skedda makes booking and scheduling of workspaces hassle-free. This reduces pressure on your admin teams and offers the flexibility that your organization and employees’ needs.

• Envoy

  Envoy assists you in easily transitioning to a hybrid workplace. It helps in creating a hybrid schedule, inviting employees to the office, and booking required desks and other necessary amenities.

• SmartDraw

  SmartDraw allows you to create quick and easy floor plans for residential and commercial properties. You can just simply select a template and integrate it with your favorite tool to get started.

Conclusion

The right space management platform not only helps in better planning and utilization of your office space but offers a lot more than that. It allows organizations to save their operational cost, make strategic planning, boost employee satisfaction levels, get meaningful insights, and increase productivity for effective facility management.

FAQs

Related Categories: Meeting Management Software | Screen Sharing Software | Remote Monitoring Maintenance