Using Mobile Technology to Streamline Day-to-Day Building Operations

Tracking vendor activity

Mobile can provide a great link between building operations staff and third party service providers. If a service provider is performing an inspection they can have access to the history of previous readings. This can be used to determine if current performance is an outlier or if the issue at-hand is consistent. A common problem with using outside vendors is tracking the information they collect. If a building manager relies solely on the vendor’s system then it can be very difficult to access the data. Building managers need to always know what each vendor is doing as it’s happening. Keep in mind that any report generated on the manager’s behalf by a vendor is a by product of the work order and belongs to the building. There is no reason why managers shouldn’t have direct access to that in real time via mobile phone technology.

Monitoring daily inspections

Every building manager says they have an inspection program but odds are it’s probably not being done consistently. Most building operations inspection data is probably living in a binder. Each person should have the ability to search on a mobile app for every work order needing to be completed each day. There’s no reason for people to be walking around a property with radios doing inspection rounds. With geolocation and mobile, managers can actually see where building operations staff are and what they’re doing in real time. They can also receive automatic notifications when inspections are complete and, perhaps most importantly, maintain an audit trail.