What a time to be alive! We live in an era where there are software and apps for just about anything you can think of. From simple financial software to meal planning apps and everything in between, people use apps to plan their fitness routines, vacations, and find dates. Now combined with the building momentum of AI, we are exploring a whole new world of how software becomes more useful and personalized to the individual. We are truly living in a moment of incredible innovation and opportunity.
With such a variety of software out there, it’s tempting to lean into the notion that software can address all of our needs. However, as anyone who has every downloaded a fitness app and months later sees no scale movement can tell you, the cold hard truth about software is that software alone won’t solve your problems. If you have a fitness app, you still have to sweatt. If you have a financial app like Quickbooks, you still have to keep spending in check! And yes even with facility management software (also called “CMMS”), someone still has to find vendors and make sure the plumber actually shows up and solves the problem.
Software is a great tool to make things easier, but we can’t afford to make the mistake of thinking it will solve all of our problems. Let’s take a dive into strategies so you can decide what strategy makes sense for you.
Who software solutions are better for
In the CMMS or facility management software space, there are software-only solutions that are great for companies that want to manage the work themselves. This means that the leadership team believes that it is in the best interest of the company to invest money in building out a facilities team, sourcing new vendors, managing compliance, and buying software to ensure locations are properly serviced. For companies who desire this approach, there are many great software solutions, including ServiceChannel (servicechannel.com), Corrigo, Fexa (fexa.io), OpenWrench (openwrench.com), among others. This type of software will help you better organize what you are doing currently.
Consider the real cost
If you are in a situation like this, make sure you understand the total cost of your FM strategy. In addition to what you are paying in software fees, software-only solutions also require investment in building and/or maintaining an internal FM department. Consider: How much is budgeted beyond the software to actually have people find vendors? Who will manage the software solution? How will you ensure contractors are doing their jobs? Will the department actually help the core business? How will you handle emergency/after hours needs?
You get the picture. Often buying facility management software or a helpdesk ticketing software is actually the key to Pandora’s box. This is only one step in an array of many required to help bring order to facility management.
Why Trillium is the best value
So if a software only FM solution isn’t ultimately the answer, what else is there? The alternative, one that we believe is the best value in America, is teaming up with Trillium. With Trillium, you get the platform, process, and FM people in a single solution. Our solution gives you the ability to place orders for basic facility management and maintenance issues, without the need to build a department, maintain a growing supply chain of vendors across many skilled trades, or burn out your team with emergency issues, which always seem to pop up on Saturdays and Sundays.
Trillium is a solution that has you covered end-to-end. We are a single partner that gives you and your locations a simple place to order services online, and we handle all the other details.
Companies that use our solution seem to have one of two strategies. On one hand, they are growing and want to invest in their core business rather than in building a facilities department. They know they have maintenance issues at their locations and need the quickest way to place an order and get it taken care of. Other customers have legitimate budget problems and need to reduce overhead and continue to meet their maintenance needs with less people.
Trillium serves our partners in both cases by helping them:
- Avoid the need to buy expensive facility software including unnecessary “onboarding” fees”, licensing fees, and other recurring costs – our software is completely free!
- Avoid the need to build a facility management department (or trim costs in this area if necessary) – we have a staff of trained facility managers ready to support you
- Avoid the need to find contractors for all different types of trades – we support with 5000+ service partners in 58 different trades nationally
- Avoid the administrative headaches associated with collecting w9s and maintaining COIs for each individual contractor – Trillium insures all of our clients and pays all service providers so you only have to worry about one payee
- Avoid emergency and weekend “on call” burnout – Trillium is staffed with facility support 24/7/365
Good news – you get to decide
If you want to build and maintain an FM department, then buying software is a good idea to keep your team organized and on task. We’ve shared with you several great platforms built by great people that you can refer to.
If, however, you are looking for simplicity, ease, and convenience in facility management- then we believe that Trillium is, hands down, the best value anywhere in the world. Not only do we save you thousands of dollars annually in software costs, but also thousands more in costs than you never have to worry about. You never have to think about building FM infrastructure, managing hundreds of technicians, sourcing new technicians, managing quality issues, or following up to ensure a job is done. With our offering, a problem is identified, and a problem gets fixed – easy. Order services the same way you order products off Amazon and get back to focusing on what your real goal, is and that’s building the best business you can think of.
If you would like to learn more about the best value solution in America for all things facility maintenance and facility management, please click here.
