As escalating social distancing measures are being implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, more universities and institutions are closing up their buildings and reducing their workforces.
With so much uncertainty around how long these measures may need to be in place, it is important to start preparing now for how to keep your facilities clean and safe prior to bringing students and employees back to campus.
If you don’t already have a plan in place to address this, now is the time to start thinking about how you can automate sanitizing, stocking, inspecting and other critical tasks in order to keep your facilities operable and ready.
Here Are Three Ways Accruent’s FAMIS Facilities Asset Management Solution can Help You React, Plan and Prepare for the Future.
1. Manage space availability to avoid contamination and reduce infection spread.
With potential infection spread now a major concern, a key use for your space management system is to see a graphical report of what spaces may have potentially been contaminated by a confirmed COVID-19 case. You need to also know which spaces have been cleaned, which ones need to be cleaned and which ones are still available for use.
You can use FAMIS to set up user-defined fields that will show you this kind of information in Visual Map or AutoCAD, and then manage your employee and space assignments by classifying whether a space will be available during the shutdown or not, or if it requires servicing.
You will also be able to take entire buildings offline and shutdown the electricity and HVAC during a shutdown to save on utilities. And the visual space planning tool in FAMIS allows you to select which spaces should be left available during this time to ensure you are keeping necessary separations between groups on campus.
2. Automate and simplify inspections and cleaning procedures.
Looking ahead to when we can return to our shared spaces, it is important that we can ensure proper sanitation and cleaning has been performed. Using the inspection templates and work order management tools, FAMIS users can track which spaces have been cleaned and inspected prior to bringing students back to campus or employees back to work.
You can also add new procedures for sanitizing spaces and stocking disinfecting materials and link them to inspections.
3. Monitor facilities access with key control.
During this period when most facilities have been closed, it is essential to know exactly who has access to which buildings and whether or not buildings and facilities should be accessible. If you are planning to temporarily shut down any of your facilities, you can notify your keyholders in plenty of time for them to make accommodations to perform their duties elsewhere, if necessary.
Additionally, take advantage of your FAMIS Key Reservations module by taking extra measures when delivering keys. Because you have an automated process for knowing which keys need to be delivered, you can get them ready, sterilized and packaged in an envelope. Deliver or have keys picked up to ensure a low-touch handoff process.
Take this time to make sure your facilities and spaces are inspected, clean and operational for when your students and employees can safely come back to campus. If you do not have a plan in place, FAMIS can help you carry out the tasks and ensure a smooth transition back to normal day-to-day activities.
If you need help or want to talk to our support teams about how best to use these FAMIS features to ensure the safety of your campus, please contact customer support.
