Data, data, data: It has become the buzzword of the decade no matter what industry you work in. However, especially for real estate and facility professionals, having access to metrics and instituting a process to analyze the data can help you achieve operational goals while cutting costs.

Not convinced? Check out our six reasons to love facilities data below.

1. Know what you are managing

An old adage, “you cannot manage what you cannot measure,” holds true in the real estate lifecycle. Without having metrics for your objectives or responsibilities, it makes it nearly impossible to manage it.

Without data, what would you be managing? What goals would you be trying to hit? For example, setting service-level agreements—even among internal stakeholders—can set a bar for your team to reach. Furthermore, by tracking this data over time, you can understand where your team may be falling short and how you can improve.

2. Uncover weak spots

Experts reveal that one of the key data trends for 2015 is “data-fication,” or when your technology gives insight into other processes that may not have been otherwise obvious, such as why it takes hours to manage the work order process with manual tools. In doing so, you can understand where your processes may be weak and gets you a step closer to instituting fixes.

3. Gain insight into costs—and reduce them

It is no secret that real estate and facilities are often an organization’s second largest expense item. By leveraging data from your facilities, you can understand where you have room for improvement, such as reducing the number of reactive work order requests by spending more time on preventive maintenance.

For instance, by leveraging their data from FAMIS 360, our customers have been able to cut their maintenance costs by 35 percent.

4. Understand the lifecycle of your assets

As any technician on your team will tell you, not all assets are built the same. For some reason, there is always that cantankerous chiller that needs a few kicks every few months to get it working just right.

Tracking and analyzing data related to your assets, such as inspection dates and key repair details, can help you understand and predict the lifecycle of your asset. In return, you will not have to justify a surprise or unexpected repair that blows your budget.

5. Streamline processes

This is perhaps one of the biggest benefits of your facilities data. Seeing how you can streamline processes will improve your team’s operational efficiency and, as a result, reduce costs. Taking a look at how your team has spent their time over the past week, for instance, can reveal where there may be inefficiencies, such as people swapping places in buildings to complete work orders assigned to them rather than using travel time to get more done.

6. Make smarter decisions about your resources

Research shows that companies that use analytics are five times more likely to make faster decisions, offering a competitive advantage and better insight into how you are using resources. When you can back up your requests with data, your chances of approval are much better.

Still not sure? Let us convince you. Contact us now.