IWMS News: 9 Benefits of Space Management that will Impact your Bottom Line Big Time

Have you seen this article in IWMS News?  We came across it a while back and thought it was spot on!  Here are a few highlights and excerpts from the article in case you don't have the time to read the whole article:

1.  Identify under-utilized spaces
   45% of space is vacant at any time, which means companies are paying a lot of money to not occupy space!  Use an IWMS system to identify what space is not being used efficiently.  Once that's done you can implement necessary changes.
2.  Align workplace initiatives with business goals
   Without a firm grip on your space occupancy, organizations can't align their workplace initiatives with their business goals.  Effective space management is a fundamental requirement for impacting bottom line results.
3.  Forecast Future Space Requirements
   In order to reduce poorly used space, you need to be able to forecast future space requirements.  Space management through an IWMS help to create reliable forecasts about future needs and allows you to create hypothetical scenarios to compare costs based on business evolution variables. 
4.  Simplify Chargeback Process
   Space management helps analyze historical space usage and creates accurate chargeback reports for when disputes arise.  When departments are held accountable for their actual space usage, they tend to be more defensive, having a direct impact on your bottom line.
5. Simplify Space Analysis
   Space Management using an IWMS helps analyze actual space usage, compare it with planned space usage, and present information in a way that allows you to make informed decisions.
6.  Streamline the Move Process
   Moves are expensive.  If you want to impact your bottom line via effective space management, you need effective move management.  this means streaming streamlining the entire move process from request to completion in order to optimize chum rates and reduce costs.
7.  Compare Actual with Planned Space Utilization
   It's very important to constantly compare planned space utilization with actual space utilization.  Using dashboards and business intelligence reports allows you to monitor actual space utilization and make changes in usage accordingly.
8.  Increase Efficiency
   Two codependent departments (e.g., Accounts Payable & Accounts Receivable) need to ensure cooperation.  Most IWMS systems can graphically create scenarios based on interdepartmental relations which are used to increase efficiency.
9.  Utilize Building Information Modeling
   A lot of information required for BIM is already in the IWMS which will become the dominant management approach for generating and managing a building -- meaning most IWMS vendors will include geospatial information to create cost-effective space occupancy scenarios. 

We thought these nine points were excellent examples of how important it is to have a quality IWMS system.  The impact IWMS makes to your bottom line is tremendous.  At RSC, we know we can help you achieve goals like those mentioned above and are happy to help you out every step of the way!

*disclaimer: most of the above text are words originally shared on an article posted at www.iwmsnews.com.  We do not claim them to be our own.  We are posting them to share information we found interesting or insightful.  Credit is given to the source*

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AutoCAD Advantages

In this "edition" of AutoCAD Advantages, we thought it a great idea to share some basic glossary terms to help better your understanding of AutoCAD.

Coordinates

• X,Y,Z values indicating a cartesian coordinate system for placing all objects. Most of the time Z=0
• Basically, it is a grid system for describing location.

There is a defined origin (0,0) The unit measurements are also defined (inches, mm, cm, etc.) Coordinates are indicated with the horizontal value (X) first, then the vertical (Y).

Units

Base unit of measurement. Everything is expressed in terms of this measurement. There’s a bit of complexity involved with this information – Architectural, Decimal, Engineering, Surveying Mm, cm, m, inches, feet, yards… The file has to know what kind of units it uses, and what kind of units other drawings are coming in at, and unit conversions have to take place. 1inch = 2.54cm, for instance

Extents

The rectangle that contains all the visible information in the drawing. The extents of this drawing is shown by the blue dotted box. If you were to zoom to the extents, all the lines and points would be visible. The system variables EXTMAX and EXTMIN refer to the upper left point and the lower left point of the rectangle.

Layers

The organizational system for drawings - All items on a layer share certain properties and can be turned on and off as a group. This is often explained as a bunch of layers of tracing paper on top of each other. I find that explanation a bit simplistic. Layers are used for controlling visibility and line thickness as well as organization. On/Off vs. Thawed/Frozen - On/Off layers are loaded into memory, so they can be quickly toggled. Thawed/Frozen require a drawing refresh (the difference was a HUGE deal back in the day - there was a significant trade off with performance - not so noticeable now).

Blocks

containers of geometry. Allows the program to use shorthand when dealing with multiple instances. It isn’t 20 do-hickeys, it is 1 do-hickey referenced 20 times. These could also be considered internal references (as opposed to external references), or a file within a file. There's a presentation, here that I've used to explain blocks and Xrefs. I'd be happy to review it at some point. When inserted the program mostly only cares about: Insertion point (insPoint) the X,Y,Z coordinates of the block Scale factors (X,Y,Z) these can all be adjusted separately, but usually aren’t Rotation – a number generally expressed in degrees

X-refs

External References. Allows an autoCAD drawing to contain another AutoCAD drawing. Originally this was used to make working with a file much faster. The current file doesn’t allow you to edit the information in the reference. Now it is used to allow mutlitple people to work on a single drawing. It is also useful for organization. I think of this as a pointer from one file to another. There's a presentation, here that I've used to explain blocks and Xrefs.

• Nested X-ref – A file contained within a file.
• Attached – firm connection to the drawing, passed through if this drawing is Xrefed into another drawing
• Overlayed – file just sits on top – not passed along if containing file is xrefed into another drawing.

Model Space

Model space is where the drawing takes place. 3D is available. Everything is drawn 1:1.

Paper Space

Consider this a print preview. Only 2D available. Viewports into Model Space, show areas at scale. You can have two areas at different scale (close and far) at the same time.

Grid

a rigid coordinate system where only certain values are acceptable for snapping purposes. See coordinate system

Purge

Removes unused entities (they exist in the drawing definitions but aren't visible).

Colors

There are a few color spaces that you may have to deal with: RGB (millions of colors) , and AutoCAD colors (256 colors) This is similar to the web based color palette, but not exactly the same.

RGB

Red Green Blue - Color Space for mixing light. Also expressed as a coordinate system R,G,B (can this get any more confusing?) Are colors giving you any problems?

AutoLISP

One of several programming languages in AutoCAD. Based on, but different from Common LISP. There's a great online resource here.

Question:  Are there any AutoCAD "glossary" terms you don't see here?  Let us know!  Leave a comment below with your thoughts and insight!  We love to hear from you.

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Client Testimonial

We love this client testimonial from Kathleen at County of San Bernadino.



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Chargeback (Space)

Chargeback (Space) is a process that determines a department’s financial charge for the actual area it occupies plus a proportional percentage of the facility's common area.

This in done in a few steps:

1. Common area is proportionately distributed among the departments on a floor, in a building, or across the facility site according to the area's Prorate field. This determines each department's percentage of facility common area.

2. Each of the department's assigned areas and its shares of common areas are multiplied by each area's associated Cost Per Area (square foot or square meter).

3. For each department, the cost of each assigned area and the cost of the common percentage areas are totaled to determine a department’s financial charge for the total area it uses

The rationale behind proportionately dividing common areas among departments is that the larger the department, the greater number of personnel it has using common areas; thus, the greater percentage it should pay for using the common area. In addition to distributing common area in this manner, your facility manager may wish to distribute a floor's remaining area to the departments on the floor, in the building, or in the site. Distributing the cost of remaining area in this manner ensures that all space on a floor is billed for. Typically, a floor's remaining area is a much smaller amount than its common area.

Please Note, you may need to run the following:

Update Manual Areas

This is required if you manually enter values to the Room Area Manual Entry ft²(rm.area_manual) field. This moves the manually entered value into the room area (calculated) field.

Update Area totals

Always run the Update Area totals.

Run Chargeback

Obviously



Question:  Do you have any good Cargeback stories? We'd love to hear from you!

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ARCHIBUS NEWS: Top Strategies for a Greener Corporation

Are you interested in saving money, conserving energy, reducing water consumption and your carbon footprint?  Then you're likely interested in "going Green," and ARCHIBUS can help.  

Here is a quick review of Top Strategies for a Greener Corporation, an article put out by Forbes, Kolmer, and Miller in case you have not yet had the chance to read it:

Environmental sustainability or “going green,” is one of the most popular and important initiatives in the workplace today.  The article by Forbes, Kolmer, and Miller describes how these increasingly common goals of reducing energy use and energy consumed can be accomplished in a variety of ways, all of which a good and effective IWMS system can help with.
Commercial building energy use accounts for 18% of all CO2 emissions.  These emissions can be reduced easily by better utilizing office space through IWMS systems.  Not taking advantage of your IWMS systems results in wasted HVAC and lighting costs as well as over expenditures in operating costs (e.g., utilities, taxes, janitorial or maintenance, and physical assets).  By using simple vendor-neutral conservation strategies, your company’s carbon footprint and unnecessary expenses can be drastically decreased and potentially avoided altogether.
The article outlines six different ways to accomplish your company’s sustainability goals:
1.       Stop Wasting Space
Sounds easy right?  Well, it is!  “The faster [companies] implement better space management the faster [they] gain the added environmental and economic benefit of lowering energy use and operating expenses” (2014, p.2).  Essentially, if a company utilizes its space planning and management software by conducting space audits on routine basis, operations are easily consolidated as vacant space is eliminated.
2.       Alarm your FM Department
Through the integration of a company’s BAS HVAC alarms to its building ops software, the location of problems will be identified on building drawings.  This integration will also “automate issuance of work orders when energy management systems detect performance failures of heat traps and other system components” (2014, p.2).
3.       Manage Data Center Heat
Maintaining a balance between power and cooling is the greatest challenge for data centers.  Operational costs may eat up over 50% of some tech budgets on top of whatever it may cost to construct additional space to house these data centers.  To ensure company efforts are not being wasted, implement a “data center management software [that] provides easy graphical visualizations and automatic updates to sever rack inventories” or implement hot/cold aisles in data centers (2014, p.2).
4.       “Don’t get caught in an HVACcuum”
Most offices and data centers are not in use 24/7.   Too many offices receive round-the-clock HVAC support.  Using IWMS software and building drawings, your company can reconfigure space and consolidate HVAC intensive data centers and other operations to reduce after-hour electricity consumption.
5.       Telecommuting is Key
Embrace the power of telecommuting!  Telecommuting is perhaps one of the greatest ways for a company to go green.  The article describes one company generating 29,000 fewer tons of CO2 emissions and savings of US$63 million in one fiscal year by cutting 6,660 office seats” (2014, p.3).  Furthermore, telecommuting reduces transportation-generated greenhouse gas emissions but reducing commuter traffic.
6.       Use KPIs
Key Performance Indicators are the benchmarks against which progress is measured for sustainability initiatives, cost reduction goals, business process improvements and other activities.  “A well thought-out environmental sustainability strategy can deliver up to 10% -- and possibly as much as 20%-- savings and operational costs” (2014, p.5).
As Forbes, Kolmer, and Miller describe, the role IWMS systems play in “going green” are key and the benefits of having a quality functioning system is clear.

Did you know that ARCHIBUS was recently ranked as one of the World's Largest Software Companies by Software Magazine?  That's just one of the reasons why ARCHIBUS is the #1 solution for real estate, infrastructure, and facilities management in the world.

What is your company doing to reduce their carbon footprint?  Need help achieving your sustainability goals?  Reach out to us here at RSC.  We’d love to help you create a greener tomorrow!

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BAATUG Wrap Up: Quarter 1

This quarter's Bay Area ARCHIBUS Training & User Group was an awesome event!  The training was great and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time mingling afterwards.  RSC is incredibly grateful to Stanford for hosting the training event.  The facility and food were phenomenal!

This quarter's training covered Moves, Adds, & Changes in ARCHIBUS.  We took a deep look at how to manage moving people in ARCHIBUS Client Server / Web Central, and in RSC's custom SpaceView tool.  We also covered some great tricks clients can use to do quick, custom reports using ODBC and Excel.

Here is a taste of what we covered in the meeting:

In order to get to 98% accuracy in employee locations you need to do the following 3 things:
1. Have a regularly scheduled employee synchronization with the HR department
2. Have a single move process that is followed EVERY SINGLE TIME
3. Walk the floors on a regular basis (quarterly or yearly).

To find out more about our quarterly BAATUG events, please contact us or comment below!

All-Hands on Deck!

Being a virtual company has its advantages and disadvangaes.  One of the advantages of being a virtual company is the ability for staff to create their own schedule.  One of the disadvantages, is that we don’t get to see each other in person as often as we’d like.  Our version of the water cooler is a series of hipchat messages or quick gotomeeting.

A few times a year we are blessed with the opportunity to get together as a group.  One of these opportunities is our annual “All-Hands” meeting.  It’s a chance for everyone in the company to get together, discuss our goals, the direction we’re headed in, and bond.

This year we were lucky enough to hold our meeting at Bridges Golf Club.  If anyone lives in the East Bay Area and has not been there – go!  It’s really a must.  The venue is gorgeous, the food is to-die-for, and the service is wonderful.

Here are a few highlights from our  meeting:

 

Half way through our meeting we did a pretty fun activity.  Have you ever heard of the Pinewood Derby?  If you grew up in Boy Scouts or have a child currently participating, you know what it is.  But for those who don’t, Pinewood Derby is a model car race.  Boys create cars out of wood and race them down a simple track.  We did a modified version and carved our cars out of soap bars.  It was a blast.  Some people were incredibly creative with their design while others built their cars for speed, and speed only.

We finished our time at Bridges by breaking off into departments and regrouping to share our ideas.

Afterwards Bob treated us to a fun time at the BlackhawkAuto Museum and dinner.  This is another must-see in the Bay Area, especially if you are a car lover.  Our docent was incredibly knowledgeable and had personal stories about each vehicle.

Listening to the docent's neat experiences

RSC is one of the few lucky companies, where all staff truly does enjoy interacting and working together.  We are grateful for any opportunity we have to get together!