Implementing facilities asset management software gives FM teams somewhere to record equipment, maintenance histories, condition and compliance information. But that is only the starting point. As explored in our earlier Facilities Asset Management Software: What FM Teams Should Compare buyer’s guide, the quality of the underlying asset information is critical when choosing and deploying a system. Once that foundation exists, the bigger opportunity is to use the data to answer practical questions: Which assets are most likely to fail? Which should we maintain differently? And when does replacing equipment make more sense than repairing it again?
Effective asset management turns information into decisions.
Move Beyond the Asset Register
A basic asset register might tell an FM team:
Boiler 03 – installed 2015 – Building A
Useful asset management should tell them considerably more.
For example:
- Maintenance history
- Breakdown frequency
- Condition
- Criticality
- Energy performance
- Repair costs
- Parts availability
- Warranty
- Expected remaining life
Taken together, those data points provide a much stronger basis for deciding what happens next.
Asset Management Principle
Knowing what assets you own is useful. Knowing what condition they are in and what they are costing you is where asset management starts creating value.
Prioritise Assets by Criticality
Not every asset deserves the same maintenance strategy.
A failure involving decorative lighting in a meeting room has very different consequences from failure of:
- Critical HVAC
- Fire protection
- Emergency power
- Data-centre cooling
- Medical equipment infrastructure
FM teams can therefore classify assets according to criticality.
Factors might include:
Operational impact: What happens if it stops working?
Safety: Could failure put people at risk?
Compliance: Is the asset subject to statutory requirements?
Financial impact: What would downtime cost?
Replacement difficulty: How quickly could it be restored?
This allows maintenance resources to be concentrated where failure carries the greatest consequences.
Platforms and service providers including SFG20, SINGU, JLL Corrigo and Your Asset support different elements of structured asset information, maintenance planning and facilities operations.
Use Maintenance History to Spot Patterns
Individual breakdowns may appear random.
Viewed across months or years, patterns can emerge.
Consider an air-conditioning unit requiring:
£500 repair → £900 repair → £1,400 repair
within a relatively short period.
Each intervention may have seemed reasonable in isolation. Together, they may indicate an asset approaching the end of its economical life.
Maintenance data can help identify:
- Repeat failures
- Rising repair costs
- Problem asset types
- Recurring faults
- Poor-performing locations
That can shift the conversation from:
“How do we fix this fault?”
to:
“Why does this asset keep failing?”
Balance Planned and Reactive Maintenance
Reactive maintenance cannot be eliminated completely.
Unexpected failures happen.
But an estate dominated by reactive work can result in higher costs, disruption and maintenance teams constantly responding to emergencies.
Asset information can help organisations develop more appropriate planned preventive maintenance schedules.
SFG20, for example, provides maintenance schedules and compliance information designed to help facilities teams establish what maintenance should be undertaken and when.
SFG20 – https://www.sfg20.co.uk/
The objective is not simply to maximise planned maintenance either.
Over-maintaining low-risk assets can waste resources.
The aim is to apply the right maintenance strategy to the right asset.
Move Towards Condition-Based Maintenance
Traditional preventive maintenance often operates according to time:
Inspect every six months.
Condition-based maintenance asks:
Does the asset’s actual condition indicate that intervention is required?
Data might come from:
- Sensors
- Building management systems
- Inspections
- Energy consumption
- Temperature
- Vibration
- Runtime
This can enable maintenance teams to respond to deterioration rather than relying solely on fixed schedules.
Clockworks Analytics, for example, applies building analytics to HVAC and other building systems, identifying equipment faults and opportunities for operational improvement.
Clockworks Analytics – https://www.clockworksanalytics.com/
Predict Failure Before It Happens
Predictive maintenance takes this further by using operational data and analytics to identify signs that equipment may be heading towards failure.
For FM teams, potential benefits include:
- Reduced downtime
- Earlier intervention
- Better parts planning
- Fewer emergency callouts
- Longer asset life
But predictive maintenance is not automatically appropriate for every asset.
The business case is strongest where assets are sufficiently critical, expensive or data-rich to justify the additional monitoring.
Maintenance Principle
Don’t predict everything that could fail. Predict the failures that matter.
Connect Asset Data with Specialist Maintenance Expertise
Software alone does not maintain buildings.
FM teams still need specialist expertise to inspect, repair and operate complex assets.
Providers including Linaker, Thermatic, CoSourced, Shenton Group, True Group and COAT Facilities Groupsupport different areas of engineering, maintenance and facilities service delivery.
The opportunity is to connect that operational activity with the asset record.
When engineers complete work, useful information should flow back into the system:
What failed?
What was repaired?
What condition is the asset now in?
Is further intervention recommended?
This turns every maintenance visit into another source of asset intelligence.
Make Better Repair-or-Replace Decisions
One of the most valuable applications of asset information is deciding when to stop repairing equipment.
That decision should consider more than age.
Factors can include:
- Repair frequency
- Cumulative maintenance cost
- Reliability
- Energy consumption
- Parts availability
- Compliance
- Operational importance
- Replacement cost
- Remaining useful life
An older asset that remains reliable and efficient may still provide excellent value.
A newer asset experiencing repeated expensive failures may not.
Lifecycle Insight
Asset age tells you how long something has existed. Asset data tells you whether it still makes economic sense to keep it.
Include Energy Performance
Energy can materially affect lifecycle cost.
Two assets may perform the same function but have very different operating costs.
This is particularly relevant for:
- HVAC
- Boilers
- Chillers
- Pumps
- Lighting
When repair-or-replace decisions are made, FM and energy teams should therefore consider both maintenance and consumption.
A more efficient replacement may carry a higher capital cost but lower whole-life expenditure.
Turn Asset Data into Capital Planning
Good asset information can also help organisations look several years ahead.
Instead of discovering that several major assets require replacement simultaneously, FM teams can develop forward plans showing:
Year 1: critical replacements
Year 2: major refurbishment
Year 3: lifecycle upgrades
This can support more predictable budgeting and reduce unexpected capital requests.
CBRE’s Corrigo platform, for example, supports asset, work-order and facilities management across property portfolios, while BAM and JLL operate across wider property and asset lifecycle environments.
JLL Corrigo – https://www.jll.com/en-us/technology/corrigo
Improve Asset Data Continuously
The asset register should evolve as the estate changes.
Useful triggers for updates include:
- New equipment installed
- Asset relocated
- Major repair completed
- Condition changed
- Warranty expired
- Asset decommissioned
Without this discipline, even a well-implemented platform gradually loses accuracy.
That takes us back to the central point from our first article:
Good software cannot compensate for poor asset data.
And good asset data cannot create value unless it is continuously maintained and used.
Questions FM Teams Should Ask
- Which assets are genuinely business-critical?
- Where are repeat failures occurring?
- Are maintenance costs increasing for particular assets?
- Are preventive maintenance schedules appropriate to actual risk?
- Could condition monitoring improve maintenance timing?
- Which assets justify predictive monitoring?
- Is engineer feedback updating the asset record?
- Which assets are approaching the end of economical life?
- Are energy costs included in replacement decisions?
- Can asset data support a three-to-five-year capital plan?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is asset lifecycle management?
Asset lifecycle management involves managing an asset from acquisition and installation through operation, maintenance, refurbishment and eventual replacement or disposal.
What is predictive maintenance?
Predictive maintenance uses operational and condition data to identify signs of potential equipment failure so intervention can take place before a breakdown occurs.
What’s the difference between preventive and condition-based maintenance?
Preventive maintenance is generally scheduled at predetermined intervals, while condition-based maintenance responds to evidence about the asset’s actual condition.
When should facilities equipment be replaced rather than repaired?
FM teams should consider reliability, repair frequency, cumulative cost, efficiency, criticality, parts availability and expected remaining life rather than relying on age alone.
Product Guide
Aether Compliance
Supports organisations with compliance and facilities-management services, helping estates teams maintain oversight of building obligations and asset-related requirements.
Website: https://aethercompliance.com/
BAM
Provides construction, facilities-management and asset-management services across complex built environments and infrastructure.
Website: https://www.bam.co.uk/
CBRE / Corrigo
Corrigo is CBRE’s facilities-management technology platform, supporting work orders, maintenance, assets, suppliers and wider FM operations across property portfolios.
Website: https://www.jll.com/en-us/technology/corrigo
Clockworks Analytics
Building analytics specialist using operational building data to identify faults, maintenance priorities and performance opportunities across HVAC and other building systems.
Website: https://www.clockworksanalytics.com/
COAT Facilities Group
Facilities-management provider supporting organisations with maintenance and wider property services.
Website: https://coatfacilities.com/
CoSourced
Specialist technical-services provider supporting critical building infrastructure, including HVAC and associated maintenance requirements.
Website: https://www.cosourced.com/
Linaker
UK engineering and maintenance provider delivering planned and reactive building-services support across commercial estates.
Website: https://www.linaker.com/
SFG20
Building-maintenance standard and software platform helping FM teams manage maintenance schedules, statutory obligations and asset-related tasks.
Website: https://www.sfg20.co.uk/
Shenton Group
Specialist in standby power and critical power solutions, including generator maintenance and associated lifecycle support.
Website: https://www.shentongroup.co.uk/
SINGU
Property and facilities-management software supporting areas including asset information, maintenance and wider real-estate operations.
Website: https://singu.com/
Thermatic
UK facilities-services provider delivering engineering, maintenance and energy-related services across commercial property portfolios.
Website: https://thermatic.co.uk/
True Group
Facilities and property-services provider supporting organisations with maintenance and wider estate requirements.
Website: https://truegroup.co.uk/
Your Asset
Asset-management technology and services provider helping organisations improve asset visibility, management and lifecycle decision-making.
Website: https://yourasset.com/
From Asset Register to Asset Intelligence
The real value of facilities asset management does not come from creating the most comprehensive database possible.
It comes from using information to make better decisions.
Maintain → monitor → analyse → intervene → repair or replace
When asset condition, maintenance history, criticality and cost are considered together, FM teams can move away from simply responding to failures towards actively managing asset performance.
That can mean fewer unexpected breakdowns, better-targeted maintenance expenditure and more informed capital planning.
Most importantly, it can help organisations extract greater value from the assets they already own.
The Facilities Management Forum connects senior FM and estates professionals with carefully selected providers through pre-arranged one-to-one meetings, providing an opportunity to explore asset management, maintenance, building analytics and wider facilities solutions.
Related Reading
This article follows our earlier Facilities Asset Management Software: What FM Teams Should Compare buyer’s guide, covering asset registers, maintenance management, compliance, integrations, mobile working, data quality and supplier selection.
Sources
- SFG20 – https://www.sfg20.co.uk/
- Clockworks Analytics – https://www.clockworksanalytics.com/
- JLL Corrigo – https://www.jll.com/en-us/technology/corrigo
- BAM – https://www.bam.co.uk/
- Linaker – https://www.linaker.com/
- Thermatic – https://thermatic.co.uk/
- CoSourced – https://www.cosourced.com/
- Shenton Group – https://www.shentongroup.co.uk/
- SINGU – https://singu.com/
- Your Asset – https://yourasset.com/
Image credit: Photo by Daniel Targonskyi on Unsplash
