by Brianna Crandall — November 2, 2012—FM:Systems, a leading provider of integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) and computer-aided facility management (CAFM) software worldwide, has just announced the upcoming release of Version 8.2 of its Web-based FM:Interact Workplace Management Suite. FM:Systems helps facilities and real estate professionals improve customer service, reduce costs and increase productivity enterprise-wide through its portfolio of software solutions.
FM:Interact 8.2 offers a compelling set of new tools for facilities professionals helping them to better plan, optimize and manage their facilities. The new release provides FM:Systems customers with an opportunity to access several new capabilities including powerful new features specifically built for space and occupancy scenario planning, a new add-on module that extends the power of FM:Interact into the field on mobile platforms such as on Apple iPad and iPhone devices as well as enhancements to existing FM:Interact capabilities.
The new product was featured at World Workplace October 31-November 2 in San Antonio, Texas.
“This is one of our most exciting product launches to date,” said Michael Schley, founder and CEO for FM:Systems. “As always, we have listened to our customers and the industry and have developed a solution that will allow them to proactively plan for and manage their space. In addition, we have also added support for Alternative Officing which can help our customers adapt to modern workplace requirements enabled by mobile technologies and a highly dynamic workforce. These new additions are just another example of how FM:Systems helps our customers continue to be at the cutting-edge of facility planning.”
New modules and capabilities include:
- Scenario Planning: The Version 8.2 Strategic Planning module has scenario planning capabilities that allow users to proactively plan for and manage change in their physical space inventory. The Scenario Planning features enable space planners to evaluate multiple planning scenarios with interactive stacking and blocking tools including expansions, reorganizations, consolidations, reconfigurations, and unexpected events such as environmental disasters.
- FM:Mobile: This feature extends the power of FM:Interact into the field with support for floor plan viewing and work orders, and provides security-based access that can allow authorized users to edit FM:Interact data views on Apple iPad and iPhone devices.
Several additional enhancements have been added to FM:Interact 8.2, including:
- Support for Alternative Officing: Many modern organizations are adopting new approaches to workplace planning that have been enabled by mobile technologies and a highly dynamic workforce. These new approaches include flexible workspace, the ability to quickly support cross-functional teams, more ad-hoc and collaborative areas, and support for Activity Based Workplaces (ABW) that break away from the practice of assigning one workstation per employee. To address these changes, FM:Interact 8.2 introduces alternative officing capabilities to the FM:Interact Space Management Module.
- BOMA Area Calculations: Allows flexible support for classifying space by BOMA 1990, 1996, 2010A and 2010B standards for area calculation methods, including the ability to specify different methods for different buildings.
- New Floor Plan Viewer: FM:Interact includes a new floor plan viewer that is fast, intuitive, and requires no special installation.
- Extensibility Enhancements: FM:Interact users and business partners can now take advantage of extensibility enhancements that enable organizations to extend the out-of-the-box capabilities of the FM:Interact System, including new functions for user-defined controls and actions on data forms.
- Improved BIM Integration: FM:Interact 8.2 provides customers with improved integration between the FM:Interact Workplace Management Suite and Autodesk Revit. This means building data can be made available to all stakeholders throughout the entire building lifecycle.
For more information, see the FM:Systems Web site as well as their FMLink ad.
