CMMS
5 Best Facilities Management Software for Schools [2024]
In 2018, a third of Baltimore’s schools closed due to heating issues.
In 2019, schools in Providence, Rhode Island, faced leaking sewage and contaminated drinking water.
So, what's the problem? Research paints a clear picture.
The 2020 U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) survey found an estimated 54% of public school districts needed to update or replace multiple building systems. The NCES report found 41% of schools have HVAC issues, which is concerning since children spend eight hours a day indoors.
The American Society of Civil Engineers gave public K-12 infrastructure a D+ in their 2021 Infrastructure Report Card, revealing widespread disparities in facilities.
These issues go beyond funding–they point to staffing, training, and management practices. This is where top facilities management software for schools comes in.
With roughly 84,000 public schools serving a projected 56.8 million students by 2026, not to mention their role in community events; creating safe and healthy learning spaces is crucial.
Next, we'll explore the importance of facilities management software and highlight the top 5 facilities management software for schools.
Why facilities management software for schools is important
GAO estimates show that 65% of school districts have assessed their facilities within the past 10 years; and four in 10 public schools do not have a long-term facility plan to address operations and maintenance.
The reasons are simple—local, state, and school authorities are already stretched thin, struggling to keep pace with aging buildings, outdated equipment, and constant repair needs. Learn more School facility management: Steps, Importance & Benefits
This lack of resources often leads to:
- Broken compliance and maintenance processes: Manual solutions and a lack of long-term planning create a reactive, inefficient system.
- Overwhelming daily tasks: Inspections, compliance, asset management, and countless other tasks burden already stretched staff.
These issues can lead to long-term effects like:
1. Student safety & hygiene risks
Educational organizations have a dual responsibility: ensuring student safety and maintaining hygienic environments. This is not only a legal requirement but also a competitive edge.
Without proper systems, however, challenges arise:
- Managing health and safety procedures consistently becomes difficult across large campuses, multiple systems, and machinery.
- Manual inspections are time-consuming and prone to human error.
- Tracking incidents, compliance, and safety hazards often relies on inefficient paper-based systems or fragmented digital tools.
2. Vendor accountability issues & operational blindspots
Most educational institutions rely on a combination of in-house staff and external contractors for maintenance and operations. However, without the right software, it becomes challenging to:
- Track the efficiency and quality of work by different stakeholders
- Track ongoing maintenance activities effectively, often relying heavily on vendor-provided reports
3. Increased effort by the management
Operational demands significantly drain management's time, effort, and energy due to:
- Logistical challenges in asset management and movement.
- Time-intensive and potentially inconsistent facility and equipment inspections.
- Manual data compilation from multiple sources for generating comprehensive facility management reports.
Unfortunately, these challenges are especially significant because:
- Resources are often limited, demanding maximum efficiency.
- Student and teacher safety and well-being are non-negotiable.
- Public and government funding necessitates accurate tracking and reporting.
But there is a simple solution— facility management software can streamline operations and improve efficiency easily.
Top facilities management software offer:
- Centralized data management
- Automated workflows and alerts
- Real-time reporting and analytics
- Mobile accessibility for all
- Integration capabilities with your existing tech stack
This helps create a functional school environment that fosters success, while pushing students, teachers, and the administration to focus on delivering quality education.
Benefits of facilities management software
Just like teachers prepare students for life beyond exams, schools themselves need to be prepared for facility management.
In an interview with EdTech Magazine, Lou Angelo, Director of Operations and Facilities at Upper St. Clair School District said, “We’re trying to create great educational opportunities for our kids. The more we can do to make the facilities fade into the background to avoid impeding the learning, the better.”
Hence, opting for facilities management software can be the best decision for a school. Here’s why:
- Enhanced efficiency: Facilities management software improves operational efficiency by streamlining work order management, asset management, and preventive maintenance scheduling and repairs. It can easily automate tasks and workflows.
- Cost savings: Schools can achieve significant cost savings by adopting maintenance software. It optimizes schedules, reduces energy consumption, and extends asset lifespans, freeing up valuable resources for what matters most: education.
- Improved safety: Facilities management software helps schools identify and address safety hazards, track maintenance activities, and ensure timely repairs. It can also help you keep track of compliance requirements, schedule inspections, and generate compliance reports.
- Better asset management: Technology-assisted learning tools in schools such as MOOCs, tablets, interactive whiteboards (IWB) etc have helped create a world-class learning experience. In fact, in a 2019 research, students claim, using IWB helps them learn better and faster. Top-notch facilities management software allows you to optimize space usage and even track physical assets for maintenance, repair or replacements.
- Energy management: Facilities management software can monitor and control multiple systems such as temperature, lighting, and energy consumption. Studies have found that as temperature and humidity increase, levels of achievement and task performance decrease. It could also lead to exacerbated respiratory problems. Hence, automated temperature and air control systems ensure optimal learning environments for students.
- Real-time data and analytics: IoT devices offer real-time data and analytics that allow teams to make informed decisions about resource allocation and maintenance activities. It allows you to detect issues, respond efficiently, and make decisions to optimize performance.
A simple case study can put this into perspective:
This included:
- High utility costs due to inefficient energy usage and lack of optimization strategies
- Inconsistent temperature control and discomfort for occupants.
- Limited visibility into building performance and consumption patterns
- Challenges in identifying peak consumption periods and managing demand effectively After adopting Facilio CMMS, the university was able to achieve 15% of potential cost savings and increased occupant comfort. Here’s how:
- By leveraging the power of IoT, Facilio acts as a one-stop solution to optimize energy savings across buildings, helping them achieve operational efficiency, sustainability, and enhanced occupant experience.
- Facilio's utility bill analysis identified key factors driving costs, such as building demand, consumption, and peak hours. For example, proactively knowing high energy consumption during January, the university modified their utility usage, which led to a reduction in the bill amount for the entire year.
- Facilio's advanced energy analytics allow comparisons between current and historical data, to optimize operations and increase savings.
- Finally, Facilio's FDD solution showed weekly fault summaries, prioritized severity, enhanced maintenance and issue resolution.
But this is just the beginning. With Facilio, the university can reap multiple benefits in the long term:
- Expanding Facilio's solution to additional buildings can further optimize operations and reduce costs.
- Help in digitizing utility records and automate energy analysis across portfolio
- Allows to centralize additional HVAC/BMS systems to get a unified view of building performance across the enterprise
- Ensures achievement of sustainability goals and lowered costs by uncovering additional saving opportunities with Facilio's powerful FDD engine
Best facilities management software for schools
1. Facilio CMMS
Facilio CMMS offers comprehensive facilities management solutions tailored for schools. It integrates various functionalities to ensure smooth operations and maintenance, enhance student safety, and maximize campus ROI.
Key features
1. Automated work orders/end-to-end reactive job automation for your campus
- Catalog all your campus services in an SSO-authenticated portal
- Auto read service request emails and convert them into work orders.
- Set workflow for service request approval and rejection from leaders.
- Streamlines service request handling by allowing categorization and prioritization based on criticality
- Auto assign service request to the best-suited technician (in-house or vendor).
2. Run your campus maintenance on autopilot
- Automatically schedule work orders in non-school hours.
- Track SLAs of external and internal stakeholders. Steer vendor performance with integrated vendor lifecycle management
- Create configurable project portfolio management flow for every asset, increasing performance and longevity
- Create preventive maintenance schedules and repairs according to requirements.
3. Automated compliance management for proactive campus operations
- Create inspection checklists based on compliance requirements.
- Seamless transfer of deficiencies found during inspections to work orders.
- Simplifies report generation by aligning with compliance reporting standards.
- Record incidents easily with configured report formats with offline-capable mobile CMMS
- Reports can easily be shared with internal and external stakeholders.
4. Centralized asset management
- Track asset lifecycle for smarter capital planning. Manage assets across your portfolio & avoid budget overruns with expense forecasting. Access all asset data instantly through an integrated asset repository. Learn more on Asset Lifecycle Management
- Optimize inventory management. Ensure parts availability at all times with integrated inventory. Identify inefficiencies and root causes of asset issues, ensuring long-term asset health and performance.
- Track downtimes & auto-trigger corrective actions to prolong asset life
- Enhance borrower accountability with assets check-in/check-out
- Plan budgets, forecast asset value & reduce unplanned costs based on expense history
5. Build greener campuses with energy & emission analytics
- Monitor your campus energy/emissions data in real time to increase cost savings, surpass ESG norms, & uphold sustainability pledges.
- Track (utility/meter/interval data) and benchmark consumption across the portfolio
- Environmental monitoring (IAQ, CO2) to comply with regulations and sustainability standards
- Remotely manage BMS/BAS to drive performance improvements
6. Embrace real-time intelligence for campus operations
- Choose between 150+ pre-built reporting templates for faster data-driven interventions.
- Generate reports on asset failure, repair costs, performance, compliance, and more, empowering data-driven decisions for your assets
- Shift to real time reporting with user-centric dashboards
- Leverage email integration to get critical data in your inbox
- Allow integrations across tech stack in the campus including Google, Slack, Teams etc.
The key features help you solve for:
- Facility Comfort: As an educational organization, you need to provide a safe and comfortable facility for your students and staff; which creates a point of differentiation amongst your competitors. With Facilio’s automated work scheduling, request tracking, work order management, & technician handling, management can focus on imparting the best quality of education.
- Incident Management: Any hazardous incident occurred due to an asset breakdown or carelessness of an facility operations worker, needs to be documented and reported to the government authority immediately. With Facilio’s proactive campus operations, incidents can be proactively prevented; or solved via automation workflows.
- Compliance with government authorities: Both state and national safety laws instruct regular inspections. These reports need to be sent to government authorities. With customized dashboards and reporting templates, compliance is no longer a headache.
Don’t just take our word for it! Hear it from Roi Amszynowski, CEO of Tutenlabs
Pricing
Custom pricing based on several factors, including the number of users/buildings, portfolio size, training sessions, and integration requirements. Get your pricing quote here.
2. Xenia
This workforce operation platform empowers your frontline teams to seamlessly coordinate tasks, manage facility maintenance, and ensure compliance–all in one place.
Key features
- Simplifies work order tracking.
- Helps monitor maintenance schedules across the organization.
- Facilitates audits and inspections for compliance.
- Allows customers to retain complete records of all assets.
- Launches urgent actions to prevent reoccurrence.
Pricing
Free: $0
Starter: $79/month
Premium: $159/month
Custom: Contact vendor
3. IBM Maximo
IBM Maximo is a set of applications for asset management, predictive maintenance, and reliability planning.
Key features
- Manage and maintain assets with AI and analytics.
- Optimize technician schedules and asset performance.
- IT/OT convergence combined in a single platform.
- Mobile-friendly platform.
Pricing
Essentials: $3150/month
Standard: $ 7464/month
Premium: Contact vendor
Adithya Siva
4. Corrigo
A leading facility management platform for your facility’s maintenance operations.
Key features
- Streamline work order management and maintenance tasks, and enable smart cost controls.
- Manage all asset details for informed replacement and repair decisions.
- Leverage REST API and a partner network for seamless data exchange.
- Gain valuable insights into user workflows to optimize operations.
- Collect data on-the-go with a user-friendly mobile functionality.
Pricing
Custom: Contact vendor
5. Hippo CMMS
Hippo CMMS is a cloud-based software that enables work order and inventory management.
Key features
- Helps create preventive maintenance schedules and work management.
- Track all asset information, including images and warranty details, for comprehensive asset oversight.
- Customize dashboards to fit your needs and seamlessly integrate with your existing tech stack for a unified workflow.
Pricing
Custom: Contact vendor
What is the best facilities management software for schools?
It’s hard to find a happy CMMS customer. Historically, CMMS was repurposed from industrial solutions designed to be a system of records of asset & maintenance schedules.
The CMMS hasn’t evolved since then. Filled with limitations, it only gets worse with modern digitization, automation and engagement needs.
But, schools rely on effective maintenance and repairs to prevent decline and underperformance. With such complex and dynamic facilities, leveraging facilities management software is crucial.
Choosing the best facilities management software for schools depends on a school’s specific needs, budget, and desired features. Facilio CMMS stands out as a top choice as an adaptable, self serve platform for top ranked campus facilities.
Facilio's Connected CMMS solution reimagines the legacy CMMS software by meaningfully connecting your people, processes and systems. It helps automate processes, enable stakeholder engagement, and drive connected efficiency — all in one place. By adopting Facilio, schools can achieve significant benefits including:
- Helps build SaaS-driven operational efficiency and autonomy that minimizes disruptions across campus facilities,
- Central control of operations across the entire gamut of campus portfolio including, safety inspections and compliance, vendor and service management, maintenance requests etc.
- Improves student safety compliance with automated inspections and deviation from work orders. This helps you prioritize the well-being of staff and students to create a safe and comfortable learning environment.
- Benchmark vendor performance & insights across campuses with reliable data. This helps define better vendor contractual terms, informed asset decisions: Expected vs actual lifecycle, warranty period, SLA adherence, frequency of breakdowns.
- Maintain optimal asset health while staying within budget constraints and compliance. Management is easily able to track savings, operations expenses, budgets etc; while avoiding costly fines and institute closures by ensuring adherence to regulations.
- Gain clear visibility into operations and streamline workflows with reliable data. This can help you define better vendor contractual terms, informed asset decisions like expected vs actual lifecycle, warranty period, SLA adherence, frequency of breakdowns.
Conclusion
The 2021 State of Our Schools report finds that the U.S. is underinvesting in school buildings and grounds by $85 billion each year. Low funding creates a significant hurdle, but effective management and maintenance are critical for ensuring public education can thrive.
Schools require robust facilities management software to optimize operations, prioritize safety, and effectively manage resources. Choosing the right facilities management software for schools is critical.
Facilio’s Connected CMMS stands out for its comprehensive features and dedicated support specifically designed for educational institutions. See how it can help you run a more modern and safe campus for your students.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are the benefits of using facilities management software in schools?
A: There are multiple benefits of using facilities management software. They include enhanced efficiency, cost savings, improved safety, better asset management, effective energy management and real time data.
Q: How does Facilio CMMS help in facilities management for schools?
A: Facilio CMMS offers a centralized platform for managing maintenance, tracking assets, ensuring compliance, and optimizing energy use.
Q: What should schools consider when choosing facilities management software?
A: Schools should consider ease of use, cost, features, customer support capabilities, and scalability.
Q: Are there affordable options for small schools?
A: Yes, many facilities management software providers offer tiered pricing plans suitable for small schools.
Q: How does facilities management software improve safety in schools?
A: It ensures regular maintenance, compliance with safety standards, and real-time monitoring of facilities.
