Manage Assets in FacilityQuest
FacilityQuest is a space planning and space management solution for workplaces. Especially in times of accelerated change, FacilityQuest helps you plan, track, and document your spaces, people, and assets… all with minimal investment in time or training.
To dive in with more specifics, let's discuss how you might use FacilityQuest to manage assets:
How to acquire and create a catalog of assets
How to keep track of where or to whom they have been assigned
How to find them on a floor plan!
Create a Catalog of Assets
In fitting with the FacilityQuest model of starting wherever you are and building up information as you go, you could start by importing assets information from a spreadsheet. From there you would assign specific assets to spaces or people on your floor plans. From here on out, manage your catalog of assets in FacilityQuest.
Or, if you don’t have a list of assets already, decide what’s important to track and then start by simply adding basic names and descriptions of them to the blue dots for spaces (or green dots for people). Your assets catalog grows with these “notes,” but you might notice inconsistencies in the way that data was entered… not a problem. At any time, use a shortcut tool (like “search and replace” only better) to make the data more consistent. And add information that may not have been captured initially.
Assign Assets to a Space
A blue dot defines and anchors information about a space, whether it’s an enclosed room or an open lounge, or a specific area within a larger space.
In one scenario, you assign and track assets to a space. Such assets could include furniture such as an ergonomic chair, or fixtures such as a moveable whiteboard, or equipment such as a shared printer.
To backtrack for a moment, a space is defined when you place a blue dot on your floor plan as a link to information about that space. A “space” can be an area such as an open lounge, or a room such as an enclosed office, or a space within a room or area, such as a coffee bar. It’s up to you and what you care to document and manage.
These blue space dots link to information such as the space type: “workstation”, or “focus room”, or “team room”. Often the blue dot information also shows that a space belongs to a department or a business unit. And it might note what floor the space is on, or what building it's in. Spaces can also hold information such as the capacity, or the area square footage. Spaces can have photos to document what it looks like and how it is used.
And of course, the space can have a list of assets assigned to it. Just like spaces and people, assets have their own panel to allow searches and browsing. Anything selected or in search results gets highlighted in the floor plan view.
In the example above, the asset “Connect 36 Chromebook Charge Cart” is selected in the far left Assets panel, which then highlights the space it is assigned to on the floor plan (see the red dot on “Learning Center). Inspecting (double-clicking) the asset brings up the Learning Center space info and shows other assets also assigned to Learning Center.
Assign Assets to a Person
In a second scenario, you can assign and track assets such as a laptop to a person. In the screen below, the search results for “justin'“ brings up two assigned assets and highlights Justin Loye on the floor plan.
The visual connection from an asset in a list to where it belongs on a floor plan is as natural to do as it sounds: click on an asset to highlight either the person or space it belongs to on the floor plan. In the Asset panel below, the search for “laptop” brings up a sizable list, and highlights all the people on the floor plan who are assigned one.
The search for “Recorder” brings up just one person who has been assigned a Voice Recorder Pro, and that person (as we now already know), Justin Loye, is highlighted on the floor plan.
Reporting
All this data about assets shows up not just when you inspect individual spaces or people, but is also grouped on a dashboard. So when you assign an asset to a space, you can then track and report on how many assets are assigned in total to a space type such as "meeting rooms." Or, see a list of assets that belong to a specific department.
Assets that are assigned people as well as spaces can roll up to a category such as departments, so you can quickly get a clear picture of not just who has what stuff, but what stuff a department is allocated.
This is just a brief introduction to integrating information about assets into your space planning and management. We didn’t get to other options for reporting, or importing and exporting for example. Give us a chance to hear what you need and we’ll walk you through the relevant scenarios. Click here to get our attention.
Before you go…
All management tools in FacilityQuest are anytime/anywhere accessible via a secure web app, on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, to layer places, people, and assets on floor plans. Upload floor plan PDFs; annotate floor plans with drawing tools that calculate area; define spaces; assign people to spaces; assign assets to people or spaces. Take photos while walking around with an internet-connected tablet that automatically upload to a defined space.
It really is that straightforward, but we don't expect you to do it all on your own right from the start. We get you going fast by assigning a staff consultant to your subscription; a real person who understands the history with your project.
Other modules available in FacilityQuest include:
An employee survey unit. Manage change and build trust by engaging with employees using a unique SMS texting survey (employees answer questions about their work environment, wherever they work, with photos and notes).
A space utilization unit. Gather utilization data to track mobility trends and prove/disprove perceptions about use of space, to optimize the workplace for employee productivity, or plan for the next lease. Utilization data shows that space could deliver more value when put to a different use.
Give us a call or click here to send us a message and we’ll be happy to answer your questions or take you for a quick spin.