Digitalisation in building maintenance: more overview, less effort
In many organisations, building maintenance is still scattered across Excel spreadsheets, emails and folders. That works, until figures don't match, knowledge depends on individuals and no one has an overview anymore. Digitalisation provides a remedy here.
The starting position: where the data is today
If you ask around in a municipality or an institution where the information on building maintenance is kept, you hear almost the same list everywhere. The data exists, but it is in four or five different places and in different hands.
- The area list in Excel with the caretaker. Grown over years, with its own abbreviations, in parts not updated since the last conversion. It often exists on one device only.
- The plans in the archive. Paper plans in the cellar or PDF files in a folder whose structure can only be worked out by someone who was there at the time. Which version is current cannot always be said.
- Notifications by telephone and on slips of paper. A teacher calls, the caretaker notes it down, deals with it and throws the slip away. After a year, nobody knows how many faults there were and where they cluster.
- The calculation with the external consultant. The calculation for the caretaker workload was commissioned once and is filed as a PDF. It cannot be recalculated and is out of date with every change.
- The budget in the financial software. Amounts are posted, but they are not related to areas or hours. The item is usually carried forward from the previous year.
This dispersal costs money, even if it never appears in an invoice. Three items stand out in practice. First, the time spent searching. Anyone who has to gather figures for a budget round or a tender spends several days on it afresh every time, experience shows. Second, incorrect workloads. Where a traceable calculation is missing, the workload is based on the previous year. At internal full costs of 45 CHF per hour, a deviation of just 10 FTE percent means around 8,280 CHF per year, because 10 percent of a full-time position is 184 hours. Third, the loss of knowledge. When a long-serving caretaker retires, the knowledge of special features, cycles and weak points disappears with them.
The problem of scattered data
If areas, calculations, plans and tasks are kept separately, duplicate work arises and errors creep in. A change in one place is forgotten in another. For tenders or budget questions, the robust basis is missing.
The core of the problem is not the technology but the missing connection. An area is only a useful value if it is linked with covering, use and frequency. Only then can a time requirement be calculated from it, from that a workload, from that a weekly plan and from that a budget. As soon as this chain breaks at any point, the rest becomes guesswork. Digitalisation consists precisely in closing the chain again.
What end-to-end software changes
- Everyone works with the same, up-to-date data.
- From the area through the calculation to the quote, everything is connected.
- Knowledge is in the system, not in individual heads or files.
- Reports and records are available at the touch of a button.
This becomes concrete when the individual work steps before and after the changeover are placed side by side. The following overview describes the typical course of events in a municipal administration.
| Work step | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Areas | List in Excel, last version unclear, conversions missing, available on one device only. | Rooms with area, covering and use in the Objects and areas module; a correction takes effect everywhere. |
| Calculation | PDF of an external report, cannot be recalculated, out of date with every change. | Calculation based on standard values, adjustable at any time, variants comparable; see Cleaning calculation. |
| workload | Historically grown FTE percentages, justification no longer known. | Hours are converted into FTE percentages via 1,840 hours of net annual working time and allocated. |
| Weekly plan | Plan on the pin board, holiday weeks rearranged by hand, cover arranged verbally. | Weekly and annual planning in the system, school weeks and holidays taken into account; see Route and annual planning. |
| Defects | Telephone and slips of paper, no overview, clusters go unnoticed. | Notification recorded on the move, assigned, tracked and evaluated; see tasks and notifications. |
| Budget | Previous-year figure carried forward, justification on request. | Amount derived from area, hours and cost rate, transparent for every property. |
| tender | Specifications typed by hand, bids hard to compare. | Specifications generated from the same calculation, bids comparable on the same basis. |
The time saving arises less in day-to-day work than with the recurring exceptions: budget round, tender, change of staff, conversion. These are precisely the moments when most of the work arises today.
Particularly valuable for the public sector
Public institutions must justify spending and make it transparent. Digital, traceable processes deliver exactly that: every figure is documentable, every decision documented. This builds trust towards committees and the public.
There is also procurement law. Anyone who puts cleaning services out to tender needs specifications that describe quantities and frequencies unambiguously, otherwise the bids are not comparable and complaints are inevitable. A fully calculated asset inventory is the precondition for this. The article on Putting cleaning out to tender in the public sector goes into the requirements in detail.
Introduction in steps
An introduction rarely fails because of the software and often because of the expectation that everything will change at once. An approach in four steps that begins with a single property has proved its worth. The time figures relate to a municipality with five to eight properties and are empirical values, not commitments.
| Step | Content | Realistic time required |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Data migration | Gather existing area lists, plans and earlier calculations and transfer them into the system. This is where it becomes visible what is missing and what is contradictory. | 1 to 2 weeks |
| 2. Master data per object | Check and complete the rooms, define covering and use, determine frequencies. Half a day to a full day on site per property. | 0.5 to 1 day per property |
| 3. Training | Introduce caretaking and administration using their own object, not a demo example. One half-day training session plus a short follow-up session after four weeks. | 1 half-day |
| 4. First annual plan | Allocate workloads, build up weekly and annual planning, produce the first reports for the budget and the committee. | 2 to 3 weeks |
| Total up to productive operation | 6 to 10 weeks |
Indicative values for orientation, as at October 2026.
Data migration from existing documents
The most common worry before an introduction is: "Do we have to record everything again?" As a rule, no. Three sources can be used.
Earlier calculations
If an older workforce or cleaning calculation exists, the object structure and areas can be taken from it. The old values then serve as a comparison: if the new calculation deviates, that is not a mishap but usually an indication of a change of use that was never recorded.
Excel lists
Area lists from Excel are a good basis, even if they are incomplete. What matters is the room designation, area and floor covering; use and frequency can be added during the walk-through. Which details are really needed is described in the article on area recording for the cleaning calculation. The assignment of coverings is explained in the article on area types and floor coverings.
Plans
Floor plans as a PDF or paper plan can be stored and used for comparison. Areas derived from a plan are more reliable in practice than estimated values, because ancillary areas such as stairwells, niches and store rooms are not forgotten. If plans are missing, measurement on site remains; with a laser distance meter, one floor of a school building can be recorded in half a day.
One warning belongs with this: data migration does not mean data migration without checking. Every area taken over should be confirmed once, otherwise old errors migrate into the new system and suddenly count as established there.
Benefits by role
Digitalisation is accepted when every role involved recognises a benefit of its own. These benefits differ greatly.
| Role | What improves in concrete terms |
|---|---|
| Caretaking | The effort is documented, not merely felt. The weekly plan and defects run via one device instead of slips of paper. Additional jobs can be justified with figures, or declined with reasons. |
| Administration | Figures for the budget and the committee are available without a search. Comparisons between properties become possible; deviations are explicable instead of suspicious. |
| Municipal council or authority | Proposals come with a derivation instead of a previous-year figure. Decisions on extending use show the cost consequences in advance. |
| Cleaning companies | Tenders contain clear quantities and frequencies, quotes can be calculated. For your own objects, the same logic serves the calculation; see quotes and reports. |
Obstacles and how to overcome them
Fear of being monitored
The most common reaction in caretaking is: "Now they are going to measure how fast I clean." This worry is understandable and is best addressed openly. The calculation does not assess people but buildings: it says how much time an area with this covering and this frequency needs. In practice, this protects caretaking more often than it puts it under pressure, because a workload that is too tight is documented in black and white for the first time. It helps to involve caretaking in the recording instead of informing them of the result.
Time for the recording
The effort for the master data is real and arises alongside day-to-day business. Two things help. First, do not tackle all objects at once but one per month. Second, schedule the recording for a quiet phase, for example the school holidays. If you want to outsource the recording entirely, you can have the first run supported and then continue on your own.
Change of staff
Retirements and job changes are the strongest reason for digitalisation and at the same time its greatest moment of risk. Ideally, the objects are recorded while the experienced person is still there; their knowledge of special features can then be captured as information in the system instead of being lost in conversation. If a change is imminent, it is worth ordering the objects accordingly.
Too much at once
Anyone who wants to introduce areas, calculation, planning, notifications and tendering within one quarter will overwhelm any team. The order areas, calculation, workloads, planning has proved its worth; Workloads and allocation and the notifications follow as soon as the master data is in place.
Example: a municipality with five properties
A municipality operates a school building, a gym, an administration building, a church and a works yard, together around 7,500 m² of cleaning area. Three people in caretaking, one part-time position in property management, so far three Excel files and a consultancy report several years old.
Within eight weeks, all five objects are recorded and fully calculated. The school building with 3,000 m² gives around 2,300 cleaning hours over 39 school weeks. With the other caretaking services it comes to 3,250 hours, that is 177 FTE percent at 1,840 hours of net annual working time. At 45 CHF of internal full costs, the cleaning alone costs 103,500 CHF per year.
Two findings come to light that nobody could previously document. First: the gym was run with a workload that was too tight, because club use in the evenings and at weekends had never been reflected in the old spreadsheet. Second: in the administration building, corridors and stairwells were cleaned more often than necessary; a reduced frequency saves hours that now benefit the gym. Overall, the headcount stays the same, but it is distributed differently and justified for the first time.
For the next budget round, the administration supplies an overview of all five objects with area, hours, FTE percentages and annual costs. The discussion in the committee takes twenty minutes instead of a whole meeting. And when a caretaker retires the following year, the successor takes over a documented structure instead of a verbal handover.
The switch doesn't have to be big
Digitalisation doesn't mean changing everything at once. Often it's enough to start with the asset inventory and the calculation, the rest grows with it. What matters is that the data is consistent and reusable from the start.
Because easyCAFM runs in the browser as a cloud solution, no installation is required; development, operation and data storage take place in Switzerland and comply with the Swiss Data Protection Act. The standard values come from over 17,000 calculations by toolsuisse AG, which has been producing workforce calculations in Switzerland since 2004. This is relevant for an introduction because the calculated values do not have to be calibrated first but match local conditions from the outset.
FAQ
How long does the introduction really take?
For a municipality with five to eight properties, six to ten weeks up to productive operation are realistic, spread across data migration, recording on site, training and the first annual plan. The first benefit shows itself earlier, namely as soon as the first object has been fully calculated.
Do we have to record all objects at the same time?
No. Nor is it advisable. One object per month is a good pace. Each further one goes faster, because coverings, types of use and frequencies are already defined and only have to be assigned.
What happens to our old calculations?
They remain valuable as a basis for comparison. Structure and areas can be taken over, the values serve as a cross-check. Deviations are the most interesting part, because they almost always point to a change of use that was never recorded.
Do we need internal IT knowledge for this?
No. The solution runs in the browser, including on a mobile device. It needs no installation and no server in the municipality. What it does need is a person who is responsible for the asset inventory and maintains the data. Without this responsibility, every system becomes outdated, whatever the technology.
Conclusion
Digitalisation in building maintenance means above all one thing: an overview. The gain comes not from technology but from the fact that area, service, time and costs are connected again and that every figure has an origin. That pays off precisely when it matters: at the budget round, at the tender, at a change of staff and at a conversion.
easyCAFM brings recording, calculation, planning and tasks together in one platform, making maintenance traceable and efficient. An overview of how the modules work together is given by the solution overview. How maintenance is planned over several years is shown in the article on Maintenance planning for public buildings.
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