As the old saying goes, ‘The devil lives in the details,’ and facility management is no exception. Indeed, details about every facet of facility management matter – a lot.

To illustrate this, consider a hypothetical example: The facility management company you’ve hired to manage your chain of stores comes to you one day and says, “Last quarter, you spent $287,000.” That number alone is meaningless; there’s no context from which you can draw educated conclusions.

Instead, what that management company should be telling you is, “You spent $287,000 last quarter; let us break it down for you by store: Here’s how much of it you spent on HVAC compressors; here’s your aggregate cost on lighting; here’s how much was spent on ballast repair versus burned-out bulbs. Given what this data is showing us, here are some recommendations that can help you save money and operate more efficiently.”

At CLS Facility Services, we know that it’s a real challenge for facility managers to accurately track the multiple projects that consume their day-to-day business – then make sense of their expenditures and adjust future spending accordingly. CM Logic®, CLS’ proprietary client management solution, is designed specifically to do all this – it delivers real-time reporting, all of the time, and the professionals who stand behind it are trained to work hand-in-hand with customers to spend their resources wisely.

CM Logic® is ideally suited to all CLS services, including HVAC, lighting, electrical and plumbing. It provides real-time work order status updates, custom financial reporting, and a dedicated customer service team headed by an experienced CLS business manager. With CM Logic®, our online maintenance work order system provides real-time updates on all open work orders without ever having to pick up the phone. You can also generate custom financial reports at the click of a mouse.

Additionally, CM Logic® integrates our top-notch finance capabilities. Through CM Logic®, our finance professionals work with you and your team on payables and receivables in order to provide expedited and accurate invoicing.

Just as important, CM Logic® integrates the expertise of a dedicated CLS business manager. This manager reviews and analyzes all relevant data from each of your stores each quarter, discusses the data with you, and works with you to develop strategies to help you operate your stores more efficiently and profitably.

An HVAC example underscores the value of CM Logic®: Say your current management company reports that you’ve had 80 emergency HVAC calls during the recent summer season. If they just tell you that, and nothing else, then what actionable steps can you as a facility manager realistically take?

The answer, frankly, is none. Now, if that same management company reported that of those 80 emergency calls, 60 of them were caused by clogged coils, then you as a facility manager can draw a logical conclusion and make an informed decision – like for example, proposing a coil cleaning program to your boss. Those 80 emergency calls average about $850. The cost to clean a coil during a regularly scheduled Preventive Maintenance (PM) appointment is about $120. That’s a big cost savings for even one store, let alone dozens, hundreds or even thousands, and it’s a powerful argument to make to your boss.

Tying It All Together

When we at CLS developed our Logic series, we interviewed dozens of customers and asked them to describe their perfect service vendor. Over and over, we heard many of the same answers:

  • Communicate easily with me;
  • Get me my invoices on time;
  • Give me someone in accounts receivable who’s pleasant to talk to;
  • Give me someone who I can turn to as an escalation manager when issues arise;
  • Give me detail on how I’m spending my money;
  • I need a good PM program, and I need to know that I’m really getting what I’m paying for.

We listened to our customers, and our Logic series was built specifically to meet their needs at every turn – in other words, to deliver the ultimate facility management customer service experience.

At CLS, we view PM Logic®QC Logic® and CM Logic® like circles that overlap at common junctures, with common threads that bind them together. PM Logic® offers customers efficient, reliable and cost-effective service. QC Logic® assures customers that they’re getting what they pay for. And as we stated in our last post, CM Logic® represents the third circle of this integrated experience – it’s the expertise of a dedicated business manager who provides expert analysis and intercedes when issues arise; it’s the granular detail of real-time reporting and costs; and it’s the insight and analysis that helps facility managers maximize efficient spending.

We hope you’ve found our posts on PM Logic®QC Logic® and CM Logic® informative. please call us at 800-548-3542 to learn more about CLS’s facility services, including national HVACelectricallightingplumbing and project management.