2022 Recap
2022 saw plenty of additions, upgrades, and significant improvements for Archibus. We’ve consolidated a year’s worth of changes in our latest article and have highlighted the benefits while looking ahead at what’s to come in 2023.
New components
Going into 2022, Archibus was developing two significant new features which are ready for use; Archibus OnSite, and BIM Viewer.
OnSite
Archibus OnSite is the new mobile maintenance solution for Archibus and allows maintenance managers to receive updates and notifications to their device from the field. This feature was originally exclusive to SaaS customers but is now generally available to the general public.
OnSite is not limited to mobile phones, as it also supports tablets for better viewing and accessibility.
The application includes usability features like push notifications and on-device configurations for font size. OnSite can be customized for each teams accessibility preferences and notifications to know when work is completed or if there are issues in the field.
With push and pull from the web component, both versions of the application are better supported and responsive as a result. Additionally, checklist functionality in order to support multi-step field work (planned and on-demand) like checking an area for safety or working through a testing process. With checklists you can confirm that each step has been completed as needed as well as view any notes or updates that are included.
The comment tagging feature with associated notifications, supports information sharing and more accurate work. Transparency on things like maintenance and asset management is imperative to ensure consistency and accuracy in reporting. Knowing when there is something of concern or note can be the difference between a costly repair or a simple fix.
BIM Viewer
On the topic of transparency, BIM technology takes it to another level. Organizations who leverage the power of BIM and the power of Archibus can now leverage them together and get maximum transparency and data across their built environment or portfolio.
Visualization and data together are a powerful combination for organizations and building managers to leverage in order to gain insight into their assets. With this, they can visually walk through equipment systems that are connected in Archibus to learn the spatial impact of any work or problems. Measuring this can aid in drafting future maintenance schedules as well as creating a logbook of data.
With easy to access reporting, quickly analyzing maintenance programs and KPIs within a building is easy. From there, using these KPIs decisions can be made about future action or actions can be triggered if needed from within the model.
BIM Viewer can optionally work entirely through cloud, including cataloguing cloud-stored models and per-user account control. This option makes the most of the investment into BIM modeling to improve reporting, planning, and action. With more access to reporting, efficient and effective action can be maximized. The more oversight and transparency that a building manager has over their assets and performance, the more opportunity there is for optimization in those areas.
Enhancements
Workplace & Reservations
With the increased attention and investment in return to office solutions, Archibus has included significant upgrades to the Workplace and Reservations features for back-to-work planning.
Workplace is stepping up to become an excellent one-stop landing page for all internal services. With reservation capabilities getting smarter to accommodate the needs of the new hybrid state. This means it has been added to the main dashboard, allowing links to external services (such as a corporate travel site) and providing an agenda of bookings which can be expanded out to a calendar.
The action of bookings themselves have gotten easier, with team calendar visibility, banner reminders for which days a user intends to come in, and permanent seat assignment visibility on floorplans. These features work together to help a collaborative team get together more easily and more often.
A newly updated dashboard also includes a notification drawer, showing service request history and comments (leveraging the new comment tagging feature). This also ties into a request history page so that users can get all their up-to-date information right from their own console.
And finally, Workplace continues to bolster its accessibility, attaining 97% VPAT compliance so all users can take full advantage of the services offered through Workplace. With more organizations pinning accessibility as a non-negotiable, Archibus receiving 97% compliance is a significant advantage.
On the Reservations side, meeting details are smarter. When Exchange/Outlook integrated, private meetings now hide their details, and Teams/Zoom meetings will show their URL in the room booking. Hybrid work means more dependence on our shared calendars, and the Reservations feature set accommodates. With this, kiosk bookings also become simpler, allowing users to book at a screen right outside the room they are booking without the overhead of logging in.
Space
Alongside workplace solutions in return to office is a focus on space management and making the most out of unused space. As a result, the Space domain saw some significant usability improvements this year.
A consolidated search for most-used fields simplifies the per-field filtering while maintaining the power. Users will find this familiar since search engines only have one text entry box. Building on this, division and department names are shown on the console, making it easier for non-facilities users to get information without cross-referencing codes.
For non-facilities users, a simplified console is now available which focuses on distilled floorplan reports, excellent for occasional Archibus data users to streamline their tasks.
Power users will appreciate measurable space console performance gains, both on initial load and as they navigate. Each click is more responsive, making work in the console more efficient. With more efficient work comes more accessible work and the ability for the solution to be adapted by others.
Maintenance
A critical part of building operations and asset management, maintenance sees some ease-of-use improvement as well as some new features.
Checklists can now be added right to preventative maintenance procedures, a great feature to help with consistency when performing standard inspection or multi-point work.
As mentioned above, the web maintenance module shares features with OnSite and therefore comment tagging with notifications was pushed as well. Users can directly share or request information, with notifications, to get the job done right.
Meanwhile on the console, ease of use includes a “returned” icon showing work which was returned or rejected. Having this information at-a-glance gives users an easy view of problematic requests to investigate and prioritize.
Finally, the maintenance console sees some similar usability improvements to the space console. A unified search makes finding requests more intuitive, and performance gains make work in the console faster and smoother.
System
On the system side of things, Archibus continued to improve their API endpoint set in 2022.
This provides a built-in method to integrate with Power BI, so that organizations who use it as a standard report generator (or non-Archibus users who need to report on specific data) can work with live Archibus data in Power BI this includes sample Power BI reports to make it easier to get off the ground.
What to look forward to
Do we need to note that not all these will come in the next release?
While excitement has been built for OnSite, many users need to be able to work in areas without an internet connection. This is coming early 2023 with offline mode support.
Archibus OnSite is looking to add support for parts and costs, as well as an integration with ManagerPlus iOFFICE product – more information can be found at https://managerplus.iofficecorp.com/
The next release will include an increased reporting capability in the BIM viewer, including room inventory and charts, to increase its decision-making value.
The workplace module continues to improve alignment to the core product (adding questionnaires to service requests), as well as supporting new systems features (Gcal integration, MDM support). More and more users can take advantage of Workplace.
As well look forward to wayfinding in Workplace, and further down the pipeline; IoT integrations are coming! More on this in a later release.
Working with an integrator that is familiar with not only previous versions of a solution but knows what is coming down the pipeline. Horizant offers people-first integrations and solutions for the workplace and portfolio, so optimization is accessible to all employees. Visit our website to contact us and book a free consultation if these updates to Archibus could elevate your workplace.