Breaking Down Data Silos for Efficient Facility Management

Over the last several pieces in our Digital Executive Playbook Series, we’ve explored why data is your greatest asset and how to build the foundation for smarter, more connected facilities. Now, it’s time to see what happens when those principles are put into practice.

Data silos cost time, money, and trust. But when organizations apply the Insight-to-Impact Cycle by mapping data paths, creating KPI charters, launching 90-day pilots, automating dashboards, building digital threads, and using AI responsibly, they begin to see measurable transformation.

The examples below show how breaking down silos across departments leads to positive change, improving energy performance, asset management, safety, and ultimately the bottom line.

Enterprise Asset Management: Building the Digital Thread at Handoff

The Silo: Construction and operations data are often disconnected, forcing facility teams to recreate asset records from scratch after turnover.

The Solution: Arora and EDI developed a Building Information Modeling + Facilities Management + Enterprise Asset Management (BIM-FM-EAM) Asset Data Standard that integrates BIM, geospatial data, and asset attributes into MCI’s Maximo system. This gave Operations and Maintenance (O&M) teams accurate, geolocated asset data and preventive maintenance schedules from day one, while establishing a digital thread that carried information seamlessly from design and construction into operations.

The Impact: Maximo was seeded with clean, structured data from day one, enabling seamless preventive maintenance, inspections, and operations. MCI cut implementation costs by 50% compared to traditional asset management setups and avoided the typical 18+ month post-handover delay. The digital thread continues to deliver value by preserving lifecycle data, reducing risk, and giving O&M teams confidence that decisions are based on complete, connected information.

Energy Management: Energy Use Intensity as a Common Language

The Silo: Operations track energy bills, Sustainability reports on Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) goals, and Finance only sees costs.

The Solution: When stakeholders adopt Energy Use Intensity (EUI) as a common metric, then energy efficiency can be benchmarked consistently across the portfolio.

The Impact: Facilities can uncover inefficiencies and capture measurable savings, up to 30% with proven measures and benchmarking through EUI portfolio dashboards; while advancing ESG commitments.

Facility Condition Index: Aligning Finance & Facilities

The Silo: Finance and Facilities often track asset health differently — Facilities rely on work order histories, while Finance uses depreciation schedules. Without a shared definition, capital planning can become a slow, contentious process.

The Solution: Establish Facility Condition Index (FCI) as the single KPI for asset health. FCI expresses deferred maintenance as a percentage of total asset value (deferred maintenance ÷ replacement value), creating a simple, shared benchmark that both Finance and Facilities can trust.

The Impact: By adopting FCI as the common measure of asset health, Finance and Facilities can finally speak the same language. Capital planning requests move more quickly because they are grounded in a standardized, industry-recognized metric rather than competing reports. Projects also withstand executive and auditor scrutiny, since FCI clearly shows deferred maintenance as a percentage of asset value.

Safety Management: Proactive vs. Reactive

The Silo: The Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) team, Security, and Operations teams track safety incidents separately, often months after the fact.

The Solution: Adopt Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) as the leading indicator and automate alerts to flag patterns early rather than after an incident occurs.

The Impact: Early warnings enable targeted training, reducing incidents and insurance premiums while avoiding a share of the $167 billion in annual workplace injury costs.

AI & Digital Twins: Amplifying Clean Data

The Silo: Many organizations launch AI pilots on top of fragmented data, producing unreliable outputs.

The Solution: Our Startup Guide’s 90-day pilot framework can help leaders unify KPIs and build a digital thread, ensuring AI and digital twins can multiply value.

The Impact: Once fed clean, structured data, AI can deliver predictive maintenance insights that reduce downtime, optimize Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) schedules, and significantly decrease reactive work orders. AI multiplies the value of the Digital Thread; it does not replace it.

Breaking Down Silos = Better Decisions

Breaking down silos doesn’t just improve data, it improves decisions.

When teams share KPIs, align priorities, and connect data across an asset’s lifecycle, facilities shift from being managed as cost centers to becoming strategic assets.

Download our Startup Guide + Workbook to start building your own Digital Executive Playbook, and stay tuned for the next piece in our series where we will explore the future of Facilities Management and the impact of new technology like AI and digital twins.