A tenant reports a lost access transponder. It’s a security issue, so it’s urgent. Until the process is complete, a Dresden-based coworking operator has to route the request through three separate systems: inventory management, key software, and billing. "Just to handle a lost key, I currently have to go into three different systems," he says in an interview with seventhings—summarizing in one sentence the core problem plaguing facility management in most companies.
The reason for this is a frequent lack of integration. At seventhings, we consistently see that companies can reactivate an average of 5–8% of their idle assets once their inventory data is consolidated in one place (seventhings, 2026). The specific pain points in daily operations can be illustrated by five typical FM use cases: handover & assignment, compliance & maintenance, inventory, rental management, and IT assets & workplace. The coworking operator Ljnk from Dresden—4,000 square meters across four locations, fully equipped from furniture to IT infrastructure—encounters all five in their day-to-day business.
Key Takeaways
- Five FM use cases show where fragmented data becomes most expensive: handover, compliance, inventory, rental, and IT assets (seventhings, 2026).
- In an interview, a coworking operator with 4,000 m² confirms the same effect at every one of these points: manual data transfer between multiple systems.
- Centralized inventory data reduces asset search times by up to 85% and extends their useful life by 31% (seventhings, 2026).
- Compliance deadlines such as DGUV V3 or accident prevention inspections can only be automated if assets are consistently documented.
Use Case: Handover & Asset Assignment
Handover and assignment are about seamless documentation of who received which device or piece of furniture and when—from laptops and smartphones to office equipment (seventhings, 2026). This exact moment is where the data chain breaks in many companies: the handover is signed off on paper or not documented at all, while the system continues to run in the background.
Coworking operator Martin Fiedler describes how he closes this gap in his own business: "You received this table on such and such a date. You signed for it here. On this day, you reported this damage to me." This chain of evidence determines who pays for damages when a tenant moves out—and it only works if handover, condition, and responsibility are documented in one place, rather than scattered across receipts and memory.
Use Case: Compliance & Maintenance
Automated reminders for DGUV V3, lease expiration dates, and safety inspections are among the use cases that IT departments, compliance officers, and facility managers need most urgently—all maintenance records and audits available at the push of a button, stored in an audit-proof manner (seventhings, 2026).
Use Case: Inventory
The inventory use case aims for noticeably shorter year-end counts and fewer counting errors, for example through a mobile scan app, guided inventory processes, and digital checklists (seventhings, 2026)—especially relevant for finance, controlling, and facility teams managing many small items across multiple locations.
The interview highlights the same requirement using the example of cleaning: rotating staff who cover multiple locations in a single day need low-threshold, digital checklists—"so that even rotating staff... aren't burdened with unnecessary tasks, while at the same time maintaining data quality." Who was there when, which room was forgotten, what is the condition of the furniture: a well-maintained inventory answers these questions precisely, rather than having to reconstruct them at the end of the month.
Use Case: Rental Management
Rental management increases the utilization of existing equipment and reduces new purchases—via a self-service booking portal including a rental log (seventhings, 2026). The idea behind it is simple: use assets as often as possible instead of letting them sit idle or buying duplicates.
Use Case: IT Assets & Workplace
The IT assets & workplace use case stands for minimal hardware loss and full transparency in the office and home office—important for IT operations and HR when rapidly scaling onboarding and rollouts, secured by digital logs for legally compliant documentation (seventhings, 2026).
For technology-focused tenants, the coworking operator adds an extra dimension: bandwidth, firewall configuration, and sometimes their own audit requirements. "Because we are still the ones in the middle," he explains his company's role—including the requirement to "know and control as much as we can, but as little as necessary" for the sake of data minimization. This exact balance between transparency and data minimization is also a core design principle for IT asset processes at seventhings.
What connects these five use cases?
In all five cases, the interview reveals the same pattern: the coworking operator has long since mapped out the right processes in their head and in individual tools—handover receipts, inspection stickers, cleaning checklists, furniture inventories, firewall configurations. What is missing is the connection. "Just to deal with a lost key, I currently have to go into three different systems," they summarize.
From our perspective at seventhings, this is exactly the difference between inventory management and asset intelligence: it is not about more software, but about executing the same use cases via a shared data foundation. The operator's biggest wish points in the same direction—predictive rather than reactive maintenance: "If I can catch the first domino, the whole chain doesn't have to start falling."
Frequently Asked Questions
Which FM use cases benefit most from centralized asset data?
Handover & assignment, compliance & maintenance, inventory, rental management, and IT assets & workplace show the greatest impact, because otherwise every status change here must be manually updated in multiple systems (seventhings, 2026).
How do compliance deadlines like DGUV V3 relate to asset data?
Automated reminders for DGUV V3, accident prevention inspections, or leasing deadlines only work if every asset is consistently documented. If this data depth is missing, the inspection requirement is only noticed when it is too late, according to the interviewee.
What does rental management mean in a facility context?
Rental management refers to the digital control of lending, returning, and redistributing existing assets via a self-service portal—with the goal of increasing utilization and avoiding new purchases (seventhings, 2026).
How much time do digital inventories save compared to manual lists?
Digital inventories using a mobile scan app and guided checklists significantly reduce the time spent on year-end inventories and lower the error rate compared to manual counting (seventhings, 2026).
Why is "more software" alone not enough to improve FM processes?
Because the real problem is usually not a lack of tools, but a lack of connection between them. An asset that is managed differently in three systems creates new manual effort with every change—regardless of the quality of the individual tools.
Interview quotes are from a conversation with seventhings, conducted during the BridgeHub network event in June 2026. Use case descriptions and metrics: seventhings, 2026.
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