Why Traditional Permit to Work Is Failing and Generating Chaos? Here is How to Fix It!
The Hidden Risk in Facility Management
In the world of facility management, few processes are as deceptively complex and critically important as the Permit to Work (PTW) system.
PTW is the backbone of safety, compliance, and operational control. Yet for many buildings, malls, hospitals, and commercial spaces, it remains a tangled mess of paper forms, email threads, and manual approvals.
A real use-case from one of our clients (management team of a shopping mall). A contractor arrives at 9am to carry out electrical maintenance.
He’s told to wait while the facility manager locates the right form. The form is printed, filled manually, and passed to security.
But the head of maintenance is in a meeting.
The approval is delayed, the contractor waits, the job stalls!
Meanwhile, no one has briefed him on fire safety, and the lift lobby is partially blocked creating a hazard for tenants.
By 11am, the permit is finally signed but the work window is missed, and the job is rescheduled, again, and again, and again!
Multiply this by dozens of vendors, hundreds of work orders, and thousands of square feet and you have a system that’s not just inefficient but dangerously exposed to risks!
Where Traditional PTW Systems Break Down
Permit to Work SOPs are designed to protect people and property, unfortunately, when managed manually, they often do the opposite by making risks difficult to manage and control.
Let’s have a look at the challenges that traditionally managed Permit to Works are presenting every day to professional property managers and their teams.
1. Fragmented Communication
Approvals often require multiple stakeholders: facility managers, security teams, technical heads.
In a manual system, this means chasing signatures, sending emails, and hoping the manager in charge is available. Delays are inevitable and dangerous.
Real-life use-case
A Klang Valley shopping mall reported a 3-hour delay in approving a hot work permit due to a missing signature. The contractor began work without clearance, triggering a fire alarm and a complete mall evacuation, luckily without injuries to the people and properties.
2. Lost or Incomplete Documentation
Paper forms get misplaced, digital PDFs sit in inboxes, there’s no central repository, no audit trail, and no way to verify who approved what, when, and why!
Real-life use-case
A hospital in Johor was fined for non-compliance after failing to produce PTW records during a safety audit. The forms had been stored in a locked cabinet which, unfortunately, was unavailable to the audit team.
3. Lack of Real-Time Visibility
Security teams don’t know who is on-site, facility managers can’t track work progress, and vendors aren’t briefed properly.
The result? Safety risks, tenant complaints, and operational blind spots.
4. Compliance Gaps
Many PTW processes require safety briefings, risk assessments, and signoffs.
When manual systems apply, these steps are often skipped or rushed especially under time pressure that, somehow, is a norm for Property Management Teams.
Real-life use-case
A residential tower in KL faced a legal dispute after a contractor caused water damage during “unauthorized” work.
During the investigation that followed the incident it was found out that the PTW had been verbally approved but never documented!
Much more could be said on challenges and issues, if not real and costly damages, that lightly or traditionally managed PTW are causing every day to the army of professional property managers leaving them, fully exposed to the risk of liability!
How to overcome all the challenges above and gain-back less stressful and risk prone working and living environment? Digitalisation can really help big time and here is the how!
Reimagining PTW with Digital Intelligence
It’s time to rethink Permit to Work not as a form, but as a workflow to be digitalized!
A digital PTW system, besides replicating the paper-work process, transforms it in a smooth and stressless automated workflow.
Here’s what a smart and functional PTW digitalized system should offer:
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Customizable digital forms for different work types (fit-out, hot work, electrical, etc.).
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Automated approval workflows with real-time notifications and escalation options.
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QR-based access control for check-in/check-out tracking.
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Mobile compliance checks with direct photo uploads and digital signatures feature.
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Centralized dashboard for monitoring, auditing, and providing useful analytics that could be used to keep improving the vendors’ performance.
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Integration with building systems (e.g., access control, fire safety, CCTV) simplifying the process and allowing real-time information on the work progress.
With a digital system, approvals happen in minutes not hours, documentation is stored securely and accessed instantly, compliance is built into the workflow, and every stakeholder, from security to vendors, knows exactly what’s happening, when, and where.
Experience It, Real-life with ServeDeck
If your facility is still relying on clipboards, spreadsheets, or email chains to manage PTW and all the above sounds like a familiar nightmare, well it is really time to think about and evaluate an upgrade.
ServeDeck, within a wide range of modules, offers a fully digital Permit to Work solution that’s built for real-world complexity and designed for simplicity.
Whether you manage a hospital, a shopping mall, an office tower, or a mixed-use development, ServeDeck can help you:
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Reducing approval time by up to 80%
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Eliminating documentation gaps, every single form will be where you needed, when is needed!
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Improve safety and compliance
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Gain real-time visibility across all work activities allowing direct interactions with security, vendors, and your teams
Curious to see it in action?
Book a real-life demo with ServeDeck https://www.servedeck.com/#demoSection and experience how digital PTW can radically transform your operations towards building management excellence in a paperless mode, without delays or risk!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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opinions expressed in this article are solely of the author, Dr Daniele Gambero.
Dr Gambero has been an expatriate to Malaysia from Italy, since 1998 and has more than 35 years of real estate experience. He is the co-founder and group CEO of REI Group of Companies, the Co-founder of Propenomy.com and the president of the Malaysia Proptech Association.
In the past 10 years Daniele, as international and TEDX speaker, has engaged several hundreds thousand people talking about Property, Economy, Propenomy, Digital Marketing and Motivation. He is also a bestselling author and columnist on several magazines and main stream media. You can reach him directly through his LinkedIn page here.
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