FMClarity VS TELS: The Strategic Shift from Outsourced Maintenance to Empowered Facility Management
Nov 17, 2025
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Defining the Next-Generation IWMS
The operational landscape for multi-site facilities management (FM) in the United States, has reached a critical inflection point. Escalating compliance burdens, the rising complexity of distributed property portfolios, and the persistent need for staff efficiency demand that technology move beyond mere transactional record-keeping, which is the historical purview of Computerised Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS).
Today's environment necessitates a shift toward a comprehensive, unified platform known as an Integrated Work Management System (IWMS). An effective IWMS must serve as a singular source of truth, managing not just maintenance tasks, but also the full spectrum of compliance, contractor management, and long-term capital planning.
This report examines two major contenders in this evolving market: Direct Supply’s TELS platform and FMClarity. The decision between these two systems is not merely a feature comparison; it is a fundamental strategic choice between a high-scale Delegation Model and a high-control Empowerment Model.
The Contenders: FMClarity and TELS
Direct Supply’s TELS platform is an established US incumbent, particularly dominant within the Senior Living market. TELS leverages a powerful, dual model that integrates a comprehensive CMMS software suite with an expansive national network of over 25,000 vetted service providers. This approach positions TELS as an accountable vendor for both technology and physical maintenance needs.
FMClarity, in contrast, is a cloud-based, multi-tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application defined explicitly as an Integrated Work Management System. FMClarity’s core identity and competitive advantage are rooted in its design philosophy: it was built by facilities managers, for facilities managers. The platform prioritises simplicity, collaboration, and centralisation, addressing the clunkiness and lack of integration commonly found in older legacy systems.
FMClarity targets sophisticated occupier organisations with in-house FM teams that manage complex, multi-site portfolios in demanding sectors, including Aged Care, Retirement Living, Disability Support, Education, and Health Care.
A Critical Choice for FMs
The choice between TELS and FMClarity represents a strategic decision about operational philosophy. Should an organisation delegate much of its maintenance sourcing and oversight to an intermediary (TELS), or should it empower its existing, trusted in-house FM teams with an IWMS designed for maximum control and efficiency (FMClarity)?
Let’s examine which platform delivers the required financial transparency, staff adoption, and deep operational oversight needed by today’s facilities leader, especially in areas critical to the modern in-house facilities management structure.
Philosophical Foundations: Control, Scale, and the IWMS Mandate
The fundamental divergence between TELS and FMClarity rests in their core identities. TELS as a CMMS integrated with a service delivery platform, and FMClarity as a pure-play IWMS focused on empowering the internal team.
TELS: The CMMS and Service Aggregator Model
TELS's architecture is a testament to its primary focus on delegation and scale. The platform functions as a comprehensive CMMS, offering modules for work order software, preventive maintenance, asset management, and centralised building documentation.
Scale as a Competitive Barrier
The competitive strength of TELS lies in its vast operational footprint within the US senior living sector. The platform currently serves over 17,000 senior living communities and actively tracks more than 3.1 million assets. This immense scale generates a vast volume of operational data, processing over 20 million work orders and tasks annually, which in turn fuels the platform's strategic asset: its data insights and developing predictive analytics capabilities.
The Delegation Implication
TELS's core philosophy is delegation. By integrating its software with the TELS Building Services network of 25,000 local technicians, TELS aims to be the single, accountable vendor for both technology and physical maintenance. This model removes the administrative burden of service sourcing, vetting, and payment management from the facility manager's immediate responsibilities.
While convenient for those who prefer an outsourced solution, this integrated service model structurally conflicts with the philosophy of maximising internal control, a necessity for sophisticated in-house FM teams.
FMClarity: The User-Centric IWMS Built for In-House Teams
FMClarity represents the opposing philosophy: control and empowerment. The platform was conceptualised by a founder with deep background in commercial property management and occupier FM explicitly addressing the need for a solution that prioritises simplicity and collaboration, mitigating the clunkiness associated with older legacy systems.
Commitment to Continuous Innovation
A critical element of FMClarity's commitment to the modern FM is its development model. FMClarity is an Australian-owned software provider with an in-house engineering team operating on a continuous delivery model. This means that they release ongoing enhancements and new features in fortnightly sprints. A dynamic development cycle ensures clients benefit from swift adaptation and ongoing innovation, with all new releases and major upgrades covered by the standard annual subscription.
This approach offers a decisive strategic advantage over legacy or larger enterprise systems which are often burdened by clunky, older code and may charge separately for major upgrades or operate on slower, less predictable development cycles. FMClarity’s guaranteed inclusion of all updates and upgrades under the standard subscription provides budget-conscious decision-makers with certainty, ensuring they receive a continually improving platform without unexpected capital expenditure for system overhauls.
The Conflict of Models
The TELS model fundamentally serves clients seeking to delegate service management. For in-house FM managers who actively manage their teams and complex compliance adopting TELS would necessitate sacrificing control over key operational expenditures and existing local contractor relationships, potentially undermining the strategic value of the in-house FM team itself.
FMClarity is explicitly designed for optimal internal efficiency and accountability which contrasts sharply with a model geared toward outsourcing convenience.
The Decisive Factor: Usability, Adoption, Mobile
For any enterprise software, the greatest threat to return on investment (ROI) is poor user adoption, which is often the result of complex or non-intuitive design. FMClarity mitigates this risk by prioritising design simplicity, contrasting sharply with reported real-world friction experienced on the TELS platform.
TELS’s Achilles’ Heel: The Mobile UI/UX Gap
TELS asserts that its platform is "intuitive" and built for "real-world workflows," accessible via a dedicated mobile application designed to support on-the-go maintenance operations. However, reports from actual mobile app users reveal a significant usability disconnect that creates considerable friction for the most critical users: field technicians and maintenance staff.
The Operational Consequence
Reported User Interface/User Experience (UI/UX) issues pose a critical operational risk. If the system is difficult or frustrating to use on the go, front-line staff inevitably revert to manual processes such as reliance on paper logs or email. This regression leads directly to low data accuracy, incomplete work logs, and the very fragmentation that the software is intended to eliminate. This creates a "last mile" problem where an otherwise powerful back-end system fails to capture reliable data from the source.
Compounding this problem, TELS relies on its immense data volume (over 20 million work orders annually) to fuel its strategic predictive analytics. If field staff are frustrated by a poor mobile UI/UX and log incomplete or delayed information, the foundational data pool for these advanced analytics becomes compromised. FMClarity's superior focus on user simplicity directly results in a superior, more reliable data foundation for the long term.
FMClarity’s Strategic Solution: Unmatched Usability Drives Adoption
FMClarity’s design strategy is explicitly engineered to ensure rapid, organisation-wide adoption. The system’s primary focus is on "unmatched usability".
It is designed to be intuitive and simple for all user types, especially maintenance officers who may not be highly tech-savvy, and non-FM staff (like teachers or carers) who simply need to raise accurate requests effortlessly.
Quantifiable ROI through Efficiency
The focus on an intuitive interface translates directly into measurable ROI and reduced administrative burden. The streamlined workflow is engineered to reduce double handling, duplication, miscommunication, and oversights common in fragmented systems. The commercial impact of this simplicity is significant: some FMClarity clients in the care sector have reported efficiency gains that led to achieving up to 25% administrative reduction through natural attrition.
By prioritising simplicity, FMClarity empowers maintenance officers and end-users by providing confidence that their requests will be actioned and tracked accurately. This design choice effectively resolves the "last mile" adoption problem that often plagues complex CMMS implementations.
Eliminating Email: FMClarity’s Integrated Communication System
The reliance on external email for work order communication is a widespread pain point in facility management, leading to delays, lost history, and fragmented accountability. FMClarity eliminates this operational vulnerability through its integrated communication system.
Centralised and Segregated Accountability
FMClarity manages all communication via integrated live chat channels that reside within the work orders. This approach helps to eliminate external email traffic across reactive and preventative workflows.
Crucially, the Live Chat functionality features segregated chat channels for the Requester, the Internal Team, and the Supplier. This segregation is not merely a convenience feature; it is a key risk mitigation tool. By segmenting communication channels, FMClarity guarantees a clear, linear audit trail and isolates sensitive internal team discussions (e.g., budget approvals, internal assignments) from external contractors and requesters' non-technical input.
In high-stakes, regulated environments like Aged Care, this ensures that documentation for service history and internal decisions is clean and auditable, reducing liability associated with miscommunication, which is a common failure point when relying on fragmented email systems.
The platform further streamlines responses through its Inbox Module, a relatively new feature that centralises all notifications, activity alerts, and work order messages into a single stream, supporting immediate awareness and action.
Financial Transparency and Strategic Scalability
For FM leaders managing complex, multi-site portfolios, budgetary predictability and granular cost control are non-negotiable requirements. FMClarity’s licensing and procurement features offer clear financial superiority and control compared to the fixed-cost and service-centric model of TELS.
FMClarity’s Unlimited Value Proposition: Strategic Site-Based Licensing
FMClarity’s subscription model is designed to maximise organisational engagement while offering total budgetary certainty on software access.
Unrivaled Scalability and Budgetary Predictability
The licensing for FMClarity is based purely on the portfolio or sites managed, and explicitly not on the number of individual users.
This site-based model is a definitive strategic advantage, offering unlimited scalability. It allows an unlimited number of staff and contractors to use the platform without incurring any additional per-user costs. For large health care or education enterprises that need to enroll thousands of staff (e.g., all non-technical personnel as requesters) for widespread data capture, this model maximises organisational engagement while ensuring the FM budget remains predictable.
Furthermore, the standard annual subscription covers all new releases, updates, and major software overhauls. This cost certainty removes internal political barriers and the need to ration licenses, leading to maximum system adoption.
The Constraints of TELS’s Per-Location Model
TELS’s revenue generation for its platform relies on a flat subscription fee charged per location, per month. Public data indicates a rate of approximately $107.00 per month, per location, which is subject to periodic adjustment.
The Disproportionate Cost Risk
While this fixed price structure offers simplicity, it introduces a significant financial risk for portfolio management. The fixed $107.00 per-location fee can result in a "perception of disproportionate cost" for smaller sites or facilities with lower maintenance demands that do not fully utilise the comprehensive feature set. For large senior living chains operating numerous sites, this per-location fee can accumulate rapidly, imposing a high, fixed price regardless of the facility size or actual utilisation.
Additionally, TELS’s market penetration is significant, but it currently serves only about 37% of US Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing facilities. The remaining 63% of the market may include many smaller, budget-conscious facilities. The flat $107/month fee may be perceived as too costly compared to competitors offering more usage-based or tailored plans. FMClarity’s scalable portfolio model, which removes the per-user constraint, is strategically better positioned to capture this budget-sensitive, multi-site market segment.
The Critical Financial Divide: Service Cost Control
The largest financial differentiation between the two models arises in the management of service costs. This is the difference between a service-driven business (TELS) and a pure software business (FMClarity).
The Structural Cost Barrier of Delegation
TELS operates as a service intermediary through its Building Services network, citing competitive hourly rates and capped trip charges.
The structural reality of TELS’s business model inherently limits transparency and drives up the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). TELS’s ability to attract and retain its vast network of over 25,000 technicians is powered by its commitment to offering guaranteed payment. This massive logistical and financial undertaking necessitates an internal markup on service jobs to cover administrative costs, payment risk, and profit.
External analysis points to a significant vulnerability: a possible lack of granular cost transparency for service jobs. Explicit confirmation of detailed breakdowns including labor, parts, and any TELS-added markups, is not clearly provided in the available information beyond the stated hourly rates.
For a massive, maintenance-heavy site, the cost savings of TELS's low $107 license fee would be quickly overshadowed by this opaque markup on the majority of the facility's annual maintenance spend.
FMClarity: Empowering the FM’s Financial Control
FMClarity directly addresses this financial ambiguity, prioritising the fiduciary duty of the facilities manager. The platform features an integrated Quote Management tool that allows the FM team to maintain direct control over the supply chain. FMs can request competitive quotes from multiple suppliers directly within a work request, review the bids, and then issue the work order upon approval.
This essential process preserves the FM’s negotiation power and ensures complete visibility into all parts and labor pricing, mitigating the risks associated with service cost opacity. For the sophisticated FM, FMClarity is the clear choice for maintaining strict cost accountability.
Deep Financial Integration for Enterprise Accountability
FMClarity further reinforces financial control through its robust Invoice Approval Workflow. This workflow supports streamlined invoice approvals, often integrated directly with finance platforms such as Epicore or Microsoft Dynamics 365, and critically, incorporates Delegations of Authority (DOA) and GL Matching.
This integration point is a subtle yet powerful differentiator for CFOs and senior executives. For large enterprises, financial accountability is governed by corporate policy (DOA) and standardised accounting (GL matching). While TELS bills for services through its procurement arm (DSSI), FMClarity guarantees that maintenance expenditure is reconciled directly within the operational work order workflow, aligning financial transactions with corporate authority limits and standardised accounting. This demonstrates a superior, robust financial integration vital for enterprise-level software adoption.
The Structural Cost Barrier of Delegation
The structural reality of TELS’s business model inherently limits transparency. TELS’s ability to attract and retain its vast network of over 25,000 technicians is powered by its commitment to offering guaranteed payment with zero hidden fees, effectively de-risking participation for service providers.
While beneficial for providers, this massive logistical and financial undertaking necessitates an internal markup on service jobs to cover administrative costs, payment risk, and profit.
This structural reality makes it impossible for TELS to offer the same level of cost transparency and direct negotiation power that FMClarity grants the facility manager via its quote management system. Because of this, FMClarity is the clear choice for maintaining strict cost accountability.
Compliance and Risk Mitigation: The Rules-Based Governance
In sectors defined by regulatory oversight, such as Senior Living and Health Care, compliance management is synonymous with risk mitigation. FMClarity provides a deeper, more automated, rules-based defense mechanism against risk compared to TELS’s general documentation capabilities.
Proactive Compliance vs. Reactive Documentation
Regulatory adherence must be an active, continuous process, not merely an archival function.
FMClarity’s Rules-Based Compliance Module
FMClarity’s Compliance Module is designed as a rules-based system that actively monitors regulatory needs. It minimises risk by continuously tracking Essential Safety Measure (ESM) service reports, critical documents, and Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) schedules. The system actively checks for document expiration or confirmation of schedule completion, ensuring continuous regulatory adherence.
TELS’s Compliance Focus
TELS supports compliance by providing general tools for mock surveys and a centralised repository for compliance and facility records, including manuals and inspection reports.
While TELS facilitates the necessary documentation, it is not explicitly defined as having the same proactive, rules-based, automated monitoring mechanism that checks for documentation expiry and completion status in real-time like FMClarity.
Automated Safety Guardrails: Blocking Non-Compliant Work
The operational risk of using a non-compliant contractor (e.g., lapsed license or insurance) can lead to severe legal and financial repercussions, especially in sensitive environments.
The Critical Checkpoint
FMClarity offers an essential safety feature by integrating with third-party contractor compliance platforms (such as LinkSafe or Rapid Global) to automatically verify a contractor's status. Crucially, the system is designed to create an un-bypassable structural safety guardrail by automatically blocking work orders if a contractor is found to be non-compliant. This moves the compliance check from a managerial oversight responsibility to an automated workflow function, guaranteeing that liability risk associated with non-compliant suppliers is eliminated before work commences.
TELS rigorously vets its network and monitors performance; however, its model places the ultimate onus of quality and compliance control on network management oversight. FMClarity integrates the compliance check into the workflow automation itself, providing the in-house FM with an extra layer of structural protection.
Automated Documentation and Asset Management
Beyond active compliance monitoring, FMClarity significantly reduces administrative risk through its automated document management. The system supports Automated Document Filing: when service reports, O&M manuals, permits, or images are captured by field staff, they are automatically tagged and filed in a central cloud repository based on the site, service, sub-service, and document type. This guarantee of instant, auditable record-keeping eliminates the administrative overhead and risk associated with manually filing or retrieving compliance documents after service completion.
Asset Management and Capital Planning Integration
Effective asset management requires more than just logging repair history; it requires strategic forecasting.
FMC’s Strategic Planning Tools: FMClarity’s Asset Management Module maintains a comprehensive register of assets, utilising the four-tier Virtual Building Information System (VBIS) for standardised classification. This module integrates directly with the Analytics module to provide Asset Replacement Forecasts. This capability is strategic, allowing FMs and CFOs to accurately predict and budget for long-term capital replacement costs over an asset's lifecycle.
TELS’s Foundational Asset Management: TELS also provides asset tracking with unique QR codes, tracking repair history, and supporting "fix-or-replace" decisions. While TELS offers Capital Planning tools to consolidate building data, FMClarity’s explicit focus on multi-site forecasting through VBIS and its tightly integrated Analytics module provides a clearer, more standardised long-term budgeting advantage crucial for large portfolios.
Data and Strategic Insight: From Reports to Predictive Planning
The modern facilities management platform must transform raw operational data into actionable strategic intelligence. Both TELS and FMClarity excel at this, but prioritise different integration points and reporting focuses.
Real-Time Visibility and Accountability (FMC)
FMClarity prioritises providing immediate, accessible insights to management, ensuring game-changing transparency and accountability.
Customisable Dashboards: Display critical reporting and metrics in near real-time. Widgets cover essential performance indicators such as Overdue Work Orders, Pending Invoice Approvals, and Contractor Performance.
Extensive Analytics: The robust Analytics Module offers facility leaders access to over 25 predefined reports spanning work orders, assets, compliance, expenditure, and contractor performance. These reports are fully exportable in multiple formats for seamless integration into executive reporting structures. The depth of this reporting ensures management maintains meticulous oversight over operational activities, expenditure, and accountability.
The Integration Battleground: Financial vs. Clinical
In the senior living environment the need for system integration is paramount, as operational data must connect maintenance, financial, and clinical outcomes.
TELS’s Clinical Edge: TELS successfully established a unique capability by integrating with specific nurse call systems, which enables the automated generation of work orders based on device status. This integration is highly relevant for minimising resident safety risks and streamlining time-sensitive maintenance tasks.
FMC’s Financial Edge: FMClarity demonstrates superior interoperability with the financial core of the enterprise. Its deep integration capabilities for Invoice Approval Workflow, Delegations of Authority, and GL matching with major financial platforms (such as Epicore or Microsoft Dynamics 365) means that maintenance expenditure is fully reconciled with the general ledger.
The Broader Integration Risk: While TELS’s nurse call integration is valuable, its depth of integration with broader Electronic Health Records (EHR), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and other comprehensive financial systems is not extensively detailed. Industry analysis suggests that integration difficulties between CMMS solutions and core enterprise systems frequently lead to fragmented data and operational inefficiencies. TELS’s highly specific integration exposes it to the risk of being displaced by larger EHR players (like Yardi or PointClickCare) who might integrate CMMS functions natively. FMClarity’s commitment to robust financial integration ensures the maintenance function is strategically aligned with core enterprise finance, avoiding costly data silos separate from the general ledger.
The Service Model Dichotomy: Control vs. Reliance
The choice between TELS and FMClarity ultimately comes down to whether the FM wants to command their own service network or rely on an integrated, managed network.
The TELS Service Network: A Tool for Delegation, Not Control
TELS’s most prominent feature is its integrated service network (TELS Building Services). This network of over 25,000 vetted technicians and 24/7 customer assistance provides essential national coverage.
The Attraction Mechanism and Trade-off
TELS is successful in attracting and retaining this vast pool of service providers by offering significant financial benefits, powered by its commitment to guaranteed payment with zero hidden fees, effectively de-risking participation for service providers. This financial security is crucial in a fragmented labor market where payment delays are common.
However, this convenience comes with a trade-off for the client: loss of control. The decision to rely on TELS’s network means the FM sacrifices the granular oversight and negotiation power needed to nurture trusted, hyper-local relationships or negotiate specific contracts. The quality of service delivery is inherently linked to TELS's network management and vetting processes, not the direct command of the in-house FM team.
FMClarity: The Empowered FM and the Local Contractor
FMClarity’s model is predicated on maximising the efficiency and control of the FM’s existing service ecosystem, which are generally internal teams and established local suppliers.
Streamlined Collaboration and Efficiency
FMClarity provides tools designed to streamline the work of external contractors. Through Supplier Self-Service, contractors gain role-based access to specific documents associated with their assigned work, such as O&M manuals, permits, and plans. This ensures suppliers arrive on-site with all necessary information, reducing delays and enhancing the quality of service delivery.
Contractor Compliance Automation
The integrated, rules-based compliance checks and the automated blocking of work orders from non-compliant contractors ensures that FMClarity provides the FM with proactive control over their local service ecosystem, making the process safer and significantly more auditable than simply relying on a third-party managed network.
The underlying difference in these models is rooted in finance. The TELS guaranteed payment model, while attractive to service providers, necessitates a financial layer of internal markup to manage administrative costs, payment risk, and profit. This structural reality limits the degree of cost transparency that can be offered. Conversely, FMClarity allows the facility manager, via its Quote Management system, to achieve direct negotiation power and superior cost visibility.
Final Comparison and Strategic Superiority for the In-House FM
TELS’s Fit (The Delegate)
TELS is ideally suited for organisations that prioritise national scale and are willing to pay a premium for guaranteed service delegation. TELS is an effective choice for organisations operating with limited internal maintenance coordination expertise or those whose primary need is to outsource the complexity of contractor sourcing and payment. Its core strength lies in its robust service network and foundational CMMS capabilities.
FMClarity’s Fit (The Controller)
FMClarity is the definitive choice for sophisticated occupier organisations with high-performing, in-house FM teams managing complex, multi-site portfolios in high-stakes sectors (Aged Care, Health Care, Education). These FMs require a platform that delivers unparalleled control, financial transparency, organisational scalability, and guaranteed high user adoption across a distributed team.
FMClarity’s 5 Pillars of Strategic Superiority:
Guaranteed Adoption through User-Centric Design: FMClarity resolves the endemic "last mile" problem of technology implementation by prioritising unmatched usability for non-technical field staff. This directly contrasts the reported mobile UI/UX vulnerabilities of TELS, leading to high data quality and quantifiable efficiency gains, with some clients achieving up to 70% administrative reduction.
Unrestricted Scalability and Budgetary Certainty: The site-based, unlimited-user licensing model provides superior predictable budgeting and maximises organisation-wide engagement without the budget friction and perceived disproportionate cost risk inherent in TELS’s flat per-location model.
Financial Clarity and Control: FMClarity empowers the FM with native Quote Management, enabling competitive supplier bidding and ensuring full cost transparency. This process, backed by robust financial integration (DOA/GL Matching), mitigates the financial risks associated with TELS’s potential service cost ambiguity.
Automated Risk Mitigation: The rules-based Compliance Module provides a deeper, more integrated layer of risk defense. The ability to automatically block work orders from non-compliant contractors is a crucial structural safety guardrail that goes beyond standard CMMS documentation.
Single Source of Truth Communication: FMClarity’s integrated live chat channels eliminate reliance on external email. This centralises all communication history, creating a clean, auditable record for every work order, which significantly reduces miscommunication risk and administrative burden.
Why FMClarity is the Strategic Choice for Today's Facilities Leader
The selection of a facility management platform is a strategic inflection point for any organisation managing complex, high-compliance portfolios. The decision between TELS and FMClarity reflects a deeper choice: whether a facilities leader prioritises delegation and outsourcing convenience (TELS) or operational control, transparency, and internal empowerment (FMClarity).
For the sophisticated FM leader managing large, complex portfolios where staff efficiency, compliance governance, and rigorous cost accountability are paramount, the FMClarity IWMS provides the only comprehensive, user-centric solution engineered to empower their existing in-house teams.
By delivering unmatched usability and eliminating per-user licensing costs, FMClarity not only drives immediate efficiency gains but also ensures total financial and compliance control. FMClarity is the strategic platform built to align facilities operations with the critical enterprise mission of care, safety, and fiduciary accountability.
