Facility professionals spend their days making decisions that directly affect safety, compliance, and building performance. Whether preparing for an inspection, troubleshooting equipment, planning preventive maintenance, or evaluating a renovation, those decisions depend on access to trusted codes, standards, and technical guidance.
Finding that information has become easier. Applying it hasn’t.
As buildings become more sophisticated and codes continue to evolve alongside new technologies and safety risks, facility teams are expected to interpret complex requirements, document their work, and keep operations moving—all while many organizations continue to face workforce shortages. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)’s 2026 State of the Skilled Trades Survey, more than half of skilled trades professionals identify workforce shortages as their biggest operational challenge. At the same time, IFMA’s 2026 Facility Management Pulse Report found that facilities managers broadly expect workloads to continue increasing, emphasizing the growing pressure on already-stretched teams.
With experienced workers retiring and lean teams becoming the norm, every minute spent searching for information or retracing someone else’s work is time taken away from inspections, maintenance, and other priorities that keep facilities safe. While expanding access to information is a priority, organizations should evaluate digital resources based on something more. The most valuable tools turn that search into action, helping professionals move from pure research to completed work fast.
Beyond Search: Putting Codes and Standards to Work
Codes and standards have always been foundational to facility operations. They guide everything from routine inspections and preventive maintenance to system upgrades and emergency preparedness. Yet as facilities become more complex, using those resources effectively has become more challenging.
Today’s buildings incorporate increasingly sophisticated fire protection, electrical, mechanical, and building automation systems that must work together to support occupant safety. At the same time, codes and standards continue to evolve to address new technologies, emerging hazards, and changes in how buildings are designed and operated. This change in pace means that simply having access to the latest edition of a standard is no longer enough. Technicians need to know how to put that information into practice, understanding how the code or standard applies to the specific situation in front of them, documenting the work performed, and sharing that information with colleagues, contractors, or authorities having jurisdiction.
Without the right tools, that process frequently involves moving between multiple documents, systems, and notes before the work can move forward. The result is often fragmented workflows, which means more time spent searching for supporting information, retracing previous decisions, or switching between resources instead of focusing on critical safety operations. As operational demands continue to grow, reducing that friction must become just as important as expanding access to information. The next step, then, is to rethink how digital tools fit into day-to-day operations, focusing not just on search capabilities, but also on how tools can help professionals work more efficiently.
Making Trusted Information Part of the Workflow
Many organizations think of technical resources like digital codebooks as purely reference material without realizing that they can, and should, be part of workflows themselves.
Facility professionals are increasingly benefiting from tools that allow them to search trusted content, save relevant code references, organize project notes, capture decisions, and return to previous work without starting from scratch.
That continuity is particularly important as organizations work to preserve institutional knowledge. Experienced technicians often rely on years of practical insight that are not fully reflected in formal documentation. Capturing the research behind a decision, recording project-specific notes, and organizing supporting information in one unified place creates a valuable resource for the next technician who encounters a similar issue.
Digital tools are making this process more efficient by reducing the time spent navigating lengthy technical documents and organizing information. Features such as intelligent search, connected notetaking, and AI-assisted research can help professionals quickly identify relevant requirements, summarize technical content, and keep project information organized throughout the life of a job.
These capabilities are designed to support—not replace—the expertise of skilled professionals. Codes and standards still require interpretation, and compliance decisions depend on the judgment and experience of qualified personnel. Technology is most valuable when it reduces administrative work, allowing technicians to spend more time applying their knowledge in the field.
Turning Knowledge Into Action
As facilities continue to evolve, organizations should evaluate digital resources based on more than their search capabilities.
The real opportunity is helping facility professionals spend less time looking for information and more time applying it. That means equipping teams with tools that support the full lifecycle of a task—from researching applicable codes and standards to documenting findings, preserving institutional knowledge, and creating a record that others can build upon.
For organizations operating with limited staff and growing operational demands, even modest improvements in efficiency can have a meaningful impact. Reducing time spent searching, organizing documentation, or recreating previous research gives facility teams more capacity to focus on inspections, preventive maintenance, training, and other work that directly contributes to safer, more resilient facilities.
As the volume of technical information continues to grow, the value of codes and standards won’t be defined by how quickly they can be found. It will be defined by how effectively they help facility professionals make informed decisions, complete critical work, and maintain safe, compliant buildings.
Kyle Spencer is the director of NFPA LiNK at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).