How FM Can Shake Off The Past And Embrace A Brighter Future

Mark Tyson, Managing Director of Intelligent Asset Care at Bellrock, explains why Companies must buy their facilities management differently if the industry is to progress.

Facilities management is stuck in a time warp. To move towards a more progressive future, the industry must let go of the processes and mindsets that have constrained meaningful advancement for the past two to three decades.

I want to talk through the way clients and FM providers interact, and explain what I mean.

The problems begin with the way FM services are procured. Procurement teams are, of course, expected to deliver an outcome for the business; a cost saving or a compliant contract that enables the business to meet its obligations. But when they are looking for a supplier to tender for a contract, procurement tends, understandably, to fall back on existing documentation and specifications. This, to be fair, is not procurement's fault - they’re often juggling many projects across many categories, and timelines are often very tight. 

Instantly, that makes it hard for prospective suppliers to price in new technology or alternative approaches. Add in the sheer weight of legislation by which most companies are bound, and they have a further reason to go with the safe option, rather than take a chance on something new or innovative.

Then, when the deal has been done, we start to feel the impact of the natural power imbalance between provider and client. Suppliers are often wary of challenging the client during the mobilisation period. As a result, innovative elements requiring new processes are put on ice, and old ways of working become further entrenched.

And so it is that everything continues in the same way as before, until, in due course, the client begins to complain once again that the market isn’t offering them anything innovative or different.

The shift to a technology-first buy

What’s the solution to this bundle of problems? I think the logical way out of this loop, and perhaps the way to forge a brighter future for FM, is to view the deployment of any FM service as a technology-first buy, matching the approach taken when companies are investing in a new finance, CRM or HR platform.

For those who aren’t aware, in such a scenario, companies usually engage a consulting firm (e.g. Accenture or Cap Gemini) to advise them on the processes and changes they need to re-design and embed (client side) to ensure the success of the new platform.

In the FM industry, by contrast, the technology (which is significant now) is purely the supplier’s responsibility, and often sits behind the scenes. There is little room in the process for transformation expertise to help the buying company embed the new technology, the new way of working and reporting, or anything else that was promised in the bid.

FM consultants often bridge this gap, usually hired to support the procurement team with market experience and SME knowledge. However, they will typically disperse once the contract is mobilised, leaving no one to help soft-land any new processes once the contract is fully up and running. This fundamentally puts the partnership and benefit realisation at risk.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Imagine if you had an independent third party, someone who could take a balanced view on behalf of both the client and the supplier partner to get the right outcome for everyone. I think in this scenario, you would get different, and much better outcomes. 

More strategic thinking

But if we’re going to change FM from a highly reactive process to something smarter, several further things need to happen, starting with deeper preparation on the client side.

For their own benefit, buyers would ideally start thinking about what they need at least 12 months before they plan to award (not start) the contract. This would allow them to take a more strategic view of how they want to run the service, before procurement even becomes involved, and reflect more deeply on the change management, operating models and organisational behaviour they require if they are to get what they want from the market. 

They could benefit from a partnership-based approach that considers how the FM service either adds value to, or de-risks, the company’s offering; one with a defined operating model, so that clients can understand the principles and behaviours their team will need to exhibit to ensure a successful partnership and deployment. 

The evolution of technology means we can also expect to see a shift on the client side towards more and larger in-house teams, who are able to work with multiple contractors specialising in different services, via a single platform.

This degree of control and vision allows clients to set more ambitious targets - to save £10 million over five years, for instance, rather than £100,000 in one. It also delivers a potential revolution in FM oversight. Whatever aspect of FM you’re talking about, after all, whether it’s hard or soft services, it has a major impact on how customers experience your service.

In this vision of the future, I think we would soon begin to see fewer one-size-fits-all contracts, more competition, and clearer distinctions between the suppliers who pitch for FM business.

A preventative philosophy for FM

In parallel to this, we are already beginning to see a move towards a more preventative approach to FM, a proactive strategy that leverages machine learning to analyse sensor data, historical logs and building systems to automate maintenance scheduling, optimise energy use, enhance security and predict equipment failures before they happen. In this way, we are shifting FM from reactive fixes to proactive, data-driven operations that cut costs, reduce downtime and extend asset life. In my experience, moving to a preventative maintenance regime always results in a better service for the client, usually at the same - or lower - cost. Sadly the majority of existing contracts don’t incentivise adopting these approaches with longer term return on investment (ROI) mechanisms or recognition that client and supplier partners need to work together to deliver at scale. 

Change is always difficult, especially when teams and budgets are being cut. Inevitably, the work that companies do takes priority over longer-term, more strategic thinking. The IT industry is much more adept at providing a change wrap which enables organisations to measure benefits and embed new processes. FM can learn from this, as it is a huge driver of value for the wider real estate or property strategy with most organisations. 

Also published: This Week In FM