What does top management expect from Facility Managers during recession?

If this recession goes on like this the senior management will want facility managers to cut costs and add value simultaneously.

The trick to doing that is to focus on corporate outcomes, not on faciltiy operations outcomes. Facility Managers have to have business acumen, they have to understand the financials, and have to know how to manage relationships internally.

Some examples on: How add value while cutting costs?

• Facility Managers have to optimize to the fullest when it comes to space. Getting rid of unnecessary space is the fastest way to cut facility-operational costs. But cutting down too much space could leave the corporation ill-positioned when the economy rebounds. A lot of corporates are concerned that they’re going to cut too much. There has to be some flex in how you manage your property portfolio.

In past downturns, corporate facilities were managed to balance “value creation” strategies to improve operational efficiency with “value protection” measures to cut costs. Greater use of alternative work strategies such as hotelling or telecommuting helped to maintain this balance because they achieved both goals.

• Corporates continue to emphasize measures to reduce their environmental impact, but Facility Managers are more sensitive to costs than, say, a couple of years ago. The idea of paying a green premium is harder to sell; so is the cost to get LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard certified, though LEED remains the touchstone for green building initiatives. Instead, there’s a new focus on energy efficiency.

• In the 1991-92 “depression,” as the Urban Land Institute called that downturn, one telecom took the opportunity to buy property at 50 cents on the dollar. The same thing may happen in this recession period too, with corporates willing to own a higher percentage of their space than in the past, when the industry average was about 60 percent leased space.

Hope this info is useful....I look forward to give you more related information....

Happy Facilities Management,

Team FacilitiesDesk

Its easy to agree that: Managing IT is not Managing Facilities.

ITIL the Information Technology Infrastructure Library did the good deed of conveying the message that, Facilities' seamless operation is important to manage efficient IT infrastructure (ITIL included Facilities Management as one of its criteria of discussion in ITIL V3.) to all IT folks that.

For in any organization the IT staffs or the System Administration team are the folks who can instantly realize the value of having a software in place with a zillion software available in the market to manage all aspects of IT like ServiceDesk, IT Operations, Application Management, etc,. Also they can help their counter parts in Facility Management teams to evaluate the right software and offer their suggestion.

Most of the SMBs will have the System folks handling the Facilties helpdesk too. Here the responsibility to very high to deploy a right software run their Facilities as efficiently as their IT operation.

With that thought i will leave you to contemplate the importance of having a CMMS in place.

Happy Facilities Management,
Team FacilitieDesk

By now we have seen several reasons for opting a Facility Management System for our workplace…Let’s take a serious dimension to it where we will be addressing the impact in business.

Every organization has its own business drivers, however most organizations will have these objectives in common:

• Increase productivity
• Reduce operational cost run
• Improved customer satisfaction

Each functional group within an organizational structure will have its own objectives in place, designated to play a part in a collective effort to address these key business drivers.

For Facility Managers, their on-going objective is to improve the operational efficiencies of their facility services. Improvements can be made in different ways, including:

•  A re-organization
• Implementing process improvements
• Investing in an IT solution – takes care of above two objectives too, resulting in improved operational efficiency

In most cases improvements will come about by addressing a combination of the above. IT solutions clearly play an important part, however it is rarely the sole reason for improvement within FM operations.

IT is an enabler; it will exaggerate both good and bad operational practices. If an organization applies technology to an inefficient operation it is unlikely to see any return on its investment.

However, apply technology to a well-organized operation and the service provided will go from strength to strength, delivering increased productivity, reducing operational costs and increasing customer satisfaction.

Catch you again with more interesting insights...

More than just Installation, right implementation process is key to a successful CAFM deployment!!

Below are the points to be considered on implementing a CAFM system:

• Decide your objectives:

1. Priorities of the new system(ex: reducing the cost run, increasing the efficiency, etc,)
2. Key issues to be addressed like, unclear business process and workflows..
3. Decide the counter measures and reports that you want to obtain from the CAFM system
4. Consider the communication flow you want to build between departments like HR to increase the utilization rate of the integrated CAFM

• Set your Expectations

1. Remember to input only required amount of information that can be efficiently maintained
2. Firstly manage your own expectations and eventually other’s expectations of what the software is actually proficient in doing
3. Although CAFM can greatly improve processes, it can’t actually do the routine work for you more efficiently quicker

• Gathering information

1. Play it safe by keeping in touch with a CAFM consultant to gather information that is required.
2. Should you need to integrate your CAFM application with third party software or indeed importdata from other applications into your CAFM system? A formal review of any additional software that might be required for the system to work effectively should always be undertaken.

• Define Standards
  

1. This step is important for data terminology so that the same terms are used throughout the system
2. Decide the hierarchies that you wish to report to and the codes that are going to be used to categorize resources and maintenance faults
3. Asset, property and facilities information should be clear and recognizable by the team on retrieving relevant information from the CAFM system

• System and Data accuracy

1. Authorize limited people to enter the required information in the system's database and to maintain the updates regularly. This ensures consistency and check in accuracy
2. Decide on the implementation timescales of the new system and subsequently schedule and execute the associated administrative and training tasks
3. Check for the accuracy of all the data and for its updation upto latest information, prior to loading

• Online integration

1. Decide whether the system will be standalone or networked.
2. Fix on the number of users, who will need access to the system from different departments
3. Decide on the access rights of all users
4. If there is a requirement for varying levels of access, then the system’s security options will need to be reviewed. Perhaps establish a dedicated project team/group within the organisation.

• Training

1. Success of the implementation of the CAFM system depends on the level and rate of utilization of the system, by your users
2. Some staff might demonstrate reluctance to change and to adapt the new working practices and changes in the workplace
3. Users must feel they are getting personal gain from the software and that it is improving the quality of their work on a daily basis
4. Training is essential; it may be useful in many cases for the CAFM supplier to setup two sets of data on the system; one for training purposes and another for live data (This will allow the staff to practise on the system prior to going live, without impacting the live data)

• Process Management
  

1. Freeze the timeline of going live with the CAFM.
2. Preferably split phases in your "go live" process provided the data size is huge
3. Please note that it is often worth piloting the implementation in a controlled environment or having a trial run of the new system before launching it across your organisation.

• Time for being futuristic

1. Keep up regular updation of your system
2. Archive information when no longer in use
3. Look to the future for opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce cost run

This will secure the product’s initial and future success and positively reflect on the facilities department.

Conclusion

If your company has made the decision to install a computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) system, or is in the process of making the decision, the chances are you are fully aware of these above important points of uimplementation so that it helps you in bringing: a reduction in costs and eventually improved productivity...