Changing role of Facility Manager in the Smart world

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Facilities Management has seen significant evolution over the last two decades in its scope and intent. The progressive evolution in the industry has been based on the changing needs of the business and the rapid improvement in building and workplace design.

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From out tasking disparate services, bundling of services, integrating services and now progressive levels of outsourcing of services, the facilities management industry has undergone paradigm change over the last two decades. The illustration below gives a graphical glimpse of progressive migration of services and scope of facilities management.

In the late 80s, it started with single services approach like soft services like cleaning, catering and pantry services, reception, security, electrical, air conditioning, plumbing etc, where separate contracts for each service were outsourced and placed by the buyer with specialist providers. These disparate & non – core activities to the business are contracted based on the inputs (read activities) and focused on the number of outsourced staff deployed or the number of transactions going into the process. Clear objective was to control and reduce cost. The facility manager had the ownership to ensure that all these organizations deliver in sync with overall outsourcing and out tasking objectives by the Principle employer (read the client/customer).

As businesses started to out task more and more services to the facility management companies, performance management, cost efficiency, alignment to the customers’ overall business strategy were increasingly becoming the key expectations of all customers. Hence, regional and global outsourcing engagements started to gain momentum where organizations wanted equivalent performance standards from their FM partners across geographies. This gave birth to Integrated facility management contracts (IFM) from mid – 90s onwards. Refer illustrations no. 2,3.

Progressively, the scope, intent and the performance expectations of these IFM contracts necessitated real time data tracking, data aggregation, trend and their analysis and forecasting functions for the clients to review performance cost, customer satisfaction and any other critical business performance metrics with the help of their facility management partners. Facility management organizations therefore started using IT tools like ERP, CAFM or customized software solutions to perform these functions across multiple locations and time zones which could help them present performance dashboards, automated reports and financial (spend) reports in an integrated manner.

Alongside, the construction and building industry had also seen progressive enhancements in design helping building and workplaces to be space efficient, energy neutral, flexible in terms of usage patterns, sustainable and smart(connected). All these demanded that the facility management industry undertook measures to deliver and achieve the design intent of these features while being operated.

Over a period, it has been observed that conventional transaction or output based approaches kept buyers and suppliers limited to the extent of the contract agreement. Conflicts within buyers aroused out of fear of failure, perception of losing control and commercial risk out of the arrangement. Because of multi-dimensional business relationships, the absence of collaboration, innovation and sharing value had the potential to disrupt even the best-intentioned outsourced contracts.

This led the way to a new outcome outsourced contract that are based on vested relationship between the buyer and the provider for a win-win situation.

In this strategic partnership, service providers play a greater role in the strategic direction of customers’ companies, and contracts serve as guidelines. These contracts generally tend to operate under a longer time frame as they become more strategic and require greater investment in the relationship. Such contracts are rewarded as per successfully achieved business outcomes, not on compliance measures. Thus, the best service provider will move to a more collaborative structure fundamentally with equal responsibility and high degree of openness & information sharing.

As evident from the various FM engagement models stated above and progressive proliferation of information technology in building products and system as well as management processes of FM service providers, we see an emergence of “Smart”, “Connected”, technology enabled operations regime unfolding in the years ahead which would influence FM contracts, FM engagements and the business impact the FM services therefore can deliver for their client and consumers.

The rapid endorsement of connected device (M2M), internet of things (IoT), Big data, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), robots through powerful high speed networks and terminal devices (smart phone, tablets, hand held, wearable devices) by the consumers and the industry at large has thrown open enormous
opportunities of “connected world” and room for enormous collaboration. Adding fillip to this has been the impact of social media and collaboration tools like WhatsApp, hangout etc. These has been the disruptor of sorts to many traditional industries and services.

Pertinent to the FM industry, these breakthrough technologies are bringing in paradigm shift in the building, town & city planning. Smart city, smart building, smart communities are now a reality and some countries like China, USA, UAE, have already seen investments in smart city projects. Closer home, the Indian Government has also announced development of green field smart cities around the country.

A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) and Internet of things (IoT) technology in a secure fashion to manage a city’s assets.

The facility management industry must transform its skill and capability, offerings to step up and keep pace with this rapid transformation. Contract objectives, outsourcing frameworks would also change given this change of landscape.

Facility management organizations would have to immediately embrace and endorse this living reality and transform their organizations by:

• Build and execute a digital strategy
• Collaboration and partnership – digital eco system
• Data and analytics strategy
• Build knowledge platforms
• Train and upskill the human resources
• Innovate and disrupt

The explosive development in mobile technology, open source software, Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud services and demand in the consumer world for technology are making digital solutions affordable for professional use and making buildings smarter. Internet of Things-equipped devices can send proactive messages when they require servicing or have a fault, while cloudbased monitoring (read remote monitoring) improves control over operations. IoT empowers facility managers with

• Create an activity-based and need-based workplace.
• Digital transactions from paper based transactions
• Occupant demand, feedback and experience, behavior
• Trend analysis of events
• Enhance general conditions at work and improve the quality of facility services overall.
• Health, safety environment management
• Ability to optimize space and reduce consumption of energy and water.
• Means for a more efficient planning and use of resources.

The IoT applications in building management, are having a major impact in facility management by seamlessly integrating people, process, place and technology thus creating big data repository for

Analytics to leverage actionable intelligence for information management in facilities. By integrating people, process, place and technology, the building become Connected thus converging to SMART buildings. Coincidentally, the objectives of facility management as defined by International Facility Management Association (IFMA) are also met with.

Smart buildings and smart cities look beyond the building assets. They are connected and responsive to the smart power grid, smart schedules, predictable and forecastable environmental conditions, other utility demands, consumer behaviors and event calendars, time of the day requirements on a district, precinct, community, building and overall for the city. Building operators, occupants, administrator and utility managers can collaborate being empowered to take informed actions through real time data, coordinated consumption and demand information, video images and analytics emerging from historical and current data.

The facility management industry is at the cusp of an explosive transformation globally and especially in India at the back of a digital revolution, emergence of smart cities and buildings and consumer behaviors and dynamic business environment and imperatives. To keep pace and stay relevant, FM organizations need to remain open to changes, be innovative, willing to collaborate and partner and importantly create an open learning environment for its people. FM professionals need to acquire new skills and embrace this change.

Welcome to the new world of digital FM! Customers, industry experts, professionals and FM service companies and their business partners would have an important role to play in this significant transition. Surely this would go in the annals of the FM industry archives as one of the most exciting phases of facility management industry evolution.