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Why Do You Need To Strategize your FM Role?

Understanding the Strategic Role of Facilities Management

By Bill King, ARCHIBUS, Inc.

Organizations today are in a constant state of flux, as business and technological trends shape their strategic direction. Of course, successful organizations stay ahead of the competition in the face of these changes by finding creative ways to increase revenues, reduce expenses, and keep an eye on the bottom line.

Has your organization recently undergone any of the following changes?

• Centralization of business units and operations
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Downsizing and consolidations
• Outsourced services and resources
• Dramatic shifts due to new technologies

Facilities management can have a dramatic effect on the success or failure of new corporate objectives. Let's take a look at the impact these changes can have-and how facilities managers can respond in a positive, proactive way to help guide strategic direction and add value to the organization.

Centralization

In an effort to improve efficiency, make better use of resources and take advantage of economies of scale, organizations are tending to centralize asset and property management across multiple locations. This means that the Facilities Management or Corporate Real Estate (CRE) department must now consider the needs of an entire enterprise, rather than individual departments or location. Centralization offers many benefits but can pose many challenges without a proper strategy in place.

One of the most effective ways to manage facilities in a centralized environment is to establish benchmarks based on organizational goals. Facilities Managers-with a centralized repository of data at their fingertips-are in a unique position to establish benchmarks that compare the effectiveness of asset and location across the enterprise. As assets are entered into an electronic inventory, a Total Infrastructure and Facilities Management (TIFM) solution provides the methodology to apply standards to each component, thereby supporting industry best practices and performance metrics.

Advantages of applying standards to your facilities:

• Link your space portfolio with usage across the enterprise

• Determine the relative value of assets and locations based on organizational demands and industry priorities

• Analyze the role of each site in relation to short-, medium- and long-term goals and budgets

• Construct justifiable budgets to support business plans and objectives

• Effectively manage plans and budgets to support improved financial forecasting at the strategic level

• Provide for more effective resource usage across your operations

• Allow for shared inventory and resources among operations to reduce inventory carry cost

• Forecast equipment needs to reduce downtime, enhance customer service and increase overall efficiency

Mergers, Acquisitions, Consolidation and Downsizing

As a company consolidates or grows, facilities managers must consider which properties and types of properties will be disposed of or acquired. This will have huge implications for the allocation of expensive corporate resources.

A comprehensive TIFM solution allows users to analyze a real estate portfolio and determine whether it meets or exceeds the organization's current and future requirements. Reports can be quickly generated to show where departments can be consolidated, while simple actions such as outlining departmental furniture and equipment requirements can drastically reduce expenses.

Meanwhile, having a streamlined move process in place can save thousands of dollars in administrative costs. And if a new business direction requires the acquisition of properties, facilities management data can influence strategic real estate decisions by providing trial layouts, projected occupancy figures, and space standards.

Outsourcing

It's no surprise that organizations today are looking at every possible way to increase efficiencies. As part of this trend, each department and division has become a target of the growing trend towards outsourcing. Facilities departments are among the first to be outsourced; in many cases, because organizations feel that an outside firm can reduce their expenses.

Generally, most organizations have found that relinquishing all operations to a service provider can be disastrous. Therefore, many early adopters of facilities services outsourcing have evolved into a more internally-managed arrangement, whereby outsourced firms become a partner, providing complementary and specialty services.

Organizations have found that offering their FM contractors a direct link to internal systems is a superior way to handle communications. This link can be accomplished by using a Web-based application, such as FM Web Central, and assigning the provider roles-such as Maintenance Manager-in the system. This partnership helps the organization keep communications centralized for on-demand reporting while leaving the strategic management of facilities and infrastructure in the hands of internal management.

Emerging Technologies

New technologies also redefine the role of Facilities Management in an organization's strategy. As the Web and other communications tools expand the array of services that organizations can offer their employees and customers, so will the need to manage and maintain these technologies expand. For example, employees can now work in "virtual" operations. In the face of these changes, the Facility Manager has the resources to plan for comfortable, cost-effective working environments such as hoteling options that reduce space and equipment needs without disrupting employees' normal working conditions.

In addition, as more organizations add technologies to every part of their operation, a TIFM solution can become a centralized place in which this data to converge. Integrating FM data with other Enterprise Resource Planning systems, such as Finance and Human Resources, can ease global reporting capabilities and reduce complexity. And of course, the Web can be used to streamline administrative tasks, saving significant amounts of time, money, and frustration.

Present Yourself as a Strategic Contributor

To effectively support our organizations, the traditional approach of facility management must give way to strategic facility management. With the right tools, there are many ways that you can help guide your organization's direction, boost your visibility within the organization, and increase your professional worth.

• Take ownership of organization-wide data and make it the gold standard. When the Facilities Management department holds the definitive figures on occupancy, costs, condition, safety & security, environmental standards, and more, you will become a valuable source for all high-level decision-making.

• Keep abreast of organizational changes. Your TIFM system can help you track trends within your organization that may point to better, smarter, faster ways of operating. Pinpoint inefficient processes and use technology to help solve them.

• Understand the regulatory issues that apply to your organization, even if they don't immediately appear to affect operations. For example, if your healthcare organization needs to comply with patient safety regulations, you may be able to use your TIFM solution to quickly identify and locate all PCs on a network. Think creatively and you will find ways to cost-effectively help meet these objectives, without incurring additional software or implementation costs.

• Expand the reach of your influence. Ask other departments to get involved; share information with the TIFM system. Leverage the Internet to cross-pollinate your ideas. Understand the value in linking information from space, maintenance, real estate, IT departments, and more.

• Understand that your organization's facilities project a public image. As the steward of these properties, it is your responsibility to maintain safe, attractive, compliant facilities that support your organization's mission.

Today's environments require us to be flexible, adaptive, responsive, and supportive and accept the role as a high value provider to the whole organization. It is now up to Facility Management to take a greater leadership role and support organizational goals and corporate culture that maximize the company's overall performance.

Bill King has been providing software application solutions for the past 15 years. His areas of expertise include construction and project management solutions, and asset management technology. He has delivered value-added solutions to hundreds of organizations with an emphasis on strategic facility management.