DATA & DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT KEYS TO THE KINGDOM Historically, data has been primarily owned by the FM service provider and


then shared with the client. But this, argues Urgent Technology, must change if companies are to harness the power of their own information and make value-enhancing decisions.


FM outsourcing is definitely under the microscope at the moment. In the aftermath of Carillion and the various profit warnings concerning other major service providers, this is no surprise.


That said, the FM market seems to be doing well. The Business Confidence Monitor, launched in March of this year by the BIFM, reported that respondents remained positive about the FM business environment. Despite this, 2018’s results also demonstrate that as a country we continue to be in a state of flux regarding Brexit.


As a result of the ongoing Carillion crisis, FM service providers and their clients are acutely aware of the consequences when things go wrong. In addition to owing businesses of all shapes and sizes circa £1.5bn, Carillion also sports a pension deficit of £600m. Hundreds of jobs have been axed following the demise of the construction giant, and many other businesses are suffering from the fall-out – many are still trying to fill a Carillion-sized hole to ensure outstanding projects get completed.


The lessons learned tend to focus on the risks of sacrificing quality for the best price, not to mention the questionable procurement process associated with the larger public-sector property portfolios. But there’s little assessment thus far of what may have happened to the tsunami of business-critical data since the liquidation of one of the UK’s largest construction firms.


Since management and service models have become more integrated into the organisations they support, FM has become more data-rich than ever before – and relationships between client and provider have shifted from simply transactional to a more strategic partnership. Over the past few years, data analytics has moved from out of the wings, onto the stage and into the spotlight; perhaps because an increasing number of end users recognise the key role data plays when it comes to making more informed decisions.


“FM service providers


have evolved from ‘people’ businesses to ‘people and data’ businesses.”


In light of this demand, FM service providers have evolved from “people” businesses to “people and data” businesses, sharing data and insight in order to improve efficiency, increase transparency and build trust. The


76 | TOMORROW’S FM


proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), connected devices and big data are offering FM companies the opportunity to collate and harness data that will enable them to advise their clients on a whole host of value- enhancing strategies. As such, more companies are leveraging technology in order to deliver contracts more efficiently.


There is a wealth of data in the world of FM. Data from connected devices, mobile apps and wearable tech, financial data, supply chain and procurement data, human resources data, environmental data, estates data and maintenance operations data… the list goes on. In addition to simply reporting contractual KPIs, there is a huge opportunity for FM service providers to now also gather, analyse and disseminate all this other data to their clients.


“Relationships between client


and provider have shifted from simply transactional to a more strategic partnership.”


Historically, this wealth of data has been primarily owned by the service provider and then shared with the client. However, in light of the volatile outsourcing landscape, we believe it’s even more important that end users own their own information. Lost data could considerably impact organisations in numerous negative ways; such an eventuality could jeopardise customer and client confidence, for instance, or make it difficult to demonstrate compliance to regulatory bodies.


One of our clients at Urgent Technology has bought into the benefits of owning its own data. They ended the contract with their service provider (re-hiring them as a major contractor), brought the ownership and management of their FM data in-house, and in the process made significant financial savings. This move has given them complete control of their FM and the flexibility to change contractor as needed.


The main purpose of data – or any information come to that – is to assist decision-making. Businesses looking to improve optimisation, effectiveness and efficiency should ensure they have full visibility of their data and thus the means to process and analyse data accurately and resourcefully in order to use the information available to spur operational innovation and improvements.


urgtech.com twitter.com/TomorrowsFM


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