FEATURE
we trained 30 two-man teams to be able to handle the breadth of services that were previously delivered by six different contractors – and to address changing seasonal outdoor maintenance requirements. This change brought clear financial benefits – removing approximately 13% of the cost base for the supermarket. However, of greater interest to the customer were the opportunities afforded by dedicated teams with a broader scope of expertise. Each team would have responsibility for a relatively small number of sites – around 20 stores.
This allowed them to gain a thorough understanding of the particular challenges of a site and offered a continuity of service to the store managers. It also meant that the smaller maintenance tasks around stores that had previously fallen between the gaps could be picked up by the teams during down time – in effect reinvesting the time and money savings into proactive and reactive activity. Potholes were finally repaired, kerbs repaired, leaking air con units attended to – all by a quality supplier but without the added cost and management overhead of setting up a one-off repair.
In effect, this ‘new’ approach was something the FM industry is already familiar with. In an analysis of FM sourcing trends, McKinsey notes that “companies typically follow a progression that begins with outsourcing noncore activities at individual locations. The consolidation, standardisation and bundling of these tasks across facilities over time results in the outsourcing of a comprehensive set of noncore services and management to third parties”. What is novel however is the application of this bundling strategy to outdoor FM, which has to this point been a comparatively immature market.
At OUTCO we feel the time is right to bring this comprehensive, bundled and standardised approach to outdoor FM. Our experience with the supermarket chain demonstrates that the market is ready for this change. As regulatory and compliance pressures increase for estate owners managing outdoor environments, such an approach can help deliver the professionalisation of outdoor FM that is long overdue.
Importantly, the bundling of services isn’t a silver bullet. Looking back at how this has been achieved in the FM world over the past decade is instructive. When companies like Mitie and Carillion started approaching customers with highly competitive integrated FM offerings, their models proved to be as disruptive as they were attractive. Those companies not bundling services were often obliged to follow suit. However, at the time there were debates as to how best to bring together FM offerings – specifically where to start and where to stop, for example, whether to limit the offering to soft services or to attempt to run the full gamut of FM services.
There was also the question as to whether companies can self-serve a wide and diverse portfolio of offerings or should bring together third parties and create a bundled offering of subject matter experts. What was true then is true today - any bundled offering has to be able to clearly demonstrate the added value to the customer and
www.tomorrowsfm.com TOMORROW’S FM | 27
be able to deliver it effectively. This is where a focus on complementary services can prove critical, and where the supermarket case study demonstrates the synergies of bundling together outdoor services.
At OUTCO we can see that outdoor infrastructure and maintenance is at a tipping point where certain customers – especially those with larger estates – are demanding something different. Estate owners don’t want to spend disproportionate time, effort and resource on maintaining outdoor environments but do want them to operate in a safe and compliant fashion so they can focus on their core business.
Moreover, technology is changing the game still further and offering opportunities that didn’t previously exist. Via APIs that connect service providers with customers’ FM operations, it’s now possible to create more effective dialogue with teams on site, both to push requests downstream and to provide real time data and visibility on what’s been delivered.
In our winter gritting operations, we have pioneered using mobile technology to create digital ‘breadcrumb trails’ to show the activity of operatives and vehicles and believe this same transparency can and should extend to other areas of outdoor FM. As well as making services easier to manage, this enhanced visibility becomes all the more important when considered from a risk management and compliance perspective. Across every industry, digitisation is transforming operations that were once time consuming and inefficient - and tackling those stubborn 20/80 challenges. Outdoor FM will be no different and this transformation will be more easily achieved when services are standardised and consolidated.
www.outco.co.uk
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