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FACILITIES MANAGEMENT INTRODUCTION

BIFM has formally adopted the definition of FM provided by CENthe European Committee for Standardisation and ratified by BSIBritish Standards:

Facilities management is the integration of processes within an

organisation to maintain and develop the agreed services whichsupport and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities.

Facilities management encompasses multi-disciplinary activitieswithin the built environment and the management of their impactupon people and the workplace.

Effective facilities management, combining resources and activities, is vital to the success of anyorganisation. At a corporate level, it contributes to the delivery of strategic and operationalobjectives. On a day-to day level, effective facilities management provides a safe and efficientworking environment, which is essential to the performance of any businesswhatever its sizeand scope.

Within this fast growing professional discipline, facilities managers have extensive responsibilitiesfor providing, maintaining and developing myriad services. These range from property strategy,space management and communications infrastructure to building maintenance, administrationand contract management.What does a facilities manager do?Read our member profiles

The foundation for facilities managementSome key points in the development of facilities management include:

Cost-cutting initiatives of the 1970s and 1980s under which organisations began tooutsource non-core services

Integration of the planning and management of a wide range of services both hard (e.g.building fabric) and soft (e.g. catering, cleaning, security, mailroom, and health & safety)to achieve better quality and economies of scale

Formation of the BIFM in 1993, followed by the development of specialised training and aqualification

Step-change with the Private Finance Initiative (now Public Private Partnerships),becoming an integral part of large-scale projects to manage, replace, and upgrade thecountrys infrastructure and public service facilities. This new approach was swiftly

followed in the private sector and abroad.

Facilities management todayThe FM sector is now large and complex, comprising a mix of in-house departments, specialistcontractors, large multi-service companies, and consortia delivering the full range of design, build,finance and management. Estimates vary; market research suggests that, in the UK alone, thesector is worth between 40bn and 95bn per annum.The facilities management profession has come of age. Its practitioners require skill andknowledge. The sector definition continues to expand to include the management of anincreasingly broad range of tangible assets, support services and people skills.

Looking to the future

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In recent years, a heightened awareness of the FM sector has been evident, driven by a numberof factors including:

Interest in outsourcing as a hot management topic Heavy media coverage of PFI/PPP initiatives and Increasing attention being paid to the sector by the financial community

Facilities management is a vital strategic discipline because it translates the high-level, strategic

change required by senior decision makers into day-to-day reality for people in their work or livingspace.Excellent facilities management can, amongst other things:

Deliver effective management of an organisations assets Enhance the skills of people within the FM sector and provide identifiable and meaningful

career options Enable new working styles and processesvital in this technology-driven age Enhance and project an organisations identity and image Help the integration processes associated with change, post-merger or acquisition Deliver business continuity and workforce protection in an era of heightened security

threats

Successful organisations in future will approach FM as an integral part of their strategic plan.Those organisations that treat FM as a commodity overhead will be at a significant strategicdisadvantage.