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Facility, Property & Asset Management Professionals
"Talent hits a target no one else can hit, Genius hits a target no one else can see" - Arthur Schopenhauer, German Philosopher
Latest News: Seminars, Blogs and Quick Guides for FM
I will be at the Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association (PRSM) annual conference in Phoenix Arizona as a featured speaker, delivering a seminar on "Intelligent Benchmarking". The session is on April 20th, 2009. If you are a member, see you there. If you are in the industry but not a member, consider joining.
The workshop in Dubai titled "Strategic Facilities Management & KPI's" is expected to be run again this year. We will send out a bulletin when the date is finalized.
Our Blog has two new items you may want to read.
"Learn from Wal-Mart about the value of information" illustrates why having information can help you improve your business. It's a key part of Wal-Mart's success.
"Are your FM Systems Boat Anchors or Wind in your Sail?" reflects my observations from speaking with many senior managers who know they aren't using their FM Systems to their full potential. I outline some of the problems and propose solutions.
To read the Blogs, click here » Managing The Built Environment Blog
New Release » We've released our Quick Guides for FM in a free subscription format. Sign-up and receive a new one in your in-box each week. You can download the index and a sample before you sign-up. For more info: » Quick Guides
Current Economy (Still!): What you can do
Yes, the economy is still the top issue. With redundancies and layoffs throughout the industry, particularly on the development side, many Professional Facility Managers and Property Managers are working hard to cut costs for their organizations.
You can take a leadership role and examine areas you may not have considered before and take unique approaches to reducing costs without cutting to the bone. After all, when you cut the bone, you are risking future health as well.
You have the opportunity to demonstrate the value of professional FM in this crisis by looking closely and stepping up to the plate. A simple example is the move away from bottled water (including eliminating the sale of bottled water in municipal offices in cities such as Toronto, Canada). This is a great initiative you can leverage to eliminate bottled water from your facilities where municipal water is perfectly fine.
At a government office I visit frequently for consulting work I am doing, they no longer have bottled water in meetings - they switched to a jug with chilled, filtered water. Saves money and the environment at the same time.
Making this type of change may have been risky in the past, but this is the time to be bold.
You can read the article with other ideas here, including procurement and how to work with your service providers » Facility Managers can add to the Bottom Line with Cost Reductions
Articles: Upcoming
Another one of our articles article is scheduled for publication. This time it's the February issue of RFP Magazine, a magazine about Real Estate, Facilities and Projects with a focus on Asia.
The article is about saving costs (no surprise there) on development and capital renewal projects by using key life-cycle strategies.
We have over 25 full length on-line articles for you to read. They cover Customer Service, Performance Management, Facility & Property Management and Outsourcing. Click here for access to all our articles.
For the text of any published articles not on our website, please email us. To see a complete listing of previously published articles and our speaking credits, click here
Focus: Procurement
Procuring services for FM is not the same as buying widgets or tendering project work. You will live with the results, and the people who come along with the supplier, for the term of the contract.
These service providers will often impact your image with tenants and occupants, right up the line within your tenant organization or your company. How they perform will reflect on you.
When they are successful, you will be successful. This means it is just as important to get the right service and the right company as it is to get the right prices. You can’t use a technical approach to procuring your services like you would with a construction project.
Defining what you want is the first step, then you need to make sure the service provider can deliver on what you want within the price they quote. Finally, you need to make sure they are a good fit. This includes their level of sophistication, culture, how they deal with their staff, training, image and more.
Your procurement department, if you have one, will probably have a formula approach they will use, sometimes geared to squeezing the lowest possible price out of the suppliers. While this is admirable in the current economic climate, it may be false economy. They will look like hero’s and you may even look like a hero, but just wait until next year or the next. It may bite you.
Focus first on getting the correct level of service in these trying times and introduce flexibility in the contract terms that will enable you to increase or decrease services with a defined pricing approach – to avoid having them under-price reductions and over-price increases in scope or service levels down the road.
Get your pricing with details you can use to effectively assess bids. This is particularly important in labour intensive services such as Janitorial. Knowing their rates, loadings, proposed hours, etc. will let you compare properly between bidders and weed out any suspect pricing practices. It also provides you with more information to either negotiate or to modify scope if the prices you get are more than your budget will permit.
When evaluating service providers, ask questions that will differentiate them and provide comfort that you can deal with them professionally for the duration of the contract. These days, being able to work with and rely on your suppliers is important.
Under the assumption you will only invite qualified companies to bid in the first place, they must be capable of delivering the the service. What you need to learn about them are things that will help you be more successful. How tech savvy are they? Do they analyze and improve services? Do they provide you with information and knowledge, not just useless lists and reports? Do they keep involved with the industry and up-to-date with trends and innovations? Do they properly train and re-train their employees? What is their reputation? How much do they invest in systems, technology, tools and staff? You should ask about these things and others that are important to you and your success.
Finally, you expect more from your suppliers these days, so find out whether they can deliver on those expectations. For instance, instead of simply telling them exactly what to do in the bidding, ask them to propose approaches and changes to your specifications that can save you money. They are the experts, so tap into their knowledge. Your specifications may be wasting money and they can suggest solutions, cost savings ideas and other approaches to improve results and also save money. The old-style traditional supplier - without much sophistication - will simply do what you tell them, whether it's wasteful or not.
You want someone who will do the job efficiently, give you the service you need and use their experience and knowledge to help make you more successful.
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About Strategic Advisor
We help customers get results with consulting, training and advisory services. We can deliver internationally for any Facility, Asset and Property Management organization. We help you get results, reduce costs and improve your team's effectiveness.
Our Services help you:
» Lower Total Costs
» Improve Efficiency
» Enhance Services
Our Services include:
- Facility & Property Mgmt. Assessments
- Strategic planning
- FM System Business Processes
- Organizational Design / Improvement
- Performance Management
- Chargeback
- Business Cases
- Facilitation
- Managing Transitions
- Contract Docs / Contract Management
- Policies & Procedures Development
- Outsourcing / Contracting Support
- Training & Education
- Surveys
Visit: Strategic Advisor.ca
Download: Brochure
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Released: FM Quick Guides
Our Quick Guide series for Facility and Property Managers is now available. They include 21 two-page guides with key points, traps to avoid and executive tips in a convenient reference format.
» Find out how to get them.
Available: White Papers
Our White Papers are available for you to download. They provide you with a roadmap to succeed at these important initiatives.
» Intelligent Benchmarking
» Health Check for FM Operations
Newsletter: Archives
If you missed any of the past newsletters, simply want to read them again or pass them along, please visit our newsletter archive.
» Newsletter Archive
Next Issue: Benchmarking
It's important to do, but few really do it and few actually use it to move things forward. Don't look at it as a one-time numbers exercise. It's just the first step in an important process of examining what else you can do or what you are doing that you can do better.
Our next issue will focus on benchmarking and about taking it one step further.
Blogs: New
Our most recent Blogs include:
» Are your FM Systems Boat Anchors or Wind in your Sail?
» Learning from Wal-Mart about the value of Information.
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Benefits: Our Services
You benefit from our Consulting & Advisory Services:
» You Get Efficient Resources
» You Get an Outside View
» You Get Results Quickly
» You Get Value For Money
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If you have a question, comment or suggestion, please send me an email.
Sincerely,
Michel Theriault
Principal,
Strategic Advisor
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