Facilities management is a critical business discipline. It’s also a big, dynamic and often confusing marketplace. How do service managers and service buyers develop an understanding of what they need and then make sense of what’s on offer?
And how do service providers explain what they can do in ways that managers and buyers can relate to comfortably?
All service delivery models offer benefits – to particular types of organisations in particular circumstances. But what types, and in what circumstances? How does a buyer make sense of what’s on offer; and how does a supplier ensure it has facilitated that process rather than obstructed it? Getting this right is critical – especially when you add today’s unprecedented economic pressures on top of the evolving nature of FM. The challenge for the buyer is to be an informed decision-maker, an ‘intelligent client’. The challenge for the provider is to be equally intelligent in offering a response to the needs expressed.
Workplace Futures 2011 was designed to help bridge the gaps – by helping clients gain the intelligence they need to make sound decisions, in selecting delivery models and in appointing contractors, as well as in managing contracts once they are in place.
