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What is Integrated Facility Management?

As defined by IFM Outsourcing, Integrated Facilities Management is a method of consolidating all of a business’s facility services and functions under one outsourced team of experts in order to streamline communication and decision-making between business leaders and facility managers. This, in turn, helps to increase building efficiency and simplify day-to-day operations.

New Year, New Decade, New Trends

With 2019 coming to a close, we’re not only saying goodbye to another year; we are saying goodbye to an entire decade—a decade that showed astonishing (or unimaginable) advances in the controls industry. From the Internet of Things to more robust building automation and management systems, artificial intelligence, and more, today’s world looks completely different than it did at the start of the decade. Our team, services and processes have evolved with these times and are ready to take on a new decade of advances.

Read on to explore four facility management trends to pay attention to in the new year.

Outsourcing & Rising Employment Costs

In-house facility managers come at a high price. This trend has continued to increase in popularity over the last few years and will continue to gain traction into 2020 and the new decade. According to Service Futures, this trend is fueled by multiple forces:

• The demand for high-quality workplace experiences and reduced operating costs
• Increased cost of employing in-house facility management teams
• The complex task of managing a large suite of services

Outsourcing facility management services also allow in-house teams the opportunity to focus more on strategies and enhancing user experience rather than maintaining their facilities or their clients' facilities.

Increased Focus on both Internal & External Collaboration

Collaboration will continue to rise in 2020. And we’re not talking open-office concepts here—we’re talking teams, both internal and external, working together to build strong partnerships with clients and vendors for the most optimal outcomes and work environments. With this also comes the desire for clients to create long-term partnerships with their facility and control teams.

Personalized Services & Solutions

Nobody wants templated solutions anymore. Personalized services—or, more importantly, personalized solutions—are highly sought out and valued. In 2020 and beyond, employees and building occupants will expect facility managers to be the “concierges” of the workplace, supplying the proper technology, services and amenities to create a more productive and comfortable work environment, according to iOffice Corp.

Value Creation > Cost Savings

A company can only get so far by touting cost savings. What value are you bringing to the table that your competitors are not? Even though cutting costs will be increasingly important in the upcoming years, creating value as a facility manager will undoubtedly be a priority as well. This will require being strategy-focused, actively seeking new technologies to improve workflows and consistently monitoring workplace conditions like HVAC, temperature controls, lighting and air quality to improve productivity and comfort in facilities.

Make Control Solutions Your Long-Term Partner in 2020

Control Solutions is made up of experts who always listen first, evaluate needs and then devise thorough, well-thought-out plans for our clients. We love working alongside facility managers to help them create more energy-saving, cost-effective, automated environments for their occupants. Contact us today to discuss a plan to optimize your building in 2020.

Credits:

IFM Outsourcing
Service Futures
iOffice Corp