Reinventing the Facility Management Technology Stack for the Demands of a New Decade

Are facility managers equipped to meet all possible demands?

The question comes to mind when looking at CBRE’s recent Facilities Management Procurement survey^[1]. When asked what their organization’s top priority was, respondents named no fewer than five - cost savings, quality and service improvement, stakeholder satisfaction, health and safety and sustainability - with no clear leading priority. 

This scattered focus reflects the challenges of 2024, where facility managers will be tasked with squaring the circle: cutting costs while delivering better services, providing a better employee experience and improving building stainability - all at once.

Top priority: All of the above

Due to supply chain disruptions, skill shortages and inflationary concerns, costs have risen by around 5% across the EMEA region for the second year in a row^[2], putting facility managers under pressure to control costs. In this context, cost-savings are often the highest priority.

At the same time, regulations and compliance requirements are increasing. In the EU, the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD) is gradually imposing new energy performance requirements and regulatory systems - most notably, Building Automation Control Systems (BACS) in tertiary buildings by January 2025. 

These stricter requirements are based on two considerations. First, buildings are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions - in Europe, they account for 40% of energy consumption^[3] - and regulators are increasingly looking at lifecycle emissions. Secondly, harnessing data collected through BACS and other systems can simultaneously drive down energy consumption and costs - if facility managers have the tools, insights, and agility to do so.

Overcoming spaghetti architecture

 

However, using data to reduce emissions is far from simple. As buildings have become "smarter" and more complex, the technology stack required for facility managers has also significantly expanded.

BACSs represent just one dimension of this, tracking and managing factors such as temperature, air quality, lighting, and HVAC. To achieve significant reductions, they need to feed into other applications designed to manage resources, asset information, maintenance and inventory. 

In addition, creating data exchanges between BACSs and Building information modeling (BIMs) or digital twins can help facility managers gain visibility over the building’s lifecycle beyond its operation phase. However, interfacing these different components can prove difficult because of reasons that range from a lack of interoperability to organizational silos. 

For example, predictive maintenance is one of the most promising areas to cut costs and emissions, which has been found to help reduce costs by up to 30%. But successful implementation requires drawing from multiple data sources - such as asset information, sensor data, or maintenance history - often scattered across multiple applications, spreadsheets and manual logs.

The next critical step is to match that information with available materials and resources. Today, it is estimated that 77% of work order delays are attributed to unavailable materials.^[4]

Building the right foundation for 21st-century facility management

So, how can facility managers ensure they have the right technology to rise up to these multiple challenges?

The first step is to have the right tools. A proper foundation integrates Building Information Modeling (BIM) or digital twin technologies with a modern enterprise asset management (EAM) solution. An EAM system is well suited for facility management since it can connect with various data sources, assimilate real-time data from IoT devices, and provide mobile capabilities and operational data from ERP systems, among other inputs. 

This capability allows EAM systems to centralize functions such as call center management, alerts, and inspections, which used to be managed separately, providing a more unified view of asset status. EAM systems can also leverage machine learning to support decision-making about asset maintenance, repair, or replacement to improve efficiency and cost management.

This software foundation allows for better, more accurate data capture in the field - using mobile apps with offline capabilities and the ability to capture rich content and metadata. Mobility also means that field workers can access the right information at the right time, making their work easier, better organized, and more meaningful by focusing on productive tasks. 

This rise in productivity is essential to address the multi-faceted challenges of facility management. In the next two years, it is estimated that one in four vacancies in facility management will remain unfilled^[5] but that 47% of tasks could be simplified or eliminated through digitalization. The smart use of digital technologies will, therefore, be imperative to deliver on the promises of smart buildings and provide better services and greener facilities without an increase in costs.

This blog was originally published in Tomorrow's FM