Why Would Building / Communities Want to Hire a Facility Management Company?

By: Ryan Lee

Every buildings/community wants to save money. Bottom line savings can be elusive, which makes it important to spend consciously and save wherever possible. So why would a buildings/communities want to hire a facility management company and spend the (sometimes) significant costs associated with facilities upkeep? For one simple reason: because the cost of not maintaining facilities is even greater.

Why do we need facility management?

Buildings/communities are the home for all residents. Most residence spends a lot of their time at home. Facility management keeps the community neat and tidy while ensuring it meets their needs and expectations for residing.

Why outsource facilities management?

Not every buildings/community has the means to provide an encompassing level of facilities management in-house. The decision to outsource to facilities management companies depends on a lot of factors, including cost, talent availability, technology, or size of facilities, to name a few. They might not have on-staff craftspeople or facility management software—or, the cost of investing in these resources might not make sense.

The other major reason to outsource facilities management is for sheer convenience. Facilities require a lot of oversight. The ability to delegate most or all of this oversight to a company whose sole focus is to deliver a superior standard of service often makes sense. The fewer buildings/communities have to focus on facilities, the more attention it can devote to other mission-critical efforts.

The software offers an intermediate opportunity

For Building / Community that don’t necessarily want to keep everything in-house, facility management software is a great compromise. There are opportunities within different applications to streamline in-house, low-level management and upkeep for facilities, as well as tools that help manage contracts and service-level agreements (SLAs) with vendors and management companies.

The software itself is an investment, but one that generates strong ROI when leveraged into a broad facility management plan.

Consider integrated facility management

One of the best reasons to work with a facilities management company is to create an integrated facilities management approach. Integrated facilities management is the practice of consolidating services and costs into a single umbrella provider (or as few as possible). It’s a method of simplifying facility management so there are fewer SLAs, more consistent terms, and a well-established partnership with defined expectations.

Integrated facilities management is popular among buildings/communities that want to outsource as much as possible to a facility management company. It’s a form of automation, with the expectation that the chosen facilities partner will tackle everything: from proactive maintenance to reactive repairs, as well as budgeting, capital planning, and reporting of core facilities metrics.

Make the investment in facilities

While bottom-line savings and cost-conservation are important initiatives for buildings/communities, so are strategic investments. Few investments offer a broader return than an investment in facilities and a partner to help maintain and manage them.

As we enter a pivotal time for commercial real estate, facilities upkeep is only becoming more important. Delegating upkeep or leaning on a service partner to maximize facilities is a smart investment for the present and future.