Facilities management information and data management · Facilities management information and data management 1st edition, information paper Facilities management organisations recognise

Facilities management informationand data management1st edition, information paper

Facilities management organisations recognise the value thatmanagement information can bring to the effectiveness of theirbusinesses.

Written for those operating at both the operational and strategiclevel of facilities management, this information paper aims toprovide an outline to help client side facilities managementorganisations to generate, analyse, use and report onmanagement information to the benefit of the hostorganisation.

rics.org/standards rics.org/standards

RICS Practice Standards, UK

1st edition, information paper

Facilities management informationand data management

IP 25/2011

Facilities management information and datamanagementRICS information paper

1st edition (IP 25/2011)

Published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

Surveyor Court

Westwood Business Park

Coventry CV4 8JE

UK

www.ricsbooks.com

No responsibility for loss or damage caused to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of the material included in this publication canbe accepted by the authors or RICS.

Produced by the Facilities Management Professional Group of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

ISBN 978 1 84219 7660

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) December 2011. Copyright in all or part of this publication rests with RICS. No part of this workmay be reproduced or used in any form or by any means including graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping orWeb distribution, without the written permission of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors or in line with the rules of an existing license.

Typeset in Great Britain by Columns Design XML Ltd, Reading, Berks

Printed by Page Bros, Norwich

Contents

Acknowledgments iv

RICS information papers 1

1 Introduction 2

1.1 Scope 21.2 Background 21.3 Information age and facilities management 3

2 Developing a facilities MI strategy 4

3 Defining facilities data and information requirements 5

4 Collecting facilities data from various sources 8

4.1 Sources of information 9

5 Analysing facilities data and management information 10

6 Reporting on facilities management information and data 12

7 Continuous improvement and innovation 13

8 Conclusion and summary 14

Appendices

1 Relationship modelling for key facilities stakeholders 15

2 Alignment to industry standards for reporting purposes 16

3 Reporting on facilities management information and data 17

FACILITIES MANAGEMENT INFORMATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT | iii

AcknowledgmentsRICS would like to express its thanks to the leadauthor and RICS Facilities Management ExecutiveBoard for their contributions to the content andpublication of this information paper.

Lead author

Sezgin Kaya, Managing Consultant, IBM GlobalBusiness Services

RICS Facilities Management Executive Board

Iain Brodie MRICS, Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust(Chairman)

Connel Bottom MRICS, PricewaterhouseCoopersLLP

Paul Francis, Modus Services

Mike Packham MRICS, Bernard WilliamsAssociates

David Parkinson FRICS, Facilities ManagementConsultant

Michael Pitt, University College London

Michael Ripper MRICS, Cortex International

Steve Surridge MRICS, Institute of CancerResearch

iv | FACILITIES MANAGEMENT INFORMATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT

RICS information papers

This is an information paper. Information papersare intended to provide information andexplanation to RICS members on specific topicsof relevance to the profession. The function ofthis paper is not to recommend or advise onprofessional procedure to be followed bymembers.

It is, however, relevant to professional competenceto the extent that members should be up to dateand have knowledge of information papers within areasonable time of their coming into effect.

Members should note that when an allegation ofprofessional negligence is made against a surveyor,a court or tribunal is likely to take account of anyrelevant information papers published by RICS indeciding whether or not the member has acted withreasonable competence.

FACILITIES MANAGEMENT INFORMATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT | 1

1 Introduction

1.1 Scope

This RICS paper aims to support chartered facilitiesmanagement practitioners by providing an outlineto help client side FM organisations to generate,analyse, use and report on managementinformation (MI) for the host organisation’s success.

1.2 Background

‘Information’ is one of the key aspects ofmanagement. Almost all workplace activities nowinvolve production, consolidation and conversion ofinformation into recognised organisational formats.Using information, organisations can createbusiness rules, make robust decisions and learnfrom the consequences of their actions.

Facilities management (FM) organisations recognisethe value that management information could bringto the effectiveness of their businesses. Over thelast few years, many FM organisations haveincreasingly adopted MI in a wide range ofbusiness discussions, including:

+ performance management

+ business improvement

+ resource optimisation; and

+ statutory reporting.

These discussions involve both operational andstrategic elements by which data and informationare captured, processed, shared, applied andreported to relevant stakeholders. Until recently, theuse of MI was limited to the collection ofmaintenance records associated with routine orreactive tasks, or completion of complianceactivities. With the potential for facilities servicemanagement models to become integrated into thehost organisation, and widespread enablingtechnologies, facilities management has becomemore information-rich than ever before.

However, this comes with its own challenges. Tomake the best use of the data and be credibleenough to impact on business decision making, thedata needs to be:

1 accurate, complete and up to date

2 easily obtainable and retrievable from storage;and

3 relevant and aligned to the organisationalprocesses.

2 | FACILITIES MANAGEMENT INFORMATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT

1.3 Information age and facilitiesmanagement

There is currently a great deal of internally andexternally generated information available throughreports and bulletins. However, their suitability anduse depends upon the particular MI needs of theaudience at operational or strategic levels ofbusiness. From the client’s perspective, it isimportant to recognise that facilities MI is not onlyused for operating an effective and efficientfacilities portfolio, but also for demonstratingoperational results in relation to its hostorganisation’s success at strategic level.

This paper focuses on the process which facilitiesmanagers can follow in order to identify their MIneeds for the clients, articulate the data, and reportto their target audience in client organisations. Theprocess consists of the following five steps:

1 developing a facilities MI strategy

2 defining facilities MI requirements

3 collecting facilities data from various sources

4 analysis; and

5 reporting facilities outputs.

Often, the terms facilities data and information areused interchangeably and are misunderstood. Thispaper refers to data as recordings of transactionsor events, which are meaningful in the context inwhich they are gathered. Basically, processed databecomes information; information then becomes‘knowledge’ for those who operate and use it, andapplied knowledge becomes intelligence to makeeffective management decisions.

Figure 1: Framework for building up a facilities MI


2 Developing a facilities MI strategy

The success of an FM organisation depends on itsability to manage the way in which operationsconform to the overall business strategy, and thedelivery of efficient and effective customer service.Information contained in FM organisations thereforetends to either demonstrate how the FMorganisational outputs are aligned to its hostorganisation’s business, or capture facilities deliverywith accurate operational records to make day-to-day business decisions. Every activity that creates,modifies or retires a data element needs to supporta business activity contributing to the organisation’sbusiness objectives.

However, to align operational outputs to a businessactivity, the chartered facilities managers need anin-depth understanding of the business needs andobjectives. The conversion of those needs togenerate relevant FM information is the key to asuccessful MI strategy.

That strategy enables the production of relevantbusiness reports, accurate and complete build upof data hierarchies from operational and tacticallevels of organisation. They can be also providingguidance to integrate FM data into enterprise-wideinformation systems. With regard to the typicalcontent of MI strategy, a number of areas areconsidered (see Table 1 below).

Strategies usually require a mandate. Thisnecessitates sign-off and ownership by anaccountable executive. Strategy also needs to bereviewed regularly to ensure its relevancy tochanging business conditions, report againstdeliverables and ensure that the strategy remainssuitable. Once the MI strategy is ready, with highlevel principles and terms of standard use in place,facilities managers can define their specific dataand information requirements, and start capturingdata at its source.

Table 1: Typical contents of a facilities MI strategy

Business drivers: refers to business demand by articulating the need; i.e. what information is needed toachieve the business goals, e.g. customer service, safety, quality, growth, profit, environmental targets,etc.Scope and Targets: outlines scope that the deliverables are covered. Often MI strategies becomeintrinsically linked to improvement projects. These may be to improve quality of services, enhancefacilities efficiency, competitiveness, accessibility to services based on user or stakeholder needs,customer satisfaction, etc. as a few examples.Governance and Information Handling Procedures: includes a defined and agreed set of principles forthe governance of the MI. For instance: security, ownership, accuracy, sanity, review, electronictransmission rules, share of information guidance, and accessibility. For security of information, referenceand guidance from ISO 27001 Information Security Standards (BS7799-2 in the United Kingdom) can besought. Besides making information secure, procedures enable it to be readily accessible for those whoneed it for operational or business purposes.Technology: includes standard and type of technology that will be used – this often forms arationalisation to consolidate certain activity onto a standard technology toolset (e.g. a commonComputer Aided Facilities Management, data repositories, links with Enterprise Resource Systems, SpacePlanning Tools and Software, etc).People: covers people management, training standards and developmentCosts: endeavours to set a cost for managing the information – this may often be in the form of abusiness case or cost justification. The value gained by use of information should not exceed the cost ofits management, which may be measured in terms of cash or time.


3 Defining facilities data and informationrequirements

This section: (a) outlines a process by whichorganisations can capture and define their data andinformation requirements; (b) explains constructionof ‘data matrices’ in platforms/repositories, and (c)suggests alignment to industry standard data codesand structures.

To define facilities data and informationrequirements, it is helpful to understand thesources and dynamics of an organisation’s dataflows, as follows:

A downstream data flow allows facilitiesmanagers to query supply chain information viacontractual or business-to-business engagementsin order to oversee portfolio or supply chainoutputs, i.e. information related to resourcedeployment, service scheduling, labour andmaterial costs, customer feedback, quality ofdelivery and service delivery outputs.

An upstream flow puts data generated from FMoperations and processes in the context ofbusiness views in order to demonstrate an FMorganisation’s success. This flow is necessary torelate operational outputs to enterprise-wide MI andthe facilities MI produced for executives, otherbusiness units, internal clients, shared serviceoperations and, where appropriate, clients of thehost organisation are all typical examples ofupstream data flows.

It is important to achieve a balance betweendownstream and upstream flow. While too manyactivities on downstream flow can over-burdensupply-chain and operations, too few upstreamactivities can isolate FM outputs from the rest ofhost organisation’s business.

Figure 2: Typical FM data flow


Downstream data flow from supply chainoperations are critical for the success andefficiency of an FM organisation, and are typicallyassociated with a variety of sources, (see section4.1).

These sources of information are typicallygenerated or collected by facilities managers orsurveyors who manage and maintain the day-to-day operations. However, operational data may notnecessarily be aligned to organisational objectives,and therefore needs to be built upon a series of‘data matrices’ to structure and form the data intomeaningful formats to feed into upstream data flow.These matrices may consist of data hierarchiesbased on physical assets and services. Dependingon the detail required, drill-down functionality canbe introduced so that global or regional level viewscan also include asset, equipment, or consumablelevel records.

In order to establish the level of data hierarchy, anddecide at which level to stop recording data,facilities professionals need to know the detailrequired to support MI at organisational level. Thiscould be influenced by the criticality of the asset orthe service to the host organisation’s businesses.To avoid unnecessary data collection, it is useful toconsider cost and resources deployed for collectingdata against its value to the business.

Once hierarchies are set up, data can be filtered bya number of attributes for either customers(business units or functions) or facility functions(e.g. office, warehouse). They are typicallyassociated with a service or asset’s cost, quality,volume, budget, or utilisation, etc. (as shown inFigure 3). Such information can help facilitiesmanagers with decision making during evidence-based discussions with business unit managersand executives.

The more flexible the data matrices to filter up anddown, the wider the content of MI reports can be.This flexibility enables facilities managers to use MIfor various purposes, including, benchmarking, andgeneration of executive and managerial levelreports. It also enables easier integration toenterprise-wide information management systemsand industry-recognised service structures, such asBOMA, REEB, IPD, etc. (see Appendix 2).

Although data matrices could be built up with thefunctionality to filter up and down in the datahierarchy, this process needs to be auditable. Lossof data trail can be a risk, and such cases couldbecome exposed to business controls. To avoidthis risk, and create an auditable data trail withlinks to existing or legacy data structures, datamapping exercises are undertaken.

Figure 3: Data hierarchies and typical attributes of facilities MI


Data mapping is an auditable process, which alignsnew data to the old data. In this way, charteredfacilities managers can track and trace its originsand eliminate potential business controls exposurearising from non-auditable data entries.

Data mapping can also make it more efficient tomove data during a business change. In particular,when tendering FM contracts, mapping the legacyscope and cost into the future can help facilitiesmanagers to align scope, cost and expected price

for the tendered services. This enables a like-for-like comparison between existing (before) andfuture (after) scope and price. In addition, if anindustry-recognised and standardised servicestructure is used, the existing and future costs canalso be used in external benchmarking. This notonly helps to evaluate and demonstrate the addedvalue of the business change, but also enables astructured assessment of facilities outputs againstits peers.

Figure 4: A data mapping exercise – mapping existing facilities scope and definitions to industry-standard scope


4 Collecting facilities data from varioussources

This section provides guidance on typical sourcesof facilities data to be captured/used by thechartered facilities surveyors. It will also explain howto deal with situations where data is incomplete,inaccurate or not up-to-date.

There are specific facilities data points that virtuallyevery organisation needs. Examples can includemetrics such as amount and type of space, numberof employees and end-users, indoor air andtemperature conditions, and square metres peremployee. This data can be used in several ways,including operational decision making, optimisationof resources, or internal and external benchmarks.

The required facilities information may not alwaysbe available from facilities operations ormanagement functions. It could be found inproperty and estates, IT, human resources, finance,environment, or health and safety related functions,and could be cumbersome to collect. To get thebest value from management information, the dataneeds to be in the right format, accurate andcollected at the right time. However, not all facilitiesinformation may fit into these qualities, and datacan often be incomplete or inaccurate. Before anycorrective action is taken, it is important to identifythe ‘data gaps’.

A ‘data gap’ refers to any missing or poor qualitydata that impairs a facilities professional’s ability tomake decisions, carry out duties, or meetobjectives. Listed below are a few methods thatcan be used to identify data gaps:

1 Data audits ensure data held is complete andfree from common problems such as:

+ a field is blank

+ no field is blank, but format is incorrect; and

+ data is complete in the right format, butinaccurate, out of date, or presented asdefault (e.g. job start date: 01/01/01)

Data audits can be undertaken by observingdata in its source, and conducting regularreviews.

2 Sampling data from registers. It is common totake a representative sample of data to verifyaccuracy and completeness. The samplingmight be repetitive depending on the results ofthe verification. In case the first sampling endsup with data gaps, further sample checks couldbe undertaken to identify the areas with poorquality information. This continues until asatisfactory level of representative sample isachieved.

3 Simple data sensitivity analysis is usually usedto determine how the variation of an input couldimpact on the overall baseline information. Thehigher the impact of an input, the more dataaudits or sampling can be undertaken toincrease its accuracy.

Once data gaps are identified, it is important toassess the impact of those gaps by asking asimple set of questions, as follows:

+ What data is incomplete or inaccurate?

+ What are the implications of data inaccuracy orincompleteness?

+ What decisions cannot be made in the absenceof (quality) data?

+ What is the minimum effort required tocomplete the data to make those decisions?

+ Does the effort needed to complete dataexceed the value gained by its existence?

It may not always be necessary to re-collect data,especially if the lack of data does not hinder thedecision-making process.

Other challenges facing data quality are changingbusiness conditions, and shifting regulationrequirements. Regular data reviews on relevancy,topicality and accuracy of information could help tokeep the data in alignment with those changes.


4.1 Sources of FM Information

It may prove useful to recast information fromhorizontal functions or systems, such asaccounting, supply chain and procurement, HR,environmental management, and facilitiesoperations, to provide a business process view.This is typically a challenging task. With horizontallyintegrated enterprise-wide technologies increasinglycapable of providing multi-layered information fromvarious sources, information can turn intomanagement reports in an instant. However, it stillremains for facilities managers to identify their ownrequirements before starting to engage with otherfunctions. Typical sources of facilities managementinformation can be found in the following places:

Financial information:

+ rent and rates

+ insurance

+ service charges

+ service spend

+ total cost of ownership

+ supplier spend

+ asset value

+ residual asset value

+ total cost of forward maintenance

+ backlog maintenance costs

+ cost of failures

+ routine and corrective maintenance costs

+ utilities, waste and recycling costs

+ environmental management costs

+ project spend

+ budget; and

+ actual, year to date, and forecasts.

Supply chain and procurement information:

+ service and geographical coverage

+ contract performance scores

+ health and safety records

+ compliance scores

+ credit scores

+ access to funds

+ liability and insurance cover

+ turnover and profit margins

+ number of employees operating in the contract

+ expertise; and

+ rates of contract retention.

Human resources information:

+ number of employees

+ employee geographical location

+ average travel to work times

+ special requirements and needs

+ accessibility

+ mobility of workforce

+ recruitment trends and space needs; and

+ demographics.

Environmental information:

+ utilities consumption

+ carbon footprint

+ waste produced

+ waste recycled and disposed of

+ waste disposal methods

+ environmental management systems andcompliance; and

+ future projection and targets against actualenergy and environmental measures.

Estates information:

+ property value

+ portfolio size

+ lease terms and conditions

+ space and building utilisation; and

+ occupancy profile and tenancy.

Maintenance operations:

+ number of facilities staff

+ shifts and hours of operation

+ asset and service performance

+ service and asset availability

+ maintenance schedule

+ reactive, planned, preventative, predictivemaintenance

+ manufacturer’s warranty; and

+ customer service feedback and experiencescore.


5 Analysing facilities data and managementinformation

This section elaborates on the exploitation of datamentioned in previous sections and explains keyconsiderations, methods and technologies foranalysis by giving examples where facilitiesmanagement information can improve businessperformance.

The main purpose of data is to help businessesmake decisions on optimisation of resources andact upon the information gathered about a product,condition or customer needs. With the increasingtechnological advancements, businesses havebecome more capable of effectively processing andanalysing data.

Facilities management data flowing from operationscan now be stored in data warehouses, with theoption to analyse it at any time using analyticalmodels, such as data mining and interface models.The outputs can be provided to corporatemanagement enabling them to align the informationto corporate objectives.

Examples of some of the most common facilitiesmanagement information generated as a result ofdata analysis are summarised in the table below:

Table 2: Example of common facilities MI and analysis methods

Common facilities MI (not exhaustive) Analysis methods Method description

– Surveys (e.g. number of end users satisfied withservice).

– Number of incidents over a period (e.g. number offailures in a critical asset, security, health and safetyincidents).

Frequencydistributions.

Entries in a table contain frequency orcount of a value, event, or occurrences.

– Average number of visits to a building over a month.– Relation between building utilisation/NIA and service

(e.g. cleaning) costs.– Relation between closure of high priority jobs and

technician’s induction.– Relation between customer experience and

satisfaction scores and changes in business/physicalenvironment.

Descriptivestatistics.

Means, standard deviations,correlations demonstrating degree ofrelationship between two variables.

– Predictive maintenance (possibility of asset failureunder certain conditions).

– Maintenance cost of an asset over time (to makereplace or repair decisions).

– Explore impact of potential lower customersatisfaction scores due to changes in service staff,indoor air temperature, allocated space, lighting, etc.

Regression. Helps to understand how a dependentvariable changes when any of theindependent variables are changed.


There are a number of other data analysis methods,such as cluster analysis, latent class analysis,hierarchical linear modelling and differential itemfunctioning. Facilities business analysts maychoose to use a combination of these analysesdepending on the following considerations:

+ the purpose of the analysis or project

+ sample(s) under study

+ instruments being used to collect data; and

+ data layouts and formats.

In a typical facilities business analysis, it isessential to scrutinise and validate data; relate theresults to the business context, and build uprealistic action plans to improve, change andoptimise facilities processes and resources. Forinstance, with the introduction of smart meteringsystems to monitor energy consumption inbuildings, vast amounts of data can be collectedfrom operations for analysis. Facilities managers,assisted by business analysts, can now interpretthis information to make decisions related to energyimprovement and efficiency. The results of thisanalysis are usually used to monitor thecontribution to an organisation’s carbon reductiontargets.

Another typical example of facilities data analysis isthe set up of correlations between reactive andplanned works for asset life-cycle management andoptimisation programmes.

By examining the maintenance, failure and repairpatterns of an asset over time, facilities managerscan identify an optimum balance between reactiveand planned activities, determine frequency ofmaintenance schedules, and make replace versusrepair decisions for assets and building systems.

An increasingly important aspect of analysis is thepower to predict recurring events by looking intopast patterns. Scenario modelling is one of thetechniques by which analysts can predict thelikelihood of a risk before it is visible or obvious toa usual practitioner, thus mitigating the risk before ithappens.

The ability to collect vast amounts of informationfrom operational or tactical level activities isincreasingly enabling facilities managers to optimiseresource use, spot maintenance trends, preventmanagement failures, combat health and safetyissues and increase end-user comfort andexperience in buildings.

Managed well, facilities information can unlock newvalue added services to businesses, provide freshinsights into making relevant business rules, andhold an emerging credibility and accountability inpositioning chartered facilities managementpractice in their respective organisations.


6 Reporting on facilities managementinformation and data

This section explains the outcomes by describingand categorising typical FM reports where the dataand information flows into, and elaborates on, thecontribution of facilities MI to management decisionmaking.

Reporting is the tangible output of facilitiesmanagement information and data. It is thereforethe front-end face of credibility, relevancy andaccountability of information, its processing rigourand results. The most common output of facilitiesmanagement information is ‘performance reporting’.It includes reporting on the information related tofour aspects of businesses:

1 statutory reporting (statutory or legislativerequirements) such as health and safetyincidents, security, hazardous waste

2 contractual reporting, where supplier or in-house facilities managers audit anddemonstrate performance achievements againstthe agreed service levels

3 in-business reporting, where in-house facilitiesmanagers report on agreed businessperformance targets or other achievements tobusiness executives; or

4 regular, or on-demand reporting, where reportsare generated to provide information forbusiness-as-usual activities. These mightinclude monthly or quarterly reports onbudgets, actual and forecast, or a reportincluding on request building specific utilisation.

Facilities managers can be involved in reportingfacilities MI at three levels. These are explained inmore detail in Appendix 3:

1 relationship management level

2 operational management level; or

3 service management level.

Figure 5: Facilities management reporting levels


7 Continuous improvement and innovation

This section reinforces the need to revisit the statusof various information management practices anddemonstrates best practice and innovation as anongoing management process for chartered FMsurveyors.

Whether it is to meet the host organisation’sexpectations or to keep up with innovation in the ITdomain, FM organisations need to review theirfacilities information management strategy atregular intervals and make informed decisionsabout relevancy, utilisation, and the efficiency oftheir existing information.

Unanticipated needs and use of information willarise for facility management information due tobusiness changes, new regulatory requirements anda myriad of other conditions. The informationstrategy, data collection process and analysismethods and tools, as well as the level of reportingrequired, needs to be reviewed and adaptedcontinuously for changing business conditions.Information once critical to business can becomeless important or even unnecessary over time.Other information that once seemed insignificantmay become of prime importance. The key is toremain flexible and sensitive to business needs andto change the management information strategyaccordingly.


8 Conclusion and summary

Traditionally, creation, processing and conversion ofmanagement information were not the corebusiness of facilities organisations. This is changingas the information is becoming seemingly rich andavailable across all facilities functions, fromoperations to management. Facilities managementorganisations are being challenged by not makingthe relevant information available for theorganisation; or conversely, having pushed theirresources into the unproductive administrativeactivities involved in dealing with vast amounts ofinformation.

Chartered facilities managers are recognising theneed to put in place facilities MI strategies andpolicies to collect the right information, at the righttime, for the right purposes with robust analysis torelate it to the host organisation’s businessobjectives. Now, more than ever, having qualityinformation to enable a facilities organisation todeliver more effective, efficient and demonstrableresults to its value chain is the core part of itsorganisational success.


Appendix 1: Relationship modelling for keyfacilities stakeholders

Relationship modelling helps to define keystakeholders, their influence and interests infacilities management outputs, and ensures there isan effective relationship in place to engage withthem, understand them, and manage theirexpectations. Stakeholders can be described as‘individuals or groups who have interest or someaspects of rights or ownership … to contribute inthe form of knowledge and support or can impactor be impacted by a specific event or action’.

In facilities service environments, whereexpectations change rapidly, effective reporting tokey stakeholders becomes important. Stakeholdermaps, as illustrated below, are one of the mostinfluential relationship modelling tools to constructa communication strategy for reporting purposes.

They consist of three dimensions: influence (x-axis),interest (y-axis) and involvement (size of bubble) ofeach stakeholder.

The first step is to define potential stakeholdersinside (upwards and downwards in organisationalhierarchy) and outside (e.g. suppliers, industry,public, government) of the organisation.

The second step is to assess stakeholders’ interest,influence and involvement in facilities managementoutputs, and map these on the plot diagram. Thelast step would be to cluster the stakeholders toprioritise and identify a plan to communicate thekey facilities MI in order to give consistentmessages, and ensure their needs are understoodand managed.

Figure 6: Example of a stakeholder map


Appendix 2: Alignment to industry standardsfor reporting purposes

How can an organisation align facilities service levelinformation with industry standard codes andstructure as well as ERP (enterprise resourceplanning) systems?

The example framework below shows howinformation from operations can be linked to bothindustry standards on service levels, benchmarking,and ERP systems for an organisation’s financialreporting purposes. The operational data such asoccupancy costs, job completion rates, servicecosts, resource availability and environmentalinformation can be gathered using a pre-definedformat incorporated into primary and secondaryservice level agreements (SLAs).

A primary SLA represents a broader scope ofservices such as mechanical and electrical

maintenance. A secondary SLA is a sub-set of thisservice, e.g. HVAC, or electrical maintenance.Defining SLAs in a hierarchical format enableschartered facilities managers to break down thecost of a broader service into its sub-categoriesand so achieve more visibility on cost allocationand resource utilisation.

Secondary SLAs would be of sufficient detail to bealigned to the industry benchmarks and ERPcodes. Once these are done, each and every time areport is needed, the information will be readilyavailable in the required format and granularity.

Figure 7: Example framework for aligning FM operational information and data with enterprise andindustry-wide data codes and structures.


Appendix 3: Reporting on facilitiesmanagement information and data

(1) Relationship management level – This level ofreporting focuses on demonstrating the results offacilities outputs to key customers, executivestakeholders and businesses. The primary objectiveof reporting at this level is to retain, improve andexpand existing business relationshipscontinuously, as well as contribute to the hostorganisation’s productivity, reputation and image.Management results of a balanced approachbetween operations, finance, customers andenvironment are typically demonstrated as strategicscorecards at this level of reporting.

To best define these reports, ‘relationshipmodelling’ tools can be used (see the example inAppendix 1). These are helpful mechanisms todefine key stakeholders in an organisation, andassess their influence and involvement in decision-making processes. This not only helps to relatefacilities outputs to the interests of eachstakeholder, but also to tailor the information tosupport their decision making.

The strategic scorecards mainly comprise of anumber of balanced measures, including:

+ accounts (e.g. actual and forecast on thetargets achieved)

+ customers, process maturity, growth

+ corporate social responsibility and environment;and

+ impact statement on shareholder/stakeholdervalue.

(2) Operational management level – This level ofreporting focuses on effectiveness and efficiency ofmaintaining a portfolio and managing it to anagreed standard by adding value, mitigating risksand increasing the portfolio or asset quality. Theprimary objective of this level of reporting is todemonstrate tangible benefits in all areas of scopewith increased business performance and reducedrisks.

Information generated from operational processescan be incorporated at this level of reporting.Typical sources of the operational managementinformation are:

+ risk or condition-based management –maintenance, compliance, criticalityassessment, and service downtime reliabilitymeasures

+ efficiency and effectiveness of portfolio byexternal or internal benchmarks on cost, quality,environment, space and occupancy; and

+ asset and portfolio life-cycle value assessmentover the contract or asset life-span. This mayalso include forward maintenance registers,asset utilisation figures, life expectancy andfuture value of assets.

The collection of asset registers and assetcondition surveys are part of the data that could beused to report at this level, primarily to demonstratean asset’s actual performance in relation to itscondition, with its historic and projectedmaintenance spend. Operational reports are criticalfor the efficiency and effectiveness of daily serviceprovision, and adequate information to supportthose reports is generated by business-as-usualservice transactions, as explained in the nextreporting level.

(3) Service management level – This level ofreporting focuses on the transactional level ofservices. The primary objective of FM servicemanagement is to offer quality services to providepositive customer experiences in a compliant, safeand secure service setting. Service reports typicallyinclude the results of daily service transactionsbetween customers and services.

Approaches to service management have changedsignificantly over the past few years. Facilitiesmanagers previously tasked to report on serviceaccomplishment against an agreement, orcontractual obligation, have now been pulled intoholistic service approaches, where the ultimate goalof a service setting is to enhance ‘customerexperience’. These approaches require specificcustomer surveying methodologies to gather datafrom customers and understand the feedback ontheir interaction with services.


In addition to customer feedback, informationrelated to daily operational transactions such ascompletion of jobs, scheduling tasks, call deskrecords, room bookings, cleaning audits, andsecurity alerts, etc. can be listed as further sourcesto build up service reports. The service reportstypically include results from a combination ofcategories of information, such as:

+ customer feedback and experience

+ delivery compliance to contract service levels

+ daily financial transactions, invoice processing;and

+ daily service alerts, logs and responses.


Facilities management informationand data management1st edition, information paper

Facilities management organisations recognise the value thatmanagement information can bring to the effectiveness of theirbusinesses.

Written for those operating at both the operational and strategiclevel of facilities management, this information paper aims toprovide an outline to help client side facilities managementorganisations to generate, analyse, use and report onmanagement information to the benefit of the hostorganisation.

rics.org/standards rics.org/standards

RICS Practice Standards, UK

1st edition, information paper

Facilities management informationand data management

IP 25/2011

Facilities management information and data management · Facilities management information and data management 1st edition, information paper Facilities management organisations recognise

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