The Industry is Shifting — Are You Positioned for Growth?

Whether you’re in signage, lighting, HVAC/R, plumbing, or any other facility services discipline, you’ve likely already seen how the wider industry has been affected by today’s myriad challenges. The labor shortages and economic issues of recent years are just the tip of the iceberg — other matters with greater longevity are continuing to keep service companies and customers on their toes. As a service vendor, it’s important to stay on top of facility management trends and data so you’re able to adapt and respond to continue meeting your customers’ needs.

Here, we’ll explore a few leading facility management trends, what they mean for your business, and why it may be worth taking a new approach as you look to grow your business in the years ahead.

If growth is a focus for your business, consider partnering with a facility maintenance aggregator. Learn why here. 

What to Watch For as a Facility Services Vendor

1. Companies are re-evaluating their facility management programs.

Many of the challenges outlined above have led companies to strategically analyze the benefits of outsourcing and insourcing certain facility services functions — primarily to maximize value creation. This means they’re laser-focused on what will make them more productive, help them to reduce costs, and help them be more efficient. For example, maintenance activities on key equipment may be insourced if a company feels they will have better control or perhaps faster repair times. Conversely, maintenance may be outsourced if the company feels it lacks the talent, capabilities, or time to handle it.

  • How this affects your business — Scrutiny of your services and value is only going to increase. You’ll need to find ways to maximize your value to customers, along with ways to deliver that value sooner in the relationship.
  • Something to consider — Partner with a facility management aggregator that can integrate you into an existing relationship where value and trust are established. You get a new revenue stream, and the pressure to create value is already done.

2. Technology adoption and utilization is changing.

Companies today are looking to reduce costs, and one way they’re doing that is consolidating their tech stacks. This includes facility management technologies (such as work order management systems), which historically have been lagging behind other industries for a number of reasons. While the tools are available, companies are either going to use their own solution or look for one that’s established and will add value to their facility management operations right away.

  • How this affects your business — Your clients are going to expect you to use their systems or provide a proven solution. You’ll need to learn their system or implement a tool for program tracking, asset management, etc. This can be time-consuming and expensive on both fronts.
  • Something to consider — Working with an aggregator for facility maintenance means you’ll have access to a number of common work order management systems and other tools that you can leverage to track project status, provide documentation, and ultimately deliver the experience clients expect.

3. Proactive Asset Maintenance and Replacement

It may seem obvious to proactively replace assets and systems in facilities before they completely fail, but the reality is that many organizations err on the side of repairing assets and keeping them in place to avoid total replacement costs. This may have short-term cost savings, but the risks quickly outweigh the benefits. The assets will need to be replaced eventually, creating uncomfortable conditions or forcing facilities to shut down entirely. Additionally, unexpected replacements mean companies are forced into unplanned spending, and lead times on replacements are extensive currently. Overall, not being proactive means companies are likely to find themselves in a more challenging situation later than if they’d proactively invested in replacements paid for via CapEx funding.

  • How this affects your business — Inconsistent asset replacement coupled with unplanned maintenance or repair means you’re unable to accurately forecast work and revenue. It can also stress your relationships with clients when you’re not able to respond immediately or provide a replacement asset due to extensive lead times.
  • Something to consider — Aggregators that take a strategic, program-level approach as opposed to one-off maintenance and replacements will partner with their clients to plan out larger, proactive replacements that are paid for from CapEx funds, meaning that the assets are budgeted and known vs. being unexpectedly replaced from OpEx budgets. While there is more cost to the client upfront, the long-term savings from avoiding downtime and repairs is significant. Consider partnering with an aggregator that takes this approach so you have more consistent revenue and fewer unexpected service/replacement calls.

Aggregate to Accelerate — Grow Your Business with CLS Facility Services

As one of the leading facility management aggregators serving the U.S. and Canada, CLS Facility Services has built a 50-year legacy of making facility asset management and maintenance programs simple yet powerfully effective for our clients. Key to this is our national vendor network. We have partnerships with vendors such as yourself across a variety of facility services disciplines, and we’re always welcoming more to help us expand our coverage and best support our clients. On average, we’ve built strong 13-year relationships with our vendors, and we’d enjoy the opportunity to do the same with you.

Connect with our vendor management team today to get started.