Facility Management Planning Season is Here

As a facility management leader, this time of year often brings familiar challenges and frustrations: colder weather straining heating systems, increased energy and fuel expenses, and potentially higher lighting maintenance services costs due to less daylight. That’s just a sampler, though — and while you’re dealing with those issues, you’ll also soon be conducting annual facility management planning to establish budgets, set strategy, review partnerships, and plan new projects.

This process is critical for determining the resources you and your team will need to keep all of the locations throughout your footprint running smoothly. However, accurately forecasting and solidifying that budget is far from simple — especially when the unexpected occurs. But even more problematic is how you get the information to build the forecast. It all comes down to how you execute facility management programs:

  1. Using self-performing vendors that you manage and coordinate in-house
  2. Working with an aggregator who manages the program and vendors for you

With the first approach, you’re working with numerous vendors across several disciplines (HVAC, lighting, signage, etc.) in every city and state where you do business. You may even have more than one vendor per discipline per location. If this is your approach, you’ll already know how complex managing this can be without some kind of facility management technology in place. Even still, facility management planning using this data can be complex unless it already provides trend data by location, service line, time, etc.

With the second approach, all of the challenges mentioned above are handled by a facility management aggregator. This is a single partner organization that manages and executes maintenance work at all of your locations, on your behalf. We’ve covered the many advantages of working with an aggregator before, but for the sake of facility management planning, one rises to the top: centralization. This is specifically true on three fronts:

1. Centralized Communications

  • You have one team for every aspect of your facility management program
  • You no longer have to store or manage data for multiple service vendors
  • Any outreach to service vendors is handled directly by the aggregator
  • Requests for any information are routed and handled by the aggregator
  • Your emergency contact is the same person that manages your account
  • All program status updates, planning calls, and more are with the aggregator
  • You gain a partner to support you with critical year-end reviews

2. Centralized Data Management

  • A complete list of all assets is built and stored online for 24/7/365 access
  • A customer portal is made available for all program documentation
  • All vendor invoices, estimates, etc. are managed by the aggregator and stored
  • All reporting is managed by the aggregator and prepared for your review
  • Critical program KPIs are managed and measured on your behalf
  • Your team doesn’t waste time chasing down information from vendors
  • You gain complete oversight of your program without any gaps

3. Centralized Financial Planning

  • Your program is simplified by having one partner with complete oversight
  • Your partner can assist with developing accurate budgets and forecasts
  • Your partner can provide strategic recommendations for your program
  • The partner can prioritize key asset replacements to save long-term costs
  • You gain data and insights faster to accelerate facility management goals
  • You are able to shift your program from reactive to proactive long-term

Ready for Better Predictability and Budget Forecasting?

Working with a facility management aggregator is critical, particularly during a time when organizations are seeking to reduce costs and minimize complexity. Even if your organization is expanding its footprint, there’s never been a better time to consolidate your facility asset management needs so you and your team can focus on achieving high priority goals and delivering value to employees and customers.

CLS Facility Services partners with organizations with anywhere from 50 to 500 locations in multiple markets ranging from retail and restaurants to office spaces, fitness centers, small medical facilities, and more. With more than 50 years of experience in providing not only best-in-class preventive maintenance solutions but also strategic guidance and service built on long-term partnerships, we’re the aggregator you need to make your facility management program a success for years to come.

Get in touch with us today to learn more and discuss your program goals.