Do you remember when facility managers were drowning in paper? When lost or incomplete work orders, safety records, and equipment status reports were mandatory, and keeping on top—let alone ahead—of the game was impossible?
Fortunately, a myriad of technology advances has made it possible to put those days in the rear-view mirror. Now, instead of being paper-driven, facility management can be data-driven thanks to technologies like IoT (Internet of Things), sensors, artificial intelligence, mobility, satellite, and cloud-based solutions.
The Data Imperative
Using data correctly can help you drive smarter decisions, better planning, greater efficiencies, and high-quality facility services. But having data-enabling technologies isn’t the same as knowing which to leverage and how, in order to gain maximum value. In fact, it’s just as easy to drown in electronic data tsunamis as it is to be missing essential data elements.
That’s why, when evaluating a facility services provider, it’s critical to understand just how data-skilled and data-centric they really are. Below are tips for gauging the extent to which a provider is data-driven.
Service Provider Evaluation Questions
1. Does the data being used align with the goals you want to achieve?
Make sure your service provider works with you to clarify and quantify your goals before they choose the types of data to gather. And if your goals change during the engagement, keep the provider updated so they can deliver the maximum benefit to your organization. For instance, if your objective is to increase energy efficiencies and your provider isn’t analyzing data that helps determine appropriate lighting levels and when to trigger cooling and heating, you won’t get the results you need.
2. How do they filter data so they can readily access and leverage the most important data?
Collecting the right data can shine the light on issues you need to attend to. However, when you’re managing a large facility, the number of issues can be overwhelming. That’s why managing by exception is so important. When done right, it enables you to filter through the deluge by automatically highlighting via color codes to identify the things that are out of your acceptable range, such as work order completion, customer satisfaction results and inspection rationale.
3. Do their on-site staff use smartphone apps for plant readings, custodial inspections, and the like?
Smartphones and QR codes make it much easier to collect and use data to drive efficiencies and improve service levels. For instance, technicians can obtain electric, gas, and water meter readings by scanning asset QR codes during rounds. Janitorial personnel can report real-time status during inspections. Building occupants can use their own smartphones to scan QR codes and initiative work orders when soap and paper towels need to be replenished in bathrooms, and disinfectant containers in common rooms are getting low.
4. Are work orders fully electronic?
If not, they should be. When work orders are written on paper, more often than not they’re incomplete or hard to read. Prioritizing is also extremely difficult. And forget about analyzing the data. That’s a futile exercise. With fully electronic work orders, on the other hand, you can have virtually anyone submit tickets and ensure they fill out required fields; centrally store, process, and prioritize tickets; take timely action; automatically notify stakeholders about completed orders; and analyze trends such as whether certain types of work orders are more prevalent at particular times.
5. Are you able to hold your provider accountable?
Nothing is more important than accountability. Without it, how can you trust your provider is delivering on your agreement and continually working to improve results? While you may have anecdotal evidence or a hunch that certain things are, or aren’t, going well, real performance data is needed to ensure service excellence. Setting and regularly monitoring the right KPIs is key to ensuring accountability and building trust.
6. How do they measure and report on KPIs? Can you easily track how your provider is performing?
If your service provider is data-driven, gathers the right information, and has tools to analyze it, they should be able to effectively measure how they’re performing against your agreed-upon goals. But as critical as all this is, it’s not the whole picture. They also need to publish KPI results, so their performance is transparent to you, your end-users, and facility services workers – and do so in a concise, easy to understand format that is displayed where people are likely to see it. For instance, showcasing KPIs next to time clocks incentivizes services personnel to keep improving. Your provider should also make KPI analysis an integral part of their quarterly business reviews.
7. How proactive are they in recommending ways to enhance efficiencies, save money, improve cleanliness and more, and what are their recommendations based on?
There are always more ways to optimize facility services. You’ll know your provider is truly a partner and acting as extension of your team when they proactively and regularly recommend strategies and tactics for running more efficiently and cost-effectively and delivering with excellence. Make sure their advice is based on hard data that proves the case for the changes they suggest. For instance, if they recommend run-to-fail rather than repairing a particular piece of equipment, then asset usage and lifecycle data should underpin the recommendation.
8. Do you trust them with your data? Do you know what they do with that data?
The data your service provider needs in order to deliver the qualitative and quantitative results you expect is sensitive. It’s information about your operations, equipment, occupancy levels, contracts, and more. You should own that data. You also need to trust that the providers who access it know how to protect it. That they adhere to robust security practices, are committed to keeping your data private, and will use it wisely, optimizing its value for your organization.
9. Can they show evidence of having transformed facility services for other businesses?
More and more facility services providers are starting to collect information electronically. This bodes well for the industry. However, using data to get the results you need is a very complex and often challenging undertaking. Expertise is honed over time. To ensure sure your provider is steeped in data-driven strategy and execution and are expert data managers, ask for examples of how they’ve helped organizations like yours use data to achieve measurable, high-impact results like reducing costs, improving safety, and saving time.
Questions? Contact UG2 today to learn about our uniquely data-driven approach and proven results.