Last September, New Orleans brought together Facility Managers and service providers for a full week of training and learning led by the International Facility Management Association, IFMA.
By Alejandra García Vélez
Four conference rooms, guided tours, workshops and a trade showroom were some of the elements encountered by attendees of IFMA's annual conference, IFMA's World Workplace.
The academic offer included more than 100 talks given over two days in simultaneous classrooms. The different topics were distributed in operation and maintenance approaches, finance, real estate and property management, human resources, sustainability, project management, leadership and strategy, quality, communication, technology, emergency preparedness, among others.
According to official figures from the organization, 4,300 people attended the event, most of them from the United States, although there was also representation of visitors from 57 different countries.
And this appointment is a must for professionals who are dedicated to the management of properties of all kinds in the United States, but it is also a source of knowledge for Facility Managers in Latin America, who can learn from the experiences of their peers in the northern country.
Precisely, BUILDING MANAGEMENT spoke with several of the exhibitors present at the commercial exhibition about the current situation of Facility Management and how it has evolved over the years.
Service and technology
Undoubtedly, two topics that stood out in all the conversations as fundamental to the work of today's Facility Manager were the focus on offering a better service and how to use technological advances for the benefit of the organization.
Tony Keane, president of IFMA, also mentioned that it is becoming increasingly important to prepare for emergency situations, whether natural disasters, blackouts, water leaks, or any other similar event.
He also mentioned that, in the specific case of the United States, a generational change is being experienced. Many experienced Facility Managers have reached retirement age which is opening up many possibilities for young professionals who have just graduated from the career.
"Companies are demanding that these new professionals catch up and add value much faster than their predecessors did. Our challenge is to provide them with the certifications and education options needed to make this possible," Keane explained.
Regarding the issue of the influence of technology, the consensus is that the large amount of information that can currently be accessed with different tools is a challenge because it should lead the Facility Manager to ask how he can interpret that data to get the most out of it.
"In general, technology makes things easier and adds value to the organization. In terms of achieving energy goals, for example, it is a great ally. But what the Facility Manager needs to do is incorporate that value into their strategic plan and make it aligned with the company's goals," Keane explained.
Finally, Keane highlighted the growth potential of this discipline, pointing out that in all the countries he visits around the world on behalf of IFMA, he finds a great demand and recognition of the strength that Facility Management can bring to any organization. "It is growing and will continue to grow for many years to come," he said.
Bob Clarke, senior vice president of sales and marketing at ABM Industries, said Facility Managers' primary need remains to deliver efficiency in their service delivery model.
"Many people come to us with specific needs on how to manage energy, air conditioning or security; but also with more strategic needs such as maximizing efficiency in their work, costs or improving services," he said.
He added that "at the end of the day we are in a business that targets people. The needs of a Facility Manager of a business are going to be different from those of a Facility Manager of an industrial or corporate facility, but at the end of the day the most important thing is to train people to offer the required services according to their type of business."
The ABM Industries executive also pointed out that in terms of technology, the real question is not what technology can do for us but what we can do with the options it gives us. It is the role of facilities management professionals to make sense of technological advances.
"The goal of technology is to provide information instantly to shorten reaction times. As a professional you must be proactive in terms of information, it must be automatic, fast and also be able to put the Facility Manager in the position of making decisions based on historical trends."
Peter Ankerstjerne, Director of Marketing and Business Development at ISS Group, said: "I believe one of the challenges of facilities management is to be better at service, to understand the end user who inhabits the buildings and how we can better serve them to help them be more productive in their work".
He also stressed that before the issue of costs was always in the foreground, but considers that currently other factors are beginning to take value. Although reducing costs is still an important element, now we also think in terms of efficiency, talent management and seek to make the workplace a more attractive space for employees in terms of benefits and comfort.
It is worth noting that the ISS Group has operations in Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile; and they also have plans to expand to other countries in the region such as Panama and Costa Rica, demonstrating the growing importance of Latin America in the building management segment.
Finally, Jason Bates, senior director for strategic marketing and business development at Sodexo Canada and president of IFMA Toronto, noted that current professionals are looking for more opportunities for learning and growth.
"Their main concern is how to use what they do on a day-to-day basis to make themselves visible to the company's directives and how to make Facility Management a more important issue at the executive level of companies as a tool to increase productivity," he explained.
ACFM also present
The Colombian Association of Facility Management was invited to participate in the FM Congress, a space during IFMA's World Workplace in which representatives of associations from around the world met to exchange experiences and knowledge, in addition to generating links of joint work in the future.
During this meeting, representatives of associations in the United Kingdom, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Colombia shared information about their specific processes.
In the case of the Colombian association, its representatives made a presentation on the history, evolution and future perspectives of the discipline of Facility Management in Latin America that I created a lot of interest in the attendees because it showed the importance of looking at this market.
