INDUSTRY INSIGHT FMJ.CO.UK
WORKPLACE SOLUTIONS
6 FEBRUARY 2019
IFMA APPROVES TWO NEW
CHAPTERS IN EUROPE
The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) has announced continued
growth within Europe following the approval of two new chapters in France and
Croatia, and enhanced the scope and service to existing component groups by renaming
the Religious Facilities Council to the Nonprofit Facilities Council, and restoring the
Health Care Council – until recently the Health Care Institute – to full council status.
Chapters and councils, along with communities, are focused networking groups within IFMA.
New chapters: France and Croatia
Just months a er the creation of an
IFMA chapter in the UK, two more bids
for chapters in France and Croatia have
been approved by IFMA’s global board
of directors, bringing the total chapter
count in Europe to 12. IFMA chapters o er local connections for FM professionals while at the
same time contributing regional perspectives to the global FM community.
Continuing to build on collaborative relationships in Europe, IFMA has also joined its
alliance partner Facility Management Netherlands in hosting the World Workplace Europe
Meets Facility for Future Conference and Expo, which is taking place 20-22 March 2019 at the
Kromhouthal in Amsterdam.
Renamed: Nonprofit Facilities Council
With a new name to reflect the reality of its constituency, the Nonprofit Facilities Council
is expanding the types of FM professionals and organisations it serves. The name change
recognises the audience the council has served for years, including FMs managing buildings for
faith-based as well as secular charitable and community institutions.
Restored: Health Care Council
A er an experimental period as a unique entity in the IFMA component taxonomy, the former
Health Care Institute has been fully restored to council status as the Health Care Council.
IFMA members who were a part of the institute will experience uninterrupted service and will
benefit from a refreshed brand while returning to a more unified identity.
EMEA SOURCING MARKET GROWS IN 2018 AS
BUSINESSES EMBRACE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
The sourcing market in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) grew in the final quarter of 2018
despite unsettling macro-economic and political events across the region, according to the
findings of the latest report from global technology research and advisory firm, Information
Services Group (ISG).
The EMEA ISG Index, which measures commercial outsourcing contracts with annual contract
value (ACV) of €4 million or more, shows the EMEA market posted combined fourth-quarter ACV
of €3.0 billion, an increase of five per cent from the previous year.
This rise was bolstered by a 44 per cent year-on-year increase in as-a-service ACV, to €1.3
billion, as strong demand for digital transformation remained an enterprise imperative.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and So ware-as-a-Service (SaaS) in EMEA both performed
strongly, posting ACV of €960 million and €331 million, respectively. Traditional sourcing,
meanwhile, contracted by 12 per cent year-on-year to €1.7 billion.
For the full year, EMEA reached €12.9 billion in ACV, up nine per cent against 2017. Traditional
sourcing ACV of €8 billion was down six per cent year-on-year, but as-a-service grew 48 per cent
to reach €4.9 billion. The rise in as-a-service sourcing – which now accounts for 38 per cent
of total ACV for EMEA – continued to be driven by demand for SaaS and IaaS, both of which
increased by more than 40 per cent in 2018.
Steve Hall, Partner and President of ISG, said: “Despite ongoing political and economic
uncertainty in Europe and resulting business caution, companies are making significant
investment in digital technologies to improve their ability to compete and to engage with their
customers. This is a clear testament that the tailwinds of digital transformation are stronger than
the headwinds of political and economic issues.”
PREPARING FOR
THE ENGINEERS OF
TOMORROW
Stuart Davies, MD, Maintenance &
Engineering Services, Bellrock
Supporting our clients with their mechanical and
electrical critical assets is a big responsibility, one that
we take extremely seriously. It is therefore essential
that we keep focused on not only the technical trends
and developments, but macro factors as well. The two
main trends that we believe will impact our clients
and our business in 2019 are the operational changes
enabled by technology to both the assets themselves
and the way in which maintenance can be deployed.
The other is the shortage of adequately trained
engineers.
Nearly 5.7 million people work in engineering
enterprises in the UK, representing just over 19 per
cent of total UK employment. As with every other
sector the engineering workforce is getting older.
The proportion of young workers (aged under 25,
especially) joining the industry has been decreasing
over the last 10 years. Women who make up 46 per
cent of the UK workforce as a whole, only account for
one in eight of engineering occupations.
Research from a bespoke extension of Working
Futures 2014-2024 forecasts there will be demand
in engineering enterprises for 265,000 skilled
entrants annually through to 2024, of which around
186,000 will be needed to meet both replacement
and expansion demand. Based on these estimates
and assumptions, projected supply will fall short of
demand by at least 20,000 per year and this does not
take in to account the Brexit eff ect.*
Could technology solve the problem?
The statistics are a stark reminder that we have to act
now. We believe that technology has the answer to the
resource issue, at least in the short term. The increase
in the use of robotics is the key. Using profi ling to
determine performance across the life cycle of the
asset and IoT sensors for monitoring, we can use
our Concerto platform, fed by the data, to predict
failure. It also means we start to manage maintenance
requirements, not just around those parameters but
also against criticality and risk of the asset. With
a clearer understanding, we can then build a more
robust and streamlined maintenance schedule.
The other factor to consider is the ability for robotic
technology not just to predict, but also diagnose and
analyse issues before an engineer visits site. Armed
with a diagnosis, the role of the engineer becomes less
about technical solutioning and more about practical
implementation. That means we can widen our labour
pool to include more technicians to fi ll those types
of roles, employing fewer but more highly qualifi ed
engineers.
Recognising the balance between technology and
people is important. Using technology to improve
fi rst time fi x rates and reducing risk doesn’t just have
an impact in terms of effi ciency but increased client
satisfaction. An output may be a reduced reliance on
engineers visiting site, but the value when they do
visit in person increases as they are the customer’s
human experience of the brand they represent. At the
moment that cannot be replicated by a machine.
www.bellrockgroup.co.uk
*Taken from Engineering UK 2017 Synopsis and Recommendations
Report www.engineeringuk.com/media/1356/enguk_report_2017_
synopsis.pdf
/www.bellrockgroup.co.uk
/enguk_report_2017_synopsis.pdf