Total Facilities Management (TFM): a comprehensive, all-in-one facilities contract, has long been seen as the best choice for most businesses looking to outsource their whole FM provision.
Whether it’s managing a single building or a large organisation with multiple sites, TFM is designed to reduce the customer’s management burden by giving them a single point of contact for their maintenance, cleaning, security and other services.
But is this really a one-size-fits-all solution?
For any business that needs FM services, managing individual contracts is a huge management burden.
Most FM providers are specialists, so you might have a separate company for security, cleaning and catering, or hard FM services like building fabric and maintenance.
These contracts all require monitoring, reporting and feedback. TFM has remained such an attractive approach because it reduces this management burden and, hopefully, means you get a more consistent service overall.
On paper, it’s hard to dispute TFM as anything but the best solution for most businesses, but there are a few disadvantages which have driven many companies to break their FM contracts down into ‘bundled services’ or even individual provisions:
Careful Consideration
In a recent webinar hosted by us, Liam Porter, Head of FM and Project Delivery for Virgin Media O2, said:
“Just because you are a FTSE 100 company it doesn’t mean you have to go for TFM. Look at the size and complexity of your estate. Outside advice and expertise is critical for this process.”
A successful FM provision depends on so many factors that there is no silver bullet solution.
For some companies, TFM will be the best fit, but there are other options such as ‘bundled services’ that work like much smaller TFM contracts for specific areas such as cleaning and security or maintenance and building fabric.
It’s the partnership
Consultation from the very beginning, particularly with an outside party with expertise, will ensure you start your procurement process on the right footing.
FM contracts live and die on the strength of the partnership between client and provider. Transparency, accountability, useful data and a willingness to work together towards aligned goals will ensure you get the most value for money and the best service possible.
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