Bringing in facilities management consultancy services can often be a daunting prospect for managers or senior leaders who haven’t utilised them before. There is understandably doubt around if the Consultant/s will get under the skin of the business and truly understand what is needed – and actually deliver. Indeed there is often concern around upsetting stakeholders as often fm consultancy services are sought to help address challenging problems or projects within an organisation.
But – even alongside these concerns – the numbers speak for themselves. Here at LitmusFM, we manage over 200 projects per year, providing additional strategic facilities support where it’s needed most.
Many organisations realise improvement strategies are needed to maintain the business and increase shareholder value. However, the reality is that in most businesses the workforce is working to maximum output to do their day job and so it’s difficult to manage a major project as well – which is where facilities management consultants come in.
To help organisations understand if this is something they should deploy we’ve outlined the top 5 reasons why you may need facilities management consultancy services:
Breadth of market place knowledge
A typical Consultancy will be involved in multiple tenders each year. For us, as we’ve said, we execute over 200 per year, which average seven supplier responses per tender totalling 1,400 per annum. It gives a real understanding of the market and what “best value” looks like. It also means Consultants are in a competitive pricing arena every day. The suppliers who participate in an in-house tender programme usually differ from the suppliers a Consultancy recommends as the suppliers don’t ‘cherry-pick’ their opportunities with a Consultancy; if they did, they know they are likely to be discounted from future opportunities.
Years of contacts and connections
Most Partners and Consultants will all come from senior leadership positions, many at board level. Therefore, their senior network is extremely strong and they have access to supply chain decision-makers. This helps engagement at the start of the process and ensures the best and final offers are debated and agreed at the right level. Organisations usually only have access to a few – and even then it’s usually with past or incumbent organisations.
New ways of thinking
Even with the best will in the world, organisations are so often confined to ways of thinking and working that have always been done. FM Consultants will have worked with many different organisations who have worked through similar projects. They can provide a perspective based on what they’ve seen work (or not) before and given this experience, they can often bring new and innovative ideas, or possible challenges, to the table.
Catalyst for change
No one likes to change, especially corporate organisations. But sometimes change is needed, and it’s something facilities management Consultants are comfortable doing – often implementing change is the exact reason they have been brought in. They provide an objective, fresh viewpoint and ideas around how better solutions can be achieved.
Objectivity
Sometimes, when organisations are working on a challenging problem or a controversial project that affects people, it can be hard to make decisions or take the necessary actions without getting wrapped up in corporate culture, politics and employee morale and emotions. FM Consultants give that degree of separation. They provide an unbiased eye and take responsibility for difficult-to-deal-with situations, providing much-needed objectivity.
To hear more about our LitmusFM services contact us here
The Litmus team