[Please note this page is a part of our 10th anniversary collection. It was written in 2009 and has not been updated.]

The FM industry
Probably the greatest success story in FM over the past ten years is the growth and development of the industry itself. Undeniably, there has been considerable progress as measured on the dinner party index – that spectrum of reactions which follow when you say what you do, spanning the extremes from a puzzled 'management of what?' to a reasonably confident 'yes, of course'. Wider recognition has come with growth in size and value, with persistent use of the term and promotion of the case, and with increasing professionalisation (see Recognition below and below). We are on increasingly strong ground when we argue that facilities management is central to some of the key business and social concerns of the era, including CSR, energy, the environment and sustainability (see Sustainability below).

Recognition
Official recognition of the industry and its importance to organisations in both the public and private sectors has come in the form of EN 15221, the European standard for facilities management signed off in 2006, and 81.10, the Standard Industrial Classification code adopted in 2008 that captures at least a part of FM. In addition, government now takes the industry seriously enough to seek information and input from the various groups and bodies from time to time and to include it as an area for focus in its own accommodation management strategies and plans. In addition, the BIFM is hopeful of getting an all-party parliamentary group off the ground some time next year. Facilities management also gets a look-in at the CBI, where the Facilities Management Association sits on the Trade Association Council; and of course, as we have been reporting recently, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has woken up to the fact the FM is quite a significant area of interest for the property industry.

Technology applications
Technology has become a critical part of FM operations, from the handheld devices that are now standard issue for mobile engineers, through the auditing and reporting systems that feature in cleaning contracts of any size, to the central helpdesk – once a barely acknowledged back-office operation and now increasingly the backbone of frontline service delivery. These days, everything is available at the FM's fingertips: contract terms, SLAs, KPIs, quality reports, budget analysis, manpower utilisation, energy consumption etc etc, much of it presented in easy-to-read dashboard format. The advances here are impressive, even when it isn't a case of the proverbial rocket science. A review of the winning entries for the i-FM e-business award over the past six or eight years confirms the determination and creativity with which a variety of problems and opportunities have been attacked.

Strange then that the supply side of the industry has been comparatively slow to take up the strategies and techniques offered by internet technology when it comes to marketing their services. In our periodic review of this for PFM magazine, we found an industry still waiting for the trailblazers to pull away from the pack – which in turn echoes our Audit report findings on FM provider branding: there's still plenty of scope to create a truly differentiated market proposition, and technology has a central role to play in that.

Workplace utilisation
FMs have been quietly getting on with the business of responding to changes in corporate strategy and occupier need, whether driven by new technology, globalisation, work/life balance concerns or some combination of these and similar factors, for years. Facilities managers, designers and a whole host of product suppliers have been developing a seemingly endless range of solutions, producing a remarkable evolution over the decade which has seen even some of the most conservative organisations (lawyers!) abandoning their long-held commitment to private offices and fixed desks.

Recession has brought a new urgency to this as property has become a board-level topic of interest –in terms of both the costs and the constraints it represents at a time when flexibility is a priority. More change, and more creativity, will be required as organisations continue to evolve faster than their property portfolios – and the wider property market – can respond.

Service quality/value for money
Like improved utilisation of space, enhanced service quality and value for money have been consistent themes in FM for years. And similarly, recession has put a new force behind the drive in each case. Markets right across the industry are highly competitive, and the premium is on a demonstrable track record, responsiveness and flexibility. Client needs and expectations – high standards vs low cost, for example – may sometimes appear to conflict, but the market being what it is, FM companies have generally found ways to cope effectively.

5 Challenges for the Future

Recognition
It seems a very long time coming, but the FM qualifications picture appears to be taking on a shape that is both comprehensible and supportable. Gone are the old BIFM exams and Qual, which never really worked as conceived and anyway bore little or no relationship to the designation MBIFM. In has come the new Level 3, soon to be followed by 4,5 & 6, as well as the new CBIFM. In also has come the AssocRICS, which non-degree holding FMs can now use as a stepping stone to full chartered facilities manager status within the RICS. So, though taking on a new shape, the picture remains confusing for rising practitioners wondering about the best strategy for achieving professional credentials.

What underpins these moves, and remains as critical as ever, is the need for access to good quality, relevant training. Martin Pickard recently argued on our pages that no one has the opportunity to do more damage to an organisation, its staff, customers and neighbours than the FM.

If facilities management is to establish and hold its position in the business decision-making chain, being considered seriously in – or at least very close to – the boardroom, then FMs need to be able to demonstrate that they are trained, experienced and therefore qualified to advise on and manage business-critical issues. And achieving that position in any individual case is all the more likely in an environment in which industry institutes, associations and groups work together to promote the cause…something at which FM so far has not been notably effective.

Sustainability
There is considerable overlap in the words and ideas that describe some of the most pressing economic and social issues confronting us now and for the foreseeable future: energy, the environment, corporate social responsibility – sustainability is a good enough catch-all term for all this and more. Some of the issues within that term have been within the FM remit for years; and it is sensible to argue that others belong there too. It is difficult to see who is better placed in most organisations to take a lead on developing and implementing sustainability initiatives than the facilities manager. Conversely, it is difficult to see how sustainability initiatives can be fully successful across any organisation without the involvement of FM.

Sustainability is an area of concern and action (remember it's a catch-all nature) that is here to stay. It can only work to FM's credit and add to its strength as a key business discipline if it becomes a central part of knowledge and practice.

Service quality/value of money
Like sustainability, these are issues that are here to stay. Indeed, the demand – and therefore the challenge in reconciling conflicting objectives – looks set to be the top priority on the FM agenda for at least the next year or two.

This will put an even greater premium on flexibility, responsiveness and creativity at both buyers and suppliers, who will need to work closely together if their various business objectives are to be fully identified, understood and met.

Boundaries
Here at i-FM, we gave up discussing the definition of facilities management years ago. The industry is as big, diverse, fractured and incoherent as ever - and probably always will be. Yet, those of us who are in it recognise that there are boundaries out there somewhere and that we are part of a 'thing' that needs to be developed and promoted as an important component of the current and future prosperity of UK plc. This means we have to find sufficient coherence to establish the common ground that will enable consistent and effective positive communication. The failure of Action FM underlines the futility of lip service in this regard. Industry institutes, associations and groups need to find the time, energy and goodwill to cooperate in demonstrably meaningful ways. We've seen this happen in very limited areas from time to time – but on nothing like the scale needed to push facilities management to the fore where it belongs.

Market structure
We noted early on in these 10-year reviews that consolidation has been a consistent theme in the UK FM marketplace for some time, as has growing diversity in the range of services offered by suppliers. Could it be that our current recessionary times will bring further shifts in market structure, along lines that have been theorised about in the past but never really put into practice? Client organisations generally are under considerable pressure to find cost-effective solutions to accommodation problems and service needs.

This means that some suppliers are looking at fresh approaches to the challenge. We know of one FM company that hopes to marshal its wider group resources to offer a 'package solution', extending from development advice and assistance right through design, construction, engineering and management. Some real estate-based firms are arguing that the time is finally right for property and facilities services to be brought together. We've heard of a major contract where the client is looking at bringing IT into the FM remit; and elsewhere the argument about joining up HR with FM has been re-opened. Bringing all those themes together, a few service providers believe that wide-ranging business process outsourcing contracts will soon become a significant feature of the market: a handful of local authorities have already started down this route.

We can't predict what FM will look like even next year; but we do know the market will change. As always, the winners on the supply side will be the ones that understand their clients' business, anticipate their needs and are ready with new ideas.