ARK Facility Management, the new venture set up by ex-Chesterton and Workplace Management director Lionel Prodgers (pictured), is to trade as ARK e-management. The name change reflects Prodgers' view that e-commerce will be central to the inter-relationship of assets, resources and knowledge – the inspiration for the original name.

"Having thoroughly researched e-commerce opportunities in the property and facilities management markets," says Prodgers, "It is clear that few organisations have recognised the fundamental changes that e-commerce will bring to, and demand of, their management processes. In effect, anyone thinking of specifying a service with a life span of more than a few years should take into account the future impact of e-commerce in that specification."

This business development is supported by a new appointment, as Professor Matthew Bacon joins ARK as a director from BAA plc where he was Head of Process & Technology. BAA is supporting the new venture with the award of a consulting contract. Mike Forster, Design Director of BAA said: "We are appointing ARK to provide consultancy in process and technology development, drawing on Professor Bacon’s proven skills in process management and application of technology in construction."

According to ARK, conventional business administration such as facilities management, personnel management, management accounting, and purchasing & procurement will radically change due to the arrival and driving influence of e-commerce. These changes will enable all manner of information to be instantaneously available ("real time" reporting) which will revolutionise the management and control of business support services.

ARK e-management is offering "ready made, and easy to implement", management processes to both business enterprise and the public sector. Starting from auditing data sets within an organisation, ARK identifies key information as well as systems gaps. ARK’s ‘product’ is a series of inter-related steps in processing data to enable the organisation to take full advantage of e-commerce benefits in the future, without wholesale re-investment in systems.

Richard Byatt