The Centre for Facilities Consultancy has teamed with technology company Cybertech to offer 'e-solutions' to facilities requirements. The Centre will provide the professional knowledge to inform the solutions developed by Cybertech. According to Derek Paxman, MD of the Centre, few organisations have both the experience in the essential skills of FM and providing the new technology and concepts needed in e-solutions, "We seek to give our clients an ability to take a step back and see the bigger picture. The Centre has years of cutting-edge experience to see the whole FM panorama. If the FM profession wants to continue to do this then we have to see that picture in terms of the e-business solutions that every other discipline is taking up."

"It's a matter of continuing to grow the conventional FM expertise and fuellling it with critical information about the whole business process. No business event ever happens in isolation and we now need to have the e-solution links to give the right information to support facilities managers in key decisions. Our work with Cybertech brings these links to reality."

With its origins in the US and a major development resource in India, Cybertech has been expanding into continental Europe and now the UK, with a new office in Harlow. The company, which provides business IT solutions, employs 1,000 people worldwide. "What we offer are the crucial connections between the enterprise packages such as SAP with specialist FM software applications like Archibus," says Roel Kerkhof who is leading the marketing launch in the UK, "It is only by doing this that the Facilities Manager can continue to be part of the mainstream information flow in the company."

Richard Byatt