Facilities Management - Moving Towards ITIL

Working with predefined process flows is not a common practice for Facility Management. While ITIL process models seem to dominate the IT world, Facility Management does not seem to have its own process model. We are all familiar with standards such as ISO 9001, but these are standards or certifications and do not structure processes. This comes as no surprise: IT works according to process flows such as ITIL or ASL BiSL, while Facility working methods are more task-oriented. That gap is now closing, as Facility Management is working with ITIL more frequently. Facility and ITIL: can and do they match?
TEXT: HENRIEKE KORTEN

According to Jaap Bregman, newSolutions consultant and specialist in the area of facilities management, the last few years have seen a shift within facilities management: Todays facilities manager is less preoccupied with operational services and has become more of a director.1 Facilities management can then no longer escape the reality of working with process flows. Despite this shift from an entirely operational focus to a more directional focus, facilities management processes have still not been fully developed. Bregman further writes that methods such as the Facility Excellence Model enable visibility of costs and other figures within facility services, but that the methods do not manage or structure these costs. They are also familiar with the structural registration of complaints, wishes, information and errors, but it usually ends with registration.

A marriage of convenience
Jurgen Koster, facilities management account manager within TOPdesk, notes that facilities management and IT are moving towards each other: There are a number of new developments within facilities management. Firstly, suppliers of Facility Management Information Systems (FMIS) are moving increasingly towards IT service management. With this, they use (ITIL) terminology which was formerly only used by service management suppliers. Suppliers of IT service management software indicate a similar movement towards facility management.2 When facilities management and IT cooperate even further, they can profit from each others strong points; facilities management can borrow process models and match them to their specific needs. Why would you want to re-invent the wheel when your

neighbour already has the answer?

Facilities and ITIL

Bregman has signalled a process model in ITIL that can support facilities management in professionalising even further: Facilities management is not yet familiar with standardised operational or tactical processes for managing assets or processing information about services. ITIL can change this and lead the way to process oriented working. A survey by Jurgen Koster has, however, shown that facilities managers are getting acquainted with ITIL at a very slow pace. Of the one hundred questioned managers, 47% did not use any process model whatsoever and only one in four was familiar with ITIL. Merely half of those who did know ITIL saw the usefulness of this process model. It seems a shame that ITIL is not better known as especially Asset management

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Rudolf Kamphuis and Astrid Luijten, Eurest Services

(Configuration management in ITIL terms) and Incident management can be applied to facilities management processes with great success. Many organisations put a lot of time and money into describing their so-called unique processes - it seems in this case that ignorance is bliss. Koster furthermore says: Compared to IT, where ITIL is the standard process description and working process-based has come a long way, facilities

management methods are much less developed. Nevertheless, this process oriented working method has definitely caught the attention of the managers. Managers of facilities departments then seem to be interested in working with processes as they search for models they can implement themselves. But why does Kosters survey tell a different story? According to him, the introduction of process oriented working and thinking is not as easy in the rest of the organisation.

Employees are used to focussing on the job at hand and not in delegating. Koster: You also have to deal with a thing called product-object oriented working. Being customer oriented is not something that comes naturally to facilities; they often dont realise that they are providing a service to customers and they do not feel that their work influences the primary process, the well-being of employees or even operating results. Considering your own colleagues

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as customers is a first step towards process oriented working.

Inevitable
Jaap Bregman notes the inevitability for facilities management of adjusting their task oriented working methods. Organizations are becoming increasingly complex and dynamic which requires more flexibility in facilities support. According

to Bregman this does not call for unquestioningly copying the structure of an IT department: A facilities manager can continue to be a doer and be service minded, but needs to register and plan in order to use the information coming from within the organisation. He does not though many might think it have to choose between being service and process minded: he

can easily do both. Jurgen Koster thinks that facilities support organizations will have increasing impact on IT organizations, which enables both to work with the same software. This software must be recognizable and usable for both parties: That requires a lot from the use of terminology and package design. >

IT characteristics versus FM:

G. de Bruijn (Humanagement) and M. Cloudt (Inter Access)

IT
Planner Technician Specialist Procedural (ITIL) and rigid Focussed on problem analysis Avoids risks Self-willed / closed

FM
Doer People minded Generalist Ad hoc and flexible Focussed on solutions Lacks an overview Inefficient

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Taking an Example from Eurest Services

> Eurest Services, part of the Compass Group PLC, is a good example of a facility department that works process-based. In The Netherlands, over 4,500 employees of the Compass Group provide food and facilities for almost 1,000 companies, hospitals, restaurants, schools and (governmental) organizations. In the Nijmegen based FiftyTwoDegrees building, Eurest Services uses the TOPdesk Incident management module and Reservations to take care of catering and cleaning, to rent out meeting rooms and deal with other facility related jobs.
Astrid Luijten, office services manager at Eurest Services: Prior to using Incident management, our operating procedure was ad hoc: service delivery requests were on demand or via email. Now we have a structured organization and know whats going on around us. Our incident management is structured as follows: the incidents are categorized according to service line, for example, office services, cleaning or catering. Per service line there are five to ten subcategories. Incidents coming in under cleaning could be for example: the roller towel is empty. We also get incidents about the temperature in rooms. When our office space tenants in the FiftyTwoDegrees building call in an incident, our employees work according to the following procedures: firstly, they register the incident in TOPdesk. It then shows up as a first line incident that they might be able to solve themselves. If it requires specialist knowledge, they can put it through as a second line incident to hard services. These are all incidents that fall outside the cleaning, catering and office categories or as I explain it: everything that needs the aid of a screwdriver. We have five operators who pass on incidents to managers of, for example, the cleaners, who try to solve the incident or pass it on to others. Rudolf Kamphuis, national manager office services, tells us: By following these processes our work has a system. Everything is very logical, the service lines are simple and all is structured. Working according to processes prevents us running around like headless chickens. There are two main advantages: it makes us more professional and our system is more transparent. The service level is much higher and callers always receive feedback on the outcome of their incident. From the outside this improves our availability and professionalism towards the callers. Working with these processes is completely logical to me: facility management is nothing more than process management. It also isnt complicated as there is a requested service and this service is then delivered. Processes can furthermore help make divisions and proactive thinking. Astrid Luijten: By running monthly reports, I know what to expect in the coming months. When a cold month is due, I can respond with climate control. The reports tell me the highlights: should I provide extra service? Make extra toilet rounds? The Reservations management module then shows me what is possible and helps me advise our clients when they plan a meeting. The bottom line is that working in processes helps me anticipate.

1 J. Bregman, ITIL: best practice voor ondersteundende dienstverlenende beheerprocessen. Effectieve procesmethodiek voor facilitaire organisaties,in: Facility Management Magazine September 2007. 2 J. Koster, TOPdesk Facility Management, productontwikkeling voor TOPdesk 2006.

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