FM Innovators' Blog

All facility managers will agree that the environments we take care of are “mini-societies” in which happiness, health, comfort, hygiene, and good-working assets are the basics of our corporations functioning well in their core activities.

We manage many different aspects of the lives of the bees in our hives -- from their access to food via the restaurants we cater for them to the air that they breathe in our buildings. Whatever industrial revolution there may be, it will have a profound effect on us facility managers as it will quickly influence one, or more, or even all our activities.

But what does "fourth industrial revolution" mean exactly and that "profound effect", how does that take shape in facility management? 

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

The term “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” was coined in 2016  by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), via a book published with the...

Note: Article originally published at the Facilities Management Journal: https://www.fmj.co.uk/digital-empowerment/

Prior to the pandemic, it was to meet the call for sustainability within the built environments where we mainly saw the emergence of innovative technologies. From green materials to sustainable energy, the built environment responded with innovative construction technologies. PropTech solutions emerged to serve better infrastructure and mobility demands, while offering Corporate Real Estate (CRE) managers a host of applications to better serve their tenants.

The FM sector on the other hand played catch-up compared to the rest of the built environment. But that was up until the global COVID pandemic happened.

Now that climate action is becoming a priority for corporations, the facility manager’s role is moving closer to the widespread adoption of digitalisation. 

Nearly two years into the pandemic, we have seen a remarkable transformation on how we...

Note: Originally published: https://www.i-fm.net/features/fmtech-proptech-s-big-little-sister

PropTech vs. FMTech

Until recently, in the FM community, only the PropTech startup ecosystem was getting clear attention. These digital solutions applied to property and to the broad  Real Estate market do not all cover all the daily activities of facility managers; especially those not working for commercial real estate corporations. In the FM context, PropTech talks most of the time about solutions for office buildings like Workplace Management, but facility managers activities extend beyond office buildings, covering facilities in other built environments like hotels, factories, hospitals and more.

If we break down the differences and similarities between facility managers and property managers – both take care of their buildings, but big difference is that for real estate companies, the building IS the business, while for facility managers, the building...

We, Facility Managers, have seen how the experience of remote working has changed the way our colleagues (and probably we ourselves) look at workplaces. Many of the bees in our hives will be happy to come back to the office for some days per week at least, but our gut feeling tells us that things will never be the same anymore as before the pandemic.

Many among us are busy reorganizing spaces, moving tables and equipment around to assign flexible “hot desks”, with some extra space between them. We also have heard of offices being turned around completely. Some facility managers create distinct workspaces: blue zones for silence and concentration focused hours and red zones for teams working together lively and loudly. Others are buying fancy furniture. Of course, it has been years that we all have our minds marked by those fashionable Silicon Valley offices with foosballs and coffee tables strewn comfortably around and we might feel obliged to adopt the same in our...

Facility Managers, what consequences has hybrid working for your catering portfolio?

In the last months, we all have been talking about what return-to-office will look like and if all office employees will come back to office in the same intensity as before the pandemic. Several studies have taken place and we, facility managers, have read many of them. Although there is still some time to go before we go back to some semblance of a new normal, whatever that may be, it gets clearer every day that hybrid working is here to stay.

How does this flexible going in and out of the buildings we manage impact our catering?

Catering to celebrate physical team gatherings while respecting diversity

In times when remote working is happening at a large scale, gathering as a team will feel like a moment to celebrate. Celebration implies good food and drinks. Not only the quality of the catering should be correct, but it also must suit the specific preferences of the team coming together, or...