Disruption is the order of the day, and everything around us is undergoing dynamic changes. Technology has changed and continues to change everything from how we live, communicate, interact, socialise and work. The changing corporate landscapes are no exception to this phenomenon of disruption. Hence, facility management teams, especially, must keep rediscovering and recreating themselves on an everyday basis if they want to remain relevant. Today, speed is the need of the hour. Compliance, control and governance form the bedrock of decision making and agility and innovation are the new anthems today.
Drawing from his experience, through a career spanning over 16 years, in integrated facilities management (IFM), we got one of the most prominent leaders and experts in this segment, Rajat Malhotra, Global Expertise Lead IFM and Engineering, Work Dynamics, JLL, to discuss the shifts and transformations taking place in the industry and how facility management teams can step up to the challenge.
- What critical parameters define the shifts in the IFM sector?
There are broadly five categories that will portray the overall maturation of integrated facility and property management. The first is the shift from a largely out-tasked model of outsourcing to a more comprehensive outcome-driven contracting model where the risk and reward for cost prudence are transferred to the service provider. This is a paradigm shift over the past three decades, where a service provider is now being called in to co-create a real estate strategy with the client, which culminates in a ‘trust’ driven model with contractual governance of outcome.
Technology: Technology has pervaded our lives and absolutely all businesses. IFM is no exception. The inclusion of technology is evidenced in absolutely all realms and facets of IFM. Broadly we can classify technology in IFM in two buckets, that which drives the efficiency of the ‘place’ and that which provides a seamless interface for the user with the ‘place and services it offers’ at all possible touch points. The place being the building or facility, and the user persona is the occupier who leverages or engages with the place to deliver work. Take, for example, an IoT-enabled energy management system would be the technology that drives the efficiency of space, and an application that automates and digitises all interfaces for the user persona, such as access control, meeting room booking, retail experience within the building, air-conditioning and many more would be the user experience technology interface.
From managing workplace to managing work: The most interesting shift has been the development of an understanding of how the workplace contributes to wellness, well-being and experience and ultimately drives the productivity of the workforce in the work they perform. IFM today manages work through the medium of workplace management to drive workforce productivity.
Sustainability front and centre: One of the biggest realisations of the decade has been the recognition of the impact IFM has on sustainability in a global context. Buildings contribute to almost 40% of the world’s carbon emissions, and IFM is what eventually drives how efficiently and frugally a building operates after it is built. Personally, to me, this places us in IFM at uniquely advantageous position to create a positive impact on global warming. It is a weight of responsibility but also an ocean of opportunity. I feel this is an area in which those of us in IFM can leave a lasting legacy. I am passionate about it and driven to contribute my bit.
Experience: Related intrinsically to one of the points above is that IFM today is all about affording a superlative experience to the occupier of the office. An example from an engineering standpoint is about IFM creating an indoor environment that is massively better than the outdoor environment in terms of temperature, humidity, air quality, noise and circadian lighting. It is creating a workplace world within the office that is healthier, happier and more fulfilling than ever before and sustainably so.
- JLL manages a vast portfolio of clients with varying scales of complexities. What were some of the strategies implemented to streamline this process?
The world of IFM has become increasingly sector-specialised, ensuring that service type and service levels are modulated and measured per user expectations.
For example, a life sciences facility differs vastly from an office space. IFM is evolving today by listening intently to those unique needs and taking them on board to deliver a bespoke service. How that is happening is summed up in 3 points:-
Structure: The management and task force structure is aligned to verticals. We have specialisations today that are sector driven and we in JLL are driving that with commitment because that is what our customers want. A healthcare customer has unique needs, for example, as does an industrial or warehousing customer, and we’re evolving our organisational and business structures to meet those needs.
Governance: Governance of our contracts ensures we remain honest to our combined vision and objectives that we co-created with the customer. Governance includes performance management, cost prudence and an institutionalised cadence of listening to customer feedback throughout the contract. Governance drives not only consistent performance but also continuous improvement.
Transparency that begets trust: As far as managing our contracts and relationships go, we swear by total transparency. We leverage technology that is objective and above board to give complete visibility to our clients on how we’re tracking with respect to contractual deliverables. Technology has moved us into a real-time continuous improvement mode where the client sees real-time where we are making the desired impact and where we jointly see opportunities to enhance our delivery.
- You were one of the leaders who led the company’s digital transformation. What are some of the key criteria to begin a digital facilities management journey?
As alluded earlier, technology has become all pervasive, and Gen Z and Gen X particularly carry an ecosystem of technology applications and interfaces that are soaked into their social and personal personas. They carry this expectation in their work personas as well. Therefore IFM is now a digitally enabled and digitally delivered service. In fact, there is a growing belief gaining a foothold in many corners that IFM is a Technology business, given that technology is so prevalent and pervasive. There are some points that must, however, be borne in mind whilst driving a technology transformation.
Align technology to a business outcome: Clients today will engage us to deliver IFM smartly, and they would gladly pay for a smartly delivered digitally enabled service. They will only pay for a technology infusion that is a separate line item in a contract if it is threaded into a clear business outcome. Therefore, technology must be baked into a service solution rather than being introduced outside of it. For example, creating a digital twin of a building is not exciting, but what is exciting is leveraging the billions of bytes of data to drive an outcome of a more sustainable building operation. Quite simply put, technology that enables a service and a business outcome for IFM and the customer will be a compelling proposition. This has to be the fundamental principle of driving technology adoption, intertwining it to deliver the service productively at no incremental cost over the period of the contract.
Smart adoption of technology to ensure commercial prudence: Technology platforms and proliferation must be smartly selected to ensure that the business case is clear, transparent and, therefore, indisputable. A CAFM system is an integral component of FM services today. Managing workflows digitally and governing them digitally is a given. Bringing smart building systems that deliver a scalable condition-based service, whether it is simply cleaning and janitorial or engineering operations and maintenance, is today a differentiator between the better and the best. The key is optimising and modulating maintenance leveraging technology to make the business case commercially viable. Productivity and efficiency that result in cost optimisation through technology remain the not-so-secret formula.
Managing platforms with a service centre approach: An important component of business management of any Technology platform is a service centre approach to supporting its implementation and ongoing service. Most platforms today, internal or external, are modelled on the lines of a SaS. As a service-orientated product, we have to recognise IFM is a high transaction volume business. When you enable the service with technology, all transactions are migrated to a digital platform. Unless that is not managed with rigour and discipline through a responsive virtual service centre, the adoption is likely to fall short. The transition phase to a technology-enabled service is critical; once stability is achieved, the business can run with minimal transactional support needed to keep the tech platform operating, and the focus can then step up to performance optimisation. This will ensure that the SaS model is continually cost-optimised.
Accountability and performance management through technology-enabled business analytics and intelligence: The beauty of technology is the ability of platforms to deliver actionable business insights. Data that is streamed and analysed will never lie, so this begets transparency in performance reporting as well. For both a service provider and client this is one of the most powerful advantages of technology infusion.
Continuous innovation: Technology innovations are by far the most prolific in these times. In IFM, we have an enviable problem of plenty when it comes to platforms available to us. In order to balance a technology budget and the number of similar platforms, it is important to have a small but powerful ecosystem of tech platforms that are agile, innovative and flexible and integrate at a data warehouse and BI layer. Also, at the end of the day, one must reach a balance between enterprise-scale platforms and an ecosystem of small, innovative platforms in a business’s overall technology suite.
Enterprise-scale platforms can become clunky, dated and inflexible, but equally, a large uncontrolled set of smaller platforms can become expensive and difficult to integrate. For business functions in IFM, such as procurement or finance, enterprise-scale platforms ensure consistency but for client-facing functions that must be agile, flexible and customisable, a finite ecosystem of agile platforms is best suited. JLL has hit that right balance through a carefully thought-out technology strategy.
- How does JLL as a company approach sustainability across all its projects?
JLL’s focus on sustainability is all-encompassing; we have our own science-based targets. Our Net zero target covers both Scope 2 and 3 emissions by 2040. This implies that we’re committed to proactively assisting clients to reduce their Scope 1 and 2 emissions. We have a global business vertical called Energy and Sustainability Services with a strong presence across multiple geographies. Our approach to sustainability for our client portfolios that are under our management is three-pronged, which covers strategy, assets and operations and is applied at a portfolio level down to individual buildings in the portfolio. The approach is elaborated below:-
Sustainability Strategy: We collaborate with clients via consulting assignments to help them devise strategies to achieve their Sustainability targets. A number of our clients have net zero targets, so what is needed is a solid strategy to be able to achieve those targets. Our sustainability consulting team is then engaged to develop strategies at a portfolio level down to individual buildings.
Sustainable Assets: All of JLL’s offices in India are certified, and we have a global policy to certify all of our offices under extant systems in individual countries. Externally for our clients, we have a highly qualified and experienced set of Accredited Professionals who can help certify buildings under various standards such as LEED, IGBC, Greenmark, Nabers and so on. Therefore, for both existing and new construction, our focus is to deliver offices to our clients that are certified green.
Sustainable Operations: Given that we touch every phase in the life cycle of a real estate asset, our role and remit as IFM service providers during the operational phase of a building or office includes operating the space sustainably. How sustainably we deliver our operations has a long-lasting impact on the carbon footprint of the building. We not only ensure careful selection of green consumables for FM but embed sustainability tenets in how we deliver engineering maintenance and operations by continually optimising HVAC performance, as an example.
We have invested in and acquired technology platforms enabling us to monitor and manage energy consumption and deliver reports compliant with current global reporting frameworks. Our playbook focuses on all aspects of energy, water and waste through a lens of reducing, reusing, recycling and re-thinking.
- With the ever-changing technology, what are the systems and softwares that JLL has in place to manage & monitor its facilities’ performance?
JLL leverages multiple platforms to run its business functions and digitally enable and efficiently deliver its client services. The architecture of all technology platforms is integrated at the data analytics and BI layer in a JLL proprietary BI platform called Azara. This holds true for the technology platforms that JLL deploys for internal business functions, such as JD Edwards for Finance or Jaegger for procurement, CAFMs such as Corrigo and IWMSs such as Tririga. JLL has a finite and manageable ecosystem of tools and softwares to ensure suitability and commercial viability in all geographies. JLL global multi-million dollar proptech fund; JLL Spark has done some stellar work through strategic investments and acquisitions that have helped JLL bring the best and most innovative technology to our clients baked into the services we perform for them. JLL Spark investments have been a differentiator.
Our architecture ensures agility and amenability for innovation. These are key features that a technology suite must have to keep with the times and not get dated. Some of the platforms that we use to enable our services to clients are:
- Corrigo for Work Order management, TRIRIGA as an IWMS platform. The data analytics for such platforms are embedded as well as manifested in the Azara environment.
- Space and Occupancy planning:- Vergesense along with Go Space AI. These, of course, leverage and integrate at a data warehouse layer with CAFM systems and IWMSs.
- Project management and monitoring platforms such as Clarizen with a BI and reporting layer that aligns with the Azara environment.
- Design Studio is leveraged for design and build assignments along with Clarizen, of course.
- Lease administration is enabled with several leading platforms, such as Portfolio and Pega. These again integrate into a cutting-edge BI layer.
Aside from the above, there are a number of other platforms that JLL leverages for its functions, such as CMO for Risk and incident management, Medallia for client and customer voice, Open Space AI for virtual site inspections and project updates, Ninox for Asset data capture and validation etc.
Most importantly, with this finite ecosystem of tools, JLL is able to render the output tiles of these tools through Client Portals powered by Azara that are developed for each client. A unique client portal ensures data protection and security for each client and a single pane of glass via which all services are reported through their enabling technology functions.
- How has the company used IoT to its benefit, especially for the functioning and operations of its facilities?
We have kept pace with IoT to monitor building and asset performance through our own platforms, such as Intellicommand as well as a smart building partner ecosystem that includes Spark-led investments and acquisitions.
In the current hybrid working business environment with an RTO percentage varying significantly, clients are demanding a rapidly scalable and facility condition-based service. JLL has been able to innovate and create service products that meet just that expectation and market requirement. The ingenuity is in the smart application of smart IoT-based technology to assess the condition of the facility and then mobilise the service. We have a service model that has been productised as ‘dynamic clean’ and for engineering maintenance, we simply call it a ‘Smart Maintenance’ service.
Dynamic Clean uses sensors that measure footfall, odour-producing gases and wet patches to assess the condition of spaces that need janitorial rigour and optimise the number of cleaning visits. This is scalable, and the simple reduction of the volume of cleaning work orders enables a business case.
With Smart maintenance, JLL has leveraged Fault Detection and Diagnostic IoT solutions that, again, are JLL Spark-invested innovative platforms. JLL has deployed Ecolibrium’s smartsense to selectively monitor certain asset types that allow for the feasibility of condition-based maintenance over the standard time and run an hour-based maintenance approach. JLL’s smart building platforms, such as Intellicommand, allow for remote monitoring of buildings, thereby reducing the inspection and maintenance work orders. This has enabled us to deliver a smart and dynamic maintenance model that is cost-optimised as well as enhances reliability.
- What are some of the most common challenges when working on and managing commercial campuses of such a massive scale?
In JLL, the bigger the facility or campus, the better – because opportunities for us to drive value through our expertise and platform are many more. From a management processes and procedure perspective, we’re well equipped to handle large campus ostensible complexities.
Having said that, IFM has seen a major evolution and advancement of skill sets for those who manage facilities. Today’s FM has multifarious skill requirements, technology adeptness, experience orientation to deliver a ‘workplace experience’ not just service, a comprehensive understanding of sustainability and the ability to manage multiple suppliers along with the core finance and procurement deliverables.
A facility manager has come of age, and the unfortunate reality also is that facility management or building engineering are not sought-after career options. Therefore, talent acquisition to manage modern facilities of today remains an ever-present challenge. This is and is likely to remain a major challenge and, therefore, an opportunity for industry action.