< Previous CAFM TIPS 30 March 2021www.fm-middleeast.com The biggest investment in a CAFM project is not the CAFM solution but the time and resources you put into it before, during and after implementation CAFM systems provide a considerable number of benefits across the whole of the FM industry regardless if you are service provider or real estate/property owner and irrespective of the type of facilities and assets you are managing. There are a number of factors that contribute to a successful CAFM implementation and the appreciation of the benefits they provide. Based on our experience in implementing such systems the last 15+ years, we outline below the challenges TEN TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL CAFM IMPLEMENTATION faced and suggest 10 measures to take to ensure your CAFM project is successfully implemented within the budget, time and scope constrains of such a project. There are a number of good CAFM systems out in the market and selecting the most appropriate one may be an important factor for a successful implementation of such a system but not the only factor for a successful implementation. In general, to have a successful CAFM implementation you need to ensure that the system is within your budget, requirements and time constrains. Based on our experience, we provide the 10 most important factors to take into consideration for a successful CAFM implementation: 1. PROCUREMENT CAFM systems are designed by facility management (FM) experts for FM experts. Benefits from such systems are based on your objectives as an FM department/organisation and your specific requirements of what features you need to achieve your CAFM TIPS March 2021 31www.fm-middleeast.com business objectives and targets. Your requirements must be well analysed and documented, stating in detail what are the specific needs you have in order to meet your business objectives. In documenting your requirements, you need to think of your current problems and processes and ways that you can improve them. You need to include volume information such as the number of buildings you are maintaining, type and number of assets, average number of corrective and preventive work orders per period, number of technicians etc. Most important is to document, in any format, what are the reports and KPIs/SLAs you require in order to monitor and measure the efficiency and effectiveness of your operation. Don’t focus on technology, focus on FM business requirements. Procurement without detailed requirements is like going to the supermarket without a shopping list. You end up buying a lot of things that you do not want missing out what you really went to the supermarket to buy in the first place. Therefore, you need to make sure that, when listing your requirements, do not exaggerate and do not list requirements that you do not know what they are or you do not know if you need them. Stick to your requirements. 2. PROCESSES IT systems depend on processes. If you do not have a Standard Operating Process system in place that clearly defines process flows like incident logging procedure works, work order completion, contract management, material and procurement of spare parts and consumables, chances are you are not ready to implement a CAFM system. You need to have the business processes in place before implementation. Processes must also be aligned to the digital technologies you are to implement, eliminating any duplicate or redundant steps. It is highly advisable that before you start your journey towards a new application system, you have FM business consultants audit your current operation and ensure that they help enhance your business processes, making them more effective and aligned to take advantage of a CAFM system. 3. TAXONOMY Taxonomy provides a framework within which knowledge is able to be identified and categorised for ease of access by practitioners. Taxonomy is a classification system for improved information management which contributes to improving the capability of users to sustain and improve the operations of your business. In relation to facility management, taxonomy refers to all the types and coding of data you have within your organisation to identify your FM related resources. These include type of building and assets and coding masks you use in order to define their Tag IDs and be able to identify them. In order to implement an application software, you need to have in place a good structure of coding defining facilities, buildings, projects, contracts and how all these are interrelated. You also need to ensure that the CAFM provider you choose has experience in helping you evaluating your taxonomy and adjusting it for a more efficient and effective management. 4. RESOURCES The biggest investment in a CAFM project is not the CAFM solution but the time and resources you put into it before, during and after implementation. You need to ensure that before you start to implement such a system you have a team capable of managing the new system, understand your organisation and your FM needs, and are able to provide the necessary feedback to the application provider. Ideally the implementation team from the customer side must include: • A project manager. You need to have a project manager / coordinator from your side specifically for this project • CAFM is a dynamic system. Everyday is a new day. You need to have in place a trained and experienced team that will sleep and wake up on how to improve the operations of the system making sure that all the pending issues are resolved. Minimum of two administration resources will be required that will receive the on-the- job training, assist in collecting and setting up the data and be the ones that eventually will administrate the system from the side of the customer • A steering committee comprising with one representative from each of the departments of your organisation that are related to your FM functions (procurement, finance, HRM etc). 5. PHASED APPROACH If you try to implement all the features of a CAFM within a short time, the chances are that you will fail, (a) because it’s too much of information for your users to consume and (b) there are too many variables and relation of data. Remember the 20 to 80 percent rule. 20% of the functionality will solve 80% of your problems so you need to put a plan in place that will focus on implementing and taking live the 20% features first and then moving to implement the other 80%. 6. REPUTABLE CAFM SYSTEM AND PROVIDER The first selection criteria for a CAFM is that it is from a reputable company that has been for many years in business with a track record of successful implementations especially in the industry sector that you are in. The provider of the system must have a good knowledge of the business, in this case of facilities management and asset management, and successful implementations in their background. In general, you should try and procure a system that can meet the above benefits and support features such as: • User friendly and robust • Collaboration between customers, suppliers, contractors and end customers online using self-service CAFM TIPS 32 March 2021www.fm-middleeast.com About the author Andreas Hadjioannou is a director of Virtual IT, implementing WebTMA CAFM/ CMMS from TMA Systems in the US (www.tmasystems.com) with presence in UAE, KSA, Qatar and Cyprus. help desk through the web, messaging send alerts and notification • Planning and scheduling tools • Mobility • Dashboard tools and Query tools to build dynamic KPIs, manage SLAs and perform benchmarking evaluating vendors, asset performance and ad hoc queries • Ability to incorporate features / integrate to energy management, BIM, AutoCAD, BMS, GIS and ERP systems An important thing to remember is that the team that will implement the system follows standards such as ISO41001 Facilities Management and ISO55000 Asset Management and has a proven record of implementation. Also ensure that the provider has enough qualified resources to be able to support your users after the project goes live. 7. QUALITY DATA IT systems run on data. In IT we use the term “garbage in garbage out”. If you do not have quality data, you will not be able to monitor and measure your performance correctly. You do not need to have the 100% availability of data and specifically asset data. Start with the data required the most for corrective and preventive maintenance and gradually load data when these are available. What you need to make sure is that any data you load to your system are in good quality and provide enough information to manage your operation. 8. MANAGEMENT DECISION SUPPORT An IT project always starts with excitement until the first issues appear. If you complete a CAFM project without any issues, then expect issues after going live. Any IT project must have the full support of upper management so that when problems appear these can be resolved ASAP. In addition, any decision that needs to be made must be made within the agreed timeframe otherwise your project will sleep and sometimes never end. 9. PLANNING Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Planning can make the difference between failure and success in a CAFM project. A plan must have all the tasks required from beginning to end. It is dynamic process so expect tasks, milestones, dependencies and duration of each task to change. What should not change in a plan is the beginning and end date of the project. All resources involved in the project must be involved in the planning process, providing their feedback if the can meet every task and milestone of the project. 10. TRAINING CAFM systems have 100s of features and benefits with continuous updates. Users, especially supervisors, administrators and generally all users must be well trained on the job, during training sessions at the end of the implementation, and continue well after the project has been implemented. Training should be in phases. Train users in a piece meal approach ensuring that they practice and digest the features they have learned before moving to more advance features. CONCLUSION No matter how good the CAFM system you choose to procure is, if you do not have in place the appropriate plan, resources, processes, quality data, taxonomy, management support and training, chances are that your project will fail. The above factors are not exhaustive and their importance varies to the size of the project, size of the customer organisation and features required. To make sure that all factors are managed, it is important that a CAFM project is implemented in a partnership between the supplier and the customer. As partners, you need to sit down before the project starts and perform a risk analysis of what are the possible risks that may affect the cost, the time and scope of the project. Once identified, these risks need to be evaluated, plan adjusted and appropriate measures must be introduced so that these risks are mitigated as much as possible. IT IS HIGHLY ADVISABLE THAT BEFORE YOU START YOUR JOURNEY TOWARDS A NEW APPLICATION SYSTEM, YOU HAVE FM BUSINESS CONSULTANTS AUDIT YOUR CURRENT OPERATION AND ENSURE THAT THEY HELP ENHANCE YOUR BUSINESS PROCESSES, MAKING THEM MORE EFFECTIVE AND ALIGNED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF A CAFM SYSTEM. Andreas Hadjioannou, director of Virtual IT, implementing WebTMA CAFM/CMMS.THE LAST WORD March 2021 33www.fm-middleeast.com Adrian Jarvis, director of FSI Middle East, discusses CAFM adoption during the pandemic, FSI’s successes over past 12 months, and new players aff ecting the current market share Has the pandemic driven the adoption of CAFM systems? Well, yes and no. Many organisations that had already adopted CAFM, and who had already recognised its benefits, have continued to invest in enhancements to their CAFM processes and outputs, particularly around cleaning schedules. However, the pandemic resulted in many 2020 budgets being curtailed, particularly, in government sectors. So whilst FSI has seen a strong uptake in interest around CAFM, especially in the KSA market, the number of new projects we have delivered in the Middle East in 2020 has not been as expected as in previous years. The pandemic has, however, driven changes to FSI’s CAFM functionality. For example, we have refined our Contractor product suite to adopt a ‘contactless first’ approach with the goal of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of employees, facilities staff and contractors, when they attend sites. What has FSI observed over the last 12 months? The last 12 months have been a challenging time for all of us, but there have also been a number of positive outcomes resulting in changes in working practices. Along with working from home, most Middle East clients have accepted remote communication as opposed to on-site delivery of professional services, using tools such as Microsoft Teams. This approach is something, where appropriate to the task at hand, we have been advocates of for some time. Being a global business has also helped FSI through the ups and downs of working from home and the uncertainty of the pandemic. As a company we’ve discovered that globally we have become more connected across our business, which has delivered many benefits both internally and externally including increased knowledge sharing and better understanding of the common challenges our staff face globally within the different regions. Similarly, remote delivery has also meant the Middle East-based professional services team has been able to assist our colleagues in Australia and the UK to deliver various projects. It has provided a great platform for learning the nuances of different sectors and markets in other regions, which we are sure will also benefit our Middle East clients in the future. FSI, a global leader in providing facilities management solutions software, celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2020, and it was pleasing to be recognised with excellence awards in Australia and impact awards in the UK. From a technology perspective we have seen increased demand for hosted subscription-based SaaS CAFM system requirements, as opposed to on-site premises installations. Whilst core CAFM requirements remain asset management, preventative and reactive maintenance, and performance reporting, there is increased demand for space management, smart building integration and business intelligence. Do you foresee smaller CAFM players now entering the field and affecting market share? FSI has seen many systems come and go over time while we have been in the business of developing and implementing solutions for the facilities management industry. Of course, new players in any market can have an impact. That is why it is very important when considering a CAFM provider to consider not only the software features and functionality, but also the experience, professional services consultancy, training and support offered by a given CAFM vendor. FSI’s offering starts from a single- user system all the way through to international solutions across borders. We have many clients who started out managing a single building using FSI software, and now they have national and international portfolios being managed through our technology. It is also important to determine whether the CAFM provider understands facilities management, and what the vendor’s roadmap is. As your business evolves and priorities change it is important to find a solution and vendor that can accommodate both current and future needs and advise you on the journey. With a growing list of options on the market, it is important to spend time finding the right software for your organisation. As we look ahead, the signs are positive despite the ongoing challenges of Covid-19. FSI has seen a positive start to 2021, in that many stalled projects are now back on the table. As usual FSI continues to develop and move forward with the introduction of new technology. Recently, Concept Evolution CAFM version 5.5 was released with enhanced resource planning and survey features. We will also introduce a new B2C solution @yourService soon. FSI Middle East is looking forward to a bright 2021. CAFM AMIDST COVID-19 Adrian Jarvis, director, FSI Middle East. IOT AND AUTOMATION 34 March 2021www.fm-middleeast.com Companies that embrace advances in areas such as IoT and automation are set to reap the benefi ts in the long-term, says Imdaad’s chief operating offi cer, Mahmood Rasheed By Mahmood Rasheed The global Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the ways in which people live and work around the world. In the wake of this year’s unprecedented events, there has been much discussion on the pivotal WHY TECHNOLOGY HOLDS THE KEY TO EFFICIENCY FOR TOMORROW’S FM SECTOR? role that technology has played in keeping businesses moving. Naturally, this conversation includes the facilities management (FM) sector. As our industry continues to adapt to the rapidly evolving circumstances of the post-pandemic landscape, a common area of concern that has emerged among many clients is the reduction of costs. Organisations of all kinds are refocusing their budgets in an attempt to become more competitive and secure business continuity. For FM service providers, this means that IOT AND AUTOMATION March 2021 35www.fm-middleeast.com working more efficiently has become more crucial than ever. Against this backdrop, the rate of digital transformation is accelerating as service providers seek to adopt innovative strategies to meet clients’ budgetary expectations, while deploying technological solutions designed to maintain the same high standards in service. In today’s sophisticated FM environment, many digital tools are deployed to boost efficiency and ensure that clients receive the services they require, when and where they need them. Take modern Building Management Systems (BMS), for instance, which utilise breakthroughs in connectivity such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data analysis and Artificial Intelligence to deliver an incredibly detailed picture on the status of clients’ assets in real- time. These complex systems are used to proactively uncover faults before they arise, reducing maintenance costs and downtime for the customer. At Imdaad, we analysed data accumulated from our BMS over a month-long period. The results demonstrated that our systems were able to remotely fix more than 90% of faults with no human intervention required. These advanced capabilities not only drive greater efficiency and reduce costs for clients, but are also helping to overcome the challenges of social distancing during the current pandemic situation. The advantages of digitalisation and automation are by no means limited to smart buildings. There are many tools available to help streamline workflows in jobs that are carried out by humans. For example, Imdaad has adopted a smartphone-based solution that provides real-time tracking of operational data. When a work order is generated, the system automatically searches for the nearest technician and assigns the job, enabling us to allocate resources more efficiently and ensure the rapid responses our clients have become accustomed to. At its heart, FM remains a people- based industry. Yet, as technology continues to march onwards, many aspects of the sector are ripe for disruption. One area that currently shows a lot of promise is ‘cobotics’ – the use of intelligent, automated machines or robots to assist front-line workers. Cobots work alongside team members to carry out repetitive or strenuous tasks, and are there to support the existing workforce, freeing up their time to ensure that the highest levels of customer service are maintained in other areas. Given the potential to drive greater efficiency and reduce overall operating costs, this concept is very attractive to both FM companies and their clients. Until now, the high initial outlay involved has proved something of a limiting factor, particularly as labour costs remain relatively low in the region. As a result of the global pandemic, the current market is hyper-competitive and purely price-driven. So it may be some time until we see meaningful change in this direction. However, companies who choose to invest in such technologies early are likely to reap the rewards in the long run thanks to improved efficiency, higher quality, and greater consistency. Ultimately, it is clear that the future of facilities management is going to be shaped by emerging technologies. The secret to unlocking the many advantages these can bring lies in understanding how to harness the benefits to drive improvements in customer satisfaction. THE ADVANTAGES OF DIGITALISATION AND AUTOMATION ARE BY NO MEANS LIMITED TO SMART BUILDINGS. THERE ARE MANY TOOLS AVAILABLE TO HELP STREAMLINE WORKFLOWS IN JOBS THAT ARE CARRIED OUT BY HUMANS. Mahmood Rasheed, Imdaad’s chief operating offi cer. FORESIGHT 36 March 2021www.fm-middleeast.com As distributed working becomes more common, expect people to migrate towards more aff ordable locations that off er big-city amenities, writes Ryan Anderson, vice president, Global Insights and Research, Herman Miller 1. REMOTE WORKING BECOMES DISTRIBUTED WORKING -For the past year, most of us have been working, which is working outside of the offices. But as more offices reopen, it’s unlikely that everyone will simply head back to the office each day. What’s most TEN WORK/WORKPLACE PREDICTIONS FOR 2021 likely is distributed working, which refers to how individuals and teams work across many locations (including the office) becomes the norm. Since many organisations have learned that their workers can, in fact, be trusted to be productive in almost any location, expect that workers will have the freedom to when and where they’d like for the foreseeable future. 2. OFFICES REOPEN, BUT WITH MORE BREATHING ROOM (PHEW!) – You know what’s not very popular FORESIGHT March 2021 37www.fm-middleeast.com during a pandemic? Sitting three feet from someone else trying to do their work. And guess what? It wasn’t very popular before the pandemic either. As distributed working becomes more normalised, expect the pressure to “densify” office floors with lots of small desks to be reduced – and for offices to gain some metaphorical and literal breathing room in the future. 3. WORKPLACE WELLNESS TAKES ON A NEW MEANING – Whereas physical ergonomics has always mattered to those with bad backs, eye strain, or carpel tunnel, the world is beginning to realise just how critical our places of work are to our cognitive and social health as well. Look for organisations to place a renewed emphasis on the workplace as a destination for socialisation and culture building, along with quiet areas to focus and escape stress. 4. FACILITIES MEETS MARKETING – As employers offer people more autonomy to choose when and where they’d like to work, the office will increasingly be viewed as an “on- demand” resource. To better support positive employee experiences and ensure a good return on real-estate investments, facilities teams will dial up the desirability of their spaces, focusing on understanding employee needs and offering positive experiences to keep employees happy and healthy. 5. POWER TO THE PEOPLE! END- USER CONTROL BECOMES A PRIORITY – Since peoples’ work patterns have so drastically shifted in 2020, the tasks of designing future spaces can no longer easily be based upon past behaviours. As a means of embracing this uncertainty, and ensuring future flexibility, spaces will be designed to maximise end-user control, putting the power to adapt it in the hands of the employees with furniture, technology and even architecture that can be easily changed. 6. FEWER MEETINGS; MORE CHATTING – Collaboration technologies offer teams several ways to interact – posting in Teams or Slack channels, chatting via instant messaging, or in video meetings – and most of us have had enough video meetings to last us a long while. As teams become more comfortable with asynchronous collaboration (connecting at different times throughout the day rather than having everyone meeting simultaneously) and as reopened offices allow for more informal dialogue, our video fatigue will finally be remedied. 7. ”TIER 2” CITIES START TO POP – Big cities are awesome, but they’re also expensive and difficult to navigate for those commuting in from more affordable suburbs. As distributed working becomes more common, expect people to migrate towards more affordable locations that offer big-city amenities, which will provide new economic growth opportunities for these “tier 2” cities. Barbeque in Austin, anyone? 8. WORK FROM HOME EXPERIENCES GET BETTER – While most people enjoy the chance to work from home a few days a week, most of us didn’t enjoy being forced into exclusively working from home with little preparation. Look for those WFH experiences to improve as employers provide high-quality ergonomic seating, sit-to-stand desks, and critical technologies to employees for their homes. Reopened offices and coworking spaces will provide additional options for workers, and the reopening of schools will lessen the need for employees to simultaneously juggle working and parenting. 9. OUTDOOR WORK (AND BRINGING THE OUTDOORS IN) ACCELERATE – One of the silver linings of working through a global pandemic is that many people rediscovered the physical, mental and emotional benefits of being outside. Look for both individuals and organisations to embrace outdoor working as a regular work experience and for the interior design of spaces to be inspired or mimic the great outdoors (what’s known as “biophilic” design). 10. COWORKING COMES TO YOUR BLOCK – The first wave of coworking may have had a few things wrong. Most spaces were located in the central business district of big cities and assumed that people would come in each day to work in an open environment with people from many companies. Instead, look for future coworking spaces to be located in residential centres, providing people the opportunity to escape down the road for an hour or a day when they need a time of focus or team interactions with nearby colleagues. SUSTAINABILITY 38 March 2021www.fm-middleeast.com How to get your company to be more sustainable? It’s like training for long-distance running: set goals, measure, and take the fi rst step! By Natalja Kissina, HR VP Gulf Countries at Schneider Electric F or many years, I’ve been doing long-distance running in the mountains. As any athlete will tell you, that is not just about physical fitness. It also takes mental willpower, and continuous goal-setting and self- measurement. Getting a company to change course – towards pushing sustainability higher up the agenda – is no different. It takes ambition, determination, resolve and will BECOMING SUSTAINABLE – not just from the top, but at every layer of the organisation. And it takes goals to aim for, and measures to benchmark progress against. For companies across the Middle East, and in virtually every sector, being more environmentally and socially responsible (while also being profitable) has become increasingly critical in recent years. Smart buildings, such as the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre, showcase how energy and water can be saved and how environmental materials can help us build more sustainably. Twenty years ago, calls for action and change were predominantly from environmentalists or labour- rights advocates. Now, these calls increasingly come from investors, regulators, customers, communities, and employees – who expect companies to take environmental and social goals as seriously as profit and revenue targets. SUSTAINABILITY March 2021 39www.fm-middleeast.com The COVID pandemic has accelerated this trend, as companies work to develop greater resilience in the face of disruption, “building back better” for business and social continuity. Nevertheless, many companies and organisations still struggle with how to truly embed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into their day-to-day operations. How can they move beyond tick-the-box slogans and pronouncements to genuinely walking the talk? How can they evolve beyond top-down sustainability edicts to a corporate culture in which everyone in the organisation lives, breathes and acts on them? How do organisations forge that mindset, and build that corporate muscle? Ultimately, the steps are no different from long-distance running. First, a corporation must understand and articulate the benefits of action, and the risks of inaction, to commit to change. This is akin to a runner taking the decision to run a race: it takes purpose and aspiration from the outset. A great example is the Saudi General Authority for Meteorology and Environmental Protection (GAMEP)’s State of the Environment Report which says: “Moving to green, smart and sustainable cities and increasing green areas and trees will help absorb pollutants, mitigate the impact of dust storms, make use of treated wastewater, and serve as a basin of carbon dioxide. Green areas will ensure a healthy and safe environment for the community.” Second, an organisation must set clear goals and commitments for change. These have to be both realistically achievable and ambitious enough to be meaningful – and they cannot be a one-off, they must be dialed up over time. Again, the concept is similar to the training plan that will push a runner to gradually improve their fitness over time. As we say, no pain no gain… And key in both cases is to measure performance and progress against an original baseline and future goals, and to calibrate accordingly. Third, a business must act on its plan. It must strategise. It must build a road map. It must do the hard work of becoming more efficient and digital, more ethical and just, and more transparent and responsible. It must take risks to innovate and learn. This, too, is like the runner, who can have all the aspirations and training plans in the world, but who must put in the miles, manage their diet, and keep going, even when it’s difficult, if they are to cross the finish line. That, in essence, is what we’ve been doing at Schneider Electric. We first put in place a number of ambitious sustainability commitments 15 years ago, and have since steadily raised the bar for ourselves, measuring and publishing our performance on a quarterly basis. The fruits of these efforts include helping our customers save more than 118 million metric tons of CO 2 emissions globally over the past five years, sourcing substantially more renewable energy to meet our own electricity needs, and training over 260,000 underprivileged people in energy management, to support their access to clean and reliable energy. In Saudi Arabia, Schneider Electric has launched a new Local Adaptation Center for high-quality LV circuit breakers bearing the label “Made in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”. The new production lines will generate Air-Circuit Breakers (ACB) between 630 and 4000 ampere, and Molded-Case Circuit Breakers (MCCB) between 100 and 1600 ampere, all of which plays an important role in the protection of LV power distribution networks in various segments such as commercial and industrial buildings. The first-of-its-kind production lines in Saudi Arabia are a part of Schneider Electric’s aim to contribute towards achieving the goals of National Transformation Vision 2030 and align with the Kingdom’s plans to upgrade the local energy sector. Let me share an example of what we’re doing to help in this region. We’re helping Qatar Foundation make its Education City a smarter, greener development. By using technology to collect information from over 316,000 data points, Qatar Foundation’s operations team are able to see on a single screen energy usage and temperature settings throughout the 42 buildings on campus. Technology can enable sustainability, and Education City is a great example of this. True, all of this takes effort: financial and human resources and a lot of time go into planning ESG initiatives, and tracking their progress. But the effort is worth it: after all, you can’t run a marathon without investing the time and energy to train for the event. And it’ll be a marathon rather than a sprint – but in the end, it will lead to a fitter, more sustainable organisation. And when you reach the finish line, you set new goals for an even longer distance, to push the limits to new horizons. This is what we expect from all organisations when it comes to sustainability. The sky is the limit! Natalja Kissina, HR VP Gulf Countries at Schneider Electric. SMART BUILDINGS, SUCH AS THE KING ABDULLAH PETROLEUM STUDIES AND RESEARCH CENTRE, SHOWCASE HOW ENERGY AND WATER CAN BE SAVED AND HOW ENVIRONMENTAL MATERIALS CAN HELP US BUILD MORE SUSTAINABLY. Next >