‘The biggest challenge faced by the industry is to increase the scope of FM services beyond traditional housekeeping services’
We spoke to Rahul Lal, FRICS and Member, Central Working Committee, Global Association for Corporate Services (GACS) to understand his assessmentabout the current Facilities Management scenario in India and how it compares to global standards, key challenges related to implementing Facilities Management solutions within a large organisation in India, some of the new products and technologies that are revolutionising the Facilities Management space and his plans to further improve Facilities Management within his organisation.
Question : What is your assessment about the current Facilities Management scenario in India? How does it compare to global standards?
Answer : In comparison with the global industry, India FM lags in areas such as market maturity, adoption of cutting edge technology, and appreciation of high standards of service delivery. There is a strong case to be made for raising awareness about the benefits of quality FM services. In terms of business continuity, operations cost rationalisation, long term real estate asset value optimisation, and green standard compliance. The dearth of skilled and non-technical manpower and the lack of infrastructure to train manpower are the other key challenges.
Question : What are the key challenges related to implementing Facilities Management solutions within a large organisation in India?
Answer : The biggest challenge faced by the industry is to increase the scope of FM services beyond traditional housekeeping services. Building management inarguably the core of FM service which can also extend to sophisticated requirements spanning Integrated Facilities Management, specialised engineering services and soft services. Today the adaptability of these solutions are very low as it is compared with cost effectiveness rather than as a service effective ness.
Question : Please tell us about some of the new products and technologies that are revolutionising the Facilities Management space.
Answer : The way technology is changing every day and methods of managing the data remotely is key to manage the facility and I feel Facility optimisation with Machine learning by innovative tech and software platforms which focuses on enhanced asset performance, connected with buildings can play an important role . It can not only generate datasets for buildings, but also shall unlock the insights into market trends, building performance optimisations etc.
Question : What are your plans to further improve Facilities Management within your organisation?
Answer : There are many improvement areas in the FM which can bring a lot of changes in the organisation improvement planning be it the business continuity plan, cost optimisation or building maintenance. One of the strategies which we plan to implement after experiencing the current pandemic is contingency planning and how to avoid supply chain disruptions during the crisis.
