By: Jeff Brades, VP – Marketing & Communications, Sodexo India
Track2Realty Exclusive: We have been through three key stages of evolution in facilities management in India and now stand at the cusp of the fourth, and most exciting, one. The first was prior to the growth years for India and existed from independence to around the mid-1990s.
In that time facilities management was, sadly but truthfully, simply a case of finding the least bad option. That is not to say that people and organizations were not willing but they simply lacked the infrastructure and training to be able to do anything more than what they thought was the best to do.
As international organizations did not invest in India, the delivery was from a localized approach and measurement was against what each and every company thought was best. Results were patchy and were generally measured against how good it looked today, if the building was clean people were happy and if it was not then various parties were called to task until it was corrected.
In the second wave, from the mid-1990s until the middle of the last decade, companies benefitted from international investment and were able to both understand what to ask for and, in the case of the service provider, to be clear on what they could offer.
Services were heavily commoditised around the requirements of the company, but if it could not be seen it generally did not get paid for. This meant that while the service was still run on a day-to-day basis, the requirements were clearly specified and understood.
This helped all parties clearly understand what was required but did not really put pressure on either side to do more than what both parties knew. Consequently, contracts were bid for on a man day basis and operational efficiencies were only discussed at the time of the contract renewal.
Clients did not know what they did not know and while service providers were able to do more, it was not asked of them so they completed as per the specification and hoped that was appreciated enough for them to avoid a cost war when the next tender date was due.
From the turn of the last decade companies are now able to understand that experts should be able to behave like experts and not like commodity providers. Clients are more willing and able to recognize that the requirements stretch beyond the needs of today and the value that they bring is evaluated over more than just the contract price.
Cleaning contracts can now be considered on output specs rather than the amount of people needed to do the job and lifetime cycle management ensured that true consideration of elements such as asset management helped all parties get the best out of the facility, both now and in the future.
…to be continued
