Table of contents for June - July 2016 in Facility Management

The rapid emergence of smart environments on the Australian landscape continues to capture the imagination of facility management professionals. Exactly how smart cities, smart buildings and smart workplaces will impact the industry is not entirely clear just yet. But what is certain is that FM professionals will be required to broaden their skill base to complement this evolution as it develops further. Smart buildings and workplaces are becoming the new norm. It is now standard for developers to invest in these technological capabilities to accommodate for the demands of our future workplaces. At the Total Facilities conference in Melbourne earlier this year the evolution of the built environment and workplace dominated discussion. It seemed everyone who attended had a strong opinion on what the ideal smart building should look like…

Disputes come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They could be arguments about the charges on recent utilities bills, challenges over the quality service delivery or clashes with contractors over variations. They generally arise when there are two opposing points of view between two parties, and can easily escalate into major conflict if neither party ‘backs down’ or moves from their individual entrenched positions. Each party to a dispute has the ability to influence its direction by the way they act and react. Aggressive actions will no doubt escalate, whereas conciliatory actions stand a good chance of resolving, or at least defusing, the situation. Both parties have the choice of taking one or other of these approaches. The conscious or subconscious decision on how a dispute progresses will result…

Schindler Lifts Australia is ensuring the future of the company by strengthening a commitment to its wellestablished apprenticeship program. It was revealed last year that TAFE enrolments had dropped by about 83,000 between 2012 and 2015 and that there was a national completion rate of just 46 percent for trade apprentices and trainees. This is in stark contrast to Schindler’s program, with the number of apprentices doubling over the past decade and the completion rate for the course reaching 96 percent. As our skills base becomes older, Schindler Lifts believes it is critical that we continue to train new apprentices to sustain the future of the company. Many of our counterparts in the industry have not made the same commitment to training, so we are fortunate to have established such…

A Facility Management content partner is an organisation with which we’ve entered into a partnership to collaborate on content for the magazine. In this issue, thought leaders from respective organisations are: ASSA ABLOY’S ANDREW EVANS Andrew Evans is national sales manager - Access Control and has almost 10 years’ experience in the security management and access control market. He is wellversed in the capabilities of cutting edge wireless security such as Aperio – developed to complement new and existing access control systems. ISS AUSTRALIA’S PATRICK VELLA Patrick Vella is technical services and energy manager for ISS Australia. Within ISS, he has delivered analysis and advice to site leads and senior management on all areas of energy consumption and efficiency, and provided cost-effective solutions and technical direction across 13 countries. SCHINDLER…

Demand for data centre services is growing rapidly, driven by the insatiable consumer appetite for smart devices, combined with a trend towards business migration to cloud services and outsourced data management. To manage increased capacity demands, organisations wmayill consider building a new facility or renting wholesale data centre space. According to research firm, Frost and Sullivan, the Australian data centre services market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.7 percent between 2015 and 2020. In 2014, data centre services’ revenue in Australia reached $826 million, a growth rate of 18.3 percent over 2013, the firm says. With this growth, and the role data availability plays in making critical business decisions in Australia, effective physical security measures that protect the data centre are increasing in importance.…

Buildings and the workplace are evolving. They are moving from being inert containers to being real-time assets – connected real estate where the building can load balance itself, optimising its reaction to its realtime occupancy. With this evolution there is a potential to shift the property industry forward. The advances in analytics and predictive optimisation mean that the utilisation of buildings and the work of those managing them will become so much more sophisticated. The Internet of Things (IoT) is converging with real estate to create an ecosystem where every aspect of the building can be connected – in effect the building will be a neural network. Once, proprietary systems and protocols meant that building-based systems could not effectively talk to each other. There is now convergence, open standards based…

A report released by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) in November 2015 highlighted an energy efficiency gap in the commercial buildings segment. The report identifies that, while many premium and A-grade buildings have undertaken energy efficiency upgrades, the remaining mid-tier commercial buildings have low National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) energy ratings, if any, and are significantly lagging in the implementation of energy efficiency retrofits. It is estimated that mid-tier buildings account for 80 percent of Australia’s 52 million square metres of commercial office space. The report identified a lack of awareness of energy efficiency benefits and a perception that investment in energy saving retrofits will not yield a return. It is a common misconception that the use of energy saving insulation and building envelope design solutions…

The current commercial facilities’ focus on ‘the next best things’ in workplace is timely. Until recently, corporate property and the workplace environment has been the poor cousin to the other corporate support functions related to changing approaches to information technology models and human resource management. Now, the discussions appear to have converged into a single multifaceted conversation, embracing property, people and business processes as all being key components of the workplace. But has this focus on the latest and greatest trends in the workplace gone too far, ignoring the real financial impacts and general common sense? Are key aspects of the life cycle costing analytics of corporate accommodation solutions being ignored? WORKPLACE DESIGN TRENDS Commercial office workplace designs, much like new consumer offerings in the next trendy and ultra-cool coffee…

BuildingIQ expands FM capabilities through consolidation Cloud-based energy management company BuildingIQ continues to grow its services for the FM industry through new partnerships and acquisitions. The Australian company has established a relationship with AMP Technologies, which it says will help reduce operating costs for commercial building owners, managers and real estate investment trusts (REITs). Under the agreement, qualified customers will have the opportunity to use both BuildingIQ’s predictive energy optimisation platform and AMP’s commercial real estate business intelligence platform. According to BuildingIQ, the two platforms will enable users to reduce operational costs and gain a competitive advantage when managing commercial assets. BuildingIQ chief executive Michael Nark says, “Buildings that are not utilising cloud-based technology to improve energy consumption and operations are using practices that are quickly becoming antiquated. BuildingIQ is…

Opportunities for innovation have never been greater for the facility management industry. Despite improvements in recent years, FM companies still have opportunities to do more to create innovation – pressures from competition and client demands make it a must for modern day providers. For ISS the need to be innovative led to the development of an Innovation Program, which is being rolled out across the company, both in Australia and New Zealand. The Innovation Program has been established to help facilitate the identification and execution of innovations that will have a significant and positive impact on the performance of our services. It has led to a cultural shift in how innovation is approached, considered and shared. ISS Australia has a dedicated national innovation manager focused on new ideas to drive…

When it comes to discussions around security, many property developers and facility managers may conjure up images of masked intruders, high-tech alarm systems and broken windows. But in today’s ‘always on’ business world, digital security is now a greater threat than a physical break-in. While smart buildings and facilities’ IT systems may be at risk of cyber attack, the most likely threat is hidden within something you use hundreds of times a day. The confidential information contained in your emails and messages is the number one target. Many people believe passwords protect their data and that when they share messages and documents, this information is only visible between the chosen parties. Unfortunately, email and file sharing systems simply do not work that way. Regular email, chat and document sharing is…

Monitoring 5000 sites around the world, Danfoss, which specialises in producing refrigeration monitoring equipment, compressors and controllers for grocery stores, required a solution that would help its customers view their operations at a presentation level, create reports on alarms and performance, and reduce energy costs. BACKGROUNDS AND CHALLENGES Refrigeration consumes a major portion of a large grocery store’s electricity (up to 30 percent in some stores), with the remainder consumed by HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) equipment, lighting and other utilities, such as in-house bakeries and restaurants. Add to this the risk of asset failure, which can result in food loss, unplanned asset down time and maintenance callouts – all unexpected costs that can quickly escalate. Retailers now operate in a market where the demand for frozen foods is increasing,…

In a bid to remove the interruption that can be associated with physical evacuation drills, a number of organisations are resorting to desktop fire safety training that does not properly replicate a fire situation. This is particularly prevalent in environments where there is perceived to be limited downtime, such as hospitals or hotels, or in industries that want to minimise disruption, such as schools or aged care facilities. Taking shortcuts on physical fire safety training is unacceptable. Any number of things can go wrong in a fire and steps should be taken to eliminate the unknowns. Physical practice runs provide an invaluable opportunity to identify and mitigate any unexpected barriers to evacuation. For example, an evacuation drill may reveal that employees are blocking exits by storing materials within the building…

This is a question that I get asked a lot in practice. Or, more commonly, I hear this question after I have prescribed some simple stretches, but my clients are making a desperate bid to avoid doing them – does stretching actually work? The short answer is yes; the long answer depends on the context in which you are asking the question. For instance, whether stretching optimises performance, prevents injury or just makes you more comfortable in your posture? Most clients that I see in a clinical setting have some form of postural strains, something that is inevitable as our bodies are incredible beings that change their shape depending on activity, mood and concentration. Because of this, I like to refer to these patterns as each individual body telling me…

Big data is one of the technology trends where the benefits may outstrip the hype. Almost every organisation is capable of achieving significant benefits from big data, and most organisations already collect significant amounts of useful data. To turn that data into insights, organisations need an effective analytics approach. Companies that are not making decisions based on effective analysis of big data could be missing the opportunity to outperform competitors. Yet, while most organisations are convinced of the value of big data, some find it difficult to turn theory into practice. Specifically, many organisations become distracted by the technology around big data and forget that data collection and analytics are only useful if they can be used to solve real business challenges. This includes finding ways to reduce costs, improve…

DEFINITIONS BUILDING AND FACILITIES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Web-based maintenance management applications. BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING (BIM) SOFTWARE BIM is the process of generating and managing building data. COMPUTERISED MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMMS) Used to monitor equipment performance and enhance the efficiency of maintenance operations. ENTERPRISE ASSET MANAGEMENT (EAM) SYSTEM Enables holistic control and optimisation of enterprise assets. ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP) SOFTWARE Manages business processes and automates back office functions. INTEGRATED WORKPLACE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (IWMS) Solutions that span the life cycle of facilities asset management. PROCUREMENT SOFTWARE SOLUTION Automates the purchasing and inventory processes. Integrated Workplace Management Systems (IWMS) FM Innovations www.fminnovations.com.au 03 9600 1646 FM Innovations (FMI) is the only Australian owned software company to take your FM and property management objectives and tailor a software system that measurably helps you…