Managing The Built Environment

Sparring Partners : Outsourcing May Not Equal Partnership
Building Operating Management
My latest article was the feature article and appeared on the May 2010 cover. I took a very hard look at what partnership is and isn’t as well as what needs to change in the industry.
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Procuring Facility Management services is not the same as buying widgets or tendering project work. You will live with the results, and the people who come along with the supplier, for the term of the contract.

This means it is just as important to get the right service and the right company as it is to get the right prices. You can’t use a technical approach to procuring your services like you would with a construction project or a simple price based process you might use to procure your office supplies. Continue reading »

Whether you are a facility manager, property manager or a supplier, writing RFP’s, writing responses to RFP’s and evaluating them is an important part of the supplier / client relationship.

Suppliers can do their clients a favor by writing better proposals that are easier to evaluate, provide the info they need and let them differentiate you from your competition. Writing proposals is tough, but with the right techniques, you can improve your success.

This 1 day workshop is being made available to the public for the first time through Conestoga College’s School of Business continuing education in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. The Workshop is based on the upcoming book “Win More Business … Write Better Proposals”. Continue reading »

There is a simple mistake many Facility Managers (or their procurement departments) make when writing the Request For Proposal (RFP) questions for FM services. I’ve seen it time and time again, having written my share of proposal responses both for past employers and for some consulting clients, assessed procurement practices, procured FM services and helped FM clients with their evaluation process for their own procurement initiatives. As you can see, I have lots of experience with RFP questions, both good and bad.

They don’t ask the right questions. Continue reading »