Managing The Built Environment

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 »

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 »

The search term “penalize your supplier” in a Google search recently led someone to my web site, www.StrategicAdvisor.ca

They landed on our performance measurement article, which certainly has those words in the content, but then they quickly went somewhere else - probably because we don’t talk about penalizing suppliers - we focus on managing supplier performance to get results in a proactive, constructive way. Continue reading »

Have you updated your contract management yet?

Contract management is moving from legal terms and specifications to an important tool between you and your service provider to ensure success. Continue reading »