Madrid hosts largest European FM conference

04 June 2010

Over 500 delegates from the FM sector together with academics and researchers assembed in Madrid this week for the EFMC2010 conference and research symposium

With about 530 delegates in total attending the EFMC2010 event, EuroFM chairman Wayne Tantrum (UK) welcomed this level of  attendance as excellent in a ‘difficult economic climate.’  The conference and research symposium  both focused on ‘Integration of Core Business and Facility Management’, and for the first time the two streams shared a platform demonstrating of how the aims and objectives of both streams of FM activity and learning are coming together.
This joint session on ‘Added Value for FM to Business Performance' saw Professor Keith Alexander (UK) and Professor Theo van der Voordt,  Delft University of Technology (NL), sumarising a literary review of research papers into ’adding value’ in the context of FM.  An FM Value Map has been developed and Alexander and van der Voordt explained that the this would help to improve consistency and stardardisation in the sector, and identify the best models for adding value to FM in different ways.  The next step in the research will be to investigate the cause and effect relationships, provide an anothology of added value to FM and develop practice guidelines.The Business Conference delegates welcomed this insight in the ‘science of FM’ which the academics demonstrated.  Steve Ballesty (Australia), the newly appointed chair of IFMA Foundation, welcomed the holistic approach to adding value in the context of FM, and the introduction of scientific discipline into the sector. He encouraged a deeper examination of the added value concept, and suggested that looking at how shareholders viewed added value. He said this work would be one of the tools needed to convice CEO’s of the value of FM in their businesses.

A demonstration of academia working with the real FM world came In the session entitled Decision Support Systems for Facilties and RE Management, in which Prof Thomas Madritsch (A) of the University of Kufstien and Matthia Ebinger of  New York Presbyterian Hospital described their international research project.  Only in its early stages, the project  is examining a maturity model that measures the business effectiveness of FM and RE, and will see the results benchmarked with other companies, departments and countries.

Micropolix, a city fo children may be coming to a city near you.  Pedro Garcia (Sp), Corporate Director for FM, Neinver Management, Spain  described this mini world in which 2000 children a day come to experience real world activies in a dedicated mini world.  The Micropolic building which attracts 300,000 visitors a year has a mini hospital, police station, supermarket and radio station among it 40 activities managed by 143 monitors.  He described a solution to the issue of maintaining the activities in top condition and reducing costs and energy use, was to give the monitors responsibility for their own activities including their costs. As a result energy use reduced by 45 percent, service costs by 31 percent and client satisfaction increased by 51 percent, all representing a saving on the budget of about 45  percent in the first year.

To manage the facilities of Spanish Bank Santander, Salvador Torres Barroso (Sp), CEO of Santander Global Facilities described how the bank created an internal outsourcing solution. Santander Global Facilities provides technical management, services management and security – 30 services in total  at 3,000 branches and Santander Group City in Madrid, plus 2,000 branches of subsidiary Baresto. The aim is to offer a single service level at national and international levels , and integrate all the group services into a professional service for clients.

Fernando Carnero Entrena (Sp), RE and Facilities Manager, for Microsoft, Spain described how the company’s working environment is changing, and workspace reducing. He decribed how five workstyles have emerged each with different people to desk ratios, and this is guiding the company’s space strategy going forward. The five are  Very high external mobility 5:1;High external mobility 3:1;High internal mogility 2:1 Non-mobile collaboration 1:1 and Manager 2:1.

Vice Chairman of EuroFM Fred Kloet (NL), outlined the progress achieved so for with the European Standard EN15221.  The delegates largely welcomed the prospect of standardisation in FM in Europe but some concerns were expressed that the standard should not be to rigid and granular.  Ian Fielder, Chief Executive of BIFM asked, “Are we mature enough for standards?” He noted that across Europe FM was at different stages of development and a “standard can become an inhibitor that than a help.  FM is adaptable – emerging and changing - and will these standards help or stop its progress.” Danield Frutig of Compass Group urged that the standards should be a framework only and not go too deep.

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