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PHS survey reveals good organisers and<br />
communicators amongst FMs managing office moves<br />
Office moves are complex projects to manage,<br />
involving tight schedules, staff liaison and<br />
supplier control, to name but a few of their<br />
myriad components. And yet the results of<br />
the 9th PHS Quarterly Facilities Management<br />
Survey show that the majority of FMs (68%)<br />
manage their moves with no documented process<br />
to guide them, and 71% are given less<br />
than 3 months notice to plan and prepare.<br />
Despite such drawbacks, more than half the<br />
surveyed FMs completed their last moves<br />
quickly - in less than 20 man-days. How?<br />
PHS’s sample revealed that the key to smooth,<br />
successful moves - even with short notice -<br />
lies in a combination of meticulous planning<br />
and organisation (39% of responses) and<br />
excellent communication (36% of responses).<br />
The Survey - which conducted telephone interviews<br />
with 200 facilities professionals in August<br />
2005 - extracted ‘top tips’ for optimising the<br />
moves process and minimising disruption,<br />
including the following:<br />
Plan ahead, test your plan (have a dummy run)<br />
and keep to your time schedule - don’t overrun<br />
Partner with major suppliers, like removal companies,<br />
early on, so the work is done to your<br />
time-schedule, not theirs.<br />
Consult with affected departments and other<br />
interested parties in advance, involve everyone<br />
up front as early as possible.<br />
Issue a ‘move guideline’ to all staff affected.<br />
Establish a ‘user group’ and nominate ‘move<br />
champions’ in every department (pick positive<br />
people who are good communicators). Delegate<br />
to them - don’t try to do everything yourself.<br />
Send out a weekly bulletin and have regular<br />
team meetings to keep everyone up to date - as<br />
long as everyone’s aware, the move should run<br />
smoothly. Shed as much furniture and equipment<br />
as possible beforehand. Label everything.<br />
The ECS Group, the company that has been<br />
developing solutions for the property industry<br />
for over 25 years, has acquired Fraser<br />
Williams Commercial Systems, including their<br />
North American subsidiary, Fraser Williams<br />
Americas, from Lloyds Development Capital<br />
and other shareholders to create one of the<br />
largest global suppliers of property systems<br />
and related services.<br />
ECS and FWCS have both realised great corporate<br />
successes over the past 25 years and have<br />
been at the vanguard in developing the property<br />
software industry. FWCS is a quality supplier<br />
of software packages and services to property,<br />
consumer response and property mall owners<br />
with products including Horizon, CRS and Daily<br />
Move out of hours, when nobody or just a few<br />
people are there.<br />
Always assume a new move will be different to<br />
all the others - plan for each one individually.<br />
Amongst other Survey results, it was revealed<br />
that most of the sample’s most recent moves<br />
were internal or departmental ones<br />
(67% of respondents), followed<br />
by new premises moves<br />
(23%).<br />
Smooth moves require<br />
consultation with a<br />
number of people and<br />
departments from across<br />
the business. IT was the<br />
department FMs had<br />
involved most in recent<br />
moves (76% of respondents),<br />
followed by occupants of the<br />
department being moved<br />
(60%), operations (41%), property<br />
(34%) and finance (32%).<br />
Removal companies topped the<br />
list of external suppliers used in<br />
the last move (52% of respondents),<br />
followed by builders, refitters<br />
and decorators (50%) and cratehire,<br />
box and stationery companies<br />
(35%). A hefty 20% of FMs said they<br />
hadn’t used any external suppliers at all,<br />
although this could reflect the fact that two<br />
thirds of respondents’ recent moves were the<br />
‘simpler’ internal ones.<br />
Interestingly, aspects of move management considered<br />
most arduous and time consuming<br />
include the very necessary planning (59% of<br />
respondents) and staff liaison (31%)!<br />
Finally, there appeared to be a distinct difference<br />
between the responses of FMs working in<br />
the public and private sectors. Public sector<br />
Estates Computer Systems<br />
acquisition of Fraser Williams<br />
creates major global supplier<br />
www.practicalfm.co.uk<br />
Sales Advantage.<br />
The shareholders of FWCS, were advised<br />
throughout the sale process by London corporate<br />
finance boutique Livingstone Guarantee,<br />
whose partner Gordon Blair, says: “We<br />
approached a number of potential purchasers<br />
and received keen interest from international<br />
players but ECS demonstrated that an acquisition<br />
by them would represent an excellent<br />
strategic fit.”<br />
The ECS Group includes Estate Computer<br />
Systems (ECS), Landmaster and FDS Advanced<br />
Systems. The combination of ECS and FWCS,<br />
brings together the industry’s most comprehensive<br />
portfolio of applications, technologies and<br />
expertise which will enable customers to deploy<br />
innovative property and portfolio management<br />
solutions effectively.<br />
“We feel that ECS and Fraser Williams<br />
Commercial Systems are a logical fit, both in<br />
terms of products and customers” comments<br />
John Cuppello, Managing Director. “We can<br />
offer best of breed, end to end solutions for<br />
every kind of property investor, property manager<br />
or estate department executive”<br />
“We are grateful that Livingstone Guarantee<br />
handled the whole process very professionally<br />
and their voice of reason helped bring the deal<br />
to fruition.” Reader Reply No.: 85074<br />
business news...<br />
FMs tend to be more frequent movers (23%<br />
organised new premises moves every 6-12<br />
months, compared to just 11% in the private<br />
sector) and they also appear more collaborative<br />
over the process (just 6% of them organised<br />
their last move without consulting<br />
any other departments, compared to<br />
17% of private sector FMs; and just<br />
10% of public sector FMs had involved<br />
no external suppliers, compared to<br />
29%of private sector FMs). Perhaps<br />
because of this less isolated<br />
approach, however, public sector<br />
FMs also take more time to complete<br />
the moves process (45%<br />
completed their last move in<br />
under 20 man-days, compared<br />
to 60% of private sector<br />
FMs).<br />
Peter Cohen, Chief<br />
Executive of the PHS<br />
Group plc, comments:<br />
“The PHS Quarterly FM<br />
Survey was launched<br />
for the benefit of our customers,<br />
to reveal interesting and<br />
relevant facts for Facilities Managers<br />
about their industry and about the practices and<br />
opinions of their peers.<br />
“The Survey is of wider interest, however, as<br />
FMs are an unseen barometer of business confidence,<br />
being managers of company re-organisation,<br />
departmental investments and other grassroots<br />
indicators of business health. To tap into<br />
this, the PHS Quarterly FM Survey includes a<br />
section we call the FM Industry Tracker, which<br />
repeats key questions quarterly in order to<br />
reveal trend information of value and relevance,<br />
both within and beyond the facilities<br />
management profession.” RR No.: 85075/189<br />
GB Nationwide Crate<br />
Hire achieves excellent<br />
customer satisfaction<br />
GB Nationwide Crate Hire, a member of the<br />
SIRVA Group of Companies, today announced<br />
the first quarter results for its 2005 Customer<br />
Satisfaction Survey.<br />
The survey, which was carried out by The<br />
Leadership Factor an independent market<br />
research agency based in Yorkshire, involved a<br />
sample of recent GB Customers all of whom had<br />
used the services or products of GB in the month<br />
preceding their interview.<br />
The overall Satisfaction Score for GB Nationwide<br />
for the period from April to June 2005 was 85.1%<br />
(+/-2.6 accuracy). This represents a 1.5%<br />
increase over the 2004 annual result of 83.6%.<br />
“I am delighted with our latest results,” said Mr<br />
Frank Hopping - Managing Director of SIRVA<br />
Business Europe. “We must now ensure that we<br />
build on this excellent level of service and work<br />
to offer even higher quality to our customers.”<br />
The score of 85.1% places GB Nationwide within<br />
the top 15% of UK based service companies -<br />
based on independent research and analysis carried<br />
out by The Leadership Factor.<br />
Reader Reply No.: 85050<br />
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