How your “stay back” can hold back your outsourcing efforts

Abstract

Purpose

The changing nature of corporate real estate (CRE) management and the realignment of its goals has meant that about a third of corporations have now outsourced much of their facilities management activities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of successful real estate outsourcing models and discuss how this experience could be applied more widely in the industry.

Design/methodology/approach

Research was conducted by CB Richard Ellis among 32 corporations, which showed a wide range of approaches to retained CRE organizations. Further analysis was made of a number of relationships between CB Richard Ellis and their existing clients in order to determine a “best practice” organizational structure.

Findings

There were a wide variety of organizational questions that impacted on the size of the retained team and the conclusion was that, “No one size fits all”. The number of CRE personnel varied significantly, based largely on the company's approach to and degree of, outsourcing. In order for the client to receive innovative and cost effective solutions to its real estate service requirements, a collaborative and strategic partnership is critical. The “best practice” structure is flexible, stimulates cooperation and creates an environment of strategic partnership to ensure a productive level of communication and collaboration where ideas can be rewarded.

Originality/value

This paper provides useful insight into how the combined organization of client and service provider can be optimized in order to maximize the efficiency of the outsourcing process.

Citation

Browne, C. and Wheeler, D. (2006), "How your “stay back” can hold back your outsourcing efforts", Journal of Facilities Management, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 126-131. https://doi.org/10.1108/14725960610651214