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“Facilities management” (FM) has been described as a hybrid management discipline that combines people, property and process management expertise to provide vital services in support of the organisation. Attempts by academics and practitioners to define the scope and content of FM inevitably incurred the displeasure of some quarters of this emerging FM industry that has shown signs of rapid growth in North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand, and the Far East in the last two decades. This paper represents a personal view based on a study that covered a multi‐sector survey of five industrial and commercial sectors in the UK in 1996. The focus of the research is to provide a business perspective to the role of operational facilities. One of the objectives of the research is to explain the need for strategic business planning to incorporate and, indeed, integrate the facilities dimensions of business delivery. Whilst conceptual in its presentation, there is increasing evidence that the views and models contained within this paper are worthy of serious consideration by practitioners in the field

The focus of the research was to provide a business perspective to the role of real estate assets in supporting the fulfilment of corporate business plans. Based on a comprehensive survey of published literature and a series of in‐depth interviews of corporate real estate/facilities managers, an integrating resource management framework was developed to model the nature of interactions between strategic business planning and operational asset management in an organisational setting. The study supports the view that research efforts aimed at improving management effectiveness of the operational real estate asset base must be channelled to provide frameworks or models that promote understanding to all parties involved in the process, from a knowledge base that aims to define better: the operational requirements of core business(es); the key real estate and facilities service attributes; and options evaluation to meet dynamic changes.

Aims to raise awareness of the cost premiums involved in data collection. Examines benchmarking, its goals and appropriate support, and explains the process of benchmarking. Highlights the importance of distinguishing between data and information.

The purpose of this paper is to present a model for consideration of real estate and facilities management (RE/FM) alignment to business needs and to validate the model based on questionnaire surveys carried out in a number of countries around the world.

The model for RE/FM alignment is inspired by the work of the fathers of the Balanced Scorecard in their book called Alignment. The model includes a number of criteria for alignment between business needs, facility solutions, FM services and FM resources. Three multi-year questionnaire surveys were conducted using the same methodology: the surveys have been carried out in three rounds in different languages: English, Portuguese and Danish. The respondents were senior professionals in the area of FM and real estate/property, mostly working at strategic levels, and representing countries in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. The results of the different surveys were combined and then analyzed, using both statistical analysis and tests to validate the results. Differences in the priorities of the alignment criteria in the different regions are described and analyzed.

A main result of the surveys is that all of the alignment criteria were seen as relevant and useful in nearly all countries, but the accorded priorities to the different criteria varied significantly for some of the alignment variables in the different regions. The highest degree of agreement was on “capacity”, being the most important criteria for the alignment between supply and demand of facility solutions in relation to business needs. One of the main differences in agreement was between the importance of strategy versus cost in the alignment between “facility solutions” and “FM services”.

Alignment of RE/FM to business needs is an essential management task and an important tool for RE/FM executives to create added value to their core business. However, there has so far only been limited research into such an alignment concept applicable to FM and an implementation model.

Considers the impact of information technology (IT) applications on one important aspect of property asset management at a strategic level: the management of information arising from the development of property registers and building condition appraisal for large estates. Explains the potential productivity and cost savings which can be achieved from an IT approach, and appraisal of large estates in the public and private sectors in the UK. Addresses owners of large property stock faced with problems of handling vast amounts of building related data, and advocates an IT database approach. The hardware and software solutions for the development and management of property databases and strategic condition appraisals already exist. A clear understanding of their cost savings potential is less apparent. Aims to heighten this awareness to property owners and managers of large property estates.

Aims to provide a conceptual framework for describing maintenance standards in relation to built assets, i.e. buildings as a special class of long‐life durable assets that are fundamental to most business operations. Advocates the definition of maintenance standards by evaluating two key variables that are inherent in establishing built asset maintenance demands irrespective of the nature of business the asset may be supporting; classification of maintenance actions and effectiveness of maintenance actions. Describes the evaluation methodology based on a simple four‐quadrant matrix.

Many corporate and public real estate managers are challenged to prove their added value to both the organisation and the individual business units or departments. Value can be added by product and by process. This paper elaborates on ways to improve the corporate real estate portfolio management process in order to align the real estate portfolio to the different needs of the organisation and thus add value to the organisation by delivering a better product. To manage the real estate portfolio as a group instead of individual properties, the long‐term portfolio strategy should be translated into short‐term guidelines and clear performance measures in order to analyse alternatives and the performance of the individual properties. These measures should be related to what the stakeholders consider to be the added value of corporate real estate. The examples in this paper will show how a corporate real estate manager can create a clear framework for making real estate decisions on a day‐to‐day basis.