April 30, 2009 Issue 028 : Return to Articles : Printable Version

Survey Results: Realizing Facility Service Value

Realizing value from contract facility services is an elusive goal.

In last month's article we requested readers to complete a survey about the best ways to realize facility service value. Thank you to those who responded.

But first, a brief refresher and then a few notes on the survey results.

Framing the Issue

Buyers recognize rebids aren't as fruitful for cost savings as they once were.

Even less so after contracts have been consolidated for volume discounts, specifications leaned up, and contractor profits skinnied down.

However, buying a lower price isn't the only goal in contracting facility services. Getting the most value from what is spent may be the most important goal.

And for facility services, this only happens over the life of the contract - not when the contract is signed.

That raised two underlying questions:

• What's the best mechanism to determine if value is received during the contract term?
• What's the best sourcing/bid process to optimize the value received during the contract term?

Looking for answers we surveyed Revenue-IQ readers.

Based on the results received, here's what we did.

Grouping Data

For reporting purposes, respondents were combined into one of two groups: Buyer/Customer or Contractor.

The Buyer/Customer group included respondents who listed their role as Sourcing / Procurement / Purchasing, or Facility Management / Property Management / Departmental Head (not service provider).

The Contractor group included respondents who listed their role as In-house Service Provider (not Facility Management / Departmental Head).

Displaying Data

Results are presented in two charts.

First, all respondents are shown in pie charts for an overall impression.

Second, bar charts show how the two groups (Buyers/Customers and Contractors) see things differently or alike. Each bar represents 100% of the responses for a particular value.

Findings

Participation in the survey wasn't large (8 Contractors, 5 Buyers/Customers). However, even results from a few may help shed some light on getting value from facility services.

From these respondents it was interesting to see the contrast between how Buyers/Customers saw the same issue compared to Contractors. Sometimes they were in agreement, other times not.

With that said, there aren't enough responses to ensure statistical reliability. Therefore, make conclusions from this data at your own risk.

Hold on tight, here goes.

Chris Arlen, President, Service Performance

Permission to reprint or distribute: email carlen@serviceperformance.com