What is integrated facilities management (IFM)?

IFM services encompass facilities maintenance, security, cleaning and other support areas. IFM’s key advantage is consolidating services, which avoids the hassle of coordinating with multiple service providers and their schedules.  

When talking about perceptions of facilities, companies (and the personnel who run them) sometimes reduce facilities planning to discussions of prospective building blueprints. But the larger reality proves that facility operation is considerably more complex than simply erecting structures. 

It’s really a multi-faceted form of asset management that typically uses tools like a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to manage all actions related to facility maintenance. Facility maintenance involves managing, repairing and maintaining a facility’s assets to keep operations efficient, safe and reliable.

A computerized maintenance management system is software that centralizes maintenance data and streamlines maintenance operations. It helps deliver an integrated solution informed by real-time data that supports automation efforts. It can be used with other types of facility management software, making it a vital part of a comprehensive approach to operations. 

One of the primary goals of a CMMS is to track all services through one system so individual services don’t become siloed and lost in the shuffle. Without the centralization of IFM and CMMS, facility managers would be forced to contract services through multiple vendors. They would also have to deal with different service delivery schedules.

Integrated facilities management (IFM) services interweave various related disciplines that affect day-to-day facility operations. The following are some of the common activities that comprise IFM.

Space planning is the part of the process when facility managers do extensively study building blueprints. Managers usually consult stakeholders about the location of particular offices or areas of the real estate to dedicate to specific business functions.

The decision-making used in space planning touches not only on the facility but also on the workplace experience that staffers have at the facility, and how that affects employee well-being.

Hard facilities management focuses on the structure of the facility itself, especially the key mechanical systems that keep the building running.

It includes maintaining control of the facility’s HVAC system (for heating, ventilation and air conditioning). Equally crucial, for obvious reasons: the building’s plumbing system. It is also the branch of IFM that deals with how the electrical system is laid out and implemented.

Buildings use hard facilities to keep things operating. However, soft services make the building more human-friendly, so it’s a pleasant environment for employees.

Soft services typically include janitorial services, waste management, security systems and landscaping activities. Landscaping might involve typical mowing and grounds keeping activities or more targeted issues, such as irrigation management and plant growth analysis. 

Facilities need to be clean and uncluttered for several reasons. For starters, the facility could be hosting healthcare services. Likewise, a dirty building might attract unwanted visitors like insects or rodents, which can spread disease.

A far more pressing reason, especially according to the US Office of Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA), is that sloppy work conditions trigger workplace accidents, like slip-and-fall injuries. 

Establishing facility security has always been important, but now it’s crucial. Facilities now have more vulnerabilities than ever before because of their online presence.

So, in a modern context, facility security covers not only the protection of the physical building from vandalism, break-ins or theft, but also cyberattacks against the facility’s data infrastructure.

Any facility incurs at least minor damage over time and requires regular upkeep during its lifecycle. Preventive maintenance gets a jump on such situations and makes repairs known to be needed in the future.

Meanwhile, predictive maintenance goes even further by projecting areas of failure ahead of time (based on known operation variables) and planning specific fixes and scheduling when they should occur.

Most companies’ sustainability goals were once considered largely unimportant, but mindsets have evolved. Now, a growing portion of facilities management (FM) services is dedicated to energy management.

While some of this concern can involve promoting a corporate image of energy efficiency, the larger part of the effort strives for lower energy consumption as a significant savings of operating costs.  

Integrated facilities management (IFM) services offer a range of advantages to the company that use them: 

• Efficiency boosts: When a facility leverages a centralized management and a successfully combined workflow, it helps to optimize operational efficiency by reducing errors.

• Stronger bottom line: IFM services let facility owners streamline workflows by reducing service redundancies, leading to lower operating costs.

• Increased transparency: Personnel get a clear view into performance metrics and facility operation status, due to automatic reporting and the centralization of data.

• Better service quality: The very act of putting all facility services under a single management framework drives collaboration efforts and raises service quality.

• Enhanced scalability: As business conditions change, IFM services provide companies with the means to withstand added complexity and scale upwards as growth dictates.

• Measurable results: IFM tracks facility effectiveness and produces actionable insights by using key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the time to process repair work orders. 

Despite the advantages it provides, IFM does have its downsides:

• Steep complexity: It sounds like it would be easy to implement an IFM, but that’s not always the case. The transition to IFM can be complicated, costly and labor-intensive.

• Unexpected charges: Organizations must study the fine print of their contracts with IFM service providers and be watchful for added costs that might not be immediately apparent.

• Loss of flexibility: Sometimes companies need to pivot because of changing business conditions. If a company is locked into an airtight IFM contract, it might not be able to do that.

• Vendor dependency: Companies should perform due diligence on their IFM service provider. Key questions: How secure is the data going to be? How dependable is IFM performance?

• Lack of direct control: Though some organizations shift to IFM services, they might not feel altogether comfortable with the idea of losing direct oversight of daily operations.

As integrated facilities management (IFM) continues to mature, it continues to benefit from the sweeping changes now affecting computing. That means that AI and automation based on the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to become even more central to the project management process by ramping up efficiency.

IFM service providers (most of which are based in North America) are also expected to expand their focus on sustainability goals. These goals also include reducing energy usage and improving the work experience for facility staff.