13 July 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal
More research needs to be carried out to assess how sophisticated different countries are for business and their adoption of FM practices, according to a BIFM report.
The report from BIFM’s International Special Interest Group (ISIG) was the result of a recent FM Leaders Forum and one of the key themes to emerge from it was how to “outsource across borders”.
As part of the discussions at the forum, it was established that further research should be carried out to benchmark ‘market maturities’ in order to establish the level of a country’s business sophistication and its adoption of UK FM practices, particularly with preference to UK health and safety practices.
Steve Gladwin, chair of the International SIG, said: “It is evident that in an increasingly globalised world there are great opportunities for FM providers wanting to provide services in new international markets. We wanted to discuss the challenges of investing in businesses outside of the UK and the pitfalls and prospects available to organisations looking to expand their geographic reach. In doing so we wanted to identify the learnings so that we can continue to support others who are considering taking this step.”
Gladwin added: “As with any developing business relationship between supplier and client, consultation and collaboration is essential. But for successful FM outsourcing internationally it is critical. What became apparent is that, problems are being created by the absence of a standard FM contract. Because of the variance in business practices this means there is no set of defined terms that all involved can agree upon. Therefore the clarity of contract is of vital importance as so much UK business terminology can be easily misinterpreted abroad.”
The ‘Outsourcing Across Borders’ paper with key findings and outcomes of this FM Leaders Forum has been published and is available to the FM community for download below.
BIFM Members and non-members can access the paper at www.bifm.org.uk/fmlf
This latest FM Leaders Forum was sponsored by Polycom.
