February 20, 2008—As part of their research programs, the IFMA Foundation and FMLink will be conducting an international online survey, sponsored by ABM Industries, Inc. and Planon, Inc., to get feedback on topics of interest for facility managers worldwide. Sample topics being considered relate to:
- Best Practices
- Capital Projects/Construction Management
- Emergency Planning, Security and Disaster Recovery
- Energy Management
- Environmental Health Safety, Compliance
- Facility Condition Assessment
- Financial
- Maintenance & Operations
- Outsourcing
- Metrics/Benchmarking
- Real Estate/Property Management
- Space Management/Strategic Planning
- Sustainability
- Technology
- Training, Certification, Education
The key objective of the survey is to find out which topics would be of most interest to the professional facilities management community. The survey will be conducted in May 2008.
How You Can Help
The survey will organize its content in a manner similar to the above list of topics. For each topic, there will be subtopics. The IFMA Foundation and FMLink want to ensure that the survey addresses each area of FM that may be of interest to its community.
To this end, the Foundation and FMLink are asking for your input to submit subtopics that you think may be of interest. Your suggestions will be a valuable part of the May survey. For example, you may consider Software Trends to be a subtopic to fit under Technology.
For each subtopic that you submit, although not required, it would be most helpful for you to include a sentence or two explaining what you would like to see addressed by your subtopic. For example, for the subtopic of Software Trends, you might also state:
A periodic document to provide up-to-date information related to CAFM, CMMS and CAD software trends, RFID tags and other technologies to improve inventory and supply chain management, the Internet, conditions assessment, Building Information Models (BIM), Integrated Workstation Management Systems (IWMS), collaboration and Extranets, etc.
More examples are provided below
For this survey to be effective, the Topics and subtopics must be as complete as possible. To this end, both the IFMA Foundation and FMLink believe that the collective knowledge of the FM community (that’s you!) is much greater than that of the handful of people in their respective organizations. So, to make this survey valuable, they truly want your input.
How to Submit Your Suggestions
Just e-mail your suggestions to the Foundation and FMLink by clicking on this special link. Your suggestions will be sent to both the Foundation and FMLink.
You may submit as many suggestions for subtopics as you wish, from one up to ten or even more. For each subtopic, it would be most helpful for you to include one or two sentences describing it, as shown in the examples. Be sure to state the Topic to which you want the subtopic to be assigned. If you would like modify the list of topics, you may do so.
After you click on the link, you will be given a Message box in which to submit your suggestions. For the Subject, please state the following: “TOPIC SURVEY”. You should include all your suggestions in Message box, regardless of how many you submit. Skip a line between each subtopic. There should be three parts to each suggestion, with each starting a new line:
– Topic (from the list above, or submit a new one)
– Subtopic
– Description (optional, but highly desirable).
We ask that you provide your name and e-mail address—these will not be divulged to anyone or used for any purpose other than to possibly ask for a clarification of what you are submitting.
Examples of Subtopics
Please use the format below for submitting your ideas:
Topic: Technology
Subtopic: Migrating from older software systems to new ones
Description: What are some of the new tools available for migration, and how can organizations minimize the disruption of porting to new software systems. What types of standards are evolving that organizations that may be helpful?Topic: Sustainability
Subtopic: Green cleaning
Description: Identification of green cleaning best practices that will fit within a triple bottom line approach that can easily be presented to management to demonstrate not only financial profitability, but also community (social) and environmental profitability and responsibility. A template for a green policy, specifications, auditory compliance checklists, and marketing of the process to the end user.Topic: Energy Management
Subtopic: Alternative energy sources
Description: What are realistic renewable energy sources for facilities? Identify examples of large commercial/institutional facilities that are now using wind, solar, biomass, or other renewable sources of energy for power. Why and how did they move in this direction? What obstacles (regulatory, community, organizational, technological) had to be overcome? Describe outcomes in terms of costs, environmental benefits, efficiency, etc.
About the Developers and Sponsors of the Survey
About the IFMA Foundation
The IFMA Foundation is a non-profit corporation whose primary functions relate to research and educational opportunities for the advancement of facility management. Additional information can be found on the Foundations website:
http://www.ifmafoundation.org/.
About FMLink
FMLink is a comprehensive online facilities management publication with over 10,000 pages of news, feature articles, benchmarking data, links, directories, calendars, a job mart and much more to support facilities professionals in their jobs. It offers free access through:
http://www.fmlink.com/.
About ABM Industries, Inc.
ABM Industries is one of the world’s largest leading facility services contractors listed on the New York Stock Exchange. ABM provides a broad range of facility services including janitorial, parking, security, engineering, maintenance, lighting, energy, and comprehensive facility management solutions throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. More detailed information is available through ABM’s web site:
www.abm.com.
About Planon, Inc.
Planon’s Integrated Workplace Management Software offers comprehensive and accurate information that enables FMs to monitor, measure, and manage facilities while maintaining an overall view of operational commitments. More information may be found at:
http://www.planonIWMS.com.
