Facilities Cost Monitor Services available

1
About the program

• JV between Frisque and FSI
• High-level check on cost v scope/quality/resource
  drivers
• Embraces all key site-specific resource drivers
• DIY program with extensive Help text
• Helpline to specialist advisers
• Links into any CAFM system
• Also part of a sophisticated Facilities Value
  Management program

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What can it be used for?

• Client FMs/ Management Companies
• Preparing budgets
• Checking tenders
• Checking in-house service costs
• Benchmarking existing contract prices
• Preparing data for benchmarking externally
• Evaluating specification options
• Checking and (if appropriate) contesting
  components of service charges

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What can it be used for?

• FM Service Suppliers
• Preparing first estimates (e.g. first-stage PPP
  bids)
• Due diligence on their own contract bids
• Keeping track of market movements in bid levels
• Justifying existing contract price levels (to
  avoid work being
• re-tendered)
• Negotiation with sub-contractors and suppliers

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Ranges of cost

• The following examples show the very wide range
  of costs of facilities services.
• The authors of the program Bernard Williams
  Associates (BWA) know precisely where the costs
  will vary, and why, and by how much.
• That knowledge has been captured in this program,
  together with professionally collated and
  analysed data from over 500 major building users,
  having more than 10000 buildings.

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Cost range - Cleaning
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Cost range - Distribution
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Where should you be in the range?

• The Facilities Cost Monitor can pinpoint where
  you should be in the range of any of the usual
  cost centres, provided you can answer some fairly
  easy questions about your building(s), the way
  they are designed and used and the services you
  operate within them.
• The following slides take you through the
  principles of how the program works using the
  Cleaning cost centre as an example.
• There are also screenshots from all the other
  cost centres in the program showing the scope of
  items included in each one and some typical
  pieces of information you would need to provide.

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Services available

• There are currently nine cost centres in the FCM
  program.
• Click on the one you want to use and, provided
  you have a licence for it, you can call up the
  questionnaire.
• For this demo, we will be using the Cleaning cost
  centre.

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Cleaning cost centre demo

• There are no previous buildings analysed so you
  can click on the questionnaire icon bottom left
  to start the program off.
• If there were other buildings you could always
  recall their detailed cost analyses for reference

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10
Cleaning cost centre demo

• The first screen to appear is general. This
  requires you to provide details of the floor area
  of the building and the amount spent on the
  service during the year in question.
• Some details are shown for the demo.
• Any questions about how to fill in the boxes can
  be answered by simply clicking on the ? - this
  brings up the Helptext.

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Cleaning cost centre demo

• This screen contains answers to most, if not all,
  of the queries most people are likely to have
  when filling in details.
• Nevertheless, if you need any more help you can
  always call the Helpline telephone number and
  speak direct to one of the program authors.
• There is a similar facility for every one of the
  simple pieces of information which you have to
  insert on the questionnaire.

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Cleaning cost centre demo

• From the data you previously entered concerning
  the annual cost and the gross floor area the
  program immediately displays a histogram showing
  the cost per parametric unit in this case the
  cost per sq.m. of gross floor p.a.
• The answers you give to the following questions
  will help the program to calculate what a
  best-performance cost would be for direct
  comparison with your actual levels
• Click on NEXT to address the first scope item

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Cleaning cost centre demo - scope of the service

• Each cost centre is broken down into the
  principal items of work i.e. the scope of the
  service.
• Each scope section has a very few strategic
  questions about the principal cost drivers
  i.e. the factors that have the biggest influence
  on the cost of that service.
• The authors of the program Bernard Williams
  Associates (BWA) - have nearly 40 years
  experience of analysing facilities services costs
  and have an expert knowledge not only of the cost
  drivers but also of their comparative weight of
  significance.
• The weightings of the cost drivers vary from site
  to site, user to user, and your answers to the
  questions will enable the program to apply a
  site-specific weighting to each cost driver

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Cleaning cost demo

• We skipped over the External Walls section as
  this was outside the scope of the work in our
  demo building.
• We have filled in some simple information about
  the window-cleaning cost drivers the ? tab was
  there to help us if we were not sure about
  anything and
• The authors were only a phone call away if we
  needed them.
• Let us take a quick look at another Helptext
  screen.

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Cleaning cost demo

• The answers to these questions should not stretch
  anyone familiar with the building.
• The optional levels are distinct and no-one
  should be as much as two levels out.
• Getting the occasional answer out by one level
  place will not invalidate the overall answer but
  it is worth trying for reasonable accuracy

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Cleaning cost demo

• The format is the same throughout every cost
  centre.
• In this case the remaining Sections are
• Occupiable areas
• Furniture,fittings and equipment
• Special/Common areas
• Toilets /Washrooms
• Pest control
• Waste management
• But.what if our costs at QI include something
  else?

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Cleaning cost demo adjustments for cost levels
and content

• The third question on this screen asks if there
  is anything included in your annual costs (as
  given in the answer to Q.I) not covered by the
  Scope of the program.
• A sum of 5500 has been deducted for the cost of
  cleaning the external grounds.
• The first two questions address the local and
  regional labour market factors

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Cleaning cost demo the final answer

• The program has determined that for the scope and
  quality of the service being provided in your
  specific building you may be paying about 10
  over the top.
• It is worth looking back over your answers
  click on Run Report at top of page

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Cleaning cost demo running the Report

• All the answers you provided are set down clearly
  in the Report.
• It also includes the figures and histograms that
  were included on the final screen so you have a
  complete record of the whole exercise

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Cleaning cost demo some cost options

• You could re-visit one or more of the Sections
  and revise your answers.
• This could be to correct them or just to play
  what if? with alternative performance
  specification.
• This change has proved quite significant..

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Services in the program and their scope

• The following slides show the first screen of
  each of the services covered by the program.
• At the top of each screen you can see the titles
  of the sections covered by the scope of the
  program.
• Dont worry if the scope does not exactly match
  what is covered in your own accounting systems.
• You have the option of using the Adjustment box
  on the final screen of each cost centre (as shown
  in the demo. earlier) or you can telephone the
  authors - BWA - who will advise you how best to
  deal with any discrepancy.
• Remember, BWA are top professionals in this field
  - what seems to be a big problem to you will
  almost certainly be something they have
  previously encountered and dealt with many, many
  times over.

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Catering
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Distribution
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Maintenance of the fabric
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Maintenance of the fabric (contd.)
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Reprographics
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Security
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Services maintenance
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Services maintenance (contd.)
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Stationery
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Energy
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Frequently asked questions - and some short
answers

• How accurate is the data-base? Very
• How up-to-date? Always
• What building types? All major types
• Do the authors know what they are up to?! Not
  half !!
• What about regional and local variations? Both
  included
• How about work outside of the scope of a cost
  centre? Just omit it.
• What sort of companies are in the data-base? All
  sorts mainly large blue chip corporate/public
  sector
• Can we use our own cost data instead of / as
  well as BWAs? Yes, by arrangement

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Commercial arrangements

• The program is supplied on licence for one year
  the fee includes all maintenance, Helpdesk and
  quarterly cost indexation.
• You can buy into any or all of the cost centres
  in the set individual fees vary with the scale
  and complexity of each cost centre.
• Prices are related to the number of buildings
  you want to use it on and the number of seats
  from which you intend to operate it.
• Special arrangements apply to contractors and
  consultants intending to use the program for more
  than one of their clients.
• It is also possible to arrange for your own data
  to be used instead of, or as well as, the generic
  data used by the authors of the program.

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Conclusions

• Facilities cost prediction/benchmarking is a very
  complex business.
• Facilities value management cannot take place
  where costs cannot be properly ascertained.
• Public facilities databases are worse than
  useless unless they have some built-in
  artificial intelligence because they can never
  be site, and user, specific.
• The Facilities Cost Monitor is an authoritative
  high-level site-specific solution to the question
  am I getting my moneysworth.