ISS 2020 Vision Future of Service Management | Page 114

8. Conclusions and final remarks
The FM industry is undergoing a revolution. Over five ISS 2020 Vision white books ISS and the
CIFS have described the dynamics shaping the Facility Management industry and its future
development. We have done this using valuable insights from IFMA and CoreNet Global
members as wells as dozens of subject-matter experts from the fields of Facility Management,
Corporate Real Estate, Architecture, Outsourcing, and Workplace Design. These insights
point towards an industry that is shifting from a building-centric approach to a core strategic
and user-centric one.
This requires focusing on the strategic objectives of the core organization (what it is trying
to achieve and how it is trying to achieve it), and considering how its employees, customers
and partners should work to achieve these objectives. This requires that FM service providers
make use of a range of settings and technologies to support people in fulfilling the ambitions
of their organization.
The workplace and its components have become one of many critical touch points that
define an organization and its brand. As a touch point, the workplace is becoming a place
of shared experiences just as much as it is an environment where work is performed. In this
experience space, users – employees and customers – should be transformed by being vested
with the organizations values and ambitions. As a result, it needs to be managed as such.
The future Facility Manager will be a manager of user experiences and transformations,
and the successful FM service providers in the future will be those who master Service
Management. Service Management is a critical discipline that will help organizations cope
with a VUCA world and binding users closer to the organization.
This requires that service providers are focused on developing sharply defined service
strategies that are grounded in user needs. These strategies need to be supported by a
culture that engages employees and sets a service quality that exceeds customers’ ever-
increasing expectations. The ability to maintain service standards without falling into a low-
cost/margin trap in such an environment is more important than ever, as the duration of
business cycles are reduced with aggressive competition coming from emerging regions and
adjacent industries.
Due to the increasing complexity in back-end solutions, FM providers will be working
more closely with partner organizations and identifying ways to ensuring alignment and
engagement among partners’ employees. This is especially true with greater technological
sophistication.
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