The European FM industry will see increased outsourcing, fewer but larger offices, and widespread standardization, as reported by the EFMe newsletter of The European Facility Management Fund. On March 21st, the European Directors of Real Estate and Facility Management gathered in Dsseldorf, Germany, for FMTOP 2001, a discussion on the future of Facilities Management in Europe. These managers represented an array of major European financial institutions covering a total of 325,000 workplaces in 59 countries.
The major trends in Europe seen by these industry leaders included:
- increased outsourcing of Human Resources, FM, and Real Estate;
- cross-border mergers leading to four-to-six major European multi-service providers;
- larger regional offices replacing smaller offices;
- strong increase of vendor management principles;
- widespread standardization of workplaces through education and legislation;
- focus on business continuity and infrastructure protection;
- greater adaptation of the People-Place-Process principals; and
- continuing emphasis on sustainability, and a comfortable workplace environment.
The participants considered the most relevant aspects of facilities management to be: real estate, security, internal relocation, services, knowledge management, telecommunication, data communication, and organization. Physical mail and catering were considered the least relevant. Future fields of interest to FMs were foreseen to be: scenario planning, costs per workplace, mergers and acquisitions, service to accommodation, business infrastructure, the human factor, technology, culture, and sustainability.
Based on a report from EFMe
