Posted by Janet B. Stroud — November 4, 2024 — A recent poll by SFG20, a UK-based industry standard for building maintenance specification used by organizations in a wide range of sectors, revealed that over 3 in 5 businesses (63%) are still using paper-based maintenance guidance, whereby information rapidly becomes out of date and inefficient to upkeep.
SFG20 Summit will discuss how to navigate AI and digital-led maintenance. Source: SFG20
Further SFG20 findings have shown that only 20% of businesses are “wholeheartedly” embracing digital-led maintenance and that 43% of businesses also named systems integrations as the most significant problems in their business. These findings reflect an industry-wide concern around placing digital at the center of maintenance strategies.
Despite this, additional traffic data reveals that interactions with SFG20’s content around maintenance schedules increased by 66% across the last year, indicating an uptick in businesses looking to educate themselves on schedules and develop their strategies when it comes to digital-led maintenance.
Paul Bullard, product director at SFG20, the industry standard for building maintenance, stated:
The reluctance to adopt digital-led maintenance was initially fueled by the perceived effort and high costs of hardware and software. However, the landscape is changing with more affordable options now available. Yet challenges remain, as businesses work to develop the necessary skills to deploy sensors, monitors, and interpret the generated data effectively. Overcoming these hurdles is essential to unlocking the full potential of digital maintenance.
Printed maintenance guidance, still widely used by facility managers, reflects a static snapshot of one particular point in time, meaning they quickly become out of date and inaccurate with a constantly evolving legislative landscape. This can put building managers at risk of falling off the industry standard and exposing themselves to non-compliance.
SFG20 Virtual Summit 2024
To find out more about adopting a digital-led maintenance strategy, implementing effective strategies for the modern building, and how the shift to digital impacts engineers, register for the SFG20 Virtual Summit 2024 on Wednesday, November 20, during which Bullard will join a virtual panel of industry experts to discuss how to place digital at the front of your maintenance strategies. The panel will include Mike Darby, CEO at Demand Logic; David Meacock, group director of Engineering at MCFT; and David Hemming, NHS Service Delivery lead.
The SFG20 Summit will feature panel discussions on:
- Adopting a digital-led maintenance strategy
- Implementing effective strategies for the modern building
- How the shift to digital impacts engineers
SFG20 says the summit is a must-attend event for the building maintenance industry, from leaders in facilities management through to engineers carrying out maintenance.
The event program will explore:
- How you can ensure your buildings are fit for purpose in the future
- How to navigate the digital landscape with AI and digital led maintenance
- How you can best achieve compliance and stay up to date with ever-changing legislation
- Strategies for achieving carbon net zero by 2030
As well as informing you of the latest developments in the sector, the SFG20 summit will help you ensure your buildings and occupants are safe and fit for purpose to cope with the demands of the future, says SFG20.
Member-Exclusive Digital Badge
SFG20 also recently launched a new digital badge for FM professionals to improve transparency and credibility for those in the facilities management sector. The “SFG20 Member-Exclusive Digital Badge” has been launched as an authoritative emblem, signifying that the holder is actively engaged in the highest standards of building maintenance and able to work in line with current legislation and regulations.
SFG20 Digital Badge
The new badge rollout will allow FM professionals to establish themselves as leaders in compliance and safety, with the ability to tackle backlogs more efficiently by focusing resources in the right places.
With the arrival of the updated Building Safety Act 2022 and requirements around the Golden Thread in building maintenance, access to a digital badge will be tangible proof of a company’s active efforts to align with the industry-recognized SFG20 standard and set a precedent for transparency and accountability in the space.
A major use of the digital member badge will be in tender evaluations, encouraging companies to demonstrate alignment with industry standards but provide indisputable evidence of their membership. The digital badge sets apart companies that are committed to excellence and safe practices within building maintenance, and confirm that they are able to comply with the industry standard.
Customers will receive a digital QR code to ensure the license’s validity for third parties and can be directly embedded onto the member’s website. A complete list of active SFG20 members can found at SFG20.
Digital Partner Programme
During the BESA Annual Conference earlier this year, SFG20 found through a virtual poll that 67% of facilities management professionals are affected by issues relating to FM technology. Almost half cited system integration as a particular pain point within their business. When FM systems are unable to integrate with SFG20 and content must be imported manually, it often results in out-of-date and incomplete data.
Over half of those polled cited adhering to a maintenance standard as their most pressing issue. Facility managers said that they struggle to keep on top of the quantity of updates to the SFG20 standard, in response to an ever-changing legislative landscape.
With changes to regulations and legislation being commonplace within the industry, ensuring work is being carried out to the latest standard is of utmost importance, notes SFG20.
In response to these findings and the challenges facilities managers face, SFG20 introduced its Digital Partner Programme. The program was created to support companies that have integrated their facilities management systems into SFG20’s new software solution, Facilities-iQ. This new software solution allows users to create maintenance plans, tailor them to site-specific requirements, receive notifications when the standard is updated and then choose when to implement those updates. With this brand-new integration, SFG20 content seamlessly flows into other FM systems such as CAFM, CMMS and IWMS for operational activity.
The SFG20 standard is maintained and updated by a technical team from the London-based Building Engineering Services Association (BESA).
