Canadian Property Management * June 2016

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VOL. 31 NO. 3 • JUNE 2016

KEEPING PACE

PA R T O F T H E

Real Estate Adapts to Changing Times subhead

P A R T

O F

T H E

LAST MILE RETAIL STRATEGY DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY PROJECT CONTROLS PERFORMANCE DEMANDS vs. COST RESTRAINTS SUPPORTING AFFORDABILITY

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editor’snote OBSOLESCENCE TURNED out to be something of a misdiagnosis for the remnant industrial pockets still scattered throughout many older cities. Not long ago, these vestiges of earlier land use patterns were largely dismissed as relics unable to compete with much newer multi-door, highceilinged suburban facilities hooked into major highway networks. Now they have new life as strategically located urban depots for e-commerce distribution – also illustrating that progress is as much about adaptation as new product.

Or, perhaps that's just how a non-Millennial chooses to perceive it. However, this issue's contributors and commentators on change management and evolving industry demands seem to agree that the way forward depends on successfully integrating new technologies, philosophies and practices with longer standing business approaches that have proven their worth.

Amy Erixon focuses on the innovation side of the equation in her thought-provoking overview of emergent smart technologies with the potential to transform, or even upend, real estate service delivery. Although commonly categorized as "disruptive" technology, she urges property managers to explore and embrace the possibilities.

Certainly, a growing segment of their clients view the Internet of Things, big data capability, business via social media and fulfilment of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria as status quo expectations of their workplaces.

Elsewhere, senior real estate executives weigh in on the challenges of balancing those expectations against tenants' perpetual interest in cost-effectiveness. As participants in a recent panel discussion, they shared insight about the increasing complexity of their roles, in which change management means making serious decisions that will be reflected in return on investment.

Traditionally, real estate has responded to changing times through repositioning and conversions – an opportunity that many community-based groups would relish with empty or soon-to-be-vacated school properties already embedded in neighbourhoods they serve. Brennan Carroll reports on the Ontario government's efforts to help overcome some of the financial barriers such groups face.

In contrast, Christian Denny tracks how e-commerce is renewing demand for older urban industrial buildings – not as newly converted office or residential space, but for their original purposes. In this case, it's not the buildings that have been repositioned, it's the economic sector they support.

Barbara Carss barbc@mediaedge.ca @BarbaraCarss

VOL. 31 NO. 3

JUNE 2016

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contents

Focus: Change Management 10 Evolution of Property Management: Real estate industry insiders reflect on the scope and complexity of their responsibilities.

12 E-commerce Influence: Small-bay urban industrial facilities see new life in supply chain's last mile.

14 Leveraging Disruption: Technological change brings new business models and operational processes.

17 New Life for Surplus Schools: Community groups looks for support to claim and redevelop strategic space.

22 Public Sector Portfolios: New expectations and funding freezes are a modern reality for government asset managers.

Articles: 24 Recipes for Affordability: Housing and transportation are complementary components of urban liveability and economic development.

28 Project Controls: Analytics and risk management for lifecycle from conception to decommissioning.

30 Productivity Benchmarks: Facilities management software provides data to evaluate maintenance efficiency.

Departments 4 Editor’s note

6 June 2016 | Canadian Property Management

THIS MONTH’S ONLINE EXCLUSIVES ALL THE BUZZ

How TD Bank HQ achieved WELL certification An interiors project for TD Bank headquarters, located in the TD Centre in downtown Toronto, recently became the world’s first project certified under v1 of the WELL Building Standard.

The supply of condo refurbishment services is under scrutiny amid bid-rigging allegations.

FROM THE GREEN BIN

Canada could see some Brexit ripple effects Last week’s majority vote in favour of extracting the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) is expected to reverberate in real estate markets on both sides of the English Channel, with the potential for some Brexit ripple effects to reach Canada.

Five ways Bill 106 will facilitate e-governance Big changes are coming to the condo landscape in Ontario. This past December, Bill 106, the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, was passed and obtained royal assent. It still remains anyone’s guess as to when its amendments to the Condominium Act will be proclaimed into force (i.e. become law).

Climate Change Action Plan offers scant incentives for office or retail properties.

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changemanagement

DYNAMIC

DELIVERABLES Generalists are Well Positioned to Evolve with the Industry

By Barbara Carss

COST REMAINS a central priority for most commercial building tenants, even as the performance and image of workspace increasingly factors into productivity, corporate credibility and employers' ability to attract and keep staff. Real estate industry insiders asked to contemplate "the evolution of property management" in a recent panel discussion sponsored by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Toronto affirm that the profession's traditional deliverables have not changed so much, but many new ones have been added since the 21st century began.

"They [tenants] still continue to focus on getting more for less, but now they want quality and sophistication in a number of areas for the same cost," said Lori Rowlandson, Senior Vice President with Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions.

"The breadth and complexity of issues and responsibilities has grown," concurred David Hoffman, General Manager of Cadillac Fairview's Toronto-Dominion Centre.

From an operational perspective, there is pressure to improve energy-use intensity and provide infrastructure for services and needs that simply didn't exist when many office towers were first built. Prior to the digital age, office space functioned largely as a shell in which business activity occurred, whereas a building's technological capacity is now a 10 June 2016 | Canadian Property Management

fundamental enabler of the enterprises it houses. This comes with an associated demand for resilience – particularly in response to the increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events – to assure business continuity or minimize disruptions, and support tenants' competitiveness or even survival in the marketplace.

Many tenants now require accessible and/ or environmentally certified office space, and ask for the means to measure and report their carbon footprints. The burgeoning Millennial workforce also exerts influence as employers buy into the theory that this generation works and thinks differently, and expects workspace that reflects these values.

CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH ADDED VALUE All this makes for what Rowlandson characterizes as an exciting and promising time for property managers as they acquire more prominent standing in their tenants' business operations.

"We're at the strategic table," she proclaimed.

"It's not just about costs. It's about adding value to all these other functions."

"Today real estate is really the nucleus of a lot business that people do from an HR perspective and from a sustainability perspective," agreed Michelle Brown, Vice President, Property Management, with Bentall Kennedy Canada.

Of course, property managers actually serve two masters: tenants in the building; and the investors who own the asset. That calls for flexibility and diplomacy as they strive for optimal return on investment, satisfied tenants and competent staff with the skills and aptitude for multidisciplinary job tasks.

"The term 'generalist' is one that comes up a lot," observed the discussion moderator, Randal Froebelius, President of Equity ICI Real Estate Services, as he steered panellists through a range of connected topics. "The common theme we're demonstrating has been customer service."

Beyond cost, Brown counts corporate governance, risk management and regulatory compliance among other forces prompting clients to look for a more sophisticated range of services.

"We see that in the RFPs," she reported.

"And they are willing to pay – not excessive amounts – but people are willing to pay if the value is there."

TECHNOLOGY TOOLS Although the examples she cites of clients embracing green technologies like anaerobic digestion for solid waste management are still something of a rarity, wider acknowledgement of the merits of energy efficiency is easing the approval process for many retrofit and upgrade projects.

changemanagement

"It's just seen as something that should be done. There's not as much time spent on preparing the business case," Froebelius said.

That said, technology adopters are keenly aware of the need to research, test and prove new technology. Rapid change brings the threat of rapid obsolescence – something that budgeters particularly want to avoid in major capital investments. New technologies can also come with new management challenges, such as the safety and privacy threats that have arisen with drones.

"There are 10 disruptive forces affecting the real estate profession, and eight out of the 10 are technology based," Rowlandson submitted. "For example, if you haven't looked at 3D printing, I really recommend that you do. It is really going to transform the real estate landscape and how things happen."

While on-site, on-demand printing of parts is still a scenario for the future, other smart technologies are streamlining operations, cutting response times and saving resources.

Hoffman tallied a number now in place at the Toronto-Dominion Centre, including: realtime energy monitoring; equipment performance monitoring; inventory and supply tracking; LTE wireless capability; and destination-oriented elevator dispatch.

"These systems help you with managing the lifecycle of your building," he said.

Smart technology is inherent to emerging

new career titles now represented on Hoffman's staff roster, such as embedded energy manager, building automations and controls manager and social media manager.

It also underpins and generates an increasingly lucrative product – data.

"It is becoming even more important to occupiers. Sustainability reporting information is becoming an imperative," Rowlandson noted.

Similarly, Bentall is now working to integrate several streams of data from its various monitoring efforts into a unified system that property managers, investors and occupants can use. "We want to be able to provide it in one quick snapshot, reliably, and put it into metrics that are easily understandable," Brown explained.

ACTIVE & CHANGE MANAGEMENT Continuing the theme of property managers' dual-track obligations, Hoffman divided organizational roles into active management and change management. One entails problem solving on the frontline of day-today operations; the other is more strategic, with an emphasis on communications and motivational skills.

"There are no clear lines between [the functions]," he said. "What we are targeting [in hiring] is people with the right skill sets."

A generational mix is another good way to

broaden and strengthen the range of talent and experience at team leaders' disposal. Panellists agreed the industry needs to step up its outreach to prospective job candidates, with Brown recounting that even students enrolled in postsecondary real estate programs tend to have a scoped view of the profession.

"Their vision of real estate is largely financial," she said. "A bit of a window in the property management door will help them to see this is a great place to start as a generalist."

On the flipside, 'old school' employees who have experienced the evolution of property management first hand can be a valuable resource and influence for new recruits.

"They often hold the key to a ton of information. Extracting that and managing that is key," Brown added.

Suppliers and service providers are increasingly looked at through the same lens.

An anticipated move to performance-based contracts will tie compensation, including bonuses or penalties, to the ability to meet or exceed targets. "What that means for my staff is they're not just managing people anymore; they are managing performance," Hoffman observed.

Rowlandson likewise urged a shift in viewpoint from the traditional focus on the asset. "Really think from a client perspective on an occupant's perspective of value," she advised. zz Canadian Property Management | June 2016 11

retailtrends

SUPPLY CHAIN'S LAST MILE GAINS IMPORTANCE

E-commerce Reinvigorates Older Urban Industrial Facilities

By Christian Denny E-COMMERCE and the rise in distribution activity has led to a re-examination of existing retail and industrial properties, especially in the Last Mile – the final stage of delivery between transit and consumer, which accounts for up to 75% of the total supply chain cost.

Although still in its infancy in Canada, a successful e-commerce fulfillment 12 June 2016 | Canadian Property Management

platform is rapidly becoming a vital aspect of retailer success as a growing number of consumers make purchases online.

Retailers are looking to reduce parcel delivery times to urban markets by strategically implementing smaller and more localized distribution centres in or near the fringe of the urban market. This solution has recently been noted in Toronto

and Vancouver where distribution spaces between 50,000 to 200,000 square feet located 5 to 15 kilometres (km) from the urban core have been used as localized distribution centres to provide same-day delivery services in urban markets.

Improved supply chain strategies are essential to accommodating the growth in e-commerce fulfillment. Forresters

retailtrends Research reports e-commerce sales in Canada accounted for 7% of the total retail sales in 2015 and is expected to increase to 10%, or $39.9 billion by 2019.

An Ipsos study found Canadians now spend an average of $954 annually on online purchases.

Millennial demographics underpin the trend. Take-up of e-commerce has been strong among those born between 19802000 with post-secondary education and fulltime employment. This group is also expected to drive double-digit population increases in major urban Canadian markets, as it flocks to the urban core, attracted by a live-work balance, convenience to public transit, accessibility to work and nearby hospitality/leisure amenities.

The supply chain is now adapting to meet the demands of this new generation and its impact on brick-and-mortar and online sales. Retailers are looking to increase speed-to-market in order to meet consumer requirements and further optimize the supply chain so that it is a competitive advantage.

Traditional e-commerce fulfillment strategies are based on a national or regional distribution hub where the delivery of a parcel can take up to nine days and is often an inefficient method of distributing goods to urban areas. In contrast, shipping goods via local fulfillment centres within the 5 to 15-km range often takes less than a day to deliver in an environment where the focus is on operational efficiencies and speed-to-market.

DEMAND FOR SMALL-BAY INVENTORY Last Mile distribution models begin with a regional fulfillment centre aligned with key transportation networks such as nearby highways, seaports, airports and rail intermodal yards. These regional distribution facilities are typically 300,000 square feet or larger, high-tech, with clear heights of 30 feet or higher and with ample parking for employees.

Urban distribution centres reflect a wider range of building characteristics because location is typically the major requirement users seek. Accessibility in and out of the urban area is the major driver for these types of facilities – transportation infrastructure is relevant during the site selection process, but not to the same degree as a regional distribution centre.

Space ranges between 50,000 to 100,000 square feet, although is occasionally as

SIGNAGE COMPROMISE ENACTED IN QUEBEC A new Quebec regulation requires retailers and other building owners with non-French trademarks to post complementary signage to ensure passersby can readily see equivalent French information. This follows last year's Quebec Court of Appeal ruling that proprietors cannot be compelled to solely display French translations of registered trademarks on facades.

Rather than appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Quebec government has amended the disputed regulation concerning the province's language of commerce and business – now allowing for non-French signage in balance with a selection of options to give French comparative prominence. This could be a slogan, generic term or description or other information about products/services available inside the building.

French and non-French signage must be placed within the same general sight lines, have lettering of the same size and be illuminated at the same time. Retailers and landlords with existing signage will have until of the spring of 2019 to comply. However, commentary accompanying the posting of the regulation in early May noted that many of the province's enterprises already comply.

"As a result of the latitude which is afforded, the measures are evidence of a balance between the primary objective, which is to counter the pressure against the use of French in commercial signs and posters in the North American environment, and minimizing the costs incurred to comply with the regulations," it states. "The proposed solution preserves the integrity of trade marks, thereby responding favourably to the concern expressed by a number of persons."

– Barbara Carss

large as 200,000 square feet. Clear heights are a less important factor for space seekers.

Overall, location overshadows building quality, especially where the target customers are clustered in a small number of places – encouraging retail distributors to compromise on the building (to a point) for the best possible access to their customers.

The lack of small-bay inventory on the market is boosting values of smaller facilities with the right specifications. Users are often willing to look at all types of inventory including older inventory and inventory with lower clear heights.

Capitalizing on this demand for sites with nearby access to highways and urban populations, small bay facilities in Etobicoke and Scarborough are attracting interest in the Greater Toronto Area. Small-bay facilities in Delta and Burnaby are similarly positioned in the Vancouver market.

OMNI-CHANNEL POSSIBILITIES A number of experimental delivery strategies are also proving successful in Canada and the United States, including crowdsourced delivery services, in-store fulfillment (click-and-collect) and locker pick-up. Together these services connect as omni-channel distribution strategy that situates the retailer in close proximity to the customer and reduces the costs involved in the Last Mile.

From a consumer perspective, omnichannel distribution is the option to browse, purchase or receive goods via brick-andmortar, online or a combination of the two with no discrepancy between product and availability. From a retailer perspective, omni-channel distribution is ensuring goods are delivered in a timely and costeffective ma n ner. Om ni-cha n nel distribution methods seek to reduce the cost and complexity in the Last Mile by distributing goods from urban warehouses, while others remove the Last Mile entirely and encourage consumers to pick up goods purchased online at localized brick-andmortar checkpoints.

With a combination of emerging technology, increased e-commerce activity, and a densifying urban population, there is an opportunity for retailers to roll out Last Mile delivery and omni-channel methods as a cost-effective strategy for faster and more efficient parcel delivery in Canada.

There is no question that the Last Mile model will evolve and have positive implications for the urban-industrial landscape as e-commerce continues to progress in Canada. zz Christian Denny is the National Industrial Research Analyst with CBRE. For more information, see the website at www.cbre.com/ research-and-reports.

Canadian Property Management | June 2016 13

changemanagement

THE UPSIDE OF DISRUPTIVE

Technological Change Opens Real Estate Opportunities

By Amy Erixon TALENTED real estate professionals have been defined by their ability to spot trends and accurately assess the impact they will have on the world around them. They have historically considered properties that have stable lease agreements, attractive configurations and preferable growth locations as desirable. Most underwritings assume that things will unfold in the future as they have in the recent past. But what if they don’t?

Far from being immune to the rapid acceleration of technological change, the real estate industry – which is profoundly “old school” – will be deeply affected by innovation as adoption accelerates and disruption unfolds. Understanding the 14 June 2016 | Canadian Property Management

most relevant forces and concepts involved will help industry players avoid investing in properties that will have lower future va lue, r e qu i r e d i sp r op or t ion at e refurbishment capital or simply become functionally obsolete.

Change is coming to the real estate industry in the form of a vast array of communications, construction, energy, security, process and operational (commonly called "smart") technologies that will affect virtually every aspect of the industry. In fact, that change is already here.

The way properties are conceived and built; the way they are researched, marketed and sold; and, most importantly, what they offer to tenants in the way of energy-

efficient, flexible, adaptable smart functionality are all becoming critical factors when assessing the future viability of investment properties and establishing sustainable long-term investment criteria.

Investors need to be aware of, if not deeply informed about, the latest disruptive technology trends affecting the industry. At last count, more than 2,500 companies are poised to disrupt the real estate industry, with innovative models set to alter everything from real estate’s traditional role in business operations to how it is funded and where it is located. Just as Amazon successfully mainstreamed e-commerce and forced retailers to rethink their supply chains and store offerings,

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changemanagement fin-tech will similarly transform retail banking and insurance, while bio-tech reconceives both medical practices and service delivery.

APPS The number of real estate apps for collecting, managing, marketing and reporting property data across all segments is set to explode. The MIT Center for Real Estate is currently tracking more than 2,500 apps in development and has noted that students are almost universally gravitating to app development over investment banking, investment management and property development roles. It’s likely that these apps, as happened in the travel industry, will be supplanted by aggregator apps, as their data manipulation capabilities and productivity advantages become hugely valuable to real estate professionals.

The business applications of social media are also growing, with networks increasingly disintermediating buyer and seller relationships and replacing corporate websites as the place to go, not only to develop business relationships, but to research industry developments and, increasingly, to actually get business done. Cutting-edge architects, for example, are beginning to crowdsource solutions to design and engineering problems, as well as to collect stakeholder feedback. E-commerce is moving into mobile and social networks as retailers look to improve the effectiveness and reach of their platform investments.

By leveraging these technologies, real estate professionals could report on industry data on a far greater scale than ever before.

They could then develop and manage a portfolio of acquisition targets and portfolio initiatives and optimize the entire process based on the specific data inputs and metrics they deem most important, such as sustainability, tenant retention or customer engagement.

PROCESS TECHNOLOGY The process technology revolution – the application of data analytics, hardware and software innovation, and disruptive business models – may have the greatest effect of all on the real estate industry. In the last 35 years, the industry has undergone a transition from cheques, letters and carbon copies to fax machines, ATMs, electronic money transfers and mobile phones – and most recently, to e-mail, desktop publishing, tracking of business analytics, computeraided design, social media, bitcoin and crowdfunding.

16 June 2016 | Canadian Property Management

The automation of everything – from manufacturing processes and robo-lawyers, to driverless vehicles, block chains and the Internet of Things – is accelerating. Eight years ago, the U.S. presidential election was the first to be heavily influenced by social media and crowdfunding; now those are standard tactics.

Change is the only constant. As the automation of everything unfolds, new jobs and technologies pop up to exploit fresh opportunities, and real estate must keep up – locationally, technologically and functionally.

Process innovation has always changed the math. Up until now, it has not altered the role of real estate service providers much, but that is starting to change. The very nature of real estate’s role in the business ecosystem is open to innovation. For example, Amazon, well-known for fulfilment warehouses, must see operationalizing big data as the next big thing, as the company has 6 million square feet of office space under construction in Seattle, while cloud computing is its fastestgrowing current business.

In addition to building state-of-the-art warehouses, Amazon derives its success from constr ucting new prototype facilities – including data centres and, in the future, office buildings that will be filled with people exploiting that data.

Leveraging technology across its spectrum of applications (for example, the use of robots in its e-commerce supply chain) has been the key to Amazon’s success. Amazon is using social media to socialize the idea of drone delivery of same-day fulfillment because, while early adoption provides first-mover advantage, resistance to adoption is the reason change sometimes doesn’t happen as soon as it could.

Alibaba, notorious for exploiting both social media and big data, has a real estate sub-category where the firm is m a r ke t i n g, o p e n s o u r c i n g a n d customizing modular construction for a

variety of applications, including offices, hotels and apartments worldwide. Credit card chip technology, only a few years old, may be upended by mobile pay, providing enhanced cybersecurity as fingerprint and retina scan technology come online.

Last year, $35 billion of real estate projects were crowdfunded, cutting out traditional financial service providers.

The point is, process technologies are disrupting how things get done, and that means the building spaces that will sustain their value going forward will be those that reflect and enable that process revolution, hosting lower-cost, highertech facilities in the right locations.

ADAPTABILITY IMPERATIVE To d ay’s s u c c e s sf u l r e a l e s t a t e professionals undoubtedly believe they are highly sensitive to change, including technological change. But the change afoot is not simply a market shift due to a n i ndust r y boom or reti rement demographic – and the technological change is not about retrofitting the buildings of the past to support the technologies of the future.

We’re talking about full-scale industry disruption and transformation that will, or certainly should, radically alter investment portfolio criteria – and those criteria must be clearly, deeply and strategically understood by decision-makers. If service providers are not thinking about things like the IoT, big data, modular construction, renewable materials, social media, automation and smart systems, buildings and cities, they are not thinking hard or broadly enough. zz Amy Erixon is Principal and Managing Director, Investments, with Avison Young. The preceding article is excerpted from her white paper, Technological Disruption and the Real Estate Industry. The complete text can be found at https://avisonyoung.uberflip.com/ i/684513-aytopicalreport-techdisruptionjune8-16final

repositioning

REINVENTING SURPLUS SCHOOL SPACE

Community Hub Initiatives Get More Time to Secure Funding

By Brennan Carroll DECLINING public school enrollment has created an expensive surplus of space which school boards must sell or otherwise find uses for. In Ontario, the Ministry of Education, school boards, municipalities and others have begun exploring initiatives to reduce barriers a n d e n c ou r a ge t h e c r e a t io n of community hubs in under-utilized public school spaces. According to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, a community hub “can be a school, a neighbourhood centre or a nother public space that offers co-located or integrated services such as education, health care and social services”.

The first formal community hub program in Canada, the Hub School Model, was introduced in Nova Scotia

in 2014, as a response to community resistance to the consolidation and closure of schools facing declining en rollment. Onta r io schools face similar pressures.

An independent review of the Toronto District School Board, submitted to the Minister of Education in January 2015, found that 131 of the Board’s 585 schools were operating at 59% capacity or lower. According to the review, the Board faces a renewal backlog of about $3 billion and lacks funding to address all needs.

In August 2015, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Community Hubs Framework Advisory Group released a report to guide the creation of community hubs.

T he repor t, Com munit y Hubs in Ontario: A Strategic Framework and

Action Plan, identified existing barriers to the creation of community hubs and set out eight recommendations to address these barriers.

The 2016 Ontario Budget, released on February 25, 2016, accepted the report's recommendations and allocated funding for the development of a resource network for com munity partners, including an interactive and online resource centre to provide access to information, best practices and data for community organizations. Funding was also earmarked for implementation of changes to the process of disposition of school properties to support continued community use of surplus schools through leasing or purchase by public agencies.

Also in February 2016, Karen Pitre, Special Advisor on Community Hubs and Canadian Property Management | June 2016 17

changemanagement Chair of the Advisory Group, released an update highlighting a number of exciting new community hub projects being developed through collaboration between district school boards and municipalities across Ontario. Featured projects include: • Development of a community based family centre located at St. Francis Elementary School in London, Ontario, an initiative of the London Catholic District School Board and the City of London; • Construction of commercial kitchens that can cater local events at Elmvale District High School in Elmvale, Ontario, an initiative of the Simcoe County District School Board and the Township of Springwater; • Construction of community space and a public library at Greensville Public School in Hamilton, Ontario, an initiative of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board and the City of Hamilton; and • Construction of a public library in the newly renovated Alexander Henry Secondary School in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, an initiative of the Algoma District School Board and the City of Sault Ste. Marie.

IN-SCHOOL CHILD CARE On May 6, 2016, the Ministry of Education announced almost $90 million dollars in funding to expand community space, child and family support programs and child care in schools. The funding will be allocated as follows: • $20 million to develop Ontario Early Years Child and Family Centres in schools, providing child care spaces and child and family support programs; • $18 million to retrofit existing in-school child care spaces to increase the availability of space for children under the age of four; • $50 million to renovate surplus school space to make it available for use by community partners and the public; and • Expanded eligibility for school capital funding to construct replacement space in new or existing schools for eligible community partners in the event that their original school locations are closed.

18 June 2016 | Canadian Property Management

Currently, the 72 school boards across Ontario operate a total of 5,000 school facilities, valued at approximately $55 billion.

The funding announcement follows the Ministry of Education’s April 2015 announcement of $120 million in funding over three years to support the construction of new in-school child care spaces for children up to 3.8 years of age. The funding is targeted at the construction of child care spaces in new or existing schools, reducing surplus space managed by school boards, while providing licensed child care for children until they are ready to enter fullday kindergarten. The Province had allocated more than $80 million in funding under this initiative by January 2016, creating 2,901 new licensed childcare spaces across Ontario.

In-school child care was facilitated in part through amendments to the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014, which came into effect on August 31, 2015 and replaced the Day Nurseries Act. Section 75(1) of the Child Care and Early Years Act deems any portion of a child care centre located in a school to be a part of the school “used to provide instructions to pupils” and thereby exempt from any building standards or requirements other than those that apply to the school itself.

PROPERTY DISPOSITION Currently, the 72 school boards across Ontario operate a total of 5,000 school facilities, valued at approximately $55 billion. When schools are closed, school boards can declare these properties surplus and offer them for sale or lease in accordance with the requirements set out in Ontario Regulation 444/98 - Disposition of Surplus Real Property.

On May 5, 2016, this regulation was amended in response to recommendations in the Community Hubs in Ontario report.

These amendments are expected to come into effect on September 1, 2016.

School boards must still follow the pre-existing two-step process to lease or sell surplus properties. The seller school board must first offer the property to a prioritized list of public sector entities.

With the exception of coterminous school boards (Public or Catholic boards in the same jurisdiction), which may

offer the replacement value of the school, all other public entities are required to purchase the property at fair market value.

If no formal offer is made within prescribed timelines, the seller board may advertise the property on the open market.

The previous prescribed timelines and the requirement that properties be purchased for fair market value created challenges for public sector entities hoping to make use of surplus school property to deliver valuable community services.

The first key amendment extends the circulation timelines. Organizations that submit an “expression of interest” within 90 days of receiving notification of sale or lease of surplus property now have an additional 90 days to submit a formal offer.

The second key amendment expands and reprioritizes the list of public organizations entitled to receive notification of surplus school property for sale or lease.

Although the cur rent round of amendments do not adopt the Community Hubs in Ontario recommendation that an exemption to the fair market value requirement be made available where a viable community hub plan is presented for a surplus school property that cannot sustain fair market value, it is hoped that the circulation timeline extension will give community agencies additional time to develop workable funding plans.

A school board deciding to lease surplus school land to community agencies should be clear in its leasing documentation that it has the ability to collect property tax in addition to other rent owing. The property tax exemptions enjoyed by schools under Ontario's Assessment Act are not transferable to tenants who do not use the space for school purposes and thus it can be anticipated that property taxes will be applied as a result of this change in use.

Community agencies leasing land should also consider this issue when budgeting for a new space. zz Brennan Carroll is a partner with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. The preceding article is reprinted from the firm's Education Law Newsletter, Spring 2016. For more information, see the website at www.blg.com.

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Canada’s Best Managed Companies is one of the most prestigious business awards in the country. Sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC, the National Post, Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business and MacKay CEO Forums, it recognizes Canadian-owned and -operated companies with revenues over $10 million that embrace innovation, seize opportunities and inspire talent. It’s no surprise, then, that Forest Contractors was one of the 50 companies recognized by the program for its performancedriven results.

We can’t thank them enough for their efforts toward reaching this milestone.”

Domenic founded Forest Contractors in 1994 before completing his civil engineering education at George Brown College. Soon after, he hired additional staff to begin the expansion of the company. Only two years later, Domenic acquired enough machinery to allow his company to complete all of its projects in-house.

One major cornerstone of Forest’s business has always been excellent customer service. The company places an emphasis on it, and founder Domenic Gurreri operates his company with the goal to have Forest Contractors be defined by its strong team and the high level of customer satisfaction it delivers.

Since then, Forest has expanded considerably to include the services it offers today: concrete curb and sidewalk construction, interlock and landscape paving, building restoration and site servicing such as drainage and excavation, as well as its most desired services, asphalt construction, repairs and services and snow removal and de-icing salt applications.

“Earning the title of one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies is an immense honour and a great achievement for our employees,” says Domenic. “It’s the commitment and hard work of our team that’s elevated our company to this level.

Forest’s track record of high-quality work has led to partnerships with some major clients, including the municipalities of Vaughan, Pickering, Stouffville and Milton, big retail operations such as Vaughan Mills, Canadian Tire and

OUP IS ONE OF MANAGED COMPANIES excellence garners recognition McDonald’s Canada and other retail centres, developers and property owners.

According to Andrea Caruso, Forest Contractors’ head of business development, the award signifies that the company’s focus on superior quality and hard work will lead to continued success.

“We’re driven to provide the best service in the industry so our customers can find the results they need,” he says.

“It’s on these pillars of quality, integrity and service that we’ve been able to establish such long-standing relationships with our clients, and they’re principles we’ll continue to use to take our company into the future.”

Forest Contractors and other honourees were celebrated at the annual Canada’s Best Managed Companies gala, which took place in Toronto on April 12, 2016.

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assetmanagement

MANY COST PRESSURES IN PUBLIC SECTOR PORTFOLIOS Asset Managers Strive for Interdepartmental Coordination

By Barbara Carss A NEW $50-MILLION fund to help Canadian municipalities implement asset management programs is in sync with broader efforts to adopt standards, make better use of data analytics and eliminate t he si lo ment a l it y i n ma nagi ng government-owned and occupied assets.

The Canadian government's funding pledge in the 2016 federal budget came just ahead of a recent global report on public sector asset management, drawn from consultation with senior and midlevel managers in eight countries.

"This research is the first of its kind on a global scale, and it is important to see that issues in public asset management are not local, but global," says Kristin Bammel, Project Manager for the report, which was sponsored by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Participants in a series of roundtable discussions – in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia/New Zealand, Japan, the Middle East, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands – oversee assets collectively worth more than $1 22 June 2016 | Canadian Property Management

trillion. Despite the geographic distance between these venues, similar experiences and concerns were voiced at each session.

Public sector portfolios face common cost pressures, as governments move to reduce leased space and make maximum use of owned holdings while often simultaneously cutting operations and maintenance budgets. Meanwhile, there a r e n ew r e q u i r e m e nt s t o m e e t sustainability targets and effectively implement smart technologies. The ne e d for t r a i n i ng, i mprove d I T p r of ic ie n cy a n d st r a t eg ic a ss et management plans anchored with accurate lifecycle costing capability were identified as priorities.

The report summarizes asset managers' insight on governance, standards, business practices and systems; examines decisionmaking processes and the rise of performance metrics; and makes recommendations for the future. It stresses that coordination within government operations and a shared asset management system among all departments and agencies are critical steps to transparent, comparable

data that can be used for modelling and predictive analysis.

Canada and the United States are rema rked upon for i nter national cooperation worthy of emulation. "The United States and Canada are collaborating on sustainability. Agencies across these governments have established regular meetings to share information on strategies, policy formation and best practices. These types of activities are encouraging, and demonstrate the visibility that asset management is beginning to receive at the executive level," the report states.

For Canada's local governments, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has been designated to administer the new $50-million fund to support strategic asset management planning.

"Smaller communities, in particular, have indicated that they lack corporate capacity to undertake these important planning activities," the 2016-17 budget document states.

The budget also confirms that Statistics Canada will place new focus on collecting

assetmanagement "information on the state and performance of core public infrastructure assets for all levels of government" – a commitment FCM commends.

"With municipalities responsible for 60% of Canada's infrastructure, the time has come to collect comprehensive data on the condition of infrastructure to inform decision making in the future," the organization states in its response to the 2016 budget. "FCM will work with key stakeholders to set up an infrastructure data and asset management capacity building program."

BUILDINGS vs. HARD SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE Canadian municipalities collectively own a large and varied portfolio of public buildings with an estimated replacement cost of more than $120 billion, according to the 2016 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card. Buildings related to delivery of core municipal services account for the major share of this tally, while sports and recreation facilities are pegged at an estimated $51-billion value.

In analyzing submissions from 200 municipalities and 37 transit authorities, the survey sponsors conclude that one third of Canadian municipal infrastructure is at risk of rapid deterioration. Soundness ratings vary somewhat among the eight asset categories examined, nevertheless, seven of the eight are deemed to be in declining condition based on the reported level of reinvestment in upkeep.

"What this survey shows is that we need to repair our existing infrastructure. Our infrastructure is aging and we need to accelerate the rate of renewal," asserts Kealy Dedman, President of the Canadian Public Works Association – one of the sponsoring organizations of the report card along with the Canadian Construction Association, the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

A higher percentage of public buildings are deemed to be in fair, poor or very poor condition than is found in the six other asset categories surveyed. Sports and recreation facilities posted the worst numbers of all categories, with 54% of assets considered in very good or good condition. Other municipally owned buildings – administrative buildings, childcare/day care centres, community centres, health care and long-term care facilities, shelters, libraries, police, fire and paramedic stations – had a slightly

larger 55% complement identified in good or very good condition.

Yet, buildings may be a lesser concern for municipal asset managers given their far more valuable holdings of other categories of critical infrastructure.

Nationally, this represents an estimated $207 billion in water treatment pipes and facilities, $234 billion in wastewater systems and $330 billion in roads, meaning that far greater capital investment is requi red to add ress defer red maintenance and upgrades for these key services.

Perhaps because of their lower overall value, municipal buildings are the one asset category where reinvestment in upkeep and renewal is within the generally recommended range of 1.7 to 2.5% of value annually – albeit at the low end, just hitting 1.7%. Annual reinvestment in sport and recreation facilities falls short of this target at 1.3% of value.

More than half of the reported municipal buildings were more than 31 years old, including 23% that were more than 50 years old. Health care facilities, shelters and community centres tended to be

older, while half of the reported paramedic and police stations were built within the last 20 years.

A la rge major it y of su r veyed municipalities have some form of asset management program in place, but 10% had no data on building condition.

Fourteen per cent now factor climate change adaptation strategies into decision making about their building portfolio.

This is the second infrastructure report card, four years after the first municipal survey. Its release comes as the Canadian government promotes economic stimulus through infrastructure spending.

"In the end, it is not a question of investing or not investing, it's a question of cost and good infrastructure management," says FCM President, Raymond Louie.

"The bottom line is that the longer we wait to act on these repairs, the more expensive it will get. Canada needs to start planning for the future by reinvesting in our existing assets now." zz The preceding article is reprinted from the REMI Network. See www.REMInetwork.com.

Canadian Property Management | June 2016 23

planning&development

PROMOTING AFFORDABILITY

Housing and Transportation Factor into Cost Equation

By Todd Litman

HOUSEHOLDS OFTEN make tradeoffs between housing and transport costs so it is important to consider them together. A cheap house is not truly affordable if its isolat e d lo cat ion leads to h ig h transportation costs. Alternatively, a more costly house may be most affordable overall if located in an accessible, multimodal neighbourhood where transport costs are minimized.

In the past, housing experts often defined affordability as households spending less than 30% of their budget on housing, including rents or mortgages, property taxes, basic utilities, maintenance and repairs. The newer approach defines affordability as households spending less than 45% of their budget on housing and transportation combined.

The dynamic nature of housing prices 24 June 2016 | Canadian Property Management

can complicate affordability analysis. In particular, increasing the supply of middle-priced housing tends to increase affordable housing supply indirectly, as some households move from low- to the new middle-priced units. Over the longterm, as the new housing depreciates in price, it can become more affordable.

Five common strategies for maintaining or increasing housing affordability include: Maintain Older Housing In communities with an abundant supply of older but still functional houses, providing affordable housing may involve helping low-income households repair and weatherize their homes to keep them safe and reduce utility bills. This may require subsidies or low-interest loans.

Government Subsidized Housing Governments can sponsor and subsidize development of social housing to meet specific needs, such as seniors, people with disabilities, and low incomes. This is often the only way to serve unmet housing needs, and governments are often able to coordinate and mobilize resources unavailable to private developers, but it tends to have relatively high costs due to t h e c o m plex it y of gove r n m e nt administration, and can generally serve only a small portion of total affordable housing demands.

Increasing rent subsidies in a market with limited affordable housing supply may favour some groups (those that qualify for the subsidy) to the detriment of others, and can contribute to rent inflation.

For example, if city with 20,0 0 0

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planning&development lower-income households but only 10,000 affordable housing units offers a new housing subsidy for people at risk of homelessness, low-income seniors, or people with certain disabilities, the recipients will benefit.

However, other groups, such low-income workers, college students and people with disabilities who do not quality for the program will compete for fewer available units, forcing some to live elsewhere or pay more than they can afford, while the increased demand may allow property owners to raise rents more than would otherwise occur. Only if increased subsidies are implemented with policies that increase housing supply can all lower-income households benefit.

Urban Fringe Development Public policies can encourage development on inexpensive urban-fringe land. Using mass production building techniques, developers can produce large numbers of relatively cheap housing, but sprawled development tends to have high infrastructure development costs and imposes high future transportation costs on residents and communities.

Such housing can be a curse to lower-income households, if after moving to an automobile-dependent area, they experience an economic shock, such as reduced incomes, a vehicle failure or crash, or fuel price spikes. This explains why sprawled areas tend to have higher foreclosure rates than more central, multi-modal locations, suggesting that improving transport options increases economic resilience.

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Inclusionary Zoning Inclusionary zoning requires developers to sell or rent a portion (typically 10-20%) of the units they build at below-market prices.

Like Robin Hood, it forces higher-income households to crosssubsidize their lower-income neighbours.

If required of all development in an area these cost are partly capitalized into land values, minimizing the burden on individual developers. However, this strategy is only successful if new housing demand is very strong. If not, developers build fewer units, particularly moderate priced units, which can result in less total affordable housing supply.

For example, if the cheapest housing units costs $200,000 to build, and regulations require 10% be priced at $100,000, each of the nine non-qualifying units bears an additional $11,111 cost, which adds about $20,000 to their final price, including overhead and financing costs. This is a small increase for high-priced housing (2% for a $1-million house) but a large increase for lowerpriced housing (11% for a $200,000 condominium).

Since lower-priced housing development tends to be price sensitive, this can significantly reduce the number produced. In this way, inclusionary zoning can reduce housing affordability, particularly over the long run, by reducing production of the moderately priced houses that will be the future affordable housing stock.

Reduce Infill Development Costs Allow and support owners of existing urban properties to increase density, for example, by converting a garage or basement into a rentable suite, adding a storey or replacing single-family with multi-family housing. Since wood-frame construction tends to be cheapest, and elevators add significant costs, the most affordable housing tends to be low-rise (two- to five-storeys) townhouses and multi-family, although mid-rise (five- to ten-storeys), and high-rise (more than ten storeys) buildings may be relatively affordable where land prices are very high.

The Missing Middle refers to a variety of low-rise housing types that are particularly suitable for urban infill. This development strategy typically involves policy reforms that allow smaller parcel sizes and subdivisions, support condominium and cooperative ownership structures, allow higher densities and building heights, reduce minimum parking requirements and streamline the building approval process.

This tends to be the most cost-effective overall because it minimizes infrastructure and future transport costs, including residents' vehicle expenses, and indirect costs such as road and parking infrastructure requirements, congestion, accidents and pollution. By providing more affordable transport options that residents can use if needed, this strategy increases economic security.

In most cities there is large potential for affordable infill housing development, including moderate-priced development that becomes affordable over time, but such development can create local impacts (construction noise and dust, and increased vehicle traffic and parking problems), which lead to controversy and neighbourhood resistance. zz

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Todd Litman is with the Victoria Transport Policy Institute. For more information, see the website at www.vtpi.org. The preceding article is excerpted from the Planetizen blog post, Evaluating Affordable Housing Development Strategies. For more information, see www.planetizen.com.

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projectmanagement

PROJECT CONTROLS

INFORM THE LIFECYCLE Sweeping Range of Factors Covered in a Focus on Cost and Schedule

By Alexia Nalewaik THE DEFINITION of project controls as a focus on cost and schedule, or a focus on investment of resources, is deceptively simple. The impact of project controls is considerable, and the skill set of project controls professionals is both broad and deep, with the potential to provide valuable input throughout the organization, portfolio, program and project. Project controls can provide assistance throughout the entire lifecycle of projects and assets, from ideation to closeout.

Skills and technology used by project controls professionals enable predictable project outcomes; look at planned, past, present and future project performance; and provide early visibility of problems with an opportunity to remedy issues. Project controls create an ongoing feedback loop on project performance, and capture lessons learned for both current and future projects.

Project controls are a best practice of project management. Robust and sophisticated project controls teams are readily found in 28 June 2016 | Canadian Property Management

quality- and schedule-dependent environments where delays in the completion and start-up of a facility can result in immediate high-dollar loss of revenue.

Technology is an enabler of project controls, and has in many ways made it easier to capture and stratify project data for analysis, enabling project controls professionals to focus on interpreting data and using it to create positive project results, instead of wrangling systems to generate reports. Project management and project controls information technology systems are a tool of project controls; they are not (in themselves) project controls.

In the past, cost and schedule data needed to be gathered from multiple systems, with many challenges in mapping, coding and integrating the data so it could be readily utilized. Mature and sophisticated tools are now available to readily pull data from many sources, enabling nearly “one button” reporting, and freeing project controls to focus on what it does best: critical analysis

and advisory. There are many different systems available for project management and project controls, and their suitability and adoption depend on the specific needs of (and other systems used by) the organization.

CONSISTENT ANALYTICAL POWER Common to every project and client is the need for assurance and consistency, which project controls provide. In today’s business environment, the requirements for capital project success include completion on time and within budget, with additional expectations of technical, safety and quality performance.

The cost and schedule baselines established by project controls define the project plan (what is “in control”), and can be used in comparison to actual cost and schedule status to indicate what is “out of control” on the project. This information from project controls is used by project management to develop a process for correcting the situation and

projectmanagement getting the project back on track for on-time and on-budget completion.

The key value-add of project controls is advice that reduces project risk and uncertainty, using knowledge, tools and experience. Project controls can provide considerable analytical power to the project and organization, especially when applied as a dynamic suite of services customized to fit the project or program.

The true benefit of project controls is in the analysis, not just input and output of data.

The analysis process is not a onetime occurrence. The project controls cycle is continuous, one of gathering inputs, analyzing, reporting and recommending and implementing corrective action, then repeating the cycle.

Analysis is very powerful in the hands of professionals who understand the data, its origin and context, and market forces. Here, project controls act in an invaluable advisory capacity to project management.

Project controls, internal controls and document controls processes, policies and procedures may evolve over time in response to lessons learned and risk. Consistent methodologies can improve the quality of estimating and scheduling, review of change orders, comparison of estimates to bids and improved recordkeeping. The more mature and cohesive the project controls processes and systems, assigned appropriate resources and integrated with strategic asset planning, the more risk visibility and predictability there will be in the project throughout its lifecycle, resulting in an increase in project performance.

RISK MANAGEMENT Risks addressed by project controls are not limited to cost and schedule. While dedicated project controls methods can reduce schedule slip and project cost overruns, project controls also improve the performance of the project and the organization.

Risks may be categorized as technology, regulatory, operations, contractual, financial, project execution, political and more, each with project cost and schedule impact. The multi-faceted and everchanging nature of risk requires constant management by the project team. Good risk management procedures ultimately measure the team’s confidence level in the project on an ongoing basis, and allow corrective actions, cost contingency and schedule float in order to minimize project disruption and increase the likelihood of project success.

Standardized reporting from project controls on project status (cost and schedule, risks, change and forecasts) and consistent coding of project expenditures, provide stakeholders with a consistent and easily comprehensible written record and periodic updates, such that decisions can be made without doubting what is included (or not included) and how it is presented.

Accurate and honest reporting enables early visibility of change and improves the project team’s ability to forecast project progress. Reporting of cost and schedule also provides transparency of project status and visibility of project progress to stakeholders.

The capture of data on cost, schedule, and change through periodic reporting can also be used as a foundation for claims management and reduction. The basic nature of a claim focuses on damages, characterized as a cost or time impact. Because project controls maintain and validate cost and schedule data and reporting, project controls provides necessary input in claims avoidance and analysis.

The core skill sets of project controls focus on the establishment and integration of cost (estimating and budgeting) and schedule (planning and scheduling). However, the twin elements of cost and schedule are related to, gather data from, provide input to, and influence many other aspects of the project or program. Thus, project controls professionals have much broader and deeper capabilities than the definition implies.

The very terminology “cost” and “schedule” belie their complexity, as all project inputs, resources and activities have an associated cost and impact the project schedule. Project controls analyze resources related to the project in developing the budget and schedule baseline, and tracks the use of those resources for progress measurement, reporting, and forecasting. In order to do so, project controls must comprehend resources required by activities on the project, means and methods, activity sequencing and duration, financial and time constraints, scope, quantities of materials, labour requirements, pricing and costing and more.

Project controls professionals must be able to collect data (cost, schedule, risk and change), ensure it is entered in IT systems accurately and correctly coded, and generate reports on project status.

Characteristics of a good project controls professional include attention to detail and precision. Above and beyond this is where lies the true talent and value of project controls. zz

Dr. Alexia Nalewaik, FRICS CCP CCA, is Vice President, Major Projects and Program Management, with WT Partnership. The preceding article is excerpted from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) whitepaper, Project Controls in the North American Market. For more information, see the website at www.rics.org.

JOINT VENTURES PRONE TO DISPUTES Recent data on construction disputes shows they most often arise due to poorly administered contracts and are most often resolved by the disputing parties themselves, albeit increasingly through lengthy negotiations. The newly released 2016 Arcadis Global Construction Disputes report reveals North America is somewhat less fractious than other world regions, with the dispute claims averaging U.S. $25 million in 2015 and taking 13.5 months to settle – lower than the global average of $U.S. 46 million and 15.5 months settlement time.

The greatest number of disputes occurred in the real estate sector, but disputed values were typically higher for projects in the natural resources sector.

Globally, approximately 25% of joint ventures fell into dispute, but, again, North America had a somewhat better record of relations, with 20% of joint ventures disputed.

Risk management strategies, including the provision of dispute settlement mechanisms in contracts, are credited for relative peace among construction parties in Canada and the U.S.. This also tends to up the contentiousness in cases where outside intervention is required.

"Even though more disputes are being settled early, the ones that remain grow into complicated, emotional affairs, with large damages at stake," observes Roy Cooper, Vice President, Arcadis North America.

The report also identifies trends that may be underlying factors in tension between parties: • commodity and currency volatility; • legacy effects of tenders priced in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis; • rising global cost base and strain on supply chain; • scarcity of labour and professional staff; and • drop in oil and natural resource prices causing a radical rethink of strategy and delivery of projects.

For more information, see the website at www.arcadis.com Canadian Property Management | June 2016 29

facilitiesmanagement

TRACKING PRODUCTIVITY

FM Software Gleans Insight on Work Processes

By Jamie Gregory

FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (FM) software streamlines requests and fulfillments, and, in turn, provides data to evaluate facilities and maintenance efficiency. Resulting improved response times can support relationships with building occupants, while the data itself can validate the facility team's work, raising morale and reducing labour costs.

Getting the most out of facility management data starts with asking the right questions: Is the facility team responding to tenant requests and resolving work orders in a timely manner? Is the team’s current workload manageable? How is the team’s workload trending over time? How can the team be more efficient and productive?

Benchmarking and monitoring can help to answer these questions.

Once staff is made aware of performance expectations, it's important to share the information gathered. However, supervisors also need some context for interpreting the data.

30 June 2016 | Canadian Property Management

If the facility team is not achieving the benchmarks for time to respond to and resolve work orders, it could be an indication that the team’s processes are inefficient or that they have limited resources or manpower. Observe the facility team’s processes to discover potential bottlenecks that are slowing them down. For example, can they receive work orders electronically on the go or do they waste time driving from one location to another to get updates in person?

Based on these observations, teams can be equipped with the resources they need to complete their work more efficiently. This might require additional staff, tools or other resources.

Overloading certain teams or employees with too much work can result in work orders slipping through the cracks. This ultimately leads to premature equipment repair or replacement due to improper maintenance.

Facility management software programs make it easy to track work orders currently assigned to each team and individual employees. If some teams or employees are more overloaded than others, it could be an indication that staff members are not allocated properly or that the work order assignment process should be re-evaluated.

Some possible solutions for this dilemma include hiring more staff, reassigning staff or redistributing responsibilities. In contrast, if one particular team or employee constantly outperforms the others, data can help to identify what makes them so effective and how their success can be replicated throughout the entire organization.

A good facilities management software system should be able to track the workload assigned to each team and individual employee over time. Recognizing the facility team’s workload trends across a period of time can help to determine if there is any seasonality to the workload for a given team, employee or type of work.

With insightful trend data, the facility team can predict and leverage slow periods to tackle special projects, catch up on deferred maintenance or to be proactive with completing preventative maintenance tasks. Knowing these trends can also help teams to be better prepared and predict where resources will be needed during busy periods.

Facility management software is a foundation for tracking accurate and insightful data, and a key factor in unearthing valuable data to effectively manage facility teams. Digging deep into facility and maintenance team processes and performance data can help them make improvements until they become a welloiled machine. Practicing this constant awareness helps keep facility management divisions efficient and productive. zz Jamie Gregory is the Marketing Director at Facilities Management eXpress, a facilities management software provider. For more information, see the website at www.gofmx.com.

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