Strategic FM Procurement: an issue of aligning services to business needs

Purpose – To illustrate the interdependence between business need and strategic decision on facilities management (FM) procurement model. This interdependence underpins the reason behind strategic decision on FM procurement. It would assist decision makers on FM services procurement that fulfills business needs and enriches business outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach – By a systematic review of FM-related literature, this research structures and investigates on three aspects of this interdependence between business delivery and FM services: 1. What characteristics of core business impact on FM service and provision? 2. What are the interconnections between business support and FM procurement decisions? and 3.

What are the available FM services procurement options? Findings – There are four types of core business characteristics that impacts on FM services and provision based on the degree of criticality to business continuity. Each type of core business needs determines decisions on FM procurement which vary with the degree of collaborative relationship between decision makers and FM service providers.

The degree of collaborative relationship encapsulates the number of communication channels, stakeholders’ involved, direction of data transfer and nature of data exchange. Consequently, the collaboration among parties involved determines the form and format of FM procurement model. Research limitations/implications – This approach can be used as a decision-making framework for management to assess its FM services procurement decision, and to justify the needs of FM provision and services.

On the other hand, an FM organization can use it as a self-evaluation tool to evaluate its FM procurement and degree of alignment of its current offering with core business needs. As the approach is based on a limited number of detailed case studies, further empirical verification of various types of organizations and contexts will be needed.

Originality/value Although this proposed approach is formulated within the context of FM procurement, its applications can be applied to other organizational support functions, for instance human resource (HR), information technology (IT) and finance services.