There are numerous opportunities for facility management professionals to streamline operations and long-term planning through the use of technology. Both administrative and strategic functions can be improved with tools available on the market. One of these solutions is Facilities Flex, an offering from JLL. An alternative to fully outsourcing facility services, this offering provides facility executives the opportunity to choose from a menu of services to increase the productivity and efficiency of their existing facilities team. These services include: Facilities technology (e.g. work order management); financial; sourcing; building assessments; lease administration; engineering; business intelligence; and access to the JLL marketplace.
Brad Shokes, senior vice president for the Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) service line at JLL heads up the Facilities Flex service for the firm. Facility Executive magazine spoke with him about the options for facility leaders.
FE: What is Facilities Flex?
Shokes: Facilities Flex is a facilities management offering that helps organizations improve the productivity of their sites with reliable, transparent and agile solutions to help them achieve their goals. Clients can benefits from JLL’s industry-leading technology, business intelligence, purchasing power, and best practices, without the commitment of a fully outsourced model. Clients may start with just a few services and increase them over time as objectives or circumstances change. Facilities Flex empowers clients to improve service delivery and lower costs, while maintaining control of their in-house team.
FE: How does Facilities Flex work for a client?
Shokes: We assess how an organization is performing facility management today, where there are gaps, and how we can fill those gaps with our platform, best practices, and processes. We will design a program that will help clients increase productivity without losing control of their facility management or a lot of added cost. Clients can retain their facility management staff — our products and services are there to complement their team.
FE: Are there particular industries where this model is working well?
Shokes: Facilities Flex can be easily implemented in any organization. Industries that have highly dispersed portfolios and those who want to retain control of their team and their brand recognize the seamless transition possible with Facilities Flex. Implementation can be very quick, but a big impact can be seen in a short timeframe.
FE: How is Facilities Flex different from other offerings in the marketplace?
Shokes: We developed this agile, scalable solution as a result to what we heard in the marketplace. Organizations were looking for a way to partner with JLL and benefit from our best-in-class facility management platform, but some organizations don’t want to fully outsource facilities management. However, some clients are looking for more than an option which provides only technology. With Facilities Flex, clients can tap into products and services, best practices and operating procedures from JLL’s platform while complementing their existing team.
Learn more about Facilities Flex on the JLL website.
Shokes will participate as a panelist in the Facility Management & Technology: A 360 Degree View discussion at Facility Executive Live!, a one-day event to take place October 3, 2017 in downtown Chicago. This BOMI-accredited session is one of six topics at the conference. Click here to learn more about this event hosted by Facility Executive magazine.