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Looking Back: Five Most Popular Facilities Management Blogs of 2016

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ServiceChannel
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March 18, 2023

As 2017 begins with lots of changes in store for everyone (facilities and otherwise!), we wanted to take a look back and see what was of most interest to our readership last year.  With a cross-section of thousands of facilities management professionals reading the ServiceChannel blog on a weekly basis, across various industries and geographies, reading our most popular posts provides thoughtful insight into what the top topics of most interest are. 

Some you may recall or likely have read the following, but for those of you who may have missed it, these blogs were the most recommended by your peers, so be sure to see what you’ve been missing out on! It’s never too late to learn more about facilities management. Here’s a look at our 5 most popular facilities management posts from 2016: 

To 2016 and Beyond!  7 Trends That Will Impact Facilities Management Next Year

This post – by far the year’s most read – captured everyone’s focus on the future – specifically, what’s going to impact facilities management.  Who doesn’t want to know what’s going to happen next?  

We highlighted a number of ideas that we saw (and still see) impacting the facilities management sector.

These included:reading-glasses-book.jpg

  • Benchmarking FM Spend
  • Internet of Things
  • More FMs Go Mobile
  • Payment Process
  • Changing Face of FM

These trends all impacted the recent year but will certainly be driving change for some time ahead.

Richness versus Reach

Posted a few years back, the concept of rich information (extensive, customized, detailed, current) and reach (number of people that can participate in the sharing of the information in question) – as it relates to facilities management – still resonates.

Facility managers now have online platforms from sourcing commercial contractors to automating work order management to build their own programs and get the reach they need without sacrificing the richness of the service.

13 Best Facilities Management Twitter Accounts to Follow

Who’s not on social media?  It’s where more and more folks get both news and professional / education information.  The facilities professional is no different.  It’s imperative today that FMs stay abreast of what’s happening across the industry.

The challenge is there’s so much information out there.  Drinking from the ‘FM Content’ firehouse can prove daunting.  We have a pretty active Twitter account ourselves (@ServiceChannel) and often get asked about the users we follow and where we get our information.

We put together a list of a number of accounts we follow to keep learning, from organizations like IFMA and PRSM to publications like Facility Executive and the Facilities Management Journal, and many more.

Are You a 2020 Facilities Manager? You Better Be!

Within the next few years, there will be real opportunities to “get a seat at the table” and demonstrate how the FM function can deliver shareholder value.  But to do this will require a forward thinking approach, collaboration with both internal peers and external partners, and most importantly, creative and unique ideas on how to tie repair and maintenance (R&M) operations into an organization’s broader based strategy.

Here we covered a number of specific ways to start thinking about your business to get yourself ahead of the curve, such as:

  • Smart sensors and self-monitoring equipment
  • Internet of Things
  • Integrated R&M, revenue, traffic and even weather data
  • Eco-friendly practices
  • RFID, drones/UAVs, BIM, biometric systems
  • Omnipresent mobile technologies

Contractor Scorecard Fast Becoming Industry Standard

One of the most useful tools continually site by both facilities managers and their commercial contracts and service providers is the Contractor Scorecard.  It provides a consistent and universal set of actionable metrics that is a standard across all clients. No longer does an FM have to spend hours pulling excel reports, manipulating them to put them in a consumable format.

For a facilities manager, the Contractor Scorecard provides a quick, easy and reliable – and most important – objective way to measure and grade all your contractors on performance.  We’ve found by having a common set of performance metrics used by both FMs and their contractors, reviews occur more often and are more productive.

Final Thoughts

We’re excited to continue our engagement with you, our audience, and share best practices, new trends, news and updates and anything else impacting the world of facilities management.  Please let us know if there are particular topics you’d like us to address as well as if you’d be interested in contributing content yourself.

After you’ve checked out these blogs, be sure you read up on our latest Ebook, What You Need To Know To Succeed in Facilities Management in 2020. Download it today for free!

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