What would you like to know about EstatesMaster ?
What is it used for?
• benchmarking the cost and performance of most facilities services
• budgetting for future expenditure
• due diligence on bids
• getting 'ballpark' estimates for budgetting or checking prices
Which Facilities Services does it apply to?
Currently available modules include:
• Cleaning
• Maintenance
• Security
• Energy
• Distribution
• Stationery
• Service Charges
In the pipeline are:
• Archiving
• Water consumption
• Grounds maintenance
• Reprographics
Getting 'ballpark' estimates
Even at the highest 'Free estimate' level EstatesMaster is an infinitely more reliable method for getting 'ballpark estimates' than by 'asking around' or looking up price books.
The reason? Well, to start with it isolates the 'scope' of each cost centre thereby eliminating the largest source of error in any facilities cost estimate. It also asks about the standards being achieved across the board and level of difficulty achieving those standards. In a word - site-specific.
At this' Free estimate' level (where available) it is still only possible to get a ball-park to within about +/- 35% but Level 1 will get you to +/- 25% for a nominal licence fee.
Wide tolerance levels are not a deficiency in the program; the level of accuracy achievable is entirely down to the amount of information you can/want to enter into the program.
Pay a bit more for Level 2 and you are then +/- 12.5% - close enough for 'first-strike' benchmarking.
Who devised it?
EstatesMaster is the brainchild of Prof. Bernard Williams FRICS former senior partner of Bernard Williams Associates (BWA) - a niche UK-based professional consultancy specialising in building and facilities economics which he founded in 1970.
Prof. Williams is well-known for his work in developing facilities economics as a discipline and his book by the same title (Facilities Economics - IFPI Ltd.) is a world-wide standard reference on the whole spectrum of the discipline from Property Development economics to the economics of making a cup of coffee. He is also author of 'Benchmarking Facilities', 'Justifying the Investment in Facilities' and 'Whole-life Economics of Building Services' (all published by IFPI Ltd.).
He remains an active consultant to BWA who are contracted with IFPI to keep the database fully up-to-date with facilities costs and performance.
He holds a visiting Chair in the Centre for Facilities Management and Development at UK's Sheffield Hallam University and in 2010 he was selected by BIFM as one of the TOP-20 Pioneers of Facilities Management.
….and if you want to know what the authors of EstatesMaster mean by the term 'benchmarking'
According to Prof.Bernard Williams in his book 'An Introduction to Benchmarking Facilities' :
'Benchmarking is a process of comparing a product, service, process - indeed any activity or object - with other samples from a peer group, with a view to identifying 'best buy' or ' best practice' and targeting oneself to emulate or improve upon it.'
In terms of Facilities the peer group does not necessarily need to be an organisation producing a similar output. The only criterion is whether they are carrying out a similar process of manufacture, service delivery or whatever.
Although some facilities managers are often driven to trying to compare what they do with the competition this will not tell them what is best performance.Best performance in facilities entails providing exactly the services the core businesss requires for optimum efficiency at the best possible price.
EstatesMaster cannot tell you what level of performance you need - you must judge that for yourself with or without spying on the competition - but it certainly will tell you the best possible price you ought to be paying for that level, given the resource drivers specific to your property.
It will also tell you what are the cost implications of applying alternative standards - and in altered site-specific scenarios (like different premises) if required.
