Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How do we know the database is accurate?
A. The data has been selected, analysed and processed by Prof.Bernard Williams who is widely recognised as a leading specialist independent consultant in the field. The data has been collected at first hand by Chartered Quantity Surveyors in the course of carrying out facilities cost benchmarking studies and bidding action for major national and international users. 

Q. Is the program kept up to date?
A. The program is updated continually. Licensees automatically access the most up-to date calibrations having been notified of the nature, extent and reasons for the modifications.

Q. Which building types does it cover?
A. The program is not user-type-specific – it can be used for offices, retail outlets, schools, hospitals and so on; it asks questions about the building and how it is used, and the services provided the answers to which generate best performance cost levels appropriate to the job that has to be done in each case. It does of course reflect the physical characteristics and particular specification details of each building.

Q. How well qualified are the authors of the program?
A. The program has been developed from first principles by Prof.Bernard Williams FRICS. Bernard is widely regarded as an authority on facilities cost and performance benchmarking having been chosen by Eurofm to validate their facilities benchmarking initiative. He has also completed a commission from the EC to benchmark the cost of construction in the 15 EU countries. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Facilities Management and Development at Sheffield-Hallam University and was voted one of the ‘TopTwenty Pioneers of Facilities Management’ by the BIFM’s Facilities Management Journal.

Bernard is author of the best selling reference works ‘An Introduction to Benchmarking Facilities’,‘Facilities Economics’ and ‘Whole-life Economics of Building Services’.

Q. Does the program take into account regional variations?
A. The data is separately indexed to all major economic regions in each country in the database.

Q. Does it take into account premium rates that must be paid in certain areas at certain times?
A. The program has the facility to take on board any abnormal local premium rates of pay. Users may also include the values of any abnormal costs attendant upon a specific site or organisation e.g London Living Wage or travel- to -work costs.

Q. What happens if our costs include work not envisaged in the scope of the program?
A. If your costs include work outside of the scope of the program (e.g. projects or maintenance of special equipment) there is a facility to exclude such costs from the calculations.

Q. Can we use our own database in place of the one in the program?
A. The database the program uses is specially selected as representing ‘best performance’ cost targets from a much wider selection of cost data covering over 500 top-drawer users in the public and private sectors. However, if you would prefer to substitute comparative costs from your own database this can be arranged at an extra cost negotiated directly with the Licensor.

Q. What sort of companies are in the database?
A. The database contains ‘best performance’ cost data drawn from the records of over 500 organisations managing facilities in over 10,000 buildings.
Among the 500+ national and international organisations represented in the core database are:
• Bank of England
• Financial Services Authority
• British Telecom
• NATS
• Dti
• DHSS
• BAT
• MoD
• Zurich
• WH Smith
• Kodak
• Superdrug
• Rolls Royce
• …and many more from the Who’s Who of significant Blue Chip organisations

All the data used in the program has been specifically selected as representing best performance in management of facilities costs.

Q. Does anyone else have access to our data and benchmarking surveys?
A. Definitely not – apart from the Licensor and the authors who need to be able to monitor input to the site for purposes of quality control ( see Licence Agreement). The Licence Agreement contains a Confidentiality clause. If required (but really quite unnecessary) your organisation can be entered into the program under a pseudonym and even your buildings can be made anonymous using code numbers

Q. What if I need help answering the questions?
A. There is a detailed Helptext attached to every answer. In the unlikely event that you do need any clarification you can e-mail your query to IFPI whose Support team will sort things out for you quickly.

Q.What if the answer looks wrong?
A.When the result appears on the screen you will find a text alongside the graphic explaining what may be causing the difference between your actual cost and the benchmark figure. You may re-enter the program to put right any obvious mistakes in your own entries. If it still looks wrong you can e-mail IFPI’s support team who can see your answers and the results and will tell you where the problem probably lies.

Q. What is the maximum number of buildings we can put into EstatesMaster for benchmarking at any one time?
A. There is no maximum number – the largest is currently just under 8000 and that works fine.

Large numbers can however slow the speed down so it may be worth breaking the estate down into smaller groups if you want to put in more than say 10,000 buildings in one go.