What is it used for?

The principal uses of EstatesMaster are:
• benchmarking the cost and performance of most facilities services
• budgeting for future expenditure
• due diligence on bids by service providers
• negotiating contract extensions
• getting 'ballpark' estimates for budgeting or checking prices

Best performance benchmarking
Although some facilities managers are often tasked with 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 business requires for optimum efficiency at the best possible price. It has nothing to do with what other organisations do even though superficially they may be facing the same demands on their facilities.

EstatesMaster cannot tell you what level of performance you need for your facilities services- 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 of quality, given the cost drivers specific to your property.

Budgeting
You can work out what next year’s spend should be without getting prices from contractors or simply marking up this year’s spend by an inflation index.
You can also very quickly see what the cost implications will be if you alter the specifications, e.g. by changing the maintenance regime.

Sensitivity testing
EstatesMaster will also tell you what are the cost implications of applying your current or proposed standards in a whole range of alternative scenarios (like moving to different premises) if required. The program addresses all the cost drivers relevant to the facilities services on any site.

Due Diligence
Contractors have found that EstatesMaster is a very sensible and inexpensive way to check their estimators’ pricing before they put their bids in. It will quickly show up any obvious errors and they can see how competitive their bid is likely to be.

Negotiating contract extensions
Why risk losing a good service provider for the sake of a slightly cheaper price from a supplier you have never worked with? Using EstatesMaster you can check the current market prices for the serviceand negotiate around them with your preferred supplier.

It costs very little, is very accurate and makes an awful lot of sense.

Ballpark estimates.
Levels 1 and 2 of the EstatesMaster program are particularly useful if you want to get a rough idea of what a service will cost on YOUR site without spending a lot of valuable time and money working it out from first principles.

Forget about the so-called ‘should-be’ cost ballparks – EstatesMaster will give you an answer which is site-specific and not something from a book which purports to be a benchmark for your type of building.