Where does the data come from?

Created by Bernard Williams and his former colleagues at BWA, EstatesMaster draws on first-hand analysed records of facilities costs and performance in over 10,000 buildings and experience of over 40 years of benchmarking consultancy.

Blue Chip organisations whose UK and international facilities costs have been benchmarked by the authors over the years include:

• Rolls Royce • Bank of England •Bank of America • BritishTelecom
• Astra Zeneca • Berwins • BAT • BP • Welsh Development Agency 
• Dept. of Trade & Industry • Royal Bank of Scotland • Royal Mail
• Dept. of Educ. & Employment • Dept. of Health & Soc. Security
• Min.of Agriculture Food &Fish • Birmingham & Solihull NHS • DEFRA
• Govt. Comm. Bureau • Becta • Min. of Defence • Chase Manhattan Bank
• Salamon Smith Barney • College of West Anglia • Corporation of London
• Financial Services Authority • National Air Traffic Service • GSK
• Cabinet Office • The Barbican • Barnet Hospital • Irish Estates
• Sun Alliance • One-2-One • IBM • Kent County Council • Dti
• WH Smith • Powergen • Rothschilds • Home Office • Royal Navy • Superdrug
• Gilead • Schroders • British Airways • BAE • Shell • Post office counters
• London Borough of Southwark • Zurich Insurance • Simmons & Simmons
• St.Bartholemews Hospital • Kings College London • Gilead • BP
• Wessex Water • Bath College of Higher Education • Kodak

Access to this detailed data on cost and performance at first-hand has enabled the authors to build up a data-base of unrivalled proportions; not only does the data-base hold this information at the cost centre level – it also holds it for every SCOPE item in each cost centre. The cost drivers identified by EstatesMaster and used in refining the benchmarks have been calibrated by the authors based on their analysis of the cost levels derived from myriad alternative levels of actual cost and performance observed in the course of their extensive benchmarking activities.

How is it kept up-to-date?
Apart from inflation indexation any significant changes in cost levels brought about by market forces and/or technological advances are immediately made available to IFPI for re-calibration of the model as required. Variations in rates of pay as between regions and special social rates such as London Living Wage are built into the calculations as appropriate.

And because this data-base is built and maintained by independent specialists there is no danger of it being skewed – e.g. by being based on a single service provider’s costs.