Integrated facilities management, or IFM, is where all or most of your facilities management is overseen by the same provider. This allows for greater insight, full alignment with business goals and even cost effectiveness.

Finding an integrated facilities management company should not be a rushed decision and must be taken with care. It’s a commitment to working with a company and finding an IFM provider that helps your business to succeed.

What is IFM in Facilities Management?

IFM is when all facilities management responsibilities are held by a single provider. This covers both soft FM and hard FM services, and so IFM is another way of saying total facilities management (TFM).

An IFM contract may include:

1. Security
2. Front of house and reception
3. Cleaning
4. Mechanical & electrical maintenance

How Does Anabas Make IFM work?

As a provider of IFM services, we have honed our skills in IFM over the years, and across a breadth of both sectors and company sizes.

A Single Point of Contact

A single point of contact for all FM needs is key to success with IFM. This means that your facilities manager can correctly filter messages to the respective teams, organise work and prioritise issues, without missed communication.

At Anabas, we have Floor Captains. An Anabas Floor Captain wears many hats and touches all our service lines. They are trained as an expert in several areas and can balance them accordingly. These individuals make our IFM provision work and are the daily point of contact for our clients, building relationships directly to improve communication and resolving issues faster.

This also means that all reporting and progress checks come from one central area and can all be overseen by a person who knows you and your account, rather than multiple people who may be unfamiliar with what is going on.

Consistency of Service Provision

Facilities management is a unique part of business culture. It reaches into every aspect of working life yet is not often recognised as playing a part in business success. If a business’ premises are clean, orderly and represents their corporate image correctly, then a company may win business, support a good experience for employees or help ease the mind of customers and visitors.

Similarly, a front of house team that can efficiently handle and direct people to a well presented and organised meeting room helps to create an environment of focus and progress. Imagine an important visitor being eloquently shown to their meeting room, offered refreshments and provided with the assistance they need, rather than having to navigate your premise without help.

And, when your entire facilities management provision is covered by the same provider, communication across the board is clearer, allowing for quicker problem resolution.

Access to Additional Services Quickly

When a building’s lights fail, or there is a leak in the washrooms, a siloed facilities management approach would make this tricky to resolve, as multiple companies would need to coordinate to ensure that a resolution is planned.  

With an IFM approach, the facilities team would be readily available to attend to such reactive work with ease. IFM makes getting additional work done simple, without any need for coordination across existing FM services.

How to Decide if An Integrated Approach is Right for You

Integrated facilities management could be right for you if you have the following:

1. A business with offices in various locations
2. Multiple existing facilities management providers
3. The desire to work with one point of contact
4. A goal to reduce administration times when work is conducted on your building

For some, the idea of all eggs being in one basket can be intimidating, especially when looking at building management. At Anabas, our approach is to form a partnership with you, and create a solution that consistently delivers above your expectations.

Speak to us today about our integrated facilities management provision.