Let’s consider a scenario where you have been bidding for the FM contract for a particular facility, you have all the necessary details on the scope of services, KPIs, and work plan provided to the client or property owner. Then the news comes out that you have finally won the contract and you will be managing the facility for the next 3 years. 

What will be the first thing you would do? You have been competing with other FMs to reduce the cost of services which makes it obvious that it has to be related to budget planning. How much will you invest in O&M to get the committed performance? Or how will you ensure your investment is getting paid off?

Well, as far as budgeting for digital Initiatives which takes care of O&M is concerned there are a couple of ways one should plan investment activities for successful returns. In this article, we are going to highlight those 5 practices for effective budget planning.

1. Stage investments

Once you assess the entire facility you would get to know that there are a few add-ons you would be needed to get the complete picture of asset operations. It could be installing more sensors, communication devices, or retrofitting existing ones.

List down all the changes you would like to make to the existing asset data management systems and divide the investment into 2-3 stages based on the purpose it solves or budget it requires. Now correlate it with your other digital initiatives and ensure that every round of investment has maximum benefits before going to the next one. 

2. Application / Platform or both

It all starts with how you are planning to manage your asset and operations data. In most of the facilities, there are different ways to maintain process or asset data. for example, there will be different applications to manage asset maintenance, inventory for the spare parts, work order or help desk. 

Also, each facility has Its own challenges and targets when it comes to asset performance. Hence it’s up to the facility manager whether he wants to go with a point solution that focuses on one or two use cases only or the integrated platform which can take care of managing raw data and providing insights via multiple modules.

Of course, both the options have their flexibility, scalability and open integration difference and the FM should consider them all before budgeting for the same.     

3. Always go for Pilots 

The building analytics market is growing tremendously day by day. Numerous innovative solutions are entering the market. Some of them are backed by mighty legacy players and the rest are bootstrapped startups. Being the nature of innovation, finding a proven solution in a niche area could be difficult as most of the solutions wouldn’t get that first leap of faith from the client. 

This is more of a change management decision rather than the functional one. It’s highly recommended that every FM team should have allocated resources and planning to engage with startups on various initiatives. Starting with the small-scale APM pilot project gives the needed visibility and confidence for the application to scale in the future.  

If you remember, We have already addressed our thoughts in a two-part series on how to plan and execute APM trials.

4. Allocating Workforce upskilling

Any Digital transformation initiative would require upskilling of the staff without which it is a complete futile initiative. It’s not just technical skills but also people management that plays an important role here. The workforce should be well equipped with the knowledge and benefits of the new application that has been implemented hence the training or upskilling cost should be factored in while planning for the yearly budget. 

5. Data migration costs

This is one of the highly ignored areas of planning which often surprises with hefty cost components. Let’s consider you have been using a proprietary BMS dashboard to monitor your HVAC network. Now you come across an insightful application that does a lot more than your proprietary dashboard and now you would want to transfer your raw data to the new application want to build the data connector. Since your old BMS did not come up with a data-sharing feature or cost an additional license to transfer the raw data then it can be a big headache and hindrance to the process. 

This could be a big problem if the data is not being centralized and stored in different applications. If the data transfer is not cautiously monitored then there could be a loss of data in the process, hence all care to be taken. 

Budgeting for the FM’s digital applications is a multi-layer process. There are operational, technical, and behavioral components that influence the decision-making process. It is important to check whether every investment/budget-related decision aligns with the long-term digital transformation goals and adds value to the O&M team’s efforts.

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