As the new decade begins, it is interesting to take stock of the current state of the FM industry and understand the key trends and movements that have defined it. During the development of FM over the past 40 or so - from its early inception to its present state, there are some interesting shifts which have had a fundamental impact on the industry and defined it to what it is today. These shifts also give FMs an indication of where the industry is heading.

The beginning of an industry

FM was born out of a technical engineering mindset and a wish to optimize and professionalize all the aspects of effectively managing the asset – technical maintenance, M&E, HVAC, energy, janitorial, security and so forth. Typically, most of these disciplines were performed by in-house staff. As the decade progressed, more services were, outsourced providing a market for companies who became responsible for establishing and growing the FM industry.

As the industry grew and FM outsourcing became more successful, more large service companies entered the market in the mid 1990s. The upside to this development was the industry adopted a stronger service management approach, where hospitality, design thinking, and service quality influenced how FM was managed and delivered. The self-delivery model began influencing the market as a true FM integration approach and a real alternative to the managing Agent model.

In the mid-2000s another new change, Corporate Real Estate, began influencing the FM market. The large CRE companies were at the periphery of FM but were largely concentrated on brokerage, developments and capital projects. They realized FM offered a good strategic fit to their existing business and provided a more stable income stream that was less influenced by macroeconomic fluctuations.

The workplace revolution

Over the past decade there has been another dramatic shift in the way FMs do business, which is unlike anything since the Industrial Revolution. This community-driven social phenomenon is happening on a global scale at an increased pace and is changing the way people work and interact with each other at the workplace.

A key driver to this development is the availability and access to prime real estate to build and foster a community based on shared experiences and the freedom to flourish creatively. Using the workplace to allow a team to work together on projects with and for people who are like-minded and have similar interests and goals.

This development is breaking down traditional organizational barriers as HR, IT, CRE, finance and FM need to work closely together to develop new workplace strategies, enabling a different workplace experience. This experience should be centered around allowing corporate culture to flourish while permitting employees to become more engaged, productive and flexible in the way they work. Co-working is part of this trend and should be a complementary element in the workplace strategy toolbox.

Corporate teams need to see the workplace experience and co-working as an integral part of FM as it is a key focal point of organizations' ability attract and retain talent and future-proofing their business. No doubt that in terms of working with workplace experience technology, is becoming the enabler. The enormous growth from the tech sector has been driven by customer choice.

The next big thing

Traditionally the FM industry has been a late bloomer when it comes to IT and it is still waiting for the big breakthrough in terms of companies disrupting the market with new technology solutions, robots and platform systems. There have been a lot of developments within CAFM, IWMS, BIM and lately within sensor technology and smart buildings but it is still early days, relatively expensive and has not yet been widely adopted.

The property technology market, or PropTech, is booming and will continue to grow. So much technology is being offered to the market both as part of a growing start-up community but also from established companies. The market is still somewhat fragmented where standards, protocols, and data-requirements (especially around GDPR) need to be more firmly established. The opportunity for PropTech developments is driven not only by the sheer size of the market but also by the historical limited amount of innovation within the FM industry.

PropTech companies will capture a large part of the market over the next decade. The next big FM change will come from companies that introduce solutions to digitize workflows and elevate transparency and choice for every stakeholder in the workplace ecosystem. There is every indication that technological progress will continue to shape the future of this industry.

So, as technology will drive change, so will the continued urbanization of the society and the drive towards smart cities – which is closely linked with the technology development and where FM plays an important role

These new smart cities are involving communities and universities alongside big companies and government authorities. This has helped shift the focus of smart-city projects onto the needs of residents. Successful smart-city projects blend disciplines, bringing together experts in behavioral change alongside specialists in artificial intelligence and IT. Interdisciplinary work can be messy and difficult, it can take longer, and it may not always work—but when it does, it can bring real benefits to the entire society.

If FMs have the courage to act on this insight, they are uniquely positioned to drive the change, especially within workplace experience, space-as-a-service and PropTech. It is important not to be bystanders and observe when industry shifts happen. instead, FMs need to embrace the opportunities it provides and help their organizations adapt to the change to allow them to become early adopters and reap the benefits, that industry professionals are able to provide.