Introduction

Facilities management (FM) employees who manage inventory, conduct inspections and undertake maintenance of critical assets are out wherever those assets may be located. These operatives are not performing work at their desks, but are out at the “point of performance” taking care of critical assets and materials. Ideally, mobile workers need to interact with FM software at the point of performance, which is typically not in the vicinity of a computer workstation. Organisations often rely on paper-based procedures to get information from FM software, record information on the form and then physically re-enter the information gathered into the system when back at their computer workstation. The weaknesses of manual, paper-based procedures in relation to the management of facilities were identified by MRO Software Inc. (2002) as:

• Higher than necessary amount of non-productive time due to time spent on paperwork and data re-entry.
• Lower asset reliability due to maintenance backlogs and lack of information at the point-of-performance.
• Less than optimal decisions made due to lack of complete, accurate, and timely information.
• Lack of definite accountability of critical equipment and material.
• Inability to track compliance with government, environmental, and safety regulations.

Accessing information through freely available Web browsers is now ubiquitous both at home and in business. Gabriel (2003) suggests that to improve workflow and business processes, and to eliminate the amount of redundant data, more users need to be involved with business information. The technology available today offers the opportunity to incorporate blue-collar workers, such as FM operatives, working at their point of performance, to actively contribute to the organisation’s knowledge base. Up to now, these workers would most likely have no facility to directly contribute to, or interrogate, an organisation’s systems that hold vital information about its assets and facilities.

Improvements and innovation in hardware, software and network infrastructure is such that information such as computer-aided design (CAD) drawing and health and safety (H&S) information can be taken from the design and construct phases of projects and used directly in systems used for the management of facilities. However, previous research undertaken by McAndrew et al (2004) identified that collaborative tools currently being used in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry almost exclusively focus on the design and construction phases of construction projects. More often than not there is only limited, or sometimes no provision made for continuance into the operations and maintenance phase which is overseen by facilities managers. This delivers a fairly poor return on investment for the client, especially as they are typically the party that covers the cost of the implementation of collaborative tools up to handover. It therefore makes sense to suggest that clients should aim to utilise to a greater extent the recognised benefits of application service provider (ASP) systems.

By the nature of their work, FM operatives are mobile workers. This presents opportunities powered by wireless network technologies that would not be feasible by the implementation of hard-wired systems alone.