The main reasons behind IBM’s growing interest in facilities management are fear of being substituted and a compelling need to diversify in the face of hardware becoming a commodity. So says Ian Taylor, managing director of Thorn EMI’s UKP50m facilities management subsidiary, Datasolve UK. Taylor believes that the trend towards open systems means that manfacturers’ proprietary profits are declining, and they are having to look at service and maintenance to supplement falling revenues. Control of end-users, something never far from IBM’s mind, is also a factor. When Electronic Data Systems and Hitachi Ltd joined forces to establish Hitachi Data Systems, the manufacturing community in general, and IBM in particular, feared that Hitachi kit would supplant them and they would lose control through facilities management installations. It didn’t actually happen, and Taylor claims that EDS is installing more IBM equipment than ever before, but the principal issue was fear of substitution and that created the need to enter facilities management. However, Taylor believes that there are several reasons why manufacturers will find it a challenging arena, and not least of these is the culture. It is hard for companies to maintain more than one driving force, and while the manufacturer’s primary aim is to shift boxes, the facility manager has to provide a service and adapt to the ethos and environment of individual companies – Taylor acknowledges that one of his problems is to stop his staff going native. Secondly, there is the question of credibility.
Troublesome
How independent are manufacturers, and does anyone seriously believe that IBM would install DEC equipment even if it were the most suitable technology for a particular installation? Thirdly, absorbing existing staff and equipment can be troublesome, and it is not easy to take another company’s history on board which the facilities manager has to do. Eventually, it comes down to the specialist versus the generalist, and Taylor believes that facilities management is best left to those that know the complexities of the business and don’t have a vendor’s axe to grind. IBM should always be taken seriously, but facilities management has a long learning curve, and he rightly points out that IBM has toyed with and retreated from other activities before now. Regardless of IBM’s interest, the market for facilities management looks set to expand over the next few years. The US has led the field, and 10 year contracts aren’t unusual. In the UK, the public sector has shown more willingness to experiment with outsourcing, but Taylor says that many people are paranoid about loss of control and they need reference points before accepting that change isn’t a four-letter word. Datasolve has around 50 clients in manufacturing, finance, services and the public sector, and says that the list increases by one a month. The three types of contract are virtual computer services, host services and total facilities management. The first is essentially a type of bureau service for a number of clients, the second involves managing a system that the client has paid for but runs from a Datasolve centre, and the third means acquiring a client’s data centre and employing the existing staff. Taylor says that while the third category is experiencing most growth, it is not necessarily the most profitable type of operation since responsibilities range from technology to providing career structures. Datasolve is predominantly UK-based, but Taylor says he will follow clients into Europe and leverage the TECS and Software Sciences divisions of Thorn EMI for additional support. Remote servicing is technically possible, but he believes that the facilities management culture demands that the service provider be physically close to the client, and he foresees a continental operation within a few years. – Janice McGinn
