Open-access content
Tuesday 27th October 2009
How property and facilities management together has enhanced asset values with improved tenant retention.
By Kevin Stanley
29 October 2009
Investing in quality
How bringing property and facilities management together has enhanced asset values with improved tenant retention
NB Entrust manages over 40 million square feet of commercial, retail and industrial property, with a combined service charge expenditure of around £80m within 800 buildings across the UK accommodating 11,000 tenant organisations managed according to the Rics Codes of Practice.
NB Entrust directly employs 240 people, complemented by a wider team of 750 specialists employed through Service Partners Ð dedicated to, and forming, an integral part of the organisation and business.
In just over two years, NB Entrust has re-structured its business, fundamentally changing the way that it manages and delivers services to clients, properties and occupiers. It has achieved this through geographical portfolio management aligned to clients and a major re-procurement exercise, decreasing its contractor base from over 3,500 to just over 350, as well as forming service partnerships with key industry players, such as Mitie, Dalkia and Shield achieving overall average savings of c.20 per cent.
By introducing Concept 500 as a CAFM tool through Asset OnCall, NB Entrust launched a 24/7 Customer Support Centre which now manages 35,000 calls per annum and processes nearly 20,000 tasks each year.
NB Entrust has introduced KPIs designed to provide objectives and tangible measurement criteria aligned with the principal interests of its FM business in the property world. The average KPI score for all regions across all services areas is currently 97 per cent.
Best practice compliance protocols ensure statutory legislation is met and NB Entrust has been awarded the prestigious Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) Silver Award for Occupational Safety Management.
As a young and growing company we continue to adapt our Business Strategy to reflect the changes in the market created by the recession and will continue to evolve and expand to meet the demands of our clients and tenants says divisional director, Belinda Fordham.
NB Entrust believe that the value that a professional FM team can add has Long been appreciated by the corporate and occupier sectors and that the work that it has done, and continues to do, enhances the reputation of professional facilities management in a sector of the property industry that has hitherto largely ignored it, or at best seen it as an expensive necessary evil. NB Entrust has proved that far from being an expense its services can add value to a property asset and provide tenants with savings from calling up its significant buying power.
We have striven for and achieved the highest standards of Health and Safety and compliance management and with our colleagues in NB Real Estate we are introducing the investor sector to the highest standards of environmental management and Corporate Social Responsibility says Fordham.
For this award the judges were seeking the best FM team in the UK providing services to property investors. The largest group of properties in the UK are multi-tenanted portfolios owned by the leading financial institutions as investors. Service standards must achieve a difficult balance between tenant retention rates, service charge optimisation and long-term asset value maintenance. As average lease lengths fall, new challenges are emerging in which service satisfaction and customer care are key deliverables for FM teams.
In-house teams, outsourced service provider teams and hybrids of both are involved in delivering wide-ranging services under FM service level agreements and a diverse range of commercial contracts.
The key criterion for award entry was that the ultimate client organisation is a property owner/investor.
The judge's chair of category, Concerto Consulting director Marilyn Standley: We were particularly impressed with the way NB entrust managed numerous innovative initiatives over the past 12 months in a simplistic and successful way, resulting in a successful outcome for the customer and the NB Entrust team. NB Entrust has achieved a great deal in just two years of operation in delivering professional and integrated FM services and holds promise of lots more to come