16 October 2018 | Martin Read
The BIFM Awards celebrated the industry's finest, devoting its accolades across three core categories: People, Innovation and Impact.
This year's winners in the people category spanned the full panoply of experience, from an individual involved in the very beginnings of FM in the UK to a newcomer recognised for his use of IT to further service provision in his organisation.
Lifetime Achievement
Perhaps the most entrepreneurial facilities management professional of his pioneering generation, Oliver Jones sports the fullest and most vibrant of CVs, one detailing a life at the cutting edge of FM provision.
In a career spanning four decades, Oliver has demonstrated an unerring ability to identify and make the most of emerging new forms of service, helping literally to shape the outsourced FM service sector we see today. Yesterday saw a circle completed as Oliver, a former head of judges for the BIFM Awards, became the recipient of one. His is an instantly identifiable figure on the FM scene both at home and abroad. Now principally involved in China, Oliver is currently chief executive of Chayora, which is developing data centres across the Far East.
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Newcomer of the Year
Category winner Paul McNally has only been working in facilities management for three years - but he's had quite the impact, and one clearly recognised by the awards' judges. An FM with VINCI Facilities, Paul has completed a BIFM-accredited BSc (Hons) degree in Facilities Management - while also developing two tech-based innovations for his company.
One is a work order monitoring system that combines Maximo with Excel to provide customisable, real-time, fully automated, interactive displays with visual and auditory alerts. (Hailed as an industry-first and an "innovative step-change" by some industry leaders.) The second is a cloud-based dashboard designed to provide senior leaders within VINCI with a complete real-time overview of contracts.
He's now developing VR and AI-based solutions with the aim of transforming standards through predictive maintenance and remote monitoring.
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Manager of the Year
Newly crowned Manager of the Year Laura Birnbaum, deputy director at the HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), has been recognised for two years of intense work in reimagining and recasting the FM function in her organisation. Addressing a 'historic disconnect' between FM, operations and senior stakeholders, the judges saw that Laura has made a significant impact by demonstrating strong leadership and excellence in management.
It's work that has included introducing specialist sector workstream leads instead of regional ones; the introduction of a customer engagement scheme to improve the speed of delivery for low-value, high-frequency works across the estate; and the introduction of IT tools to improve the FM team's ability to manage its budget and estate in conjunction with their finance colleagues.
"A clear stand-out winner," said the judges. "She has exceptional business influence and engagement skills and has used these to lead a huge transition in FM services - resulting in a step change in understanding, service delivery and perceived value of FM within the HMRC."
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Leader of the Year
"A statesman with gravitas" was the judges' remark in support of their decision to choose Bouygues FM chief executive David Carr. His triumph in the category results from a long-established track record of rising to the challenges involved with running a high-profile service provider.
Beyond this, judges were impressed by David's involvement with the Business Services Association, bringing key voices from both the public and private sectors together for the benefit of advancing the wider profession.
David's commitment to the people within and outside his own organisation also speaks to his leadership credentials. As well as working to ensure the best of client-provider relationships up and down the supply chain, David also manages Bouygues' graduate and apprenticeship schemes.
The judges concluded that David is "dedicated to the industry with an in-depth understanding of FM; a dedicated professional who cares about the sector. An outstanding winner."
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Team of the Year
The partnership between Kier and Cardiff Council won in this coveted category, the result of what judges observed as the particularly close harmony and collaboration evident between provider and client teams, including "numerous instances of working together, often in adverse conditions, against the clock to resolve important issues for the community in Cardiff'.
Kier has provided technical service FM across Cardiff Council's diverse estate of more than 750 buildings for the past five years, increasing the amount of project work conducted and migrating a considerable amount of its service provision to a self-delivery model during that time. Among innovations on the contract is a greater degree of self-delivery aimed at optimising maintenance costs, as well as ensuring a better quality of service and the highest levels of customer satisfaction.
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