Optimise your physical work environment.
Property Services Engineering is multi-disciplinary in nature. By definition, it is ‘applied science for the purpose of realising ideal and cohesive building systems including sustainability, environmental control and safety requirements to support the wellbeing of the occupants of the building’.
Property Services Engineering is concerned with aspects of the built environment, including the physical building infrastructure, electrical services, water and waste services, air conditioning and mechanical ventilation, gas services, cleaning & hygiene, fire safety engineering, security technology & services, pest control, landscaping, utility services management, data and communications, access control, vertical transportation, energy management, and so on.
The management of property services is therefore the process of controlling and upholding the built environment to improve and preserve the operating environment for users and occupants, to ultimately cultivate the value of the asset.
Managing property services has typically not been a high priority for businesses. Let’s be honest – repairs & maintenance is a grudge purchase. The overhead is generally seen as the uncontrollable, take-it-or-leave-it cost of doing business, and most managers just want assurance that there will be no business interruption.
Operating costs, including the utility and property services bills, have been consistently increasing faster than inflation and are forecasted to continue to do so. Stakeholders in your business increasingly prefer to work with companies that choose cost-effective and sustainable practices. Shareholders and other investors are looking for ways to protect profits from these increasing and overwhelming overheads.
It is therefore essential to have a strategic approach to Property Services on how to manage each aspect in the built environment. The strategy must set out the specific processes and policies on how to deal with, among other:
- legacy systems installed in the property,
- alignment of sustainability activities with other services,
- moving towards Smart buildings,
- management and maintenance programs,
- management of service providers
- utilities,
- and the specification of technologies,