Today's economic impact has greatly effected how commercial real estate facilities are being operated. Many organizations looked at what their core competencies are and implemented changes to their operating and people infrastructure as well as their service delivery methods. This change has resulted in a significant increase in outsourcing their facility engineering operations. Many are moving to integrated partnerships with third party providers like Able Engineering Services. As with any company, deciding whether this is the right decision will require specific review of your existing business challenges, customers, expertise, and goals. The below article will lay a framework of the values associated with outsourcing your engineering and operations service to work closely with your management team.
Managing engineering and maintenance operations today requires a highly sophisticated and successful service delivery method of minimizing the many operational expenses, issues, and job responsibilities associated with the building maintenance and the employment process.
The method of using a third party provider guarantees cost-effective management of this portion of a client's work force, while alleviating frustrations of permanent hiring or long-term commitments.
Partnering with a provider, an organization will be able to focus on their core business issues, while having operational details assumed by an expert in the engineering field. Outsourcing this function is an organization-shaping management tool, which can lead to a clear more effective focus on meeting the customer's needs. For many companies, the single most compelling reason for outsourcing is that service issues are siphoning off huge amounts of management's time, attention and expense. Often, the resolution of facility issues is wedged in middle management's 'decision gridlock.' This creates financial and opportunity costs that affect the organization's future.
Providers bring extensive industry-wide capabilities to meeting the needs of their customers, by the very nature of their specialization, outsourcing engineering departments.
This is the result of extensive investments in technology, methodologies, and networking personnel. The capabilities include specialized industry expertise gained through working with many clients facing similar challenges. This expertise may be translated in skills, people, processes, or technologies uniquely capable of meeting these needs.
Partnering with a facility engineering provider can offer the following advantages:
*Access to new technology, tools, and techniques that an organization may not currently possess
*Avoidance of the cost of chasing technology and the training costs associated with each new generation.
*Reducing the risk and liability associated with managing a technical operation.
*Enhanced career opportunities for personnel who transition to the outsourcing provider.
*Enable the client's staff to concentrate on building new and improved capabilities that meet business requirements rather than managing current engineering operations.
*Providers have more structured methodologies, procedures and documentation, such as OSHA required safety programs, central plant operations, energy best practices, and preventative maintenance procedures, joined with an experienced leadership staff.
*Competitive advantage through expanded skills and job site training, recruitment programs, and operating expense savings programs.
*A better price/value mix on investments, service agreements, energy operations, and procurement providers.
*The provider's primary business is delivering industry-wide support to similar clients and therefore creating an operating scale which cannot be achieved with individual locations and operations allowing these direct cost savings and benefits to be passed back to the client.
*Access to updated green and LEED energy platforms.
*Access to industry knowledge, trade groups, and building system expertise associated with building operations, bidding service contracts, asset preservations, and managing MEP capital project programs.
*On-site staff to support the client's operations.
*Uniquely skilled engineering managers and emergency support personal.
Using a provider will create a by-product of another powerful management tool—business process re-engineering. It allows an organization to immediately realize the anticipated benefits of re-engineering by having an outside organization that is already aligned to industry wide standards.

Clients have realized dramatic improvements in critical measures of performance such as, cost savings, expense reduction, energy savings, turnover, product quality, service, and speed.

There are tremendous risks associated with the investments an organization makes. Markets, competition, government regulations, financial conditions, and technologies all change dramatically.

Outsourcing is a vehicle for sharing these risks across various companies. Providers have made investments not on behalf of just one company, but on behalf of their many clients. By sharing these investments, the risks born by any single company are significantly reduced.

Every organization has limits on available resources. Most often, the resources redirected through outsourcing are people resources. By outsourcing non-core functions, the organization can redirect these people, or at least the staff slots they represent, onto greater value-adding activities. People, whose energies are currently focused internally, can now be focused externally on the customer.

Able Engineering Services brings extensive experience in many market segments such as office buildings, hotels, technology campuses, retail and medical facilities, life science industry, college and universities, government facilities, and sports and entertainment arenas. Outsourcing engineering is our primary business which allows the organization to concentrate on its core business. One of our many objectives is to maximize operational efficiency, while balancing the need for environmental comfort, cost effectiveness, convenience, and safety.

We invite you to visit our web site at www.ableserve.com, or contact John Rey, Vice President-East Coast at Able Engineering Services 1-866-650-9839.
Paul Saccone is president of Able Engineering Services, Chicago, Ill