IMPACT OF IT ON FACILITIES MANAGEMENT, THE

Abstract

Facility management plays an important role in the property industry in Singapore. Apart from the physical aspects of a property's upkeep, facility management is also about people management. Meeting the demands of clients becomes very important with their increasing expectations. Moreover, stiff competition arising from within the industry to outdo each other in capability and efficiency, leads to many property and facility management firms eventually turning to Information Technology (IT) as an avenue to enhance their job scope. This study researches into the feasibility of introducing IT to enhance the present job scope involved in facility management. Thus objectives of this study include the examination of changes and impacts that IT can have on facility management, the analysis on the feasibility and usefulness of IT in facility management and also to ascertain residents' and tenants' interest in, and preference for an e-enabled facility management process. A review of related past works was conducted. A case study of a facility management firm that implemented IT in its job scope was done to illustrate the entire process of an eenabled facility management process. This was followed by an analysis of the survey findings from the randomly selected respondents occupying commercial and residential estates managed by the firm in the case study. The final chapter of this research paper led to a conclusion that was in answer to the objectives set out earlier in the paper. The main findings of this study showed that tenants who participated in the questionnaire found the computer and the Internet important in their everyday lives. This led to them having favourable views toward the implementation of IT in the Facility Management of their estates. This was evidenced in their sentiments as the total number of people who felt that efficiency in the booking of facilities in their estates, attendance to complaints and speed of dissemination of information have increased after the IT implementation, as compared to before. In all, the majority of the tenants who participated in the questionnaire found the new IT enabled Facility management process appealing.