IT in Facility Management

GUEST EDITOR(S):

Brian Atkin, Senior Visiting Fellow
Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki, Finland
Visiting Professor, University of Reading, UK

Roine Leiringer, Research Fellow
Innovative Construction Research Centre
School of Construction Management and Engineering
University of Reading, UK

SUMMARY:

Facility management represents one of the fastest growing sectors in real estate and construction and has become an important subject for research and academic study. There is now a robust body of knowledge upon which to develop and test new theories and practice, with research aimed at a wide range of issues affecting our use and enjoyment of facilities. Facility management is, amongst other things, about providing support to an organisation’s core business. To benefit most, organisations need to understand that they must be informed clients in managing their facilities. This requires a focus on service delivery to provide customer satisfaction and best value in an environment in which risks abound. Facility management combines many ‘hard’ issues covering the physical aspects and condition of the built environment, but there also ‘soft’ issues relating to people and their well-being. The definition of facility management provided by the International Facility Management Association (www.ifma.org) is useful in setting the context for this special issue: ‘a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology’.

This special issue provides an opportunity for sharing experiences, knowledge and ideas in IT applied to facility management. Of particular importance is the need for clarity in communicating the research problem, method and findings: case studies are particularly welcome. When published, the issue is expected to provide researchers and practitioners with the means to explore the application of the findings and to identify fruitful areas for further study, research and development.

The objectives of this special issue include, but are not limited to, the following.
To map out the field of facility management enabling its relationship with other disciplines and relevant fields of study to be better understood.
To define the information needs and decision support required to enable facility managers to reach optimal choices affecting the facilities under their control.
To reveal the extent to which various advanced forms of IT can help building owners and users achieve optimal use of their facilities.
To provide reliable evidence of how the IT-enabled workplace can contribute both to end-user satisfaction and worker productivity.
To demonstrate the causal linkages between a well-found strategy for facility management and the delivery of best-in-class services to customers and end-users.
To reveal shortcomings in current thinking and practice that might prove detrimental to the maximum utilisation and enjoyment of facilities.
ITcon invites abstracts, followed by full draft papers, from authors wishing to contribute to this special issue. The papers should be structured in a way that expresses clearly the background, objectives, methodology and results of the work. Authors are highly encouraged to apply the ITcon formatting rules to the draft paper.
If in doubt about the relevance of a proposed paper for this issue, please do not hesitate to contact the Guest Editor.
Schedule
Expression of interest (one page abstract): 1 September 2005
Notification of abstract acceptance and invitation to full papers: 1 October 2005
Submission of full paper: 14 January 2006
Notification of full paper acceptance with reviewers' comments: 12 March 2006
Submission of final papers in electronic format: 19 April 2006
Publication of the papers on the ITcon web-site: 17 May 2006
Contact: Professor Brian Atkin, itcon@atkin.info

		`IT in Facility Management`
ITcon special issues		User: _anon_464078

Current volume All volumes Special issues Search papers Author index About ITcon Journal Scope Editors Editorial board Reader info. Author info. Submissions Login		IT in Facility Management *GUEST EDITOR(S):* Brian Atkin, Senior Visiting Fellow Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki, Finland Visiting Professor, University of Reading, UK Roine Leiringer, Research Fellow Innovative Construction Research Centre School of Construction Management and Engineering University of Reading, UK SUMMARY: Facility management represents one of the fastest growing sectors in real estate and construction and has become an important subject for research and academic study. There is now a robust body of knowledge upon which to develop and test new theories and practice, with research aimed at a wide range of issues affecting our use and enjoyment of facilities. Facility management is, amongst other things, about providing support to an organisation’s core business. To benefit most, organisations need to understand that they must be informed clients in managing their facilities. This requires a focus on service delivery to provide customer satisfaction and best value in an environment in which risks abound. Facility management combines many ‘hard’ issues covering the physical aspects and condition of the built environment, but there also ‘soft’ issues relating to people and their well-being. The definition of facility management provided by the International Facility Management Association (www.ifma.org) is useful in setting the context for this special issue: ‘a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology’. This special issue provides an opportunity for sharing experiences, knowledge and ideas in IT applied to facility management. Of particular importance is the need for clarity in communicating the research problem, method and findings: case studies are particularly welcome. When published, the issue is expected to provide researchers and practitioners with the means to explore the application of the findings and to identify fruitful areas for further study, research and development. The objectives of this special issue include, but are not limited to, the following. To map out the field of facility management enabling its relationship with other disciplines and relevant fields of study to be better understood. To define the information needs and decision support required to enable facility managers to reach optimal choices affecting the facilities under their control. To reveal the extent to which various advanced forms of IT can help building owners and users achieve optimal use of their facilities. To provide reliable evidence of how the IT-enabled workplace can contribute both to end-user satisfaction and worker productivity. To demonstrate the causal linkages between a well-found strategy for facility management and the delivery of best-in-class services to customers and end-users. To reveal shortcomings in current thinking and practice that might prove detrimental to the maximum utilisation and enjoyment of facilities. ITcon invites abstracts, followed by full draft papers, from authors wishing to contribute to this special issue. The papers should be structured in a way that expresses clearly the background, objectives, methodology and results of the work. Authors are highly encouraged to apply the ITcon formatting rules to the draft paper. If in doubt about the relevance of a proposed paper for this issue, please do not hesitate to contact the Guest Editor. Schedule Expression of interest (one page abstract): 1 September 2005 Notification of abstract acceptance and invitation to full papers: 1 October 2005 Submission of full paper: 14 January 2006 Notification of full paper acceptance with reviewers' comments: 12 March 2006 Submission of final papers in electronic format: 19 April 2006 Publication of the papers on the ITcon web-site: 17 May 2006 Contact: Professor Brian Atkin, itcon@atkin.info
Journal is partially sponsored by Slovenian Research Agency Editor-in-chief: Robert Amor ISSN 1874-4753
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