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The purpose of this paper is to present a process capability assessment tool to identify process maturity levels in the “built environment management” disciplines in various industries.

The researchers investigated and evaluated current FM/RE management models and analysis tools and developed an assessment tool to measure Facility Management (FM) capability of an organization. The “Built Environment Management Model” (BEM2) is a process framework for FM/RE, which is extended into the “Built Environment Management Maturity Model” (BEM3) to measure FM/RE maturity. Using the tool, the research team analyzed the FM capability of more than 50 organizations with major real estate portfolios in the USA and Europe (primarily Austria).

BEM2 and BEM3 provide a simple, yet comprehensive tool set for the FM/RE industries. The resulting capability profiles provide a high‐level overview of current practices in FM. Further, the capability profiles allow organizations to benchmark their FM capability against peer groups and industry leaders.

The two models are currently limited to a description of processes and are as such explaining the sequence and maturity of FM/RE business processes. The do not yet address the skill sets and capabilities required to effectively perform these functions. The integration with existing models in organisational and project management can also be further explored.

The capability profiles allow organizations to benchmark their FM capability against peer groups and industry leaders. The findings will help to further professionalize FM functions to raise the efficiency of organizational processes.

The proposed contributes to the discussion on standardization and taxonomy development in the FM/RE discipline. It draws principles from related management models and applies them successfully in FM and real estate management.

The purpose of this paper is the introduction of a best practice tool in order to analyze operating costs in the health care sector. This study presents the findings by using a new innovative benchmarking tool to analyze operating costs, identify cost drivers and highlight the potential savings.

The paper focuses on a survey of operating and maintenance costs from 18 residential homes in Tyrol, Austria. In order to determine the volume and to prioritize the cost drivers, CAREB (Computer‐aided Real Estate Benchmarking) software was used, which was developed by the Institute of Real Estate Benchmarking at the University of Applied Sciences KufsteinTirol, Austria. Statistic analysis was conducted to investigate savings potential, determine the best case of the sample and submit recommendations to the decision‐makers.

Compared to conventional benchmarking methods, this model allows a holistic view on the key factors of cost drivers and reveals the savings potential for each dimension. The key figure which reveals the largest potential gives an indication of whether a residential home has general problems with efficiency (high costs per bed), with occupancy (costs per resident) or with the space efficiency (costs per average space consumption). Furthermore, the study reveals the immense savings potential in the costs of various services.

The paper identifies the volume and structure of the cost drivers of operating costs of buildings in the health care sector by using a new innovative benchmarking tool. This survey is based on the operating costs. Other running costs such as costs for health care personnel as well as quality indicators are not considered in this survey.

The results should help to establish cost benchmarking increasingly and develop it as a strategic planning tool in order to support management in the health care sector in the decision‐making process.

The paper presents a new measuring method which allows a holistic view of the influencing cost factors to investigate weak points in cost efficiency for the health care sector.

This paper aims to present an industry‐neutral classification model for the management functions of the organizational built environment: the Built Environment Management Model (BEM2). The model is intended to highlight the strategic value of the built environment management functions and to assess how efficiently these functions interact and generate strategic value.

The research team reviewed a wide range of existing management models for facilities management and real estate (FM/RE) and related management disciplines. In a multi‐year research project, the team refined the descriptive model in an iterative validation process between researchers and practitioners.

The BEM2 framework is an inventory of FM/RE functions. The model highlights the relationships between the four major key process areas and shows the strategic value stream of each particular FM/RE function. BEM2 has proven effective in helping organizations understand the scope and value of the FM/RE functions. The tool can be used to identify organizational gaps and overlaps between divisions, and it can help to facilitate discussions between organizational entities of how responsibilities should be most effectively aligned. It can also serve as an effective model to support the implementation of an integrated building information model (BIM).

The model is currently limited to a description of processes and is as such explaining the sequence of FM/RE business processes. It does not yet address the skill sets required to effectively perform these functions.

The BEM2 framework was successfully used as the business model for the major restructuring process of a large real estate organization. It has also proven to be valuable as a way to introduce students to the subject of FM/RE. The adoption of BEM2 can help to further clarify the standards of the FM/RE profession and to increase the maturity of its business functions.

The BEM2 model transfers principles from related management fields and assembles them into a comprehensive process model for the FM/RE model. It contributes to the discussion on standardization and taxonomy development in the FM/RE discipline.

After salary and wages, facility and real estate expenditure are the largest cost items in the semi‐public sector. Especially, for long‐term care facilities, there is high‐saving potential from more efficient and effective use of property. The main purpose of this paper is an exploratory research study in order to analyse the operating costs of long‐term care facilities.

The survey is based on empirical data questionnaires, data generation and semi‐structured interviews at 18 long‐term care facilities in Tyrol, Austria carried out during Summer 2007. In order to determine the volume and to prioritize the cost drivers computer‐aided real‐estate benchmarking software was used, which was developed by the Institute of Real Estate Benchmarking at the University of Applied Sciences KufsteinTirol, Austria. Statistic analyses were conducted to investigate saving potential, determine the best case of the sample and submit recommendations to the decision makers.

The main findings are the investigation and visualization of saving potential of long‐term care facilities and identification of the volume and structure of the cost drivers and illuminated current best practices in effective building upkeep and operating costs of long‐term care facilities in Tyrol. Furthermore, the study reveals the immense saving potential in the costs of various services.

This survey is based on the operating costs of long‐term care facilities. Other running costs such as costs for healthcare personnel as well as quality indicators are not considered in this survey. Further research activities will be necessary regarding the identification of these cost drivers by the application of regression models.

Professional property management of long‐term care facilities will be shown to decrease the cost share in the healthcare sector. The results should help to establish cost benchmarking increasingly and develop it as a strategic planning tool in order to support management in the healthcare sector in the decision‐making process.

The paper presents a new measuring method, which allows an holistic view of three influencing factors, namely the amount of beds, occupancy and the space consumption, to investigate weak points in cost efficiency on one chart.

The purpose of this research is a comparative analysis of computer‐aided facilties management (CAFM) implementation projects and procedures in the German‐speaking countries in order to derive appropriate implementation models. Since the 1990s CAFM has provided efficient information technology (IT) tools for mapping, evaluation and control of facility management (FM) structures and processes. Despite the multitude of vendors and users in different branches, there is still a lack of transparent and systematic case studies regarding successful CAFM implementations and uncertainty about the market situation.

In the survey a systematic approach (structured interviews) was used allowing a comparison between cases in different application fields. Because of the geographical location of the project partners, the entire German speaking area could be covered and thus the results of the analysis reflect the state of the art of CAFM implementation and use in the German‐speaking area. Besides the case study the general market situation was investigated by interviewing relevant market players like associations, end‐users, consultants, implementation partners and vendors.

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the CAFM sectors in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It presents current trends, technologies, obstacles, challenges, and provides recommendations for a successful CAFM implementation. A systematic analysis of successful projects turned out to provide valuable assistance to both users and software developers resulting in an implementation model.

Although in use for more than 15 years, CAFM still is a relatively new and challenging technological approach and thus by far not all projects can be considered a success. The survey comprises about 20 cases both from the private and public sector. It does not cover all application fields but the relevant sectors and market leading software implementations are considered. In this way, the survey is able to show typical strengths and weaknesses of current CAFM projects.

The findings of the current survey provides valuable guidelines and assistance to FM organizations that start to implement CAFM or need to improve the performance and outcome of their existing projects. Potential users are encouraged to implement their projects in a systematic manner by following the recommendations derived from the survey.

There has been no previous systematic research on IT implementation processes in FM.

Building information modelling (BIM) creates a golden thread of information of the facility, which proves useful to those with the malicious intent of breaching the security of the facility. A cyber-attack incurs adverse implications for the facility and its managing organisation. Hence, this paper aims to unravel the impact of a cybersecurity breach, by developing a BIM-facilities management (FM) cybersecurity-risk-matrix to portray what a cybersecurity attack means for various working areas of FM.

This study commenced with exploring cybersecurity within various stages of a BIM project. This showcased a heightened risk of cybersecurity at the post-occupancy phase. Hence, thematic analysis of two main domains of BIM-FM and cybersecurity in the built environment led to the development of a matrix that illustrated the impact of a cybersecurity attack on a BIM-FM organisation.

Findings show that the existing approaches to the management of cybersecurity in BIM-FM are technology-dependent, resulting in an over-reliance on technology and a lack of cybersecurity awareness of aspects related to people and processes. This study sheds light on the criticality of cyber-risk at the post-occupancy phase, highlighting the FM areas which will be compromised as a result of a cyber-attack.

This study seeks to shift focus to the people and process aspects of cybersecurity in BIM-FM. Through discussing the interconnections between the physical and digital assets of a built facility, this study develops a cyber-risk matrix, which acts as a foundation for empirical investigations of the matter in future research.

This paper aims to investigate the mechanisms for managing coordinated benchmarking projects and the outcomes achieved from such coordination. While there have been many independent benchmarking studies comparing the practices and performance of public sector organisations, there has been little research on initiatives that involve coordinating multiple benchmarking projects within public sector organisations or report on the practices implemented and results from benchmarking projects. This research will be of interest to centralised authorities wishing to encourage and assist multiple organisations in undertaking benchmarking projects.

The study adopts a case study methodology. Data were collected on the coordinating mechanisms and the experiences of the individual organisations over a one-year period.

The findings show successful results (financial and non-financial) across all 13 benchmarking projects, thus indicating the success of a coordinated approach to managing multiple projects. The study concluded by recommending a six-stage process for coordinating multiple benchmarking projects.

This research gives new insights into the application and benefits from benchmarking because of the open access the research team had to the “Dubai We Learn” initiative. To the authors’ knowledge the research was unique in being able to report accurately on the outcome of 13 benchmarking projects with all projects using the TRADE benchmarking methodology.

Organizations involved in facility management (FM) can use building information modeling (BIM) as a knowledge repository to document evolving facility information and to support decisions made by the facility managers during the operational life of a facility. Despite ongoing advances in FM technologies, FM practices in most facilities are still labor intensive, time consuming and often rely on unreliable and outdated information. To address these shortcomings, the purpose of this study is to propose an automated approach that demonstrates the potential of using BIM to develop algorithms that automate decision-making for FM applications.

A BIM plug-in tool is developed that uses a fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) algorithm to automate the process of detecting malfunctioning heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. The algorithm connects to a complaint ticket database and automates BIM to determine potentially damaged HVAC system components and develops a plan of action for the facility inspectors accordingly. The approach has been implemented as a case study in an operating facility to improve the process of HVAC system diagnosis and repair.

By implementing the proposed application in a case study, the authors found that automated BIM approaches such as the one developed in this study, can be highly beneficial in FM practices by increasing productivity and lowering costs associated with decision-making.

This study introduces an innovative approach that leverages BIM for automated fault detection in operational buildings. FM personnel in charge of HVAC inspection and repair can highly benefit from the proposed approach, as it eliminates the time required to locate HVAC equipment at fault manually.