ISS: External FM market volume will grow as more Western European FM companies open subsidiaries in Romania

In the last few years as well as in 2017, the Romanian FM market has been in the process of maturing, focusing more and more on quality, efficiency and added value, demanding a skilled and qualified workforce, Lucian Gheorghe, Specialised Services Director Eastern Europe at ISS told The Diplomat-Bucharest.

2018-04-13 09:36:37

"FM has developed into a real management discipline - as opposed to the technical exercise centred around building optimization which it was just a couple of years ago," he explained. "Most markets of this region are developed markets, but with differences in terms of integrated facility services (IFS), market maturity, and macroeconomic environment. There are also developing outsourcing markets in the Eastern Europe region. We hold leading market positions in several countries. Key customer segments are Business Services & IT, Industry & Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Pharmaceuticals."
Similar to the south-east European region, Romania has seen positive changes in economic, production and service-related patterns, Gheorghe added.

"The most capital cities of Romanian regions are already well developed in FM market terms, but the rest of the country is still behind the Western European markets and standards. The territorial distribution indicates the preponderance of FM activities in Bucharest and Ilfov county, followed by Cluj, Timis and Constanta counties. As our 2017 performance demonstrates, we remain a resilient and growing business focused on serving our customers all across the country, extracting value from our strategy, and investing in the long term."

According to ISS's director, the external FM market volume will grow as more Western European FM companies have opened subsidiaries in Romania: "Still, Romania is one of the countries with the lowest level of outsourcing. Only 22 per cent of FM services are carried out by professional and external companies, and the other 78 per cent are internally-staffed Facility Services such as cleaning, maintenance, etc."

Gheorghe said in 2018 they will remain focused on delivering IFS solutions for existing contracts as well as delivering IFS to a number of new customers: "Furthermore, we will continue building and improving our platform from which we can deliver high quality IFS solutions to our key accounts. Finally, we will continue to gradually reduce the proportion of our customers in the public sector and focus on developing our business with multinational customers instead."

In his opinion, last year's figures outline an industry in full swing, with the potential to provide significant business opportunities, local and international.

"The development of the real estate and construction market is a significant leading indicator for the development of the FM market, as an increase in modern, professionally managed properties leads to a higher demand for FM services," Gheorghe mentioned. "The FM field tends to include a wider range of activities and services, extending to almost the whole universe of support services related to the built environment."

Gheorghe underlined that the development of a healthy, productive Facility Management market in Romania will continue to be driven mainly by the professionalization of Facility Management service providers, the real estate pipelines and increased outsourcing ratios all adding up to increased market maturity. "This, and only this, will provide economic added value for all market participants, notably for client companies and for Facility Management service provider companies," he added. "We're entering a new era of Facilities and Service Management. Success is no longer defined by a stable maintenance of building and assets. Likewise, the skills needed to become a successful Facility Manager must evolve beyond great engineering and workplace administration into becoming more people centric and strategic. The workforce has changed dramatically – and the workplace needs to catch up. Today, Facility Management professionals and organizations are faced with managing a more technologically savvy and diverse workforce, which elicits a whole new set of challenges: the adoption of cloud-based solutions, changes in organization structure and workforce management, and the introduction of innovative solutions by key decision-makers."