New ISIG Leaders’ Forum report: ‘The data conundrum’

News

The technology revolution in workplace and facilities management started less than 20 years ago, streamlining workflow processes. Engineers were given handheld devices and a centralised system managed call-outs, budgets and compliance regimes. Any reporting from those systems was at best one-dimensional, but now the measurement points and data streams available are infinitesimal to the point where we are overloaded by data. The challenge has become knowing which elements are useful.

According to a Sunday Times article, ‘The future of data’, the problem lies with organisational trust: ‘The number one thing I hear from many CEOs and CIOs I talk to is that they don’t feel ready for the democratisation of data, because they don’t trust employees to make the right decisions using it.’

In 2021, IWFM launched our ‘Harnessing the power of data’ guidance in partnership with Planon. This sought to provide workplace and facilities management professionals with a better understanding of the benefits and the practicalities to consider when harnessing data.

To build on this, we followed up by issuing the ‘Importance of data’ survey, the findings of which were used to inform an ISIG Leaders’ Forum debate framed around four topics: priorities for the FM function, the links to the wider organisation, skills, and access to data points.

The conversation highlighted some key themes that the profession should seriously consider, such as: prioritising information that is going to make a material difference to organisational performance; how critical it is to use data for decision-making, particularly if the C-Suite are going to engage; the depth of the data skills gap; the importance of the integrity of data; and the structure required to manage the governance of data and ensure the ethics of data storage and usage are followed.

Find out more by downloading the report below.

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