Monday 4 July 2011

The power of social media in highways services

Here he goes again, another wacky idea. Can we not we just stick to Ceefax I hear you say?
Well no.
Social media is going to be vital to our market place in the years to come. Why?
Because we are going to have no money to do, the things we have done before and we need people to do it for us.
That's Localism I hear you say!
Correct – localism is about letting people do stuff and the power of social media is letting the public do stuff for you too. Let me give you an example…
What's the fastest way to get news these days? BBC? No. SKY? No. MSN? No.
Twitter
Seriously, if you want to know what the latest things going on around the world are – look at twitter.
Why is this?
There are 6 million members of twitter. That means there are 6 million news reporters working free for it. The result (as long as you can see the wood through the trees) is instant news.
Now how is that relevant to us?
Well… Our business is generally about keeping the public satisfied with public services. So what's the best way of figuring that out? Interact with them - ask, understand, listen then act.
If the public are happy with public services, councillors are happy which means officers are happy which means we get praised for doing a good job.
So what can we do?
Listen – use tools like twitter, Facebook to interact with people and find out what they want and what their problems are.
Tell – use tools like twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogger to tell the public what we are doing and why. It is psychologically proven people won't complain if they are told what will happen – even if it's bad!
Assist – use Yahoo Answers, wiki's, to help people find out about what they want to know- then they won't come and ask.
A number of opportunities we are working on have an increasing role for us in customer services, if you want help or advice please get in touch. I'd be happy to help you trial these tools.

Friday 7 January 2011

Changing times. Opportunities for FM.

Tony Baldry MP has set up a New All-Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment its remit will be to present an holistic, cohesive, overarching view from all sectors of demand, planning, designing, constructing, managing and maintaining the built environment and its external landscape. (1)

Does this mean FM will get a bigger voice at the top of government?  Probably in some capacity, I hope BIFM takes up the baton, it’s a golden opportunity to shout about the importance of FM.

The government needs to reduce costs of its own estate and provide better value for money from projects that are fit for the 21st century i.e more sustainable (2)

Does this mean there is opportunity for FM companies? Definitely! But…

The emergency budget gave little indication for when and how big.  We expect more outsourcing, but IT outsourcing companies are bracing for large cuts.  The government lied about schools capital expenditure – saying it would stay in place and then Michael Gove MP stops all BSF projects that have not signed a contract. (3)

Local Govt budget cuts – 25% (back to 1996 levels) are not going to come through doing services, faster, cheaper, leaner or even, dare I say it, greener.  It will come through providing them differently, but how?  FM can help the public sector change the way it provides services, and we must grab these opportunities.

Contracts are going to be won by organisations that challenge the norm, aren’t afraid to test wacky ideas with clients and innovate so much that its not the goal posts that change it’s the whole game.  Some clients want “more for the same” or “the same for less”.  Perhaps now clients will want “less for even less”!

FM needs to be ready, ready with the ideas, ready with the right people on board, ready to change so that we can help transformation of the public sector and really move FM up the organisational importance ladder!