Big data drive recovery of global facility management revenues to surpass pre-pandemic levels

PHOTO: Frost & Sullivan

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Growth Opportunities in the Global Facility Management Market, Forecast to 2025, projects that revenues from the global facility management sector will reach US$925 billion by 2025, up from US$837 billion in 2019, despite seeing a significant drop in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The return to pre-COVID-19 levels of growth is expected to be driven by technological innovations, such as Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and advanced connectivity, plus new service offerings enabled by the digital transformation of the facility management market and the accelerated deployment of digital technology due to the pandemic.

“COVID-19 will force the facility management world to move beyond total cost of ownership and building efficiency. Next-generation solutions will need to focus on the convergence of digital technology and services to deliver value propositions and enhance total business productivity and user experience with sustainability at the heart,” said John Raspin, partner and business unit leader for energy & environment at Frost & Sullivan, in a prepared statement. “The COVID-19 crisis will accelerate the rollout of technology and the highest impact will be seen in customer-centric business models based on guaranteed outcomes, typically enabled by IoT.”

Raspin added: “The market will continue to move quickly towards service integration, while sophisticated advisory services focused on enhancing business productivity and merger and acquisition activity will continue apace. This shift from a cost focus to total client advisory services, outcome selling, and value creation will underpin the key transformations in the facility management market in the next six years.”

For further revenue opportunities, Frost & Sullivan believes facility management companies should:

• Deliver training, technology, and cybersecurity for digital tools that enable smoother remote working.
• Deploy risk-sharing and vested outsourcing business models to drive closer collaboration with customers.
• Develop solutions for indoor air quality monitoring to support back-to-work strategies in all types of workplaces.
• Accelerate investment in augmented reality (AR) and machine learning (ML) to gain insights to increase competitive advantage and enable substantial cost savings.
• Explore options for the acquisition of technical facility management skills and energy services in high-growth industrial and commercial applications.