Facilities Management Outsourcing Options: Evidence from Practices in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Facilities Management (FM) can be identified as an emerging profession in Sri Lanka, where FM outsourcing has become a new and tactical business approach for carrying out a variety of FM services. It is a way of optimising core function of the organisation by transferring non-core functions to external parties. Generally, FM outsourcing options include managing agent, managing contractor, total FM, bundle service, single service and integrated service. Applicability of these methods depends on the current situation of the FM industry. Presently, these options are commonly used for FM outsourcing practices in Sri Lanka. However, all these methods are not perfectly applicable with the current condition of the Sri Lankan FM industry. This urges the need of identifying the most ideal FM outsourcing option(s) to deliver FM services in Sri Lanka. This paper, therefore, aimed to investigate the current FM outsourcing practices in Sri Lanka to identify the most ideal FM outsourcing options(s) by bridging the knowledge gap in prevailing literature.

The research aim was achieved through a qualitative approach with qualitative interview survey strategy. Semi structured interviews were conducted as the data collection technique with twelve experienced FM industry practitioners. The collected data was analysed using content analysis method. Research findings revealed that all FM outsourcing options are currently practiced in Sri Lanka and among them, single service option has become the most commonly used method to deliver FM services. However, it was proven through the findings that with the evolution of FM, organisations have to move from traditional methods to modern methods for FM outsourcing. As a result, even though single service option is the most commonly used method, integrated service option was identified as the most ideal and appropriate FM outsourcing option in Sri Lanka based on the benefits from clients’ as well as service providers’ perspectives. The knowledge generated through this study can be used by the FM practitioners, clients and service providing organisations in order to practice most appropriate FM outsourcing option(s) in Sri Lanka by gaining the expected benefits from FM outsourcing.