FMJ.CO.UK LGIM & BELLROCK CASE STUDY
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2021 29
pounds, decisions may have to go through
layers of management before someone at
site level is given the go ahead to carry out
improvements.
“We decided the solution was to pull FM
away from the managing agents, and find
a provider in the market that could give us
a dedicated team that only works on LGIM
funds and uses a system which provides that
granularity of data to help us understand
what good performance looks like,” says
Tyson.
He also wanted a partner who had the
capability to create a new job role for FMs
that was the equal of PMs. “This is what
people miss about our new model,” he
says, “in that we created a Service Delivery
Manager (SDM) role who is a peer to the
property manager.”
The resulting technology-led FMI solution
is operated through Bellrock’s Concerto
operating platform, which manages
elements such as supply chain management,
technical compliance, business analysis
and procurement, all from its 24/7 facilities
management intelligence centre.
SMART SOLUTIONS
The contract deploys seven Service Delivery
Managers (SDMs) covering the UK, with a
team of 20 Facilities & Building Managers
supporting them across the portfolio. The
managing agents JLL, Savills, BNP and
Workman are lined up by fund and
work alongside the FMI and the asset
managers to help deliver close strategic
alignment for the funds.
Says Mike Smart, MD of Bellrock
Workplace and Compliance Services
division: “We were able to spend the
time to develop our so ware platform,
Concerto, to meet the needs of the
programme. While prior to this we had
the experience of working with asset
management organisations and this
enabled us to understand the type of hybrid
relationships between the FM and the
PM world in terms of design, making this
operating model quite unique.”
According to Tyson, another major
di erence to the established norm is that
Bellrock has total responsibility for the
supply chain spend. “We needed a model
that made the SDMs accountable for all
expenditure (similar to a traditional FM
contract P&L). Bellrock needed to be
responsible for contracting the cleaning,
security and other services, or the suppliers
would just go around them to the managing
agents and they wouldn’t be in control of the
delivery. The managing agents bought into
this and now in terms of payment processes,
our average payments are under a week on a
large part of our portfolio and the suppliers
love it, which means that over time it will
give us better leverage in the market.
“The other side of that is social value,
as we can look at an opportunity to help
smaller suppliers start a business with for
example, window cleaning or catering.”
Concerto can produce data on a minute
by minute basis, the managing agents can
check a service charge down to the amount
and minute it was spent. With immediate
access to factors such as the rate of firsttime
fixes a managing agent can see how
the quality of the service is impacting their
areas of responsibility, whether it is the
service charge or rent collection. This goes
to meet a key aim of the Mercury Model,
which, by making service delivery subject
to a higher level of scrutiny helps create
a performance culture within the supply
chain.
“We took in a bit of change theory and
introduced balanced score cards,” explains
Tyson.
“These cover areas that directly impact
the occupier, such as sustainability,
operational performance and financial
outcomes from an
investor
terms of decision making, that is invaluable,
so for example, you might be looking at a
supplier who has been providing services to
buildings covering the whole of England, and
wonder if that’s the best solution?
“The data tells the truth, so say you come
back to performance data on the operation
of the building and you start to get a picture
that company X are really poor in Manchester
but excellent in the South West. That requires
a conversation between SDMs, PMs and our
supply chain, to work together on what the
best solution looks like when utilising the
data evidence.
Says Tyson: “This process has helped LGIM
to move away from the more traditional
managing agent approach based on telling
suppliers ‘we’ve a number of sites in the
UK, can you give us the best price’? Instead,
suppliers are well aware they’re working
within a meritocracy, so they may lose some
contracts, but if they deliver in other areas
they can still benefit.”
“The ultimate advantage is a renewed
focus around the occupier experience, as by
analysing the scope of services, whether for
grounds, BMS, M&E, or cleaning, all of which
are so important in multilayer environments,
you’re addressing and regenerating the
quality of delivery.”
The ultimate advantage is a
renewed focus around the occupier
experience, as by analysing the scope of
services, whether for grounds, BMS, M&E,
or cleaning, all of which are so important
in multilayer environments, you’re
addressing and regenerating the
quality of delivery.”
perspective. We
have a building performance team within
LGIM who generate balanced score cards
on a monthly basis and these hit the SDMs,
the PMs and the asset managers at the
same time. These are marked red, amber
and green against their own targets to show
how they’re getting on.”
The level of engagement this has
created has also changed the culture
within LGIM Real Assets, and is one of the
primary reasons why the new model is
so e ective. Says Smart: “With the client
we build a performance matrix to analyse
the operating capability across a load of
di erent values; including first time fix,
reactive ability and performance quality. In