As any real-estate project start with the design and construction phases - which on average lasts for 3-6 years - during which owner of the project assign two types of consultants (supervision and construction manager) to manage the design and construction contractors and act as the owners' representatives.

As the project goes to operation phase and the environment become more complicated with the introduction of multi maintenance and services contractors, all systems in the building (electrical, mechanical...) start to be used and with the occupiers start moving in with all their operational needs and requirements.

Currently, owners either take the facility operation responsibilities by themselves (owners normally, don't have enough experience to handle this tasks in the same way they didn't have the experience to manage design and construction contractors by themselves) or, they fall in the trap of some contractors who claim to be facility managers which is a clear conflict of interest as facility manager main role is to be the owners representative who audit, supervise and monitor contractor’ performance.

This demonstrates the need for the separation of facility management role from contractor and owner roles. Please notice also, that international standards state that the total cost of operation phase to the owner (over the life of the facility) is estimated to be 3 to 4 times the total cost of design and construction phases, which give an extra reason for the need of good management during the operation phase.

IFM product calls for filling this existing gap and properly fill the facility management missing layer, especially with the increased awareness of owners of the nature of this market problem.