About SFMP

The Strategic Facilities Management Partnership was conceived, initiated and founded by John R. Barnes, PE and John G. Vlha, Jr. in 1996.  At that time, they were working for Unisys Corporation and were heavily involved in realigning the Unisys facilities management organization from a highly decentralized structure to a corporate led, centralized organization.  In that process, they spent several years collecting and analyzing operating metrics, both internal and external to Unisys.  The metrics drove and showed amazing improvement in operating costs at the site level, which translated into major cost savings for Unisys.  Even with the site savings the centralization yielded, they weren't comfortable that the overall real estate portfolio was delivering the value it should.  They felt they needed to evaluate more than simply site level operating metrics to ensure the overall portfolio was optimized.  This is when a new view was opened into enterprise level facilities management.  Mr. Barnes and Mr. Vlha wanted to measure the portfolio performance at the enterprise level, so they developed new metrics that would show the impact the overall corporate facilities management organization had on Unisys.

The new metrics were strategic in nature and would require, as they found out, a lot of effort to benchmark.  Because the new metrics included enterprise level revenue, costs, space and headcount, public information through annual reports, etc, was scant.  So, after searching the marketplace unsuccessfully for a source for their new metrics, they decided to set up a meeting with several respected peers to discuss the new metrics and determine if there would be a benchmarking opportunity.  Those companies:  IBM, NCR, Bay Networks, Digital Equipment, Arthur Andersen, Compaq, CSC, Xerox, Compaq and of course, Unisys were the founding members of SFMP.  During that first meeting, it became clear to those in attendance, that there was a lot to discuss beyond just the new metrics.  The facilities management function, in the technology business, is in a constant state of flux and this meeting showed that all the companies were facing the same issues and there was a lot to be gained by discussing significant issues and ideas in an ongoing forum.  Thus it was agreed to brand the organization the "Strategic Facilities Management Partnership", develop a confidentiality agreement, an operating philosophy, and reconvene again in six months to share and compare the new strategic level operating metrics, and once again compare notes on best practices, issues and ideas.

Since that time, SFMP has conducted two meetings annually and SFMP members have shared strategic metrics, collaborated with each other on major FM issues, and have been at the forefront of major transformation of the basic workplace model.

The true value of SFMP has not only been the strategic metric exchange, but also the ongoing dialogue that was established early on, and has continued for over a decade.  This open discussion was possible because members entered into a confidentiality agreement and members shared common problems and sought leading edge solutions.  Because of the competitiveness in the technology marketplace, SFMP members have always been under pressure to continually deliver on innovative cost savings without negatively impacting employee productivity.  SFMP has provided members with a sounding board for new concepts, and as a result, has delivered tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings.

Click here to go to the SFMP website