Expert View: mission critical facilities

FM and critical environments: WorkPlaceNow sits down with Johnson Controls GWS’ Director of Global Critical Environments, Mike Doolan, and Director for Global FM Product Development, Richard Mitton 

What is a critical environment?
Mike: A critical environment is considered to be any location, which if rendered unavailable, has a significant negative impact on business operations.
Mike Doolan

They are locations where our customers have invested a considerable amount in infrastructure and/or intellectual property where unplanned downtime could directly affect their own customers, cause the loss of many years of research, stop production or result in loss of inventory.

In a nut shell, they are the sites our customers worry about the most.

Examples of critical environments Johnson Controls GWS manage include: Call centers, Data centers, Laboratories and R&D sites, Banking trading floors, Broadcasting sites, Manufacturing facilities.

How many critical environments does Johnson Controls GWS manage and across what market sectors?
Mike: We manage over 800 critical sites in 39 countries for 95 Global 1000 customers. This equates to more than 4.5 million square meters of space. The majority of our work is for life sciences and the technology sectors followed by finance, media & communications, industrial and retail. We have a dedicated global team who specialize in the management of risk for our life science customers - as pharmaceutical facilities are unique and highly regulated environments. We also have developed specialist tools and processes for managing the environments important to our technology customers.

What is the Johnson Controls GWS “Critical Environment Product”?
Richard: We have developed a set of Johnson Controls GWS Critical Environment Standards which we apply consistently across all of our clients’ global critical sites. These can then be coupled with the industry specific processes that are required to manage specialist critical environments.

There are a number of benefits the Johnson Controls GWS critical environment product brings to our customers, such as:

  • Minimizes the risk of unplanned downtime
  • Protects our clients investment in infrastructure and intellectual property
  • Demonstrates that Johnson Controls GWS is a supplier partner who understands how to manage critical facilities
Richard Mitton

Many critical environments run round-the-clock with system failure potentially being disastrous for the company.

Why are global organizations increasingly looking to outsource the FM of these sites to providers such as Johnson Controls GWS? 
Richard: Companies are looking to outsource to organizations like Johnson Controls GWS for a number of reasons. Market activity shows continued globalization and integration, with customers seeking more strategic value and tailored solutions as markets mature. In particular our customers are looking for:

  • Technology to enable better strategic decision-making
  • The assurance that they are receiving the most up-to-date, leading edge processes and procedures, through innovation and a service culture
  • The opportunity to reduce costs without compromising on service delivery
  • Risk mitigation and risk transfer to a third party provider

It’s a big step for any organization to outsource the FM of its critical environments.

How has Johnson Controls GWS built trust with these customers? 
Mike: Working in a partnership with our customers is the only way to build trust. We need to understand their business and how their operations are supported at critical sites. Using our globally consistent set of standards we plan and execute activities to minimize risk to their business and have robust plans in place for responding to out of line situations. As a Fortune 100 company ourselves, we understand how other large corporations operate and appreciate their key business drivers.

An even larger step is to hand over the FM of critical environments to providers like Johnson Controls GWS on an international level.

What benefits do our customers see from a global relationship?
Richard: The key benefits that an organization receives are maximum availability and performance of critical assets, a robust risk management strategy, industry best practice and standards. These services are supported by skilled personnel, and effective communication processes to ensure we are collaborating effectively with our customers.

Having the global consistency with international processes and standards is particularly important.

What does Johnson Controls GWS have in place and what should customers expect in the next few years?
Mike: The Johnson Controls GWS critical environment product consists of methods and tools applied in a globally standard way, which allows Johnson Controls GWS to deliver a consistent operating platform for our customers’ critical environments, with the central principle of managing risk through the product. This provides significant competitive advantage and is unequalled in the industry. This platform product contains enough flexibility to be applied specifically to any critical environment - with future versions being customized to a specific vertical market or critical environment type.

Mike, on a personal level, why did you decide to pursue a career in critical environment FM? What aspects do you enjoy most?
Mike: Being an engineer I have always questioned things and looked for ways to improve them. With critical environments it is always about continuous improvement, learning from experience and developing new processes to reduce risk.

And Richard, what is it about product development that excites you?
Richard: I have a passion for innovation and for delivering excellent value to our customers. Being in a position where I can develop new products and services for Johnson Controls GWS to take to market in the future is my perfect job.

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For more information please email Mike Doolan.
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