Yet another Trojan horse? Is Facility Management Ready for Digitalisation?

Paper in proceeding, 2017

Digital practices of facility management (FM) are still rare. Several Nordic countries have ambitious hospital building projects, driven by large public clients with long term experience of operating complex building campuses. There is thus an opportunity of creating state of art regarding digital FM. However, a recurrent problem is that a technically focused implementation leads to prolonged learning and practice development in the involved organization and never get operational. Hence members of organisations successfully resist the perceived Trojan horse entering. This paper aims at investigating the role of digital FM in new hospital projects in Scandinavia. Based on a literature review, a framework of understanding of digital FM in hospital operation is established. This highlight the importance of integration between technical digitalization, competences, organization and management of digital FM. Two longitudinal cases are presented and analysed. A greenfield hospital and an extension of an existing hospital. The projects are in different phases and represent quite advanced preparations for digital FM. State of the art software FM system are prepared before operation. External consultants are involved, posing a dilemma of inhouse/outsource human resources in the future digital FM operation. The importance of managerial, organizational and competence preparation is highlighted as implication.