Facilities Management (FM) stakeholders are underrepresented in most projects. This was the observation shared by Sougata Nandi, Founder & CEO, 3e Advisory, who emphasised that FMs can play a significant role throughout the design-development process, “provided they are engaged to do so”. “This is a developer’s decision,” he said, “As the project resides with him for the entire life-cycle. Thus, the greater issue rests with the developers and, to some extent, with contractors and consultants.”

Nandi said that FMs have been raising this issue for a long time. “Unfortunately, the current design-development process is failing them,” he pointed out. Nandi stressed that the focus needs to be more on contractors, consultants and developers and, specifically, how they intend to change this situation.