How To Use Facilities-iQ To Tender, Switch Providers And Draw Up Contracts

Tedious tendering processes, vague contracts and the loss of building maintenance information upon completion can all cause significant disruption and confusion for both Building Owners and Service Providers. Even more worrying are the significant compliance risks - how do you keep your contract aligned with ever-changing legislation? 

As the industry standard for building maintenance in the UK since 1990, SFG20 get asked this exact question a lot. The SFG20 standard is used by many organisations to compliance benchmark their contracts and specify works - it’s therefore in everyone’s interests that you can use our standard effectively to tender worry-free. 

In this practical guide, you’ll learn how to use SFG20’s latest software solution, Facilities-iQ to effortlessly nail down and enforce a precise specification of works while preventing the loss of building information.  

That way, you’ll be able to get exactly what you pay for if you’re a Property Owner and get paid for exactly what you agreed to if you’re a Contractor – it’s a real win-win!

Connect With Other Active SFG20 License Holders Via Our Member List And Digital Badges

Our official Member List provides you with access to a database of active SFG20 license holders, including Contractors and Service Providers and are therefore capable of understanding and executing maintenance works that comply with UK law.

What's more, we now offer Digital Badges to those with an active SFG20 license which can be displayed on their website as concrete proof. This badge is not an image, but rather a live iFrame which means it cannot be copied, modified or deleted. 

This Digital Badge is not only available for those with an active license who are bidding on contracts, but also for those who are tendering, helping to connect you with other active license holders.

How Facilities-iQ Simplifies The Tendering Process 

By aligning your specification with SFG20, the industry standard for building maintenance, you can be certain that your maintenance plan is keeping your building in optimal condition and legally compliant. 

Through our unique Maintenance Regime feature, Facilities-iQ allows both parties to draw up and access a precise specification to base a tender on as well as include clear KPIs.

All updates to the SFG20 standard flow through automatically to your Maintenance Regime(s), meaning you have the option to quickly and easily adjust your specification to suit evolving legislation.

With every schedule update, we allow you to compare the changes side by side and choose when to implement them. The updates will then flow through to your FM (Facility Management) system via our freely available API (Application Programming Interface).  

How Can Maintenance Regimes In Facilities-iQ Be Used In The Tendering Process? 

Maintenance Regimes are an exclusive feature to Facilities-iQ that allow you to group relevant maintenance schedules, tailor maintenance tasks and benefit from automatic SFG20 updates that retain your tailoring (i.e. any changes you make on a task).  

Our API allows the latest version of your Maintenance Regime to populate into your FM operating systems such as CAFM, meaning no more time-consuming manual updates or falling off the SFG20 standard.  

These regimes can then be safely shared with Service Providers who are bidding for the contract via a secure sharing link. Here’s how it works: 

1. Create your Maintenance Regimes in Facilities-iQ (usually you create one regime per contract when going out to tender using your asset register) 
   
2. Create a secure sharing link to share the relevant regimes with each Service Provider who is tendering for the work 
3. Email the link to your chosen Service Providers to invite them to tender (or, in the case of a public tender, the same link can be used)  
4. To allow interested Service Providers to view the regime you have shared, they can either use their own licence, or you can simply assign them one of your own collaborate licenses 
5. Review quotes and choose your preferred supplier 
6. The Service Provider who has won your tender can now set up their own Maintenance Regime with the relevant maintenance details for the contract.  They can set this regime up in two ways: either by setting up the regime themselves based on what you have stipulated on the sharing link, or – a more straightforward route – they can request that we provide them with a copy of your regime which will require your approval. 
7. Your Service Provider will then be able to work with the Maintenance Regime you have specified to deliver the maintenance programme.  This includes being able to give sub-contractors and members of their own team insight into the maintenance to be delivered.  
8. You will continue to have the original/master copy of your Maintenance Regime to keep an audit trail of works. This also allows you to continue to review changes to statutory requirements against the maintenance you have specified, and where relevant to collaborate and discuss any changes to maintenance with your contractor. 
9. As the project progresses, you can review the regime your contractor is continuing to work on if they give you a sharing link. This also gives you the ability to review the regime day to day and audit against what you originally specified. 
10. At the end of the contract, you can request that a copy of the Maintenance Regime the contractor has worked to is handed back to you – this is useful as it means you have a clear record of what has been worked on to date and also gives you a starting point for your next tender. The contractor would also keep a copy for their own audit trail. 

The Benefits Of Sharing Maintenance Regimes In Facilities-iQ For Tendering  

• Supports efficient collaboration and compliance, allowing you to share maintenance task instructions with authorised people and the latest version, compliant of SFG20 

• Eliminates wasted time from the Service Provider recreating a regime that already exists 

• Removes the risk of human error during the process 

• Allows Contractors/Service providers to quote on exactly what’s specified 

• Prevents misinterpretation and reduces the risk of not receiving the expected benefits from the project 

• Ensures a clear comparison between what is being offered i.e. you can compare quotations on a like-for-like basis 

• Allows Service Providers/Contractors to hit the ground running, saving time on both sides 

How Facilities-iQ Can Help You Move Maintenance Providers Without Losing Building Information

As you’ve likely experienced, one of the most common issues that arises when moving maintenance providers is the loss of building maintenance information and the subsequent repetitive work that follows, namely providers having to create an asset register from scratch.  

The loss of building information is no longer just a matter of frustration, it’s now a legal issue.  

Under the Building Safety Act 2022, all buildings that fall within scope must maintain an audit trail of all key details pertaining to a building known as the “Golden Thread”, which includes information such as: 

• Details of the assets covered in the contract 

• Details of the previous maintenance contract 

• Maintenance history including conformity data 

Luckily, SFG20 has created a simple yet effective solution to keep all of your information intact during the building handover and make transitioning from one provider to another a million times easier. Here’s how: 

1. Once the construction team have provided an asset list to either the Building Owner, Service Provider or FM Consultant, a Maintenance Regime can be created using the asset register. 
   
2. The Maintenance Regime can then be transferred to the Service Provider for completion of works.  
   
3. At the end of a contract, Service Providers can simply transfer Maintenance Regimes back to the Building Owner with all maintenance task IDs retained. This ensures that the Golden Thread of information remains unbroken and is ready to pass on for another tender.  

How Facilities-iQ Can Help You Draw Up Compliant Maintenance Contracts  

A lot of the time, contracts are created with vague phrasing that leaves interpretation up to the Contractor on what maintenance tasks should be carried out and when.  

It may even be the case that your chosen provider hasn’t read the small print, and when this happens, it can lead to huge and potentially costly errors while on the job, not to mention compliance risks. Similarly, if they’re working off a paper-based format of SFG20, it won’t be up to date and therefore no longer compliant.  

By making an active SFG20 license mandatory for Service Providers and Contractors in all contract agreements, you’ll know they have a clear grasp of their compliance and maintenance responsibilities (i.e. the what, who and when for each individual asset), upholding accountability and mitigating risk for everyone.  

How Facilities-iQ Can Help You Enforce Contract Penalties  

If your contract contains a legally binding agreement to maintain your property to the latest agreed standard of SFG20, then you can also use the standard to audit works being carried out.  

Where a contract specifies a regularly updated standard like SFG20, it is best for contractor relations to agree on a mechanism when the latest update will be adopted by both parties, as there needs to be a conversation where risk best sits for these changes.   

Having explicit risk and payment mechanisms stated in your contract makes it clear who is responsible for any financial impacts of the changes. This means that the contractor can reclaim any reasonably foreseen costs rather than factoring a high degree of risk when putting together their bid which leads to paying higher costs where you might not be getting any benefits.  

As a client, it's also worthwhile to include penalty clauses as you may be able to recoup significant costs where works have not been carried out effectively and indeed in line with legislation.  

A recent customer of ours disclosed to us that thanks to SFG20 he was able to impose 5-figure penalties every month which eventually saved £2m on an £11m contract! 

Understanding Your Responsibilities 

It’s important to note that outsourcing maintenance work does not mean that you can outsource the responsibility or your risk.  

Everybody involved from the Building Owner and Facility/Property Manager to the Service Provider/Contractor has their own stringent set of responsibilities as outlined below.  

Discover Frustration-Free Facility Management  

Working with third-party providers doesn’t need to be so complicated, time-consuming and expensive.    

With Facilities-iQ by your side, you can speed up the tendering process, effortlessly retain information for future building handovers and ensure that everyone involved is staying compliant with the latest version of the SFG20 standard. 

We all only have a finite number of hours each day (not to mention only two hands!) - so let us give you back your sanity, time and money with Facilities-iQ, the greatest and latest way to access SFG20, the industry standard for building maintenance since 1990. 

If you’re ready to leave the old ways of working behind and be a part of the future of hassle-free and compliant maintenance, book onto one of our interactive Facilities-iQ demo sessions by clicking the button below.