{"id":10596,"date":"2018-06-25T12:21:23","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T19:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=10596"},"modified":"2023-06-09T11:06:16","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T18:06:16","slug":"transforming-facilities-management-with-dynamics-365-at-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/transforming-facilities-management-with-dynamics-365-at-microsoft\/","title":{"rendered":"Transforming facilities management with Dynamics 365 at Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This content has been archived, and while it was correct at time of publication, it may no longer be accurate or reflect the current situation at Microsoft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
At Microsoft, we\u2019re transforming the way we manage our facilities with Dynamics 365. To manage 35 million square feet in more than 1,000 buildings worldwide, our real estate and facilities team wanted to consolidate the systems our numerous vendors use. With Dynamics 365, we\u2019re consolidating all facility management processes and providing them to our vendors. Because our system is hosted in Azure, we gain scalability to meet high demand, flexibility to adjust to business needs, and visibility into all processes.<\/p>\n
Microsoft Real Estate and Security (RE&S), in partnership with Microsoft Digital, uses cloud technology to be more productive and efficient. RE&S uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 to transform several disconnected and disparate facilities management tools into a unified, end-to-end, RE&S-managed system\u2014using this system, RE&S is less dependent on vendor technology, gains better governance over data and processes, improves the partner and employee experience, and increases productivity for building and facilities management across the world.<\/p>\n
Real estate and facilities at Microsoft<\/h2>\n
The Microsoft real estate portfolio consists of almost 600 buildings located in more than 110 countries\/regions around the world, comprising more than 34 million square feet. In fact, the Puget Sound campus\u2014located just outside of Seattle\u2014is a city in itself, consisting of 120 buildings and 15-million square feet of office space that accommodates more than 55,000 people daily. Operating and maintaining this amount of infrastructure is a huge undertaking. Our vendor teams handle all our facilities\u2019 needs, from changing light bulbs to cutting grass to maintaining elevators to ensuring that heating and cooling systems are running.<\/p>\n
Improving a decentralized model<\/h3>\n
Historically, RE&S has contracted facilities out to different managing vendors in each of our local service areas. Most of facilities management has operated based on a three-tier model:<\/p>\n
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RE&S manages Microsoft facilities at the highest level, including purchasing and establishing maintenance contracts.<\/li>\n
Tier 1 vendors are contracted by RE&S to manage Microsoft facilities in specific regions. Their responsibilities include contracting tier 2 vendors, maintaining service level agreements (SLAs), and overseeing the facilities management fulfillment in their areas. Tier 1 vendors manage their own work order systems, which are used by the tier 2 vendors under their contract.<\/li>\n
Tier 2 vendors are contracted by tier 1 vendors and are responsible for the day-to-day maintenance tasks on Microsoft properties. Tier 2 vendors track work orders and status through the work order system of their tier 1 vendor and the results are reported to RE&S through the tier 1 vendor.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Examining pre-existing processes and systems<\/h4>\n
One of the biggest issues we faced with our pre-existing solution was disconnect. Some parts of the facilities management process were controlled by and managed by us, while others were controlled by the tier 1 vendors. The key elements of service request management for our facilities were handled by one of the eight tier 1 vendors, using their own processes and systems. As a result, we had the following functions being managed by eight different processes and systems:<\/p>\n
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Work order management<\/li>\n
Procurement and tier 2 vendor management<\/li>\n
Warehouse and inventory management<\/li>\n
Asset management<\/li>\n
SLA management<\/li>\n
Data and reporting management<\/li>\n
System management<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
We had no control or visibility into the processes and systems of our tier 1 vendors except for the reports that they generated and provided. If we needed to make any change across the entire RE&S management landscape, we had to coordinate and manage the change with eight different vendors and management systems.<\/p>\n