Facilities management (FM) was initially confused with property management, which was simply understood as the collecting of rents and the handling of tenant complaints. But FM has five pillars: Cleaning, security, catering, office support and technical maintenance services.

For years, large State-owned enterprises (SOEs) managed every part of these operations but over the past decade, more multinational companies have set up operations in China and have been demanding the same level of FM services they enjoyed at other locations across the world.

The SOEs have been watching the outsourced FM operations carefully.

ISS, Johnson Controls and Jones Lang LaSalle are the three biggest facilities management operators on the mainland. Provided to China Daily

Following close behind major corporations have been the world's most prominent FM companies, many starting their operations in Hong Kong and venturing across to the Chinese mainland.

ISS, Johnson Controls and Jones Lang LaSalle are arguably the three biggest FM multinational operators on the mainland, according to ISS' Peter Trampe.

Trampe, ISS' business development director for the Asia-Pacific, says his company entered the Chinese mainland market in 2005 when it bought China's largest cleaning firm, Hong Run. Later, ISS bought a catering operation in Shanghai and a property management firm in Beijing.

"If you want to grow fast in facilities management you don't start from scratch, we have grown organically as well as from acquisitions," he says. "These companies had market shares and contracts all over the country and within five years our business has more than quadrupled."

ISS has more than 500 customers on the Chinese mainland located in 98 cities, many of which are in second-tier urban areas. Major clients include Seagate, DuPont, Hewlett-Packard, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Continental Tire and Shell and many have multiple locations across China.

For example, HP has 38 locations in China.

"They differentiate themselves by delivering almost all services with ISS employed staff. In this way ISS can not only be more cost efficient, but also have better control on the service delivery quality," Trampe says.

ISS has been growing its base of government-owned facilities, such as airports including Shanghai Pudong, Shanghai Hongqiao and Shenzhen airports, where it provides cleaning, trolley collection and technical maintenance.

Over the next 20 years, more than 85 new airports are expected to be constructed in China and each will require the outsourcing of FM services.

"The outsourcing business has become far more global in perspective - multinational companies want their facilities to be of a uniform standard everywhere they operate," says Edmond Sum, Johnson Controls Global WorkPlace Solutions regional executive and general manager, East Asia.

"This means that outsourcing is no longer regarded as simply a route to cost reduction, but rather an essential foundation for operating improvements based on consistent data platforms for global real estate portfolios."

Johnson Controls has been on the Chinese mainland since 1995 with the opening of its factory in Guangzhou. However, significant FM operations started in 2007 under the Johnson Controls Global WorkPlace Solutions business.

The company's client base comprises large, multinational companies and clients in China including GSK, Airbus and Motorola. Today it manages 1.49 million square meters of facilities in China.

Sum says the increasing global nature of business means that multinationals are investing heavily in emerging markets.

"Consequently, they need partners that can provide the same reliable level of service in Shanghai that they do in New York," he says.

"Also, by simplifying the FM supply chain, multinationals can minimize the resources needed to manage multiple FM suppliers across the globe."

Sum says although the FM market in China is still relatively immature, local companies are quickly grasping the concept and he expects revenues to increase threefold by 2014.

But business contracts are primarily started with hard services (such as technical maintenance) then extended to soft services (such as front of desk staff and catering), he says.

"Once we understand the culture of the client, then we grow from one site and more sites. These relationships are built for the long-term with bespoke services that suit the client's needs," Sum says.

In 2004, Jones Lang LaSalle first started its integrated facilities management operations in China and has grown its business, step-by-step.

"We had to establish a new platform in China at that time as it was a very immature market with limited suppliers and FM professionals," Julius Lau, head of Integrated Facilities Management at Jones Lang LaSalle China told FM magazine.

Today, he says China represents about 10 percent of the company's overall facilities management business in the Asia-Pacific.

"Demand from corporates has increased significantly. Outsourcing has become a key driver in company strategies to reduce headcount and cost," Lau says.

Picking a high profile project and doing it well is good way for an FM company to promote itself.

Although Savills is a global real estate service provider, it has also set up FM services in China and this year was awarded the facility management contract for the Lenovo Research & Development Center in Beijing.

Located in the Beijing Shangdi Information Technology Industry Base in Zhongguancun, the Lenovo R&D Center covers an area of 96,000 sq m with a total of 65,729 sq m of office space. The contract will include facility management, property management and other professional management services.

Billy Chau, managing director of Savills Northern China, says the company offers one-stop services to meet client's needs.

"Facility management is focused on providing outsourced solutions to occupiers of property. Working in strategic partnership with our clients, we aim to deliver innovative and best-in-class solutions to their occupied space to reduce costs and improve value with a focus on balance between user needs and business needs."

There are more than 500,000 sq m of property under Savills' facility management in Beijing, covering government property, self-used office buildings, serviced apartment, and campus buildings and grounds.

Another international property management company that offers FM services and is expanding across the Chinese mainland is DTZ.

It opened its 18th Chinese office in Changsha last November with the view of branching out of the bigger cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

"Consumption and urbanization are the two main drivers for China's economy today, and a lot of attention has been cast on second-tier cities because of their wealth of development potential," says Edward Cheung, chief executive of DTZ's China division.

"With unique advantages and a competitive edge over cities in the regions of central and western China, Changsha is becoming an emerging real estate market where professional real estate services are in increasing demand."

The world's biggest FM provider is Denmark-based ISS, with a global staff of 525,000, and more than 10,000 employees in China.

Trampe says holding onto some sections of his Chinese staff, particularly cleaners, can be a challenge.

"We have a high turnover among cleaners who are mostly migrant workers especially around Chinese New Year (early February)," he says.

"They will go back to their hometowns and stay for one or two months and know they can easily get a job back in the bigger cities once they return.

"We are more attractive to them as we following labor laws, paying them overtime and the required social benefits. You would be surprised by how many people don't do that."

Another incentive, Trampe says, is offering cleaners and other unskilled staff room to move up the ladder and earn more income.

"Full-time cleaners working for some companies are regarded by some as second-class citizens and that's what they will do all their lives, but with us they have career opportunities.

"In many cases our workers also multi-task, they can be cleaning one day, or working in the kitchen the next and can work on the front desk answering telephones.

"And we train our staff to think laterally - if a cleaner spots a broken light or something damaged, he will report it to the group supervisor. It's a team operation, unlike in other organizations where the cleaner will not report it because it is not his responsibility."

Trampe says China has its own unique characteristics and catering presents a special challenge.

A good example of the catering challenge is seen at a factory in Qingdao, Shandong province, owned by Maersk, the biggest shipping line in the world.

"There are 3,500 workers at that factory and we have to feed them every day," he says.

"Two of the most important demands from a factory worker, apart from salary, are food and the shuttle bus services that take them from the factory to their homes.

"Food is very difficult if you make it in high volume because you can't please everyone, so if we have a 80 percent approval rate we haven't done bad at all."

On a different end of the FM spectrum for ISS is its contract with the British Foreign Service's Foreign Commonwealth Offices. From April 1, 2011, ISS will be responsible for the 28 British embassies and consulates in Asia, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou.

High-end clients expect high-end service, Sum says.

"Multinationals regard outsourcing as a deliberate strategy to connect once disparate parts of their estates," he says.

"Therefore they want partners that are more holistic in their approach and have the ability to link geographies, particularly those that can support their expansion into emerging markets, such as China. Service levels in China are expected to be at international standards or even higher."