Organizations that are managing facilities that are dispersed around the country have to make decisions to go with a Self-Performing vs Subcontracting organization. They need to decide on whether to outsource their service work to a national service provider or to perform this work with local or regional vendors. This can often be a difficult decision to make as there are many factors to consider and every job is a bit different. In today’s blog post we will look at the technical and business reasons to compare outsourcing this work with a local or regional vendor or a national service provider.

Let’s Compare Self-Performing vs Subcontracting

• Logistics

  Hiring a national service provider for servicing every location is going to drastically simplify the logistics for managing a large project. In this situation, you would have a single point of contact to work with for managing the project versus having multiple local contacts if you were working with dispersed local vendors.

• Capabilities & Resources

  Local or regional service companies may have limited resources. Typically, they are running full throttle and it can be challenging to rapidly expand their service capabilities. When working with a national service provider you are ensuring that you are getting the “right-man” for the job. National service providers have the network of resources to ensure your job is completed quickly and with the appropriate technical skills and certifications. Additionally, if a roll-out project is necessary a national service provided would be much more capable because they would have the vendor resource pool versus having to bring on additional help and equipment.

• Pricing

  Local or regional service providers may not have cost control functions in their service management platform. Do they even have one? National service providers are incentivized to offer balanced, competitive pricing that eliminates overcharging at one site to offset a higher-priced local vendor. Local or regional service providers may not have quality control, time at site validations and material cost control. Whereas a national service provider will have fixed costs, time at site validation and set material pricing for every product at every location.

• Core Competencies

  By working with a national service provider, your ability to focus on the core competencies of your organization while knowing that the service is being performed in a timely manner by a highly skilled technician. Additionally, national service providers are going to focus on quality assurance and results. So often times reports will be delivered giving status updates, average service costs, and on-going budget to actual spend reports.

To consistently achieve successful results with facility maintenance assignments (lighting, signage, electrical), the solutions-provider must understand the systems and tools required to ensure the goals of the customer’s organization are met. The process of understanding and implementing systems begins with an in-depth awareness of the customer’s expectations for their facilities. Once specified, the objective for the facility service vendor is to implement a seamless integration of people and technology, each especially fitted and/or trained for the job to which they are assigned. Pro-actively planning for these situations enables facility service vendor’s managers to make effective and timely decisions as well as anticipate the varying local and national needs.

In conclusion, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for every organization, project, or even the self-performing vs subcontracting argument. However, there are real tangible benefits that can be derived from working with a national service provider. Items like: service cost, quality of work delivered, and the personnel managing the work. To learn more about how we can help your organization call 610-558-9773 or email [email protected].