MEC awards Facility Management contracts worth 45 million euro

In 2013, MEC METRO-ECE Centermanagement retendered and awarded Facility Management services for 32 centers with a total value of 15 million euro per annum. The result is a reduction of 4% on FM costs across the tendered 32 locations for a qualitatively better service by the new FM service providers. A total of five service providers asserted themselves in the tender. WISAG Facility Service, Gegenbauer, Dorfner, Dr. Sasse and b.i.g. will be responsible in the next three years for the technical and infrastructural Facility Management in the centers.

Focus on transparency and comparability
MEC started preparing the concept for tendering and awarding at the beginning of the year. First of all, detailed registers were compiled for each location with all the services required. The tender was subsequently carried out on the basis of the individual locations, whereby the centers were divided into a total of 12 lots.
"The aim of the tender was uniform management of all locations managed by MEC. The quality improvement thereby went hand in hand with the reduction in cost. Transparency was increased significantly, costs were made calculable and benchmarks were made possible across all trades and locations," explained the CFO of MEC, Jann Robert.
For the first time, demands on the new service providers were not described from the executor's point of view, but as measurable results in a multilevel integrated quality control system, which can lead to penalties if violated. MEC has therefore changed from a performance-oriented system to a results-oriented system with a clear operator responsibility. In addition, a fixed budget was defined under consideration of standard, additional and project performances. "To achieve true transparency and comparability of bids, every bidder had to disclose its calculation details in depth, such as, for example, hourly rates and material costs," explains the COO of MEC, Christian Schröder. MEC investigated the bid details, for example through cross-checks and comparisons of purchase prices, in a lengthy and intensive process, which lasted up to five rounds.

Planning reliability and standardisation for owners and investors
The results-oriented performance description offers a lot of advantages for the individual participants. MEC only has one object manager on the service provider's side, who is responsible for technical and infrastructural FM services. The new concept enables controlled and standardised control of FM services for all of the MEC managed centers. "The defined quality standards and processes are quick to implement and can be transferred to all future MEC locations. Because high quality Facility Management not only improves safety and quality of the time spent at the premises for the visitor, but also secures value retention of the property – and that should be in the interest of every owner," says Jann Robert.