BIFM 2004 Awards - 11th October 2004

Over 1,000 members of the FM community gathered at London’s Grosvenor House hotel last night to celebrate the winners of the BIFM’s International Investors in FM Excellence Awards programme.

 

Host Patrick Kielty entertained the audience in grand style before announcing the winners of the 12 Awards categories.

 

All the Winners on stage

 

These included Caroline Finegan, Operations Project Manager for the BBC’s new Media Village development at White City, who was named BIFM Facilities Manager of The Year. Caroline transferred to work for Land Securities Trillium in 2001, having worked at the BBC since 1996, initially in catering then as an in-house facilities manager, securing the appointment as Senior Facilities Manager at the BBC Woodlands site.

 

The Awards judges said that, since moving into FM: “Caroline has successfully moved up a very steep learning curve with meteoric speed and clearly has the potential to reach the very top of the profession.”

 

Tower 42 was awarded the prize for Customer Service Initiative of the Year for the second year running. “The team at Tower 42 continues to excel at customer service, making the experience of visiting or working at this impressive building a complete delight,” said the judges.

 

In recognition of the “sheer scale of the achievement” the Hungarian Oil and Gas Corporation was given a Highly Commended Award in the Customer Service Category. The Corporation has radically improved its communication and information systems to cope with a massively complex estate made even larger by recent mergers.

 

The Environmental Impact Award is always a popular category and the competition was tough again this year. For their project with West Lothian Schools where they captured the local community’s imagination with their ‘whole school approach’ to environmental issues, the Award went to AWG Facilities Services (the first of two Awards for this group).

 

According to the judges: “Without the enthusiasm shown by AWG’s project team and partners this contract could be just one of the many PFI projects operated in the schools sector. AWG have made a significant difference by raising the issue of the environment at all levels leading to a culture of awareness and learning, well worthy of our award.

 

FM of the Year winner Caroline Finegan with Mick Dalton (right) and Chris Cracknell CO of sponsor OCS.

 

The Award for Best Practice in New Build recognises the extent of FM integration throughout the process of planning, designing, building and operating a new facility.

 

This year it went to the International Centre for Business Improvement in Leeds submitted by Certainty Group Total Facilities Management.

 

The Award for Best Practice in a PFI/PPP project acknowledges that this method of procuring investment has been a major influence on the development of FM in the UK.

 

Maintenance and Property Care (part of AWG Facilities Services) picked up this awards for their commitment to staff development and training in their project with South Lanarkshire Council.

 

The judges concluded: “The project with South Lanarkshire Council has many unique aspects, but the involuntary transfer of around 800 staff from a local authority to a private organisation meant a huge investment in the workforce to effect a cultural change in an environment where performance is at the top of the agenda.”

 

 

The BIFM Award for Student of the Year is presented to the student who has achieved the best performance during their work towards the BIFM Qualification.

 

Once again this year two students achieved exactly the same results and have been named as joint winners. They are Michael O’Reilly and Alison East.

 

Michael works for the Ministry of Defence; Alison started working in facilities management three years ago and is now a facilities manager working for Mitie Managed Services on a prestigious city contract.

 

The BIFM Innovation Award recognises original thinking in FM. A Highly Commended Award was presented to George S Hall for its investment in technology and business process management.

 

Top honours in this category went to the Co-operative Group which created a ‘Centre of Excellence’ at its Manchester headquarters, in partnership with a main service provider, to train and develop operative staff.

 

“The dramatic improvements in service delivery which have resulted from the creation of the ‘centre for excellence’ in Manchester is something which the facilities management industry must learn from. The Co-operative group is to be congratulated for taking the initiative in giving up space and resources to support its service partners ambitions,” concluded the judges.

 

The BIFM Awards are sponsored by George S Hall; Business Moves Group; MITIE Group; Johnson Workplace Management; ISS UK; Reliance Integrated Services; Hays Montrose Facilities Management; Judd Farris Recruitment; Larch Consulting; Land Securities Trillium and OCS Group.

 

The Judges for the 2004 Awards were: Graham Briscoe; John W Buckenham, Bob Davey, Stephen Fowell, Richard Furter, Bernard Giller, Clive Godsave, Cathy Hardiman, Hugh Henderson, Anthony R Hill, Ian Ingrey-Counter, Richard Kinch, Gareth Lloyd, James Lodge, Joanna Lloyd-Davies, Nigel Francis Maydew, John Mitchell, Aubrey Michael Rodgers, John Andrew Sale, Stephen Stanley, Terry W Trickett, Michelle Van Vuuren, Richard Watts, Brian Wright, Richard Zipeure, Tony Johnstone, Marie-Cecile Puybaraud.