E8 Involvement in Contract Management

Most facilities are supplied, managed and serviced by a number of entities. Although the actual contracts with these entities would be typically be managed by the appropriate commercial and legal departments, Facilities Management will play a key role in specifying and negotiating these contracts. Typical contracts include:

• Management of leases for leased properties. This is quite rare, as most organizations view their Data Centre as a key asset. Leasing such facilities would be seen as a risk because of the potential that the building is sold, the lessor goes out of business or the lessor does not fulfil the contract in terms of proper maintenance.
• Leasing or maintenance of environmental equipment, such as air-conditioning units, environmental monitoring and alert (e.g. smoke detection and fire-fighting or suppression equipment).
• Building maintenance contracts. These include servicing of elevators, flooring, plumbing and electrical supply.
• Telecommunications facilities. Although telecommunications is usually managed by a dedicated team or department or as part of Wide Area Networking, they are often dependent on third parties to supply and maintain telecommunication equipment located in or just outside the Data Centre. In many countries these are provided by government or para-state telecommunications organizations. Management of these types of contracts requires a special skill set.
• Security services for the provision of physical access control and armed response services.

A very important part of Contract Management is to ensure that all third-party staff are aware of, and comply with, the security policies of the organization. This includes physical access control, confidentiality and unauthorized use of the organization’s facilities or equipment. Regular audits should be held to ensure that this is being enforced.

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 882