How it works - a quick overview of the key functionality

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Some advice before you start

• EstatesMaster is a sophisticated tool created by experts in facilities benchmarking.

• Correctly used it can be an incredibly accurate and useful medium for getting value for money across all your important facilities services.

• Every effort has been made to make EstatesMaster as easy as possible to use by people who have had no previous experience of benchmarking and who may not be skilled in depth at every level required by the program.

• However, whether you are a practising facilities manager, or of another professional discipline charged with benchmarking facilities costs and performance, you should consider taking specialist advice on answering the questions from benchmarking specialists, especially if you are going to use Level 3.

• IFPI have a team of such specialists available should you need help or will be happy to recommend people who have the necessary skills. For larger estates, IFPI will be happy to arrange training in use of the program for members of organisations who are likely to be involved in operating the program.

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Purpose of this guide

• This abbreviated version of the User Guide is specifically for those who are interested in purchasing a licence on-line in respect of a single building or small group of buildings and simply want to get an idea of how the program works.

• It explains the differences between the various levels of entry and the sort of questions you will be invited to answer at each level.

• There is also a brief introduction to how the program can be used for groups of buildings within a portfolio.

• Once you have purchased a licence you can download a much more detailed slideshow covering every aspect of operating the program in detail.

Purchasing a LicenceTo purchase a licence to use EstatesMaster click on Purchase Licence

The full procedure for this is explained in the Download ppt. on the Control Panel

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Starting the surveyThe program knows which Level you have purchased – Level 1 in this example.

Read the ‘Start New Survey’ instructions thoroughly then Click on Start Level One Survey.

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Creating a single buildingFill in all required * fields ………… the dimensional data can be in either metric or Imperial

measures.

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Creating a single building – category codesEstatesMaster has its own set of acronyms for the more common building types. These are automatically allocated when you select your building category from the drop-down menu. E.g.an Office Headquarters

building becomes OH within the program. If your category is not here please contact the Licensors.Click on Save and Continue.

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Select the Level of EntryEstatesMaster has 3 Levels of Entry – a licence for one level includes the use of the one(s) below

– so a Level 3 licence lets you use Levels 1 and 2 if you want to.

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Level OneThis is for ballpark estimates - not benchmarks. It asks you to define the Scope of the work, the

standard of performance and the level of difficulty of achieving that standard. Questions are asked at the basic Cost Centre Level and not individually for the SCOPE items. It is very high-level!

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Selecting the items within the scope of your surveyThis is Level 1 Cleaning. Select the scope items and click on Save your scopes and edit the questionnaire. Any deselected scope items will no longer appear in the survey unless reactivated. You may only do this twice without getting a written dispensation from the Licensor.

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Answering the questions(n.b. If this were your third survey, Edit Scope would not be available in Question Navigation – as here).

Begin your questionnaire, by clicking on Q1.

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Answering the questionsQuestion 1: Select the Quarter date from the drop down menu and then click and answer Q2-7.

Then click on the next set of questions – Performance -from the Question Navigation panel and so on.As you can see, when you click on a question a Helptext appears underneath the answer. Read this!

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Answering the questionsIt is worth doing Quick Save after completing the section; but you do not want to Click on

Save all questions and submit to Results till you have completed the whole survey.

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Answering the questions for a single buildingFor a single building your list of answer options will look like this: normally there are 5 options plus Outside Scope.

You must first read the Helptext. Then fill in the %ages applicable to each option using the drop-down menus until they total 100%. When that happens OK will go green and you can continue to the next question. Here the Cleaning standard has been

selected at 100% Average for the whole Cost Centre – but this is just Level 1.

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Creating a Building GroupTo create a building group on-screen Click on Buildings & Groups. This process is explained in

detail in the Manual you can download from the Control Panel

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Answering the questions – for a Group of buildingsGroups of buildings cannot be benchmarked by users with a Level-1-only licence. Normally purchasers of a Level 1 licence on-screen will be surveying single buildings but it is possible to create and survey small groups of buildings via an on-screen purchase of a Level 2 or 3 licence. Creation and benchmarking of groups is explained later; however this is an example of a group containing buildings in 5 different categories

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Answering the questions – for a Group of buildingsFor multi-building surveys (7960 buildings is the record so far!) if the answer to a question is the same for all categories of buildings,

click on the drop-down menu beside the word All and select your answer.The example here is from a Level 3 survey of a very large group ; note that the Navigation pane has far more options than at Level 1

having detailed questions about the drivers in each SCOPE item .

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Answering questions for individual buildings in a Group

If you want to answer a question for an individual building you click on Answer for Individual Building (not available on Level 1 surveys).

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Filtering out individual buildings, classes or regions in a Group.

To filter out individual buildings or buildings in a specific location enter a keyword (Central here).

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Level 2 SurveysThe scope items are the same for all Levels. However, at Level 2 you will be asked about the standards and degree of difficulty in each scope item. Maintenance scope is shown here.

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Level 3 SurveysSecurity Level 3 is shown here. After the Scope items have been selected they appear in the

Navigation Pane after the Financial tab, questions for which have been selected at this point.

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Level 3 SurveysThe Questions for the Site Entry Guarding Scope item are shown here. The first question is

answered and the Helptext expanded. Here at Level 3 there is a question about each resource driver for each Scope item. At Level 2 you are merely asked about how significant the resource

drivers are overall for each scope item. At Level 1 you are merely asked how difficult is Security!

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Submitting the answers in your surveyAfter completing all the questions lick on Save all questions and submit to Results.

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Submitting the answers in your surveyIf any questions have not been completed the program will not let you proceed till the errors are

corrected; you must click on OK and readdress the question indicated.

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The ResultsThe benchmark range in £/$ sq.m (or sq.ft) GIA is set against the Actual cost/sq.m GIA on the top line followed

by the comparative totals. This is a Level 1 survey so the benchmark range is quite wide. Nevertheless……, as the graphic depiction clearly shows (Orange is the Actual) , the result looks reasonably healthy. There is a Results

Interpretation for each of the 3 possible scenarios – within, above or below benchmark.

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The Results…… as the graphic depiction clearly shows (Orange is the Actual) , the result looks reasonably

healthy. There is a Results Interpretation for each of the 3 possible scenarios – within, above or below benchmark. Note that as this survey is at Level 1 there is a caveat about taking the result to

indicate good performance.

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The ResultsThe licensors have access to the detailed analysis of the benchmark on a Scope-item basis.

They also have the benchmarks in prime costs of labour, materials, equipment and oncosts. This is not available to licensees but may be used by the licensors to investigate and feed back any apparently

anomalous results coming from a survey

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Merging ResultsYou can bring together for comparison any number of surveys of the same building or

group by opening the tab Result Comparison

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Merging ResultsThese results are for a major contract for Cleaning and Maintenance of approaching

8000 buildings – Level 3 answers filled in independently by the licensee. The results for each cost centre are shown separately and also merged into one total benchmark.

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Results per buildingA benchmark is available for each individual building. The shape and size of each building is taken

into account by the program together with any answers for its own category. If you have answered any question for the building individually that will override the category answer for

that building. Note how the cost per sq.m (sq.ft) GIA varies from building to building – with size being a major determinant.

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The Results – Download ReportsYou can download the Results Page by clicking on Download Reports. From here you can either Open or Save to file.

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Survey ManagementHaving got to the Result, by clicking on Survey Management you will open up options to:

View all surveys and their status; Edit a survey; Copy a survey and edit it under a new title; View Previous Answers; Return to Results Page.

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Survey ManagementEach survey in the group is listed with the one you were working on highlighted in Yellow. From

here you can get back into any survey or simply explore/edit the current one.

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What next ?

• This has been a short introduction to an ingenious program which has a much greater level of functionality than we have been able to illustrate here.

• If you think it may be for you please go back to the Home Page and Register your interest.

• You can than download a Manual showing you how to find out how much it costs to purchase a licence and how to go about it.

• It is a very simple process and there is no commitment whatsoever until you have paid your invoice.

• Happy benchmarking!

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