The Jordanian FM industry in general is considered as vulnerable due to many elements and appointing a third party service provider is the one of the biggest challenges this domain faces as it moves forward slowly. It is estimated that outsourcing Soft FM service providers does not exceed 30% of the total market volume and hence it is highly expected to grow tremendously in 5 years down the line.

It is very important to admit that regional FM players started playing a great role for the past decade when they decided to come and invest in Jordan to add value to big real estate developers who were looking for such third party service providers to maintain their assets healthy and neat at the same time and of course deliver the ROI forecasted within anticipated investment period. 

Having said the above, a lot of local Soft FM service providers seized opportunity and started considering to evolve and develop their skill set as well as approach towards this industry. Local companies eventually and in a few years started to rub shoulders with big regional players and get into big bids and won a few of them.

Looking at the Soft FM domain scene in Jordan nowadays, we can imply that it is developing within a considerable decent pace. An appetite is very clearly seen for those who are really willing to maintain and increase their presence and market share leveraging on the increasing demand from both the private as well as public sectors.

The growth we have indicated above of course has some pain along the way, I personally believe that survival in such hugely competitive market is for the fittest which is not only depending on the financial aspect; it needs a lot of dedication, culture & market canvas awareness, openness to expansions & MA’s, quality deliverables, flexibility for add-ons and finally local laws and regulations compliance.

As we go and get invited as well as qualified for current and coming up projects respectively; technology has imposed itself as clients are becoming indulged with the fact that they need to maximize their utilization of resources. Accordingly, Soft FM service providers have no choice but to propose their best IT solutions to have the operations as optimized and cost effective as possible.

Educating current and potential clients on the pros IT solutions can add to their facilities and the cons that will be demolished was a huge contributor towards digitizing the FM industry. It is very clear that IT part therein the latest received RFPs is one essential component and as a matter of fact has an evaluation weight once proposed.

Finally, Soft FM in Jordan is on the verge of evolving and expanding as clients are becoming more educated about the services provided which will enable them to enjoy conducting their own core activities and have less stress in the business environment in general.

About the author

Aboud Abu Gharbieh is the General Manager at Total Care Facilities Management in Jordan. Prior to this, we worked as the General Manager of MAB Facility Management in Jordan.