Facilities management is a sector where contracts worth tens of billions are awarded every year in the UK. The outsourced FM market alone is valued at almost £50 billion annually, with public sector buyers accounting for more than £14 billion of that spend. With so much at stake, procurement decisions carry weighty consequences. Yet the process of awarding contracts has often been dominated by cost, with price weighted most heavily in tender evaluations.
The difficulty with this approach is that it frequently rewards the cheapest bid rather than the most effective provider. Case studies and references may add colour, but the underlying assumptions about task times, staffing levels and efficiency are rarely validated. Buyers can only hope that the numbers stack up once the contract goes live. Too often, that hope proves misplaced, and what looked like a saving at the bidding stage turns into operational strain, compliance risk and client dissatisfaction later on.
Why data matters
The answer lies in moving from assumptions to evidence. Analytics makes it possible to understand how services are really delivered, not just how they are projected on paper. In sectors such as logistics and security, digital systems already provide clients with real-time visibility of activity, performance and safety. Facilities management is now catching up.
EyeClean is an example of how this shift is being enabled. The field service management software captures live data on how long operatives spend in different areas, how they move across sites, and where downtime is creeping in. It validates attendance, highlights inefficiencies and even provides welfare checks for lone workers. This kind of transparency goes far beyond a basic timesheet or clock-in system: it provides procurement teams with proof that service is being delivered as promised, and providers with the ability to back up their claims with facts.
From assumptions to evidence
When tenders are underpinned by operational data, the discussion changes. Instead of submitting projected figures about how many hours a task should take, bidders can demonstrate what actually happens across live environments. EyeClean, for instance, makes it possible to show that restroom cleaning in a hotel or terminal consistently takes a set period of time, validated by timestamped logs and GPS tags. Where traditional bids rely on narrative, data brings measurable proof.
This does more than strengthen a tender. It also allows staffing models and service levels to be stress-tested. If absenteeism rises, how resilient is the contract? If a particular task regularly exceeds its allocated time, what are the implications for resource planning? Analytics offers clear answers to questions that otherwise remain hidden in assumptions. For procurement teams, that assurance is invaluable.
Data as a differentiator
The competitive edge for FM providers increasingly lies in their ability to offer transparency. Buyers are becoming increasingly alert to the risks of choosing the lowest bidder, and what they now want is evidence of consistency, efficiency and accountability. Being able to deliver this by transforming day-to-day service into visible, auditable data, not only helps to win contracts but also keeps them on track once they are underway, by flagging drift before it turns into dispute.
Performance-based procurement
As procurement evolves, there is likely to be greater emphasis on performance-based contracting, where payments and renewals are linked to demonstrable outcomes rather than projections. Data and analytics make this possible. They shift the relationship between buyer and provider away from reliance on trust and towards collaboration based on shared visibility.
For FM providers, the lesson is clear: analytics is no longer a back-office reporting tool, but a front-end differentiator. By embedding field service management software like EyeClean into their operations, providers can pitch with confidence, prove their value in practice, and build lasting client relationships based on evidence. In a market as competitive as FM, that ability to turn invisible work into visible assurance may well determine who succeeds and who falls behind.