A new management discipline?

IT and facilities management live in separate worlds with distinct disciplines, organizational cultures, and professional networks. Over the last decade or more these two managerial functions are converging, driven by new ways of working; the advent of high speed networks, and perhaps most urgently the need for greater energy efficiency and sustainability in the enterprise. The need for greater collaboration and joint management between IT and facilities is dramatically revealed within the modern data center. There is an energy crisis in the data center, driven by the introduction of high density equipment like blade servers; which can quadruple the demand for power and associated cooling. Many data centers have reached the limits of available power and cooling; requiring wholesale upgrade or relocation to meet new capacity demands. But in many organizations, the facilities group and the IT group fail to communicate, and collaborate on meeting these critical infrastructure shortfalls.

There are three megatrends driving the convergence of facilities and IT management. They include the need for energy conservation as mentioned above; since the new energy hog in the enterprise is the proliferation of high density IT equipment. The second megatrend is the heightened need for compliance and transparency. Facilities assets and leases represent huge commitments and liabilities necessitating robust information and process management systems. And finally business continuity. Facilities management and IT management must establish the systems and protocols necessary to insure business continuity of operations in the event of a catastrophic business disruption.

This Blog will explore the convergence of IT and facilities management in a variety of contexts; supporting new more mobile and collaborative work styles; supporting a globalized workforce; managing enterprise assets both IT and facilities assets holistically, supporting the "greening" imperitive, integrated workplace management systems (IWMS), and related topics.

I look forward to your comments and feedback.