Building & Facilities Operations

Do you know the Fiery Five? No, they don’t occupy an attractive, elite table in cafeteria, but checking them out will be much more rewarding. They represent our latest and greatest in educational resources to help you properly assess and optimize your Fire & Life Safety systems. Not lighting your fire? The importance of Fire & Life Safety improvements can be summed up in four words: property loss and occupant injury.

The Fiery 5 in Fire & Life Safety:

1. Video (1:38)

3 Must-Do Fire & Life Safety Activities

Peter Harrod of RJA outlines three important steps to take when assessing your Fire & Life safety system, features and compliance.

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2. Microsite

Assessing the Condition of Your Fire & Life Safety Systems

View the complete Conquering the Code webinar presentation, bonus videos, a sample Fire & Life Safety Assessment Report, resource links, and more Risk Management tools!

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3. Video (2:07)

Potential Costs of Not Following FLS Best Practices

Peter Harrod of RJA speaks to the risk involved when fire life safety due diligence isn’t achieved.

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4. Blog Post

10 Biggest Mistakes People Make with Fire & Life Safety Systems… And How to Avoid Them

Fire & Life Safety systems are in place because unplanned incidents and mistakes happen. Those mistakes shouldn’t be the way you use your system. See if you’re guilty of the 10 common mistakes building owners and managers make with their Fire & Life Safety systems.

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5. On-Demand Webinar (35:40):

Conquering the Code with Peter Harrod, Fire Protection Engineer at RJA

This complimentary webinar will share how to recognize deficiencies in your equipment, identify code violations, and plan the retroactive and forward thinking changes that will attract and retain tenants, mitigate risk and positively position your property for resale.

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Manage fire & life safety, visitor access, incidents, certificates of insurance and more with Building Engines Risk Management Tools.

Are you hanging on to a dinosaur of a life safety system? Avoid extinction and prove that you are up to snuff with the codes and standards. Fire Protection Engineer, Peter Harrod of Rolf Jensen & Associates, shares his insights in our recent webinar, Conquering the Code! Assessing the Condition of Your Fire & Life Safety Systems.

One trend that we continue to see is that the inspection testing and maintenance of fire life safety systems generally are deferred entirely to the fire alarm and fire life safety contractors. On the surface that is the right expectation and those folks should be servicing your systems. However, the challenge is that the contractors oftentimes are providing quality and documentation that is less than what is otherwise required by the applicable codes and standards for all life safety systems that we have in our existing facilities.

You can now watch the webinar highlights in our Executive Summary (8:43):

Like options? Access the full webinar On-Demand, read the transcript, or download the mp3!

Manage fire & life safety, visitor access, incidents, certificates of insurance and more with Building Engines Risk Management Tools.

Fire and Life Safety systems are in place because unplanned incidents and mistakes happen. Those mistakes shouldn’t be the way you use your system. Don’t fall trap to #4 and confront the responsibilities that building owner and managers are liable for! Start dishing on the condition of your system and be wary of the common mistakes below.

The Top Ten  Fire & Life Safety System Mistakes to Avoid:

Continuing to band-aid an outdated system, rather than replace it.

Missing the Big Picture: Have all the little one-off improvements and renovations necessitated a change to the entire system?

Not implementing building and portfolio-wide fire and life safety standards.

Passing the Buck to Service Providers.

Thinking you can catch up later when the market turns around. Codes change. Tenant demands change. New technology is introduced. Don’t fall behind your competition!

Not doing an Assessment of Condition of your Fire & Life Safety systems at each building.

Diving into a Fire & Life Safety overhaul without first outlining and prioritizing baseline requirements and goals.

Choosing the wrong person or team to spearhead the project.

Share is Caring: Making sure that all appropriate building representatives get their hands on the final report.

Neglecting to utilize technology in the process.

If any of the above mistakes sound a little too familiar, register for our free upcoming webinar with speaker Peter Harrod of Rolf Jensen &Associates:

Conquering the Code! Assessing the Condition of Your Fire & Life Safety Systems

Date: Wednesday, January 25th, 12:00pm – 1:00pm EST

Guest Speaker: Peter Harrod, Senior V.P. of Rolf Jensen & Associates, Inc.

Conquering the Code!

Assessing the Condition of Your Fire & Life Safety Systems

Are unknown fire and life safety violations and out-of-date standards putting your property at risk? Can you not only speak confidently, but prove that your building or portfolio is being properly inspected, tested and maintained? Learn More!

In 30 minutes, you will learn how to:

• Implement an Assessment of Condition of your Fire & Life Safety Systems
• Plan the forward thinking changes that will attract and retain tenants
• Avoid the 10 biggest Fire & Life Safety management mistakes
• and more!

“We might feel that we’re passing on the liability to our service provider, but there is still a responsibility as a building manager and/or owner to ensure that we’re testing, inspecting and maintaining our fire life safety systems in accordance with the jurisdiction’s codes and standards.”

-Peter Harrod, Senior VP at Rolf Jensen & Associates

Tailgating is fun, right? Football, food, family, friends… forgive the alliteration, but what’s not to like?

Rewind back to real estate mode and you’ll see that tailgating doesn’t reference weekend football pleasantries, but instead the potentially dangerous outcomes of undocumented building entry. This sounds like it should involve stealthy espionage activity on behalf of the intruder, but undocumented entry can be the result of something as innocent as holding the door open for the person behind you.

There are strategies, though, to protect against undocumented entry. According to an article in Buildings magazine by Jennie Morton (10 Strategies to Prevent Tailgating), there are three categories undocumented building entry can be broken down into:

1. The Problem,
2. The Solution
3. Building the Culture

The Problem is simple to understand. Tailgating can expose your building to things such as domestic violence, theft, sabotage, and terrorism… to name a few. Additionally, think about the areas inside buildings that require restricted access. There are some places where you really do not want intruders such as laboratories, pharmacies, operating suites, equipment rooms, and data centers. Morton explains how you may want to restrict and track who can access valuable equipment, sensitive files, or toxic chemicals.

Still not convinced that tailgating is a problem? Morton says to “consider the security measures you’ve already implemented.” For example, Warren Rosebraugh presents the idea that if you already have a security system installed, you think that the building’s contents are important enough to protect in the first place. So then why would you let people move around the property freely anyway?

The Solution is made to seem simple by Morton as well. Building owners can choose to implement one, or a combination of, these ten security solutions:

1. Smart cards house multiple credentials on one card.
2. Security guards can visually confirm a badge matches the holder.
3. Turnstiles serve as a physical barrier and are good for high-volume traffic.
4. Laser sensors can detect multiple people.
5. Biometrics deter employees from sharing credentials.
6. Long-range readers can be used in parking lots and garages.
7. PIN numbers can be added to card readers.
8. Camera analytics enable remote facial recognition.
9. Visitor badges ensure temporary guests are documented.
10. Man traps or air locks require a double set of identification.

Finally, Building the Culture can be the most difficult category to implement. Installing the most advanced security systems on the market is all well and good, but what if the occupants of your building aren’t on-board with your enhanced security plan? This can detract from every measure in place. Morton says you need to “create a secure building culture.” Use clear expectations and consistent communication in order to shape behavior.  Make sure your occupants are aware of tailgating risks and keep them empowered to challenge any unfamiliar faces.

If you’re looking at all of this and feeling overwhelmed – take a deep breath… Jennie Morton is here to save you again. In another Building’s article (4 Tips for a Corporate Security Plan), Morton gives 4 clear-cut steps to installing or updating a security plan.

1. Provide a Standard. Ensures that a location hasn’t overlooked a security concern.
2. Circumvent Liability. You need documentation in place to prove you’ve taken appropriate action.
3. Avoid Micromanagement. Make sure your plan’s requirements are broad enough so they can be adjusted.
4. Rely on Experts. Don’t forget to take advantage of security professionals who interact directly with your buildings.

Thinking about making your building secure doesn’t have to feel like a heart attack. By following simple steps and implementing plans that your occupants can respect and uphold you’ll be able to keep everything under control and, most importantly, safe. Think about it this way: confusing your building lobby with the parking lot of the “big game” is probably not what you want to happen.

I recently discovered an interesting new insurance product for the small owner Multi-family market that allows private landlords in the U.S. rent default insurance. It may be hard to understand the excitement behind this new offering, so let me paint a picture for you:

Three kids in college, the economy, a mid-life crisis car, digital cable (with HBO added on, of course), utilities, holidays, etc. The list is extensive! It’s going to be a tough year to go to the lake house. Gah, the lake house! There’s another expense to add to the list. Wait a minute… the lake house. We don’t need to go to the lake house, but someone else could! There has to be someone out there willing to rent my second home. Here I go, time to find a tenant…”

This thought process could be the catalyst to someone’s shift from owning a second home to owning a residential investment property. Great idea – renting out one’s investment property can yield rental income of potentially great value to the owner. So, say our protagonist from the beginning is named Jim. Jim finds someone he thinks will be a suitable tenant for his lake house property. Sure, this guy looks a bit sketchy, wears a dirty white undershirt covered in Doritos, and doesn’t seem to bath often, but Jim needs the money and the lake house has been more of a fund-guzzler than a leisurely retreat for his family. This tenant will do.

Things are going well with Jim and his rental property, until after a few months, Jim’s tenant stops paying rent. As the residential landlord, Jim is now losing his much-appreciated monthly income. There’s no money coming in and money still going out for ongoing property expenses. Essentially, this is turning into a severe financial problem for Jim. What is Jim going to do? Putting aside the more illegal, painful, and/or mob-affiliated options, Jim turns to Aon Affinity and their rent default insurance.

Through a group effort with ARS and GRIP Solutions Advisory carrier partner QBE Insurance Group, Aon Affinity has created  Aon Rent Protect insurance so that landlords, like Jim, don’t have to worry about financial terrors resulting from deadbeat tenants. Rent Protect was designed to reimburse up to six months of lost rent which puts Rent Protect in a league of its own in the U.S. when it comes to protecting individual landlords against rent default.

And hey, don’t feel bad about the premium subscription to HBO. We all know how hard it is to crack a severe addiction to Entourage.

It’s a new year and new you – with the same needs to enhance operations and customer service. As we shelf 2011 and delve into 2012, here’s a look back at our most popular educational content and resources from the past year.

The top topics enjoyed by your peers:

Checklist: Implementing a Successful Emergency Response Plan

How ready are you for an emergency? How do you track and document incidents? What sort of emergency preparedness training do your employees have? When was the last time you practiced a tabletop exercise? Time to assess your readiness?

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Webinar Executive Summary: From an Owner & Investor- Metrics That Matter

Senior Real Estate Investor, Timothy Donahoe shares his perspective on identifying key areas for metrics and visibility to mitigate risk and enhance investor returns. Watch the full webinar or just the highlights of Donahoe’s insights into quantifiable operational performance metrics. Take measures to measure!

CRE Quick Take: Proving Your Value to Your Manager, Owners, Clients… and Yourself!

This article shows you how to keep all your balls in the air AND prove your value to the owner, interested in the highest return from the property, and your tenants, interested in the best service and value for their money.

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Building Engines Kit: Tenant Retention

Is your tenant retention program building loyalty and increasing retention? Does it accurately document tenant meetings, service requests and other important state-of-the-tenant information:? Download the Building Engines Tenant Retention Kit and start assessing your level of tenant service today!

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Get ready for the year to come!

Register free for the 2012 Real Estate Operations Masters Series and receive automatic registration for webinars, on-demand content, and best practices on a variety of operations topics.

On September 27th, the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC released a preparedness checklist as part of its Rad Resilient City Initiative to prepare cities for a nuclear detonation response.

Building Engines client, Beacon Capital Partners, and their internationally respected expert on emergency preparedness, Joe Donovan, were among the new document’s recipients in the private sector. Having recently shared his insights on managing risk with us (watch his Emergency Preparedness Webinar), Donovan has established himself as a leader in the field.

As chair of the Building Owners and Managers Association preparedness committee, Donovan plans to include the checklist for the association’s 16,500 members. According to a Global Security Newswire article, the plan is also being reviewed by the Real Estate Roundtable’s Homeland Security Taskforce and the Commercial Facilities Sector Coordinating Council, organizations both co-chaired by Donovan.

At its Tuesday launch, Donovan remarked that the Rad Resilient City Initiative “is something that will only help us in the long term to foster, to nurture, to cajole, those conversations that have to take place.”

Monica Schoch-Spana, a member of the Nuclear Resilience Expert Advisory Group that developed the report, believes that the plan will help create an “all-hazards framework” whose implementation would promote preparedness measures for other disasters.

Open the Rad Resilient City fallout preparedness checklist!

Building Engines has developed its own Emergency Readiness Plan for property owners and managers. Download the Building Engines Checklist for Implementing a Successful Emergency Readiness Plan!

September is National Preparedness Month. Were you ready? Find yourself wishing you had more time and resources to enhance your emergency preparedness and response plan?

Don’t worry! Our team spent the last month scouring industry sources for the top components to Implementing a Successful Emergency Readiness Plan… and we’ve put it all in a checklist!

How do you track and document incidents?

What sort of emergency preparedness training do your employees have?

When was the last time you practiced a tabletop exercise?

… Time to assess your readiness?

Download the Building Engines Checklist to see if you may be at risk!

Like checklists? See the General Items to Include in Your Tenant Retention Plan!

We’re halfway through National Preparedness Month, but we’re going all the way to ensure we’re ready for that black swan event. What I’m talking about does not involve Nathalie Portman, and it’s not a subject your company should dance around. Preparation for an unpredictable event calls for more tabletop exercises than barre exercises.

Now is the perfect time for commercial real estate owners to assess their respective levels of readiness. Did you go “halfway” on your emergency pre-plans? Have you forwarded all the necessary information to first responders in advance of an emergency? Do you practice regular tabletop exercises? In sum, are you prepared for when the “what if” scenario becomes “what now?”

Ready or not, here comes the Building Engines Emergency Preparedness Kit to help you assess and raise your level of readiness. Here’s a glance at what’s inside:

Checklist: Implementing a Successful Emergency Response Plan

Case Study: Cook County Chicago Fire

Webinar: Emergency Preparedness- Managing risk and the changing role of the property manager

And More!

Download the Kit here!