Insights
Practical thinking on FM data - margins, operations, compliance, and what’s actually worth doing with AI.
Articles
52 articles in All
How a security provider reduced agency spend by 16% with Datore
Agency cover was eating the contract. Joining rostering to actual hours worked showed exactly which sites, which shifts and which managers - and what to do about it.
The Worst Data Project I Ever Saw Was Perfectly Well Run...
There are three ways a mid-market business usually goes about doing more with data. Here's how each plays out, what it really costs, and what to watch for whichever route you pick.
Proactive Employee Retention: Your Recruitment Policy for 2026
The cheapest hire is the person who does not leave. How to spot a flight risk in the data you already collect, and what to do once you have.
The ‘my team made this in an hour’ conundrum. Mock-ups vs production analytics
Mock-ups versus production analytics. Why the demo dashboard that took an afternoon never survives contact with month-end.
Data as a Differentiator: How FM Providers Are Winning Bids They Shouldn’t / Couldn’t.
Smaller providers are beating incumbents on the data question. Not because they have more of it - because they can evidence it.
Data-driven, or just data-justified?
Most FM boards already made the decision. The numbers arrive afterwards to make everyone feel better about it.
Why Customer Analytics Portals Will Be the Defining Differentiator for FM Service Providers in 2026
Customers stopped asking for monthly PDFs. They want the same view you have, whenever they want it.
FM Data in 2026: Are We Finally Improving Business with Insights Instead of Just Building Useless Dashboards?
2025 left the industry with more dashboards and the same margin leakage. What is changing in 2026, with three examples of data that changed a decision.
Datore Awarded Best SME Led Innovation at the IWFM Impact Awards 2025
Datore took Best SME/Start-up Led Innovation at the IWFM Impact Awards 2025. What the judges picked up on, and who it is really a win for.
Client Portal to Power Commercial Cleaning Operations
A cleaning contractor kept being asked how it differed from the rest. A client portal built on its own operating data answered the question and lifted margin.
Win more cleaning contracts and keep your clients happy by harnessing your data as your differentiator
Specification writers keep asking the same four questions. Here is what a scoring answer actually looks like.
Uncovering Hidden Costs: How Can You Pinpoint Operational Overspend with Financial Data Analytics
The overspend is rarely where finance thinks it is. It hides between systems - in cover, in travel, in additional works nobody billed.
5 new customers in 8 weeks? YDD is catching fire!
Five new clients in eight weeks for Your Data Department. What the early buyers have in common, and what it says about where FM has got to.
How FM Consultants Increase Their Revenue with Analytics as a Service
Consultants add analytics to keep the clients they have. The revenue that follows - new contracts, bigger scope - tends to arrive as a by-product.
DNA of Excellence – Is Your Business Excellent?
Most firms say they aim for excellence and cannot say whether they hit it. A method for defining the standard per line of business and benchmarking against it live.
Helping Consultants Differentiate in a Challenging Marketplace with White Label Analytics
An FM consultant built a branded analytics portal for every client in eight weeks. Two new clients followed, and the existing ones stopped shopping around.
Why Facilities Management Consultants Need Better Access to Data (and so do their customers)
Clients have stopped paying for after-the-fact reports. Consultants who can show the numbers in real time are being kept on; the rest are being re-tendered.
Revolutionising Washroom Maintenance, Leak Detection, and Air Quality with IoT Devices & Analytics
Cleaning to a fixed schedule wastes rounds and misses peaks. IoT sensors plus analytics move washrooms, leak detection and air quality onto demand.
Turning Buildings Smart with Existing BMS and Building Utilisation Technology paired with Analytics and AI
Your BMS, access control and booking systems already hold the data. Analytics on top of them gives anomaly alerts and one view, without a rip-and-replace.
Smart Building Solutions on a Limited Budget
Emissions down 12% and full payback in four months, using only the systems already in the building. Nothing new was installed.
Asset Performance Monitoring for Predictive Maintenance and Performance Optimisation
Asset performance monitoring turns repair-when-it-breaks into warn-before-it-breaks. What it needs from your data before it can do that.
How can FM Consultants Differentiate in 2025? – White Label Analytics
The same deck at every quarterly review no longer holds a contract. White-label analytics gives consultants something clients cannot get elsewhere.
Data-Driven Asset Lifecycle Solutions for Each Phase of Asset Lifecycle Management
Acquisition, operation, maintenance, disposal. What data does for cost of ownership and reliability at each phase of an asset's life.
Strategic Resource Allocation in Facilities Management
Staff, budget, tasks, assets, space and time all compete for the same tight envelope. How to allocate them on evidence rather than on the loudest request.
Implementing Predictive Maintenance Without Data Department
Predictive maintenance can cut downtime by half. What to monitor - vibration, noise, energy, temperature - and how to do it without hiring a data team.
12 Steps Guide to Process Automation in Facilities Management
Twelve steps from assessing what you do today to automating workflow, maintenance, HR, energy and reporting - in the order they actually work.
Space Optimisation: Efficient Data-Driven Techniques
Occupancy, hot-desking, slotting and layout, measured rather than guessed. Techniques for offices, warehouses, production sites and retail floors.
How to Create an Accurate Environmental Report for Your ESG Disclosure?
Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, energy, water and waste - what an accurate environmental report needs, and why accuracy is a data problem first.
How to Create an Effective Governance Report for Your ESG Disclosure?
Governance is the hardest of the three ESG pillars to evidence. What a defensible governance report contains and what data has to sit behind it.
How to Create an Impactful Social Report for Your ESG Disclosure?
Choosing social initiatives is the easy bit. Measuring what they changed, for staff and for the community, is where most social reports come apart.
The Power of Data: Renewable Energy Analytics & Carbon Credits
Generating green energy is the easy part. Forecasting yield, proving performance and evidencing carbon credits all come down to the measurement.
Energy Savings You Can’t Afford to Miss – A Step-by-Step Guide to Bill Reconciliation
Energy suppliers get bills wrong more often than you would think. Nine steps to check yours against actual consumption and claim the difference back.
The Most Effective Approach to Saving Energy for Your Business
Submetering, pattern analysis and proactive alerts can take a third off consumption. Five tactics that work on the infrastructure you already have.
From Raw Data to Actionable Insights: Delivery Methodology that Guarantees Business Impact
Four sprints from raw data to a dashboard people use: connections, modelling, playback and iteration. What happens in each, and what you sign off.
Industry and Data Experts for Actionable Insights: The Unrivalled Power of Combined Expertise
Data people can build the model. Industry people know which answer matters. Insights only turn into action when both are on the same job.
6 Initial Steps to Become Data Driven – The Crucial Role of a Robust Discovery Methodology
The six discovery steps that decide whether a data programme delivers: objectives, sources, collection, quality, stakeholders and what you do next.
Predictive Maintenance of Critical Assets for Logistics Providers
One conveyor system, weeks of lead time on a replacement motor. Energy, temperature, noise and vibration monitoring turned a six-figure risk into a schedule.
Automating HR For a Major FM Service Provider
HR was losing eight days a month to copy and paste. Automating the entry and centralising the records gave that time back to the team.
The SFMI Scope 3 Event: Driving Sustainability in Facilities Management
What came out of the SFMI Scope 3 meeting in London: where FM sustainability performance is actually improving, and the part data plays in it.
The Power of White Label Analytics for Consultants
White-label analytics lets a consultancy put its own brand on client dashboards without building the platform. What it costs to buy versus build.
Developing benchmarking for Scope 3 emissions within Facilities Management
Benchmarking thousands of suppliers on Scope 3 emissions without living in a spreadsheet - and turning the benchmark into a consultancy service.
Cutting costs with data-driven employee management
Absence and shift data sat in separate systems, so agency cover went unchallenged. One view of rostering against attendance put the budget back in reach.
Upgrading the quality of services with site performance analysis.
Why do some sites outperform others on the same contract? Joining the operating data across sites showed which methods travel and which do not.
Improving Energy Use in Hundreds of Commercial Buildings
A UK retailer saved £180,000 on energy and cut reporting time by 90%. It started with naming the meters properly.
“We Have Power BI and a Super Smart Analyst…”
A licence and one clever analyst is a good start and rarely enough. The six jobs a data project actually needs, and where a single analyst gets stuck.
Datore selected by Acclaro Advisory to provide key analytics for the Scope 3 Emissions SFMI Framework Programme
Acclaro Advisory picked Datore to run the analytics behind the SFMI Scope 3 Emissions Framework Programme. What the programme covers and who it is for.
Transform your FM operations one data insight at a time.
Building the warehouse first is how data projects die. Start from the decision you want to change and work backwards to the data that changes it.
5 Hacks to Maximise the Impact of Your FM Data
Five moves that pay back quickly on data you already hold: energy at asset level, wellbeing, scenario planning, workspace and maintenance.
Why a Client Analytics Portal Is the Future for FM Service Providers
Clients want the numbers themselves, not a monthly deck. What a client portal does for retention and new bids, and what it takes to stand one up.
“I’m a facilities manager, data isn’t for me” and other myths we busted during The Workplace Event 2023.
Four objections we heard all week at The Workplace Event: not for FM, systems too old, firm too small, all too complicated. Each one answered.
Ask Your Data Questions in Plain English with Natural Language Query
Natural language query lets anyone ask the data a question and get a chart back. How it works in Power BI and Sisense, and where it stops working.
ESG Disclosure in 2024 – Requirements and Solutions for ESG Reporting
What ESG disclosure actually asks of you across environmental, social and governance - and why the reporting falls over on data long before it falls over on policy.
Reading about it is fine. Doing it is better.
A 30-minute call. Bring your messiest question - we’ve heard worse.