FOS Thought Leadership
A Day In The Life Of A Facilities Project Manager
In our industry, every day brings a new challenge, a new client requirement, and a new idea for our team.
When FOS President, Joe Cassata, was asked about his typical day he said,
“Day to day, it can be reactionary...the more challenges we solve for our clients, the more we get to be in front of them with creative and innovative solutions, and the more value we bring to them.”
Check out the rest of this latest article to see why a not-so-typical day is what makes our work exciting!
The Facility Optimization Solutions (FOS) team has certainly evolved from where it started to what it is today. President and Founder, Joe Cassata, RA, NCARB, says “the creation of FOS was in response to the needs of our clients, who were and are very interested in proactively maintaining their facilities over the immediate, short, and long term.”
Made up of over 43 dedicated subject matter experts across multiple offices, FOS continues to grow. As a team they have performed facility condition assessments (FCAs) and capital improvement plans on over 600 million square feet in the last six years, expanded their work across the country (34 states and two provinces in Canada), and were ranked #1 in the world for facility management services by World Architecture 100 in 2021.
The FOS team is comprised of architects, engineers, constructors, estimators, facility managers, and software designers – giving them unique experience positioned to collaborate with clients across a variety of industries and solve any problems or challenges their day may bring.
FOS has also become an information clearinghouse. Built from scratch, the team created two software platforms – FOScore® and Simplebid™. FOScore® is top-of-the-line in the industry, allowing for live data collection right from the field into the software. Pairing this data with strategic recommendations and highly accurate cost estimates from the in-house construction cost estimators is an integral part of the team’s day-to-day. Simplebid™, a rapid construction procurement platform, handles program management, cost estimating, proposal development, and proposal review all from a fast and secure web-based platform. It is an intuitive job order contracting (JOC) program management system and works to expedite proposal development tools, advance approval workflows, and integrates with existing information management platforms in both the public and private sector.
Keeping up with industry trends is always top of mind for the FOS team.
The upswing in integration and selection of computer maintenance management systems has continued over recent years. This impacts how clients run work orders involving data from a facility assessment. Preventative maintenance planning, immediate and five-to ten-year capital improvement plans, and ADA compliance are also hot-button issues to tackle. The FOS team helps clients mitigate their risk and complete due-diligence studies (where clients want to either buy or sell property in order to consolidate or expand).
As you can see, every day brings a new challenge, a new client requirement, and a new idea for FOS. When asked about his typical day, Joe says “Day to day, it can be reactionary, because we are addressing the ever-changing needs of our clients who may be facing unexpected challenges. The more challenges we solve for our clients, the more we get to be in front of them with creative and innovative solutions, and the more value we bring to them. I can honestly say there isn’t such a thing as a typical day, with each day being a little bit different, but that is what makes our work exciting!”
If a challenging and rewarding career in facility management sounds like your jam, give us a call! We’re always looking for folks who are hands-on, energized by collaboration, and love to solve problems. Our team is made up of a range of experienced professionals, so the common qualities we look for include strength in character, solid work ethic, and interest in the built environment. FOS is like a family, so we definitely look for a team player that will bring a non-traditional skill set as a way to build upon our existing talent.