As one of the most photographed buildings in Dubai, the National Bank of Dubai headquarters is a truly iconic landmark. It's remarkable curved glass façade reflecting the tranquil creek water has been the inspiration of many an artist. But how do you clean those windows, one must surely wonder?
"Its very simple," says Frank Webster, the BK Gulf facilities manager charged with managing NBD's HQ building and bank premises. "You have the curve of the building. And around the eighth floor is half way and below this point is when gravity kicks in. You have mullions at the top running down the entire façade, which has grooves, where special hooks on the window cradle slide into the groove of each mullion, keeping the cradle continuously alongside the glass. It was part of the original specification at the design stage, by NORR Group Consultants."
More specifically, the NBD headquarters was designed by renowned architect Carlos Ott. At a height of over 120 metres, the HQ includes a banking hall - comprising ground, mezzanine and first floors - two basements for private car parking and 17 floors within the tower. On any given day, around 900 people, including staff and customers, occupy the building.
Given the relatively crime-free nature of the UAE, the daily cleaning of the exterior curtain wall and granite cladding of the building is as demanding, if not more, as securing
Just how BK Gulf became the facilities managers of the building, and indeed simultaneously diversified into full-fledged FM in the UAE, is an interesting story.
The 'BK' in BK Gulf stands for Balfour Kilpatrick Ltd, an electrical mechanical company based in the UK and a subsidiary of Balfour Beatty, the 15th largest construction company in the world and second largest construction company in the UK.
Both BK Gulf and Balfour Beatty have been operating in the UAE since the late seventies. There are many routes to becoming an FM company in the 21st century, and MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) is as worthy a background as any other.
"Over the years, we've always done maintenance," explains Frank, a veteran of the GCC. "We never had a separate FM division before, but when we've done a particular [MEP] contract for a building, we tend to be asked by the owner to look after it once it's completed. In the case of the bank, the owner of the building thought we'd done a great job putting together the MEP, so could we put a team together and look after it for the first two years? Of course, we agreed. That was in mid-1997 and the building was finished and opened in January 1998."
"BK Gulf was contractually obliged to provide warranty services in the first 12 months of completion, the defects liability period, and the bank was forward-thinking enough to see the benefits to be gained if they used the same contractor to stay on to look after and service the building plant and equipment. But warranties and maintenance are two different things; in this part of the world, many get confused between the two."
The usual analogy used to explain this difference is in buying a new car. You may have a three-year warranty with the agency covering major machine or part failure, but you still have to pay for its servicing, such as oil changes, wear and tear and so on. So Frank and his team inadvertently ended up playing both roles. And that was just the beginning.
BK Gulf was initially tasked to implement planned preventative maintenance (PPM) to all plant and equipment, undertake cleaning and security services and specialist services such as the maintenance of elevators, chillers, generator sets, main UPS and gaseous systems. But before long, the company's brief was widened to include everything from access control, ATM and signage cleaning services and automatic parking doors, to landscaping, office space planning, pest control, leaflet and poster distribution. The list of responsibilities is comprehensive enough to include ensuring there is always tea and coffee in the café machines and paper in the photocopiers, fax and printer machines.
This is the first building of this sort of magnitude that really grouped all the different services together under one roof and is why we now actually have an FM division.
"A lot of the services evolved over time," says Frank. "This is the first building of this sort of magnitude that really grouped all the different services together under one roof and is why we now actually have an FM division. It was from the client's request, as they were comfortable enough that we had a good knack of managing a lot of the external contractors that you have to bring in."
Many of the services BK Gulf took on for the HQ building and their other bank premises were subcontracted, as they were not core specialities of the company - such as security, which is obviously of great importance to a bank. Managing subcontractors is one of Frank's big challenges in making the transition from MEP to FM.
"You hire in expertise and you do some times get shortcomings," he says. "Everyone knows you have to work in a safe manner, be professional and be on time, but this is not always automatic in this part of the world. We may get two to three technicians daily, and the challenge is to get everybody to work as a team, read from the same book. It's important to me to maintain the high level of service that the bank has come to expect.
"We take on the most professional company for the job, and not just another company that is cheaper, which may be half the service probably. You may save money, but you may end up with an inferior service and spending more time to manage them. I think the service level of most of the contracts we have is very good."
Energy management is an area that BK Gulf is interested in pursuing and perhaps outsourcing to the right candidate. While the HQ does have fairly advanced Building Control and Management Systems with lighting control, the serious savings are to be made in having a more energy-efficient air conditioning system. Frank admits that he is sceptical about some of the claims that are made. "It's easy for some companies to say 'Of course you'll make huge savings'. But like everybody else in Dubai, there are Doubting Thomases, and I'm one of them. I just require a company that is prepared to go that little bit extra to demonstrate that claim. There's obviously a very fine balance between finding the maximum level of efficiency and the minimum energy costs without any disruption to your bank and its business."
So what began as a contracting job on the MEP installation of a building has evolved into full-scale operations for the bank's HQ and its other bank premises throughout the United Arab Emirates. The initial FM contract ended and was mutually extended into a further three-year contract, which in turn led to a further third contract. BK Gulf has completed seven years of doing FM for the bank.
The FM team has grown with the bank's HQ building to include a fulltime project manager, Frank, supported by a full-time supervisor and technicians working on a 24/7 basis. Full-time cleaners and security guards complete the service team within the HQ building. Another fulltime engineer and supervisors, technicians, cleaners and security guards look after the other satellite bank premises. "Most were part of the original construction team," says Frank of his technicians. "They were hand-chosen for their intimate knowledge of the building. That gave us a huge advantage to start with as no specific technical re-training was required on the plant and equipment - all of us were here through all phases of construction."
My job is all about looking after the building, providing proper maintenance, managing the service contractors that come in so as not to disrupt the client or his business, and the daily contact with the bank's senior management, staff and tenants.
Frank is immensely proud of his staff, and the ongoing feat of keeping the bank clean, secure and functional is a continual challenge. "No day is a typical day," he says. "My job is all about looking after the building, providing proper maintenance, managing the service contractors that come in so as not to disrupt the client or his business, and the daily contact with the bank's senior management, staff and tenants. I really enjoy getting a buzz out of that and I feel I've got the best FM job in Dubai."
