From left, Francisco Acoba of awards co-sponsor Deloitte with JCI's Clay Nesler, Gisele Marcus and Helen Wu.

Need a new strategic plan? Maybe a new technology platform needs workplace integration. Or perhaps there's a facilities management issue that needs to be addressed.

Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI) left their laptops and Power Point presentations at home to show the panel of awards judges at Harvard that an interactive demonstration of the firm's Solutions Navigator tool was the best way to relate its power as a decision-support resource used chiefly by facilities and real estate professionals.

The JCI team of presenters was Managing Director of Innovation Services Clay Nesler, Senior Consultant of Innovation Services Helen Wu, and Strategic Customer Development Director Gisele Marcus.

Solutions Navigation provides a structured, interactive process for quickly assessing common facility management needs and practices. Navigation sessions make use of a specially-designed “game-board” assessment tool called the Solutions Navigator and are facilitated by certified Johnson Controls consultants. Navigation sessions help clients address a wide range of facility challenges ranging from the design of new facilities, improvement of existing infrastructure or development of a facilities strategic plan.

“The best way to demonstrate the value of this tool is through a hands-on demonstration,” Nesler advised the panel. During JCI's presentation, each panelist was provided with their own 'game-board,' and completed a sample facility needs and practices assessment exercise using a small subset of the cards employed in the 'game.'

“Leading global corporate real estate organizations that have taken advantage of the assessment tool and solution planning process,” according to Nesler.

Marcus mentioned that the Solutions Navigator started life as a research tool supporting “Voice of the Customer” market studies. “Research with hundreds of organizations resulted in the identification of common sets of vertical market-specific, facilities-related needs and practices,” she related.

“The research showed that organizations, and individuals within a given organization, have very different perspectives on the relative importance of these needs and practices as well as priorities for improvement.”

Using the Six-Sigma Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methodology, the needs for a given vertical market were mapped to a comprehensive set of facility management practices providing a rigorous approach to identifying the best opportunities for improvement. The data collected from hundreds of sessions provides the ability to benchmark the client's results across sites, businesses and competitors. The tool also generates a balanced scorecard with key performance indicators selected and weighted to match the client's specific needs and priorities.

“In a little over a year of active use,” observed Wu, “the Solutions Navigator tool has been used by nearly one thousand participants in hundreds of organizations. The tool has been deployed globally and used in client workshops throughout North America, Europe and Asia.”