Many companies are outsourcing the operational management of their real estate portfolios, effectively delegating part of their governance responsibilities as well. While this choice is often necessary for reasons of focus and economies of scale, it also entails tangible risks: loss of control over information, declining service quality, slower strategic decision-making, and above all, reduced flexibility and alignment with business needs.
The boundary between those who deliver services and those who shape strategic decisions is becoming increasingly thin. This calls for the adoption of new contractual models transparent, collaborative and generative.
“Managing a space today means enabling valuable experiences and governing the flow of information that runs through it,” explains Daniele Appetito, Regional Manager North America at eFM. “If these data flows are not accessible, shared, understandable and computable, the organization risks losing both its autonomy and its decision-making speed.”
This is precisely the challenge that Service Governance was created to address — not to replace providers or abandon outsourcing, but to build a shared framework based on responsibility, transparency and open access to data.
“The goal is not to manage suppliers, but to build transparent relationships supported by flexible contracts and data-driven decisions,” adds Christopher Parra, Country Manager USA at eFM. “Companies must be able to change partners without losing knowledge. Service governance should not become a constraint — it should be a guarantee.”
Faced with the choice between Outsourcing and Insourcing, what if the real alternative were to move beyond the dilemma? In a context that demands increasing levels of flexibility, efficiency and transparency, it is time to embrace Smart Sourcing, enabled by eFM’s Service Governance model.
The traditional dualism has revealed its limitations: on one side, high internal costs and limited scalability; on the other, loss of control and structural inefficiencies. As McKinsey & Company notes, 40% of companies that outsource strategic services suffer a significant loss of internal capabilities.
Outsourcing and Insourcing represent the two extremes of a system no longer adequate to manage the complexity of Real Estate. Instead, Smart Sourcing,introduces a new paradigm founded on Automation, Transparency and Collaboration.
Through tools such as Digital Twins, Smart Contracts and Intelligent Digital Agents, governance evolves into a dynamic ecosystem capable of:
✔ Automating decisions and processes
✔ Connecting demand and supply in real time
✔ Optimizing costs while maintaining strategic control
This is no longer about choosing between “in-house” or “external.” It’s about building an enabling, scalable and cooperative model — one that transforms spaces into intelligent nodes and services into shared opportunities for value creation.