With continued demand for data across all business functions, today’s IT and data center infrastructure stakeholders are under continuous pressure to deliver value while maintaining cost and efficiency and the Management & Operations (M&O) Stamp of Approval provides the guidance and framework to drive best practices for the effective management and operations of a data center.

Business Excellence and Standardization Key to Cost Savings and Success

The Uptime Institute M&O Stamp of Approval provides a means to conduct risk analysis at a portfolio level and provide senior management with the information needed to make informed decisions on whether to accept the risk identified in the report or take the corrective actions required to mitigate risks. Additionally, in today’s margin-centric world, the M&O Stamp of Approval allows companies to get the most of their facility and related assets and realize cost savings through these efforts.

Validating Operational Effectiveness for Existing Data Centers

The M&O Stamp of Approval is designed to work across groups and departments, cultures and practices. It is built around the fundamental notion that facilities management issues are addressable, often without a major resource commitment, and represent the single greatest opportunity to reduce risks to data center availability. Uptime Institute Professional Services assess your staffing; organization and training practices; preventive maintenance program; operating conditions; and planning, management, and coordination practices and resources. This thorough review provides visibility and accountability for the data center operations team, service vendors, and leadership.

M&O Stamp of Approval awards are valid for two years. Operational excellence is in large part about maintaining discipline and consistency over time and making continual adaptation to changes in the environment. Accordingly, Uptime Institute requires reassessment every two years.

Key Areas Assessed
	The M&O behaviors are divided into five categories, with criteria in each that have been identified as necessary for a site to achieve its full uptime potential, reduce its risk of errors, and maintain efficient operations.
	Planning, Coordination, and Management Site Policies • Financial Process • Reference Library • Capacity Management
	Staffing and Organization Staffing • Qualifications • Organization
	Training Data Center Staff • Vendors
	Operating Conditions Load Management • Operating Set Points
	Maintenance PM Program • Housekeeping • MMS • Vendor Support • Deferred Maintenance • Predictive Maintenance • Life-Cycle Planning • Failure Analysis Program

Benefits of M&O Stamp of Approval

Earning the M&O Stamp of Approval validates the rigor and effectiveness of your facility management and operations and gives your stakeholders the assurance they need that effective risk mitigation is in place. In addition to reduced exposure to downtime, benefits of the M&O process include:

• Ensures that optimum staffing configuration is in place to support business presence objective
• Confirms that plans are in place to maintain a collaborative culture and continuous training to avoid attrition. For example, the average cost to replace a mid-level employee with an average salary of $80 000 is $120 000, or 150 percent of their annual salary. (SOURCE: TLNT/EREMEDIA)
• Small changes can reap big benefits, for example, operating set points are routinely checked, and temperatures that can be adjusted by 6-10 degrees. In a large data center, a one-degree change can result in an average of $1 million in annual savings.
• Potential premium savings in your insurance program.
• A recent 451 Research survey found that aligning data center processes is in the Top 3 of enterprise IT priorities. This goal can only be achieved through collaboration by the multiple groups responsible for the data center. The cohesion for process improvement and standardization across the portfolio is provided whether owned/operated or outsourced.
• A recent Uptime Institute analysis of 20 years of abnormal incident data from its members showed human error to blame for more than 70% of all data center outages. Better process and collaboration builds better communication across levels and departments to instill good procedures and behaviors, improved habits and productivity.

M&O Criteria    M&O Approved Sites 

M&O Excellence Interview Series

Driving operational excellence across multiple data centers is exponentially more difficult than managing just one. Technical complexity multiplies as you move to different sites, regions, and countries where codes, cultures, climates and other factors are different. Organizational complexity further complicates matters when the data centers in your portfolio have different business requirements.

With little difficulty, an organization can focus on staffing, maintenance planning and execution, training and operations for a single site. Managing a portfolio turns the focus from projects to programs and from activity to outcomes. Processes become increasingly complex and critical. In this series of interviews, you will hear from practitioners about the challenges and lessons they have drawn from their experiences. You will find that those who thrive in this role share the understanding that Operational Excellence is not an end state, but a state of mind.

See how leading organizations are driving standardization with M&O Stamp of Approval:

• Video: Symposium 2015 Panel Discussion
• Meeting the M&O Challenge of Managing a Diverse Data Center Footprint: John Sheputis and Don Jenkins, Infomart
• AIG Tells How It Raised Its Level of Operations Excellence: Herb Alvarez, Director of Global Engineering and Critical Facilities, American International Group

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"We sought a level of achievement to differentiate beyond what was expected or commonplace. Uptime Institute’s M&O Stamp of Approval requires a level of rigor and aptitude specific to data centers that digs into, and recognizes, our operational achievements." David Meredith Senior Vice President

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"This independent assessment (M&O Stamp of Approval) of RBC’s maintenance and operations processes ensures an objective evaluation. A testament that we are on the right track for best in class in the eyes of our peers and stakeholders." Stephan Abraitis, PA, FMA Senior Director, Global Critical Environments

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"If you have your processes and content down, getting M&O is the gold standard. Everything else becomes easy. Compare that to owning an SSAE cert—you might not be anywhere near qualified to pass M&O." John Sheputis President