Computacenter
As Europe's leading IT infrastructure services company - who are proactive in helping a diverse 'blue chip' client base realise the value of IT - Computacenter is an organisation acutely aware of the pivotal role that computer-based technology plays in the smooth and efficient running of a company.
There's little point in not practising what you preach, and when it comes to ensuring that its facilities department is managed in the best way possible, a CAFM (Computer Aided Facilities Management) package is a vital piece of software. Especially when you consider how hectic Computacenter's facilities department is. "It's responsible for a wide range of stuff. Everything from looking after the property portfolio, to the usual range of facilities. We have 20 properties around the country, for which we manage maintenance, rents, rates, leases, security and cleaning," explains Facilities Manager Mike Cronin. "And then on top of that, we're also responsible for mobile phones, office moves, maintenance, help desk, travel and all the purchasing of non-computer equipment as well."
Six months ago, Computacenter looked at its existing CAFM package and found that it was no longer meeting demands. A change was called for. "We needed to upgrade because the version we had was a standalone, non networked version," says Cronin. "It was a case of either upgrading the existing system which didn't have a very good help desk front end to it, or look for an alternative package. We felt that the options offered by going into a new, more modern package were much stronger than upgrading what we had." And so, the facilities department set about looking at the selection of packages available within the marketplace. There are, as Cronin observes "several products on the market that have quite good property and maintenance databases but it proved difficult to find the right mix of both." Computacenter's investigation did, however, find one piece of software offering this crucial mix. Namely QFM from Service Works Global, one of the UK's leading providers of Facilities and Estates Management Software.
Computacenter was particularly impressed with the speed and ease at which QFM was installed. "The engineer came in for the day, loaded QFM up on our server and then put the right pointers and shortcuts, on each of our PCs," Cronin recalls. "It proved extremely easy to set up." Today, the software is helping Computacenter manage its 20-strong building portfolio through a centralised help desk at the Hatfield head office. And while QFM comes packed with functionality to meet the varied needs of Service Works Global's diverse clientele (there are currently over 1,000 users across the UK) particular modules are proving of benefit to Computacenter. "At the moment we don't use all of the modules but that's largely because we don't need to," says Cronin. The key modules in use, however, "are the help desk / events module and the property module. We also use the reporting to show how many help desk calls we have open, to monitor our service providers and to report on their performance."
Plans are afoot to implement additional modules in due course. In the next three months, for example, the company proposes to make use of the stock control module, "which will look after our very large stock of spares, furniture and various assets - things where we need to know what we've got and where they're kept. And once we have the stock module up and running, we'll integrate the reporting for that too." While at the moment, Computacenter's Hatfield HQ acts as the central hub for QFM, the firm also intends to implement the web-based access side of the software within the next three to six months.
It's QFM's ability to grow in line with a company, and to offer new functionality as a firm's demands change," Cronin says, 'is what attracted us to QFM in the first place. It has more development potential than other packages. We're only using a small percentage of the software's capabilities at the moment, but in due course we will make use of most of it."
It may have only been using QFM for a relatively short amount of time but Computacenter is already seeing the benefits that the software has brought to the firm. Cronin believes that the principal advantage of using QFM is that all Computacenter's crucial information "is centralised on one database that about 20 people have access to. Everyone from our financial director, who's interested in the property information, to people on the help desk." Having information held centrally, he adds, certainly adds "traceability - where jobs are, who's looked after them, booked them, what contractor it's with" and that, he argues is "a massive improvement and undoubtedly a huge time saver."
Time has also been saved thanks to QFM's ease of use. "It's nice and straightforward," Cronin remarks "and that was one of the things that was quite important in terms of our choice of software. We've only had limited training and everyone else has been self taught." As each member of the facilities department takes turn on the help desk - whatever facility they particularly look after - the ability "to get people up to speed very quickly was very important and a definite advantage."