A tailor-made FM solution
Client: Reliance Facilities Management.
Project: To implement CAFM software to provide a total management solution.
Objectives: To enable both Reliance Facilities Management and their clients to have complete visibility for all reactive requests and access to comprehensive management reporting for financial budget control and KPIs.
Results: The software enables Reliance Facilities Management to deliver tailored FM solutions and successfully manage the entire FM process, providing valuable management information to support openness and transparency between them and their clients.
When employees at the head office of a large motoring organisation have a problem with their air-conditioning system, they know that they can phone or tap straight into an on-line helpdesk which allows employees to follow the progress of a fault through until repair. After the event, managers also know that they can produce a full report detailing the jobs that have been closed over a period of time, how long they took and their associated costs. Employees have complete visibility on all reactive requests, and for this they can thank facilities management and business solutions company Reliance Facilities Management who use QFM helpdesk software.
Head of IT at Reliance Facilities Management, Philip Thomas, says, “It’s all about responding quickly to customers and resolving issues as soon as possible. Providing management with accurate up to date information regarding financial budget controls and informing on progress and whether agreed KPIs are being attained.”
Reliance Facilities Management selected the QFM CAFM Helpdesk solution after careful consideration. As Philip Thomas explains, “CAFM aids in the management of a facilities management contract. We can incorporate the various hard and soft FM service requirements and manage internal costs to remain within budget and monitor trends and benchmark this data against industry standards and develop a best practice approach. Using the management information, trends can be monitored and analysed to understand if we are constantly repairing particular assets, or how many visits have been made on a certain contract. In addition it also helps us to manage our specialist subcontractors and supply chain partners to monitor their performance.”
Open Book Accountancy
An important benefit for Reliance Facilities Management is that QFM provides the data to support open and transparent financial discussions. Customers can see what they’re being invoiced for and how it is broken down. “On some contracts,” says Philip Thomas, “we have to provide an extremely detailed cost analysis and forecast expenditure over the forthcoming period, so that the customer can budget accordingly. We produce accrual reports based on the information from QFM of potential activities for that period, so then the customer can accurately budget for the next period.”
Hosting
The QFM software can be managed totally in-house, but Reliance Facilities Management has chosen to outsource the hosting of the system to specialist IT organisation Attenda, a strategic partner of Service Works Global. This means the system is run by Attenda at their secure data centre based in London, therefore transferring the server management risk.
“Attenda has all the necessary ISO standards for security, business continuity and administration of the server,” says Philip Thomas, “and it would be difficult for us to supply the same level of support as a value proposition.
The Service Level Agreement (SLA) that we negotiated with Attenda gives Reliance Facilities Management the confidence and ability to provide a consistent high level of service. And that’s a great selling tool as business continuity and data recovery are significant concerns for our customers and potential customers.”“Outsourcing enables us to have a very flexible helpdesk; we can connect onto the server from any location - all we need is a PC with an Internet connection. So for instance if we suffered a business continuity incident we could quickly relocate our helpdesk operators to a different location and be back up and running within a short space of time. It’s something that not many people can offer.”
“Service Works Global also has access to the server so they can do much of the administration on-line for us. If there was ever an issue with the software they can access it themselves and make the necessary fixes. Remote access also helps us when we’re mobilising a contract. With mobilisation periods becoming increasingly tight, Service Works Global supports us by putting the database onto the server and configuring it all remotely from their own offices. This is a much faster solution, because localised installations can involve larger timescales for implementation.”
There are also financial benefits to not having to purchase and support multiple servers. Phillip Thomas again; “Because we’re not having to install servers in every location where a helpdesk is required, it means that we can offer a real cost benefit to our customers both in reduced capital investment and minimising the ongoing support and associated administration costs. This means we can be more competitive and offer improved service levels to our customers.”
“Hosting also allows our customers to access the server themselves. The Web-based version of QFM allows customers to report and track activities and works requests, allowing designated members of the customer management team to log on at anytime and run their own reports. This is great as each of our customers have very bespoke reporting requirements, so when we mobilise a new contract one of the key areas of development is to determine the extent of the reporting required by the customer, then to backtrack and work out what data we need to input. This can be developed by in house by ourselves or with the support of Service Works Global. The reports can then be loaded onto the server and be generated whenever the customer requires them.”