CREJ - Property Management Quarterly - January 2017
If you’re a property or facilities manager, consider taking stock of your facility service company to ensure that its technology platforms are helping you keep your building running, improve building performance and meet business objectives. In our ever-evolving technology landscape, competitive service companies offer more than adequate plumbing, heating, ventilating and air-conditioning, and electrical skills. They offer a level of technological and operations savvy that can increase the efficiency and accuracy of all service work – resulting in fewer service calls, less downtime, higher energy efficiency and better building performance. If you have a planned maintenance agreement with a service firm, ask how it uses technology to operate its business to get a better sense of how its technology (or lack thereof) may impact your business. Following are some questions you should ask your service provider. • How does your service provider use technology to help you achieve your business goals? Savvy property owners and managers want partners who can help them solve their business problems, not just fix leaky pipes. Service providers are moving beyond traditional preventative maintenance and routine repairs to outcome-based services like operating facilities and energy management. The objective of top service providers should go beyond just fixing stuff. They should deliver services that enable you to meet your business goals and increase your profitability. • How does mobility and connectivity enable your provider to improve its service? Mobility is now a basic component of field service. Companies without it are at a competitive disadvantage. Service connectivity and mobility are top drivers for speeding up business cycles and increasing productivity. This requires that service providers use technology to achieve a tighter, more efficient integration between sales, customer communications, dispatch and delivery. Progressive companies and their service technicians have the ability to stay connected with countless devices ranging from company sites and technicians’ mobile devices to customer equipment and automation systems that enable real-time visibility into a building’s operational performance. Mobility enables productivity enhancements that improve overall service, such as the ability to have an accurate view of your facility and relevant equipment before arriving on site; faster ability to log, assign and accept service cases, update service orders, request tasks, access knowledge and close out service jobs; and use of virtual specialists and peers, combined with access to knowledge bases for faster resolution times and higher first-time fix. • How is your service company using technology to better understand your facility and equipment? A common problem for facilities service providers is their lack of documented knowledge about their customers’ facilities and equipment. By partnering with a technology provider, service companies can develop and maintain an accurate view of customers’ facilities, equipment and service/ repair history. This helps the service provider better service your facility because it enables better scheduling, parts planning, inventory control and the ability to perform remote diagnostics and repairs. A good service partner should be committed to developing increasingly complex service programs uniquely tailored to your situation, which can vary greatly depending on your industry, region, facility, on-site staff and types of equipment. The objective is to use technology to stay tuned in to your facility continuously to optimize performance. • Does your provider use data to drive continually better service and give you metrics? Good data around building efficiency and performance enables predictive analytics and better insights into quality and productivity. But a service firm that sends you reams of reports and spreadsheets isn’t doing you much of a favor. A good service company will know how to aggregate lots of data regarding your facility, equipment and repair history – and distill that data into succinct and meaningful information you can use. High-quality analytical tools combined with structured, well-managed analytical processes are required to avoid getting overwhelmed by data “noise” while allowing you to uncover and act on real trends and cause-effect drivers. • Does your provider invest in technology training for its staff? Most service companies send their service technicians to training to develop their trade skills. But you should ask about what types of technology training they offer and how they learn about the latest technologies that run equipment. Equipment is becoming more complex and often is part of a system with a software component associated with it. Extensive product and application knowledge is required. Technology assists us with faster learning curves through availability of knowledge, ease of communication with peers, access to performance support and easier-to-use productivity tools for field technicians. Service staff who are well trained on technology platforms will perform better for you. • Is your provider looking into the future to prepare for what’s next? Next phases of service field mobility likely will include improvements meant to better enable service staff with better user interfaces and faster network speed. Remote monitoring, predictive analytics and energy management will become more commonplace as well. An innovative service company will keep its eyes on the horizon in order to understand technology trends and continue evolving. It’s about more than repairs and maintenance – by selecting a firm that embraces technology, you can increase the efficiency, longevity and overall value of your facility.