Case Study: Freeing Clients to Focus
Optimum Group Services specializes in stress-free building services management but found clients asking for more transparency over statutory compliance and maintenance matters across premises. A dial-up solution to update clients with real-time information on Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) compliance adherence was implemented with help from IBM and BPD Zenith.
Business Challenge
When building works are underway, regular progress updates are key to reassuring clients that services are being delivered effectively. How could Optimum find a better way to keep clients informed?
Transformation
Equipped with new asset management capabilities deployed with help from BPD Zenith, Optimum has gained real-time insight into where and what its engineers are doing, and can share these with clients.
Results
Helps Optimum respond faster and better to client needs, increasing service levels and client satisfaction. Boosts efficiency and new business to increase profitability.
Business benefits
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Raises client satisfaction through greater responsiveness and transparency
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Boosts efficiency and profit as a result of better management of resources
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Wins new business by enabling Optimum to develop new estate management systems
Optimum Group Services offers total building services management solutions, spanning the full range of mechanical and electrical building services, gas, air conditioning and refrigeration, critical facility specialization, full facilities management and value-added projects. Established in 1989, Optimum is headquartered in Middlesex, UK.
Identifying an opportunity
In today's connected world, customers expect more transparency from service providers than ever before. They want clarity on the scope of work being delivered, when they can expect to receive a service, view progress updates while the service is being delivered and be informed once work has been completed.
To deliver on these expectations, service providers across all industries need to get smarter about how they manage their resources and data. For building services management specialist Optimum Group Services, the pressure was on to get into such a position ahead of its competition.
Mark Carroll, Operations Director at Optimum Group Services, explains: "Over the last sixyears we have grown from a company with a GBP 10 million turnover to one with a GBP 36 million turnover. In that time, we have also evolved from a services company to a total solutions provider. To stay on track with our expansion, we need to continue surpassing our clients' expectations. One area that we recognized as under-served in our industry is communication and transparency with our clients.
"Now that people can track everything from their parcels to their food deliveries online, they expect a similar level of transparency from other service providers. For some clients, this is just to gain reassurance that their facilities are being looked after and any issues are tackled rapidly. But for others, real-time insights into building services could make it easier for them to meet maintenance and health and safety compliance requirements."
To meet clients' expectations for up-to-the-minute service insight, Optimum looked for an asset management system that engineers could use to submit status updates for jobs while on-the-move. The company also saw the opportunity to boost efficiency by replacing existing paper-based processes with an automated alternative.
Opening new lines of communication
To deliver the enhanced mobility and reporting capabilities needed to make its transformation project a reality, Optimum chose to upgrade its existing IBM® Maximo® Asset Management solution to the latest version. The company engaged IBM Premier Business Partner BPD Zenith to enable a rapid and agile deployment.
"We were ready to move to an entirely new solution rather than upgrading our IBM environment, but our analysis of the offerings on the market revealed that the latest version of IBM Maximo Asset Management was the best option," says Mark Carroll. "It fulfilled a long list of requirements, including ease of customization, flexibility, scalability and, crucially, support for mobile service delivery.
"BPD Zenith led the implementation project because they had the technical resources that we lacked in-house, helping us achieve a very smooth migration with minimal downtime. They rapidly became part of our team, looking beyond our technical needs to help us fulfill our wider strategic business goals."
Today, Optimum's engineers can now use multiple handheld devices-including mobiles and tablets-to provide real-time status updates on their work while out in the field. Helpdesk and administrative teams can also upload data, while management can extract information for reporting. And, most importantly, Optimum can now pass on all these real-time insights to clients.
"IBM Maximo Asset Management is helping us deliver unprecedented visibility, both internally and externally," comments Mark Carroll. "We can instantly see where an engineer is, the parts that they have with them, progress of a job and what work is left to do-all in real time, thanks to integrated dashboards. As a result, we've improved our relationships with customers, reduced invoice payment delays, and achieved better results from support contractors-all of which equip us to better serve new customers."
By integrating the IBM solution with its purchase order and financial information systems, Optimum is improving management of external subcontractors. The company is in the process of rolling out IBM Maximo Asset Management Scheduler, which will enable the company to optimize its engineers' workloads for maximum productivity.
Unleashing higher service levels
By enabling greater transparency, the IBM solution is helping Optimum to respond faster and more effectively to client requests.
"By giving us a better handle on how our resources are deployed, IBM Maximo helps us carry out jobs at greater speed and to a high standard," describes Mark Carroll. "For example, an engineer can make notes on a piece of equipment, and it's immediately available for the next person that works on it, without the need to keep paper records.
"If an engineer notices some work that needs doing, they can raise the job themselves and fix it-ideally there and then-enabling a more proactive approach to maintenance and enabling the engineering team to better record all their actions undertaking in their daily regime's. We are also able to use the IBM Maximo solution to measure performance against KPIs, helping us to ensure that we consistently meet clients' service level agreements without fail."
Equally, the added visibility is helping Optimum set clients' minds at rest when it comes to the management of their facilities.
"Proper customer needs analysis documented for the customer positions Optimum as a trusted provider early on in the relationship. Followed up with real-time, accurate information to clients, we are raising satisfaction levels and giving them more confidence than ever in our services," adds Mark Carroll. "For those with demanding compliance requirements, we can integrate the IBM solution with their systems to provide a full audit trail, enabling them to focus on what they do best, reassured that their facilities are in good hands."
The IBM solution is laying the groundwork for future developments that will help Optimum increase efficiency further, and even capture new business.
Mark Carroll concludes: "Already, we have been able to develop a tailored estate management system for a client based on IBM Maximo Asset Management, something our competitors struggle to do. We are also in the early stages of investigating how we could incorporate IBM Watson™ solutions to move towards predictive maintenance. With sophisticated IBM technology and support from BPD Zenith on our side, we are confident that we can continue to innovate, setting us apart from our competitors to win new market share."
IBM Watson IoT Maximo Asset Management
IBM Watson IoT Maximo Asset Management offers one of the world's deepest and broadest platforms to transform how streaming data from assets is acted upon, with domain and industry solutions that deliver new value to businesses, governments and individuals. For more information about IBM Watson IoT solutions, please visit http://ibm.com/internet-of-things.
