Blog Archives | Mobiess

Is Your Organisation Data Driven?

May 28, 2020/in Blog /by Alzbeta Honcova

Facilities Management is no different to any other industry; always looking for the latest trends, the forward-thinking methods and technologies, ways in which your office can streamline the work carried out across your portfolio so that on-the-ground teams can communicate efficiently with every level.

We see organisations of every size claiming to be ‘data driven’ – adamant that they have embraced a technology which promised to streamline this process, making the data available to everyone necessary, and using that data to make improvements.

Often we find that a shiny new system has promised all manner of things, has been adjusted clumsily and failed to adapt to the specific needs of the organisation – almost but never quite meeting the actual requirements of the team. Although data is being collected, once it’s inputted to the system that data is mostly ignored, and things continue in the way they’ve always been done.

Data-driven teams don’t just plough forward aimlessly. They assess, collate and compare at every stage, using data to make predictions and streamline energy. Efficiencies are brought in to the working systems, saving time, money, and meaning that fewer staff are needed to complete tasks. Many things can be automated or eradicated altogether.

How can you tell if you truly are a data-driven organisation – or whether you’re stumbling through your systems and not quite getting the best from them?

Read some of these statements, and let us know if any sound familiar…

Nobody in our workforce analyses the data.
Instinct leads most of our decisions when we plan work.
We have an idea of how efficient we are, but no real way to measure it.
There are no goals or targets for improving the data we collect

Does that sound like your experience? There is a good chance your office has requested more paperwork or even digital reporting, but the way you work on the ground hasn’t changed in years. If it does, we’ve got bad news: your claims of being ‘a data-driven organisation’ are untrue. You’re not getting any benefit from the many working hours your team have spent inputting information or collecting reports.

We input a lot of data and file reports, but nobody really knows what happens with the information.
Nobody knows how to process the information collected.
Reports are quite organic, with no graphic representation of what the information means.
Data is often ignored or directly dismissed as not representative of the ‘real picture’.
If some data is missing or reports aren’t filed, nobody notices and there’s no consequence.

This means that your organisation doesn’t have the information you need to future proof yourselves in a rapidly evolving industry.

If you want to keep yourselves ahead of the curve and make the most of your team, we can help. Ensure that everyone is where they ought to be, when they need to be there.

Keep your staff happy, your tenants happier, and embrace a data-driven system which will improve efficiencies and streamline both your data and the work you are achieving.

Call now on 0203 411 1795 or arrange a demo – and visit our website to learn more about what we can do.

Track and manage your workforce more efficiently

May 21, 2020/in Blog /by Alzbeta Honcova

With workers spread over a number of sites, timesheets to maintain, compliance audits and activities to schedule and tenants to please, facilities management can be a bit of a headache.

That’s why we created ServiceMaster. It’s an integrated solution to maintaining your scheduled workload, responding quickly and effectively to unexpected events or damage, and maintaining an assessment of conditions, compliance and tenant satisfaction. With a digital platform that your mobile workforce can access, work orders can be completed and distributed as they are needed and information is shared in real time. Compliance and audits can be stored with photographic evidence and additional comments, ensuring everyone’s working time is accurately and fairly tracked.

No more paperwork, no more missed information, no more wondering where your workers need to be, and no more buffering impatient tenants who need information you don’t have – just because the paperwork is sitting in someone’s van in another part of the country.

ServiceMaster streamlines all this data. Status updates, conditions of work and information on external contractors, tenant requests and up-to-the-minute data can be accessed, assessed and responded to in real time, giving you – and your tenant – peace of mind. Keep a record of the health and safety and compliance audits which make up much of facilities management, and keeps a record of who is working where, when, and what has been carried out.

Where other software vendors may try to fit your needs into their existing systems, the best part of our independent digital platform is that we can tailor information to your specific needs. You can streamline the information you’re processing and configure only the actions you need to manage your workload effectively.

No more wasted time, money or effort – just the information you need, right there at your fingertips.

Call us today to discuss your specific requirements – and let us deliver you the ServiceMaster app that will revolutionise your mobile working life. Call 0203 411 1795 or email us on sales@mobiess.com to find out more.

Find the best mobile CAFM solution for your business. The choice is yours.

February 11, 2020/in Blog /by Alzbeta Honcova

There are a few different work order management apps on the market, and what many people don’t realise is that they aren’t limited to the mobile CAFM solution that comes with their back-office systems.

The thing is; a CRM is designed for a specific job; they exist to manage the data about your customer base; to keep an efficient record of the work you’ve completed. Back office software exists to maintain your accounts, or to track shipments, or for stock control. Anything designed for a specific, individual task can do that exceptionally – but that doesn’t mean that it communicates that sufficiently when it is expanded beyond the intended design.

The mobile CAFM solution applications that come with these back-office systems right now are an add-on; they are an additional piece of software outside of their designed functionality – and all too often they just don’t quite deliver what you need them to. They don’t have the agility and configurability which you need to support your team on the go.

Rather than simplifying the data collection and communicating work orders, collating the information on who is where, what’s been completed, audits recorded and scheduling follow ups, tracking shipments and stock control, they try to do all of it within the boundaries of their original functionality; they are aligned with their existing systems – inflexible, slow, clunky and confusing – making it more complicated than it needs to be to share messages within your workforce, and to streamline the process of managing your workload.

Shoehorning existing functionalities into a new format is inefficient and frustrating.

But those software designers are keeping a big secret; you don’t actually have to use their mobile solution. In fact, you aren’t limited to their tools at all; you can benefit far more from a mobile solution that does everything you need it to do – rather than what you’re told it’s limited to.

That’s where we come in; at Mobiess, all we do is design high-end mobile CAFM solution which meet your needs. Which have functionality for sharing information in real time, updating work orders to the minute; which have options for including photographic records and commentary, as well as audit data and compliance records. Which give more, do more and help more than any of the add-on mobile solutions you may have tried to use before.

Facilities management is a changeable and evolving industry – and there’s always more information that you need to incorporate – so our solutions are also future proofed with availability to expand, improve and adapt the functionality you begin with.

You don’t have to stick to mobile software which isn’t meeting your needs. You also won’t need to upgrade or invest in new devices – the smartphones and tablets your team are already using will support our applications, and allow your team to complete their work efficiently, communicate their messages in real time, and share and collect the data you need for your team to perform at their best, and simplify and streamline the processes which have been cumbersome in the past.

Our applications deliver all of this – and communicate in real time with the back-office systems that you have in place now.

Simplify your systems. Free yourself from the constraints of products that don’t go where you need. Let us take you to a better, more efficient future. Call today to find out how we can tailor our mobile solutions to meet your needs; contact us or visit the CAFM system mobile integration website to request more information .

Communications in Facilities: Death of the Spreadsheet

January 24, 2020/in Blog /by Alzbeta Honcova

We all know that a good spreadsheet can perform magic with data. Collating and streamlining information for your team to process and organise your plans. Tracking the impact of work already carried out – as well as balancing the books. There are more ways to utilise a spreadsheet than there are minutes in a day.

Although spreadsheets are a handy tool, many businesses still rely on formulas doing their thing and saving the file. Tucking it away in a digital folder and moving on to the next job without using or sharing the data. A good spreadsheet is useful but relying entirely on spreadsheets could be letting your business down.

Let’s explore some of the ways that spreadsheets are failing your organisation:

Sharing information

Excel is truly powerful when it’s being fully utilised. It can process huge amounts of data and collate, compute, predict and tally that data in ways that a person can’t.

But what use is that if you just click save, close the file and move on? Data is king – exploring and measuring data to show the impact of your work allows you to track your organisation’s performance. Without sharing the results of your data, your business will stagnate. The world moves quickly – you need to embrace tools that will allow you to keep up.

Too much data being ignored

Whether you’re running one small team or a network of offices across the country, the sheer amount of data being stored and ignored is staggering. Relying on spreadsheets to collate data is a missed opportunity to improve performance and get the best from your workforce.

The business has outgrown it

Technology has improved significantly and rapidly. You may have been so focused on growing your business that you forgot to invest in processes and systems which can keep up with that growth. Now you have a bigger team spread over a larger area, with staff spending time chasing paperwork and inputting data. They are going through the motions without any assessment of the information, and no real idea of why the process exists in the first place.

Don’t get stuck in a rut – future proof your business by moving away from outdated processes.

Integrity of data

When relying on people manually filling in paperwork there are many different stages where mistakes can occur. Having different people inputting information into the same spreadsheets. Passing results to yet another person to process and assess. Information can easily be confused, missed or lost.

Human error is the biggest cause of failures in this kind of process.

Manual vs automation

Why spend hours, days and weeks manually processing information which could be instantly collated and assessed by a digital system? People can access information at the touch of a button, compiling reports in moments. This can reduce the number of administrative staff you need, saving money on recruitment and salaries.

Data tracking

Manual systems and spreadsheets can seem like a game of Chinese Whispers – hard to trace who did what and where, because information is so limited. Unless you have people manually inputting who has done what (another clunky and time-consuming approach) there is very little information on who is performing well, who needs support, and how to plan for the next project.

The spreadsheet is dead.

Hopefully we’ve helped to shine a light on some of the limitations of relying on spreadsheets in your business. We have worked with organisations in the Facilities Management industry for many years and have seen the impact of our digital systems in reducing costs and improving data quality all over the world.

If you feel held back by maintaining an outdated process and want to see how our system could help streamline your data, call today on 0203 411 1795 or visit the website at www.mobiess.com for more details.

Can your existing CAFM system be improved with an integrated maintenance app?

December 12, 2019/in Blog /by Alzbeta Honcova

With facilities management comes a wealth of different projects, systems and maintenance activities, usually meaning you manage a number of different teams and contractors, and each property with its own tenants, who all make demands on your time, your attention and the facilities and budgets at your disposal.

Our mobile field service app, ServiceMaster, gives you real-time information on the range of routine maintenance and ad-hoc jobs you’re managing, meaning you have a to the minute view of how work is progressing on site and where additional resources may be needed.

Monitor the progress of your projects and streamline your processes by adopting the ServiceMaster system, and benefit from being able to manage routine tasks, ad-hoc work orders, allocation and completion, reduce operating costs, manage your customer expectations with as-it-happens information, and improve the efficiency of your project management.

All of this can be tailored to your specific needs, so you pay only for what you’ll actually use and benefit from, and manage the data for multiple projects, locations and teams in one place. Perfect for both predictive and preventative maintenance, you can schedule workloads, automate workflows, reduce paperwork and focus the direction of your mobile workers to the most vital and timely tasks.

Not only that, but you can maintain the Point of Work Risk Assessments, Hazards Register, compliance and audit information, and improve the timescales for responses to issues as they arise, with less risk of information being missed.

It can be complicated, managing a number of teams and planning works for your workforce when you are also responding to tenants and external contractors, and the delays, mistakes and complexities that come with information sharing from the more traditional methods you may have utilised in the past. When you rely on teams filling in forms, completing paperwork and carrying a clipboard to tick the right boxes, then submitting that paperwork to the office for someone else to input into a computer before that data can be shared or assessed, there are a great many opportunities for information to be missed or mistakes to be made. Even delays in that information being shared and assessed to respond to any additional details or changes need to be factored in to ongoing or routine maintenance work. That paperwork can be lost, damaged or forgotten, it can sit in the cab of a van for a week before the worker has chance to get to the office and submit it, pages can be missed or misplaced, and it takes time for everything to be collated and processed.

Digitising that process removes most of those opportunities for error – and means that information is shared and accessible in real time; this means that repairs or replacements can be arranged right away, working schedules can be adapted, communication between teams and external contractors and agencies can be streamlined, and the efficiencies in your own facilities management processes make your working life easier, more effective and less frustrating.

ServiceMaster does all this, and ensures that all of the data you need is collected.

Scheduling and automating the checks, inspections and audits which are a vital part of facilities management means that your teams know at a glance when these activities are due, and can structure their schedules accordingly, and you can easily adapt and respond to any incidents which require immediate response or action, maintain a record of property conditions and monitor the wear and tear or damage to your properties to track when and if repairs or replacements are needed, and factor these ad-hoc jobs in to your regular maintenance schedule.

Photographic data can be attached to these inspection forms, documenting the condition of your property and leaving no room for doubt about whether something is in poor repair, damaged or misused, and who is responsible or liable for any damages; this not only provides you with security, it also protects your tenants – meaning peace of mind and security for every party.

Call us today to discuss your facilities management portfolio and let us tailor the ServiceMaster app to meet your precise needs; let’s work together and modernise your systems, and streamline your workload: call 0203 411 1795 or contact us now.

The Top 3 Ways That E-forms Can Help in FM Operation

November 21, 2019/in Best Practices, Blog /by Alzbeta Honcova

Facilities management means a lot of information and data that you need to input, manage, share and keep on top of. Accurate data ensures you can keep workflow on schedule and manage teams and vendors. Here at Mobiess we have always held to the belief that data is a first class citizen.

What does that mean?

It means that – above all else – data, and the efficient management and processing of that data – is the number one priority of all we do, and that means that we design and build mobile data solutions that meet the varied and eclectic needs of our client base. Facilities management relies on information being well managed, and shared in real-time – and our e-forms platform has been designed with those needs in mind.

Where many of the competitors have designed form builders which give the user a PDF, xml or csv output, we have gone further; we give you access to your data with our Gateway Technology – which means that your whole team, wherever they are based, can access, assess and understand the data – and not at some distant point in the future, but now – in real time, at your fingertips.

So what are some more benefits of e-forms?

1. Streamline and improve your reporting

Ugh, reports; is there anything more annoying in the world of facilities management? We all have to do them – and whether it’s those pesky legal compliance reports, updates on the progress of a project or an inspection of the stock and site needed to maintain a streamlined schedule, reports can be cumbersome.

Pen and paper is a risky approach, riddled with mistakes, smudges and misplaced information – not to mention that the information then needs to be processed by another team member to digitise the information ready to share it with head office, and other teams; this is a slow, cumbersome process which delays information sharing, and increases the chances of mistakes being made – and that’s if the team on the road even submit it! It’s also tricky for any additional information to be sent with these reports – too many people involved in the process makes a game of Chinese whispers from any messages, and the urgency is lost in translation.

Digitise your processes – and get on board with a Mobiess e-form solution which can put information sharing in the hands of your whole team. Tailor the design to your specific needs, and make inputting the information as easy as one, two, three – and the real-time updates share that information with the whole team, so everyone can see at a glance where things stand. Enabling your team to populate these reports on-site, at convenient points throughout the day, means that the information is instant, accurate and thorough – and nothing is forgotten, put off until later or ignored. This simplifies decision making, allows you to respond and adjust planning and scheduling, and streamlines your workload to meet real-time needs in the moment.

2. Get historic information when you need it

We’ve all seen those offices with boxes and boxes of files from the 1970s, collecting just for “just in case” something historic needs to be checked.

Nobody wants to rummage through dusty old boxes with only a vague idea of where the information that’s needed might be found. So why not digitise all the data that you’ve saved – which will not only free a huge amount of space, reducing storage costs and the risk of water, fire or accidental damage to those vital records, but also putting the answers to any queries at your fingertips. If you need to check when the last compliance audits were carried out, when inspections were completed or if a problem has been identified previously e-forms mean you can find the records in seconds, saving time, reducing the chances of misinformation or crossed wires, and freeing your workforce up to focus on getting on with the jobs at hand.

Your digital database makes storing, finding and organising your data simple, efficient and affordable. It also means that you can distribute tasks and delegate workloads to your team, no matter where they – and you – are based, without taking paperwork back and forth – boosting productivity, reducing time wasted between tasks on travelling to and fro with paperwork, and streamlining operations in your entire FM portfolio.

3. Data simplifies decision making

One of the biggest challenges of project management – which is a huge component of facilities management – is being able to prioritise the workload, to decide which jobs need to be done in what order, and who is best placed to carry out the work.

Make this decision making and distribution of work far simpler by processing all of your data into one system, and being able to see all the information you need at a glance, means you can co-ordinate your team, communicate efficiently with the most up-to-date messages with outside vendors, and respond in real time to any changes or last-minute events that impact the work process. Having all the information at hand gives you a broader scope for scheduling, for seeing where more support is needed and where people can be spread more thinly without losing momentum, and when a maintenance issue arises you can react quickly, see where things can be adjusted, and reduce the impact on the overall schedule.

It also reduces the risks of something vital being overlooked when work gets manic and tight time frames or the ever-changing responsibilities of various contractors being involved in the project confuse the sharing of information. E-forms mean you can create digital checklists that anyone necessary can access and update the information, so that nobody is waiting for the paperwork to be processed because it’s all updated live across the system as and when the data is inputted.

All of this means that your work is more efficiently managed – and we can tailor the specific details of the e-forms to your needs, and priced according to your budget. Call today on on 0203 411 1795 or visit https://www.mobiess.com/ to request a demo of our systems, and let us start your path to collecting smart data.