Challenge
ABM's operational team at Churchill Square, the largest shopping centre in Brighton & Hove, required a faster, more streamlined way to plan, organise, and deliver services on-site. As a team of 25 staff managing a public-facing retail space, maintaining efficient service delivery was crucial. While the team was already well-managed and productive, ABM wanted to take the initiative by identifying opportunities for further development.
Similarly, the site management team wanted faster turnaround for client reporting to grant prompt access to important documentation, enhance strategic visibility, and see the ongoing tasks being carried out.
Solution
The site management team began by identifying what areas wanted to improve, how it could benefit both the client and site team, and how pilot testing would be implemented. The essential aim of this project would be to increase site organisation and productivity. From a management perspective, faster, more accurate reporting and managing ABM's client relationship were viewed as critical long-term goals.
IBMS, specifically the Element App and Customer Portal tools, was seen as a solution for organising planned preventative maintenance (PPM) scheduling. ABM would introduce a pilot scheme to test these new functions and compare overall performance of the site team.
IBMS, ABM's suite of mobile apps and web portals designed to help teams manage facilities, was chosen to help achieve these objectives. More specifically, the Element app (in combination with the Element web portal) and Customer Portal.
Element was introduced to help reduce time spent on routine task management. It allowed staff to access digital documents that have been created in the Element Web Portal, typically by a supervisor or manager. Daily delegation, from the Site Cleaning Manager to the team of operational supervisors, could take up to 90 minutes every day, who would then organise tasks for their respective frontline teams.
Using Element eliminates this persistent blocker, resulting in faster delegation, both for the Site Cleaning Manager and supervisors, while frontline staff now have a fast, easy-to-use task management tool. Similarly, the management team has gained back potentially hundreds of costed labour hours that can now be spent on more strategic, site-wide work.
Additionally, the Customer Portal tool facilitated faster reporting turnaround, allowing the client real-time visibility into ABM task management, including PPMs. This has become indispensable for increasing strategic visibility for the client, site management team, and supporting ABM in regular client communication. With this additional oversight, project management is now much easier.
Benefits
- Successful Element app implementation: Churchill Square's site team can now delegate and organise operational tasks in less than 10 minutes, when it previously could take up to 90 minutes every day. Teams can now work faster, and the client's operation has experienced greater efficiency and productivity as a result.
- Successful implementation of Customer Portal: The client can now access ABM's task management audits and documents (customised for Churchill Square). This has streamlined client communication and project management, now that all stakeholders can view real-time data and receive comprehensive reports.
- Efficient PPM management: Both the client and site manager can organise essential PPMs for Churchill Square using the Element web portal and app, with key supporting details. This has improved efficiency throughout the site and helped operational staff increase their productivity.
- Staff training: Churchill Square's site teams have been trained to use Element and Customer Portal, depending on their roles, providing the client with an upskilled team at no extra cost.
- Streamlined task management: Frontline staff can work efficiently and manage their tasks with supporting documents set by supervisors.
- Better time allocation: The client's site management team can now allocate their time more effectively for important site-wide decisions and tasks, gaining potentially hundreds of costed labour hours across the site's leadership team.
