Do maintenance companies provide value for money?
Maintenance within the commercial sector is an expensive business, especially for blue chip asset-intensive companies. Without properly functioning equipment, breakdowns occur which can have an impact on comfort conditions and trade. In a large organisation, this can translate into thousands of pounds of lost income.
Whether you acknowledge it or not, the facilities management sector is being forced to change. The market is saturated with a wide range of maintenance companies, all offering similar services that are competing for contracts. This intensity of competition can have a negative impact on the quality of service delivered by some maintenance companies as price often dictates which company secures the contract.
The growing demand for commercial facilities management services
There is a growing need for maintenance companies to work smarter, be more productive, cut costs and increase equipment efficiency. Yet despite this, we often see Asset Managers who do not have a full asset register or a capital expenditure programme. Maintenance companies can no longer rely on old excel spreadsheets for accurate asset information and upkeep. Ultimately, change in the market is inevitable and should be embraced to improve the service offered to clients.
Many businesses are often at the behest of the maintenance contractor to upload their asset data into the CAFM system. The client has no way to review the quality of the data that is inputted, limiting their ability to see if it is complete or accurate. Facilities Managers should be provided with access to their asset data on a continual basis to ensure that it remains accurate; this visibility would provide the client with better control over their asset register and ensure the maintenance contractor rectifies any issues in data quality immediately.
Building management changes hands regularly and its common for asset information to be out-of-date. Managing Agents are then faced with the challenge of making sense of the asset data handed over to best service the Landlord, Tenant or Investor. The solution to this problem is to use a library of common maintenance data that can be altered wherever a particular asset is changed. Once the asset information is correct and stored appropriately in a searchable database, the client can then focus on monitoring the performance of the maintenance contractor.
In response to this growing need in the market, we have developed our own bespoke Assets Database to better service our clients. Our Generated Engineering and Energy Audit Report System (GEEARS) is a web-based tool for undertaking performance audits and collating information together into comprehensive reporting on buildings and estates. Our new system is currently being used by a number of blue-chip clients and has already made improvements to the control and management of plant assets. The future functionality of GEEARS will encompass the following data:
- Contact management
- Management of building and asset data
- Asset reviews and audits
- Opportunity surveys
- Task review and management
- Planned preventative maintenance (PPM) schedules, compliance, review and reports
- Tender issue returns and reviews
- Energy asset modelling
- Life-cycle costing
- Capital expenditure programs
- Defects liability and dilatation reports
- Photos, drawings and other images
- Charting dynamic attributes
Its time maintenance companies follow suit and bring asset, maintenance and energy performance data into the 21st century. Clients need knowledgeable support that will effectively utilise software against a background of significant engineering experience and do the work which will manage the long-term efficiency of the asset.
Questions about energy management technology?
If you have any questions regarding the energy needs of your business, GEEARS, our Building Performance Optimisation service, our expert team at ETS are always here to help. You can contact us by calling 0117 205 0542, emailing us at enquiries@energy-ts.com or you can submit a contact form.