Integrated fm’s 24/7 fm outsourced help desk service, combined with Mobile fm mobile communications, is helping NHS Birmingham Shared Services (BSS) to increase efficiency and improve customer service.
NHS Birmingham Shared Services provides a range of support services, including estates and facilities management, to the three Birmingham Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). It handles over 22,000 reactive calls and around 7000 planned preventative maintenance (PPM) tasks a year over some 250 sites which include community health centres, clinics, a dental hospital and two elderly services hospitals in Birmingham.
The recent move to an outsourced help desk followed the agency’s move to a remote hosted service with Integrated fm’s Helpdesk module. Rather than the software being purchased outright and installed on local systems, the software is hosted on a remote server and accessed via a web browser.
“Moving to a remote hosting solution means that we no longer have to spend time on managing software-related issues such as upgrades and security as all that is taken care of,” explained Clive Rex, Deputy Director of Estates and Facilities with NHS Birmingham Shared Services. “In addition, it means we are always working with the latest software versions for no extra outlay and we do not have to upgrade our hardware to handle new programs so there is less investment in rapidly depreciating assets,” he added.
Subsequently, NHS Birmingham Shared Services decided to outsource the entire help desk function to the dedicated 24/7 fm help desk resource managed by Integrated fm.
“Previously we were operating five different help desks serving different sets of people and staffed by people who also had other responsibilities,” Clive Rex continued. “Consequently, the service we gave was not as consistent as we would have liked.
“Now, we have a single ‘phone number for customers to use, the response is more efficient and completely consistent and we can accurately boast that we never miss a call. It also means that our FM staff can focus on more strategic issues without being distracted by help desk issues,” Clive Rex explained.
Mobile fm
The estate is very complex with many types of buildings ranging from converted houses to purpose-built healthcare facilities and community hospitals with a wide assortment of assets that have different planned maintenance requirements.
A further complexity is that the buildings or parts of buildings are the responsibility of different Primary Care Trusts, some buildings are owned outright and some are leased – and in some cases areas within buildings are sub-let with NHS Birmingham Shared Services acting as the landlord’s agent.
NHS Birmingham Shared Services has also been operating Integrated fm’s Asset Management module for several years and during this time the system has been enhanced in the light of experience and the agency’s changing needs. The recent addition of Mobile fm to enhance the control of field operatives is the latest of many developments in this area.
“As well as taking on existing CAFM products, we have worked together in co-developing new products based on our feedback, aspirations and requirements – in some cases sharing the development costs. Consequently, this is a partnership based on mutual benefit,” Clive Rex noted.
For instance, in order to help manage the complexity of the relationships within the portfolio, a property management system was introduced to provide a central repository for the data relating to each building, bringing all of this information together in the same format.
“The key advantage of this is that it provides a combination of effective day-to-day management and a strategic overview of all operations across the estate,” Clive Rex observed.
In introducing Mobile fm to the Asset Management operations the efficiency of both reactive and planned maintenance have been further enhanced. The system uses hand-held devices carried by operatives in the field linked to the central help desk system, so that reactive and planned tasks can be issued to technicians in real time. Progress reports and job closures are also completed across the system.
A further refinement of the system is that requesters automatically receive emails acknowledging receipt of reactive tasks, providing progress reports and informing them when jobs have been completed.
“Introducing Mobile FM has been very successful and helped to streamline our maintenance operations considerably. Not only can we respond faster and make more effective use of the workforce, we are also feeding information back to requesters in real time so that the overall service levels have been greatly improved.
“In addition, this access to real-time data gives us a more meaningful picture of operations and enables us to produce more accurate reports,” Clive Rex explained.
Long-standing relationship
These latest innovations mark a long-standing relationship between the two organisations that dates back to the mid-1990s.
“The partnership between our organisations has been built on the trust we have developed in Integrated fm’s products and people,” Clive Rex recalled. “Our organisation has experienced several iterations over the years and, in line with these changes, Integrated fm has helped us to work smarter and more efficiently to fine-tune and improve the service to our internal customers,” he continued.
“This relationship goes far beyond the simple supply of software to incorporate a spirit of understanding of each other’s priorities and objectives, and working in harmony to achieve them. It is a partnering relationship that has stood the test of time and continues to help us drive cost from our business while adding value to the services we deliver to internal customers,” Clive Rex concluded.