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FACILITIES MAINTENANCE: VISIBILITY, COST CONTROL AND IMPROVED
COMPLIANCE As one of the UK’s leading providers of CAFM software, Ostara Systems is focused on what clients are looking to achieve in regards to managing their maintenance. For most clients, this takes the form of cost control, which Ostara does for clients such as Whitbread and its restaurants, and Admiral Taverns.
First and foremost, controlling client maintenance spend can be done in different ways. Crucially, the Ostara System has been designed to ensure that it establishes a culture of only paying for work done. The process aims to promote a trusted and fair relationship between clients and contractors. The control mechanism uses an automatic calculation of expected costs, based on contractor rates and time on site. To ensure an accurate reflection of time on site, Ostara offers a mobile app that works on all Apple and Android devices, that has the ability to validate an engineers’ location. In the past few years, Ostara has identified a need to move away from the industry standard QR code method of validating contractor attendance, instead introducing proprietary Bluetooth technology, providing more accurate reporting, and removing the need for staff intervention at site.
Further cost control for clients has been identified through the option to remove the fixed cost uplift processes and fixed cost quotes. These have been replaced by new functionality that uses estimates derived from pre-agreed rates and time on site, parts quoted and any other miscellaneous costs. This then acts as a ‘ceiling’ for costs, rather than the fixed amount the contractor can invoice for. This then works alongside the check-in and time on site processes cited earlier, resulting in the client only paying for actual time spent and parts used.
However, without pre-approval of costs, the above process does
not result in controlled costs. Ostara identified the need for the ability for clients to create bespoke authorisation rules, as no two clients are the same. Therefore, this has been designed with flexibility in mind, allowing for single or hierarchical structures, based on a range of conditions. At all authorisation statuses there is functionality for spend value comparison to a budget.
However, it is clear to Ostara that it is not just client expenditure that proves costly, but also the client’s manpower. As a result, the Ostara System features an automated invoice validation process. By calculating the cost of each part of a job (call out fee, time on site, parts etc.), and asking contractors to breakdown these costs as part of their invoice submission, the Ostara System is able to approve invoices where the costs submitted match the calculated agreed costs, which leaves a smaller list of invoices for manual review, thereby reducing the burden of invoice review on client administration teams.
In terms of legislative compliance, Ostara’s experience has fuelled its philosophy of identifying what clients should have, not just what they do have. For each legislative requirement (or client identified standards), the system is configured to be building ‘type’, or asset driven. This allows for accurate reporting of
actual compliance levels against requirements, and subsequent identification of PPM needs.
One of the key advantages of CAFM Systems is the ability to systemise and reduce client administrative input. However, this should be accompanied by a level of client oversight and review. A good CAFM System should be easy and quick to audit, whenever a client requires. As a result, Ostara has designed a built-in auditing process, that allows invoices, as an example, to be audited based on specific criteria chosen by the client, and a defined sample size.
Finally, one of the key applications and benefits of a CAFM system is client ‘buy in’ to the process and world of maintenance. Experience has taught us that the more people get involved in the maintenance process, and the more a system is able to capture all the information regarding a job, the better the maintenance process becomes. At Ostara, this takes the form of a self-service portal, that site users can log into. Users can raise jobs through the portal, and monitor their existing jobs with intuitive dashboards. Users can also raise jobs on the Ostara mobile application, allowing them to take photos as part of job creation. All email chases and notes can be done through the system resulting in clear job history in one place.
www.ostarasystems.com 16 | TOMORROW’S FM
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