1 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Hospitality in
the digital age
Service Management Simplified
Our vision for Facilities Management
CONTENTS
04 INTEGRATION WITH CAFM SYSTEM
CAN GRANT INSIGHT
Improving internal services with a good PSC
06 SHARED SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Expertise is better shared
11 RESERVING ROOMS AND SERVICES:
A SERIOUS PROCESS
12 CAFM UNBURDENS VIVIUM
14 FLOOR PLANS, ESCAPE ROUTES AND
SAFETY PROCEDURES
Health and Safety registration in a CAFM
system can improve safety at work
For years, TOPdesk has been supplying a tool that supports service
departments. Facilities departments are pre-eminently geared
towards providing services. The concept of hospitality is often
mentioned as the goal of a facilities department. Hospitality
stands for customer-oriented services and the customers positive
experience with an organization, among others things. An important
aid to reach this goal is personal contact. Using an application often
seems contradictory in this matter: digitization can lead to less
personal interaction. The contrary may be true, because the use of an
application can improve effciency and customer orientation.
Clear communication contributes to achieving hospitality. A clear
set-up of your Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM)
application provides transparency and clarity about what the
facilities department has to offer. It is possible to include a service
catalogue in your CAFM set-up. This digital service catalogue is
easily kept up-to-date, which ensures clear communication with
your customer. The customer knows what to expect from the service
provider and in turn the service providers know what to supply.
Personal communication is therefore less hindered by uncertainties
and is more focused on positive matters. You can read about the use
of a service catalogue in the article Products and services catalogue:
a great way to display your services.
Hospitality not only offers clarity, it also unburdens. You can
unburden you customer by offering one portal: one service
desk where employees can register all their questions, calls, and
complaints. A customer wants to get things done easily and receive
quick support without having to think about who they should
contact. A current popular trend is therefore the collaboration
between supporting department such as FM, IT and HR. TOPdesk
calls this trend Shared Service Management. Our vision for this trend
is discussed further in the article Shared Service Management.
Expertise is better shared.
Facilitating gatherings such as meetings and presentations can
be an example of a facilities process that combines hospitality. At
frst glance, this process seems quite easy, but behind the scenes
it is often more complex. CAFM can offer excellent support as it
combines all tasks at hand in just one tool. You can also sort the clear
overview in a CAFM system according to either time or location. This
results in fewer searches for supporting employees and more time
for good services with a smile and a kind word. Read more about this
process in Reserving rooms and services, a serious process.
As soon as CAFM is implemented, it can help improve your services.
Discover trends by running reports and defne the bottlenecks
within the facilities process. Solutions to these bottlenecks
eventually lead to customer-oriented services. In order to get specifc
reports, the CAFM system needs to be implemented correctly. This
implementation is a lot of work and attuned project groups and
employee trainings can help make this process run smoothly. In the
article CAFM unburdens Vivium, one of our customers shares his
implementation process experience.
There are also processes that are safeguarded in a CAFM system
that are not directly related to customer contact. However, they can
indirectly contribute to hospitality. Hospitality is about offering a
sense of security to the customers in your branch. Health and safety
is a process that helps to enhance this secure feeling. For instance,
regular emergency exit checks or an overview of health and safety
employees and their certifcates ensures a safer work environment.
The article Health and safety & TOPdesk: a safe combination, sheds
more light on this matter.
What at frst appeared a contradictory combination actually
supports your processes. A well set up CAFM improves customer
orientation and customer experience. Facilities employees using
CAFM creates more effcient and effective processes, meaning they
can focus on unburdening the customers. A CAFM system really is a
must-have for organizations that focus on hospitality.
FOREWORD
Hospitality in
the digital age
4 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Creating a good PSC (products and services catalogue) can improve
services, and help internal customers directly nd answers to
their questions. In this article we explain what a PSC is, what the
advantages are and how a PSC can be used to support CAFM.
INTEGRATION WITH
CAFM SYSTEM CAN
GRANT INSIGHT
is a facilities consultant at TOPdesk. She has extensive experience
with organizations that use TOPdesk to support several departments.
MARIEKE SPAPENS
The term PSC is often used at facilities organizations. But what is a
PSC? A PSC is a document describing all products and services that the
Facilities department offers the organization. A PSC answers questions
such as: what can I expect when I report a broken air conditioner?
What is the procedure to reserve a meeting room? Can I always order
tea and coffee for meetings? How often is my offce cleaned and
where can I turn if I have any questions? A good PSC offers the user
answers to these questions and improves internal services.
A PSC provides information about products and services, but it
also functions as a communications channel between the Facilities
department and internal customers. Being clear about durations and
how orders and calls are processed ensures that both your customers
and facilities employees know what to expect. How you explain
matters in a PSC shows customers how (in)formal, accessible and/or
professional you present yourself as a department.
A PSC can also serve as a promotional tool for the Facilities
department; it raises the level of professionalism and demonstrates
the departments transparency. Clearly listing the costs of certain
services lets the customer know how the budget is spent and which
costs will be passed on to them.
Why create a PSC?
There is not much documentation about the products and services
offered. The facilities manager cant always explain everything,
meaning forgotten details regarding the services come to light during
the implementation. A good PSC offers structural improvement during
the CAFM systems set-up.
IMPROVING INTERNAL SERVICES WITH A GOOD PSC
5 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
How do you create a PSC?
Facilities organizations are often aware of the added value of a PSC,
but dont know where to start. When creating a PSC, products and
services are divided into categories (differentiating between free
services and paid services, for instance). Dividing products and services
into basic packages, plus packages and bespoke has proven successful.
The basic package features products and services that are supplied
to all internal customers, free of charge. Examples of basic package
services are cleaning activities, coffee and tea supplies and print
supplies. The plus package covers all products and services for which
the customer is charged extra. This could include lunch services during
meetings or printing on poster paper. Bespoke services are tailored
to suit the customer. Purchasing these services is done in agreement
with the Facilities department. The services are not described
beforehand, because they can vary. However, internal customers
should know where to turn with their questions. For instance: when
they need help organizing an event, an external relocation or a special
(internal) project.
To properly inform your customers, you should describe the following
information in your PSC:
A description of the product or service. For instance, which facilities
are part of a standard workstation? And is there a staff restaurant?
The quality characteristics of the product or service. If the Facilities
department can supply various quality levels this should be
described in the PSC. Which types of meeting room are available?
What are the procedures for receptions or jubilees?
The order procedure for the product. Who can order the product or
service can only the manager place the order, or do you require
the budget holders signature? Or do you require an order form?
The terms of delivery for the product. Does the product have a
delivery time? Where can it be picked up, or can it be delivered to
the requester?
Who can the customer contact about questions, complaints or
malfunctions? Is there a phone number for this, or an intranet
portal or maybe a help desk where they can be helped in person?
Supporting your CAFM system with a PSC
In practice, a PSC is often based on specifc categories used to register
complaints, wishes, requests for information and malfunctions in your
CAFM system. The description of the expected time spent to resolve
the call can also be used to communicate the expected target date. In
other words: the date the customer can expect the malfunction to be
resolved. The PSC is then integrated with the CAFM system.
A CAFM system also lets you obtain customer feedback. A customer
satisfaction survey is often used for this. If the PSC is integrated with
the CAFM system, customers can give specifc feedback about the
services, helping the facilities department manage the organizations
expectations. This in turn affects the content of the PSC.
Presenting the PSC
When all products and services are categorized, you can start thinking
about how you want to present the PSC. There are several ways to
bring the PSC to the attention of your internal customers: you can
publish it on an internal web portal, as an alphabetical list or based on
the most common categories.
A fnancial services provider recently used handouts to explain
their services in six steps. The employees received a single copy, and
new employees were given the handout on their frst day. The tone of
voice was very informal and invited them to pay a visit to the facilities
department.
The majority of CAFM systems these days offer a self-service
portal, helping internal customers access all facilities information.
Here you can also publish your PSC. In short, integrating a PSC with a
CAFM system can help you grant insight into your services and build
a professional relationship with your customers. Just make sure to
always keep the target audience in mind when publishing a PSC.
6 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
A quick glance at the last few years trends shows us how the largest
supporting departments within organizations are working to become
more professional when it comes to service management. This
focuses on delivering better quality for lower prices. IT integrates new
technologies and management models to make services easier to
manage and faster to change. More and more platforms are cloud-
based, ITIL is still popular and there is growing demand for (ISO)
certifcation. FM has been professionalizing services using a facility
management information system for a while now. This lets end
users easily reserve meeting rooms and request lunch via a portal.
The Dutch NEN standards are often used to make services, which are
frequently outsourced, manageable. In recent years, HR has switched
to eHRM: supporting HR services using service management software.
This also uses frameworks and best practices developed specifcally for
the HR market.
It is notable that these individual departments are primarily acting
on their own initiative, and each takes their own approach. The HR,
FM and IT managers play a big part in this. After all, it is they who
determine the strategy for their departments, which is currently too
focused on their own services. However, the user has ever-growing
expectations. Previously people understood that it takes time before
a software package can be installed, and that it is complicated to
launch a web page or implement a change in a staff management
system. Now end users are less and less patient, but also less and less
understanding. This is a result of the Google effect.
SHARED SERVICE
MANAGEMENT
Supporting departments within organizations have traditionally
focused on managing and continually improving their own services.
However, end users are becoming more and more critical and
demanding of services supplied by HR, FM and IT departments. This is
why it is time for supporting departments to combine their strengths
in order to meet the business high expectations in the future. Its
time for Shared Service Management!
is a TOPdesk Consultancy team leader
JORDI RECASENS
Expertise is better shared
7 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Google-effect vs compartmentalization
The Google effect is peoples tendency to forget information that
is easy to fnd online using search engines like Google. This is the
conclusion of a joint study performed by the universities of Columbia,
Wisconsin and Harvard in 2011
1
.
You can also see the Google effect in the service management
feld. People are now used to a fast, central and even cost-free way of
having their questions answered. Employees are gradually coming to
expect this at work as well. Common feedback can be attributed to
the Google effect: I want to be able to do things easily, without using
complicated portals or forms. Why do I have to choose whether to
take my question to HR, FM or IT? I want to use a single desk for all my
questions. Why does everything have to take so long? I would have
been done by now if I had used Google!
It will be diffcult for organizations with supporting departments
using only internally focused strategies to stand up to this new
commentary. The reason supporting departments are so focused on
themselves is the compartmentalization that has developed since the
departments creation. They are used to resolving the challenges they
face within their own department. Each feld has its own frameworks,
standards and methods (ITIL, ISO, NEN, etc.), the schooling is strictly
separated, and the knowledge platforms, shows and magazines all
focus on a specifc audience (HR, FM or IT).
It is obvious that the situation described here is not easily changed.
It is up to HR, FM and IT managers to reach a strategic solution:
working together to improve services where they truly overlap. The
solution is Shared Service Management
2
.
HR
FM IT
Q
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Shared
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Nothing
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Shared
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Figure 1: Shared Service Management
Figure 2: SSM growth model
8 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Shared Service Management
Shared Service Management (hereafter referred to as SSM) is a new
strategic trend. Supporting departments join forces to improve the
quality of services while cutting costs. It is important to acknowledge
the strength of each department while searching for the areas where
the services overlap and can be improved. This has a synergetic effect:
expertise is better shared.
We can see three categories among the projects observed to include
steps towards more shared services:
Collaboration on tools
Collaboration on organization
Collaboration on process management
The SSM growth model has been developed to help organizations
achieve shared services. This growth model, based on experiences in
the feld, comprises four phases that can be seen as maturity phases
within SSM (see fgure 2). The way these steps are ordered creates
a logical, step-by-step change process, with each phase focusing on
one of three areas: tool, organization or process management. Each
following phase naturally brings together supporting departments
services, increases the maturity of the departments and results in both
increased quality and lower costs.
Phase 0: nothing shared
Each department uses its own tools to support its processes. This
can be anything from a professional service management tool to
sticky notes. The processes are not coordinated and vary greatly in
terms of maturity. Employees focus on their own department. This
phases greatest challenge is to share the information streams with
other departments when necessary. An example: employee changes
that require the various departments to swing into action. Each
department also uses its own service management tools.
Phase 1: shared tool
A shared service management tool is used to improve the information
stream. This also results in considerable savings when it comes to
licence costs and management. The various departments still use
their own work methods, based on their own culture. Nevertheless,
agreements must be made about the tools terminology and set-up.
The frst signs of project-based collaboration are visible. A tip: have
the Information Management department take a leading role in this
project to prevent IT dominating, and big discussions. After all, HR,
FM and IT are all end users for the service management tool. Not
much has changed for the end users; they still deal with the three
departments to support their work: HR, FM and IT.
Phase 2: shared service desk
The end user can now take all questions and requests to a single
digital and/or physical desk. With the exception of agreements about
how calls are registered and routed, each department processes calls
in their own way. However, the collaboration does intensify, because
operators from various departments must collaborate at the shared
service desk. This leads to a considerable improvement in quality for
the end user, as well as reduced costs resulting from sharing resources
at the service desk. A tip: promote this shared service desk using a
slogan and a face to prevent people from continuing to use the old
channels. It is primarily the front end that improves: the user sees
improvement, but still experiences different levels of service quality. This
is caused by the individual departments maintaining their own work
processes. Examples of this are inconsistent communication about
status updates and large differences in duration for similar calls.
YOU CAN ALSO SEE
THE GOOGLE EFFECT
IN THE SERVICE
MANAGEMENT FIELD
9 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
?
FM IT
HR
Information
FM IT
HR
Figure 3: Different information streams
within HR, FM and IT
Figure 4: End users deal with
three departments
Figure 5: Survey results for research into
SSM maturity within HR, FM and IT
Figure 6: Relationship between quality
improvement and savings
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Phase 0 Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
10 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Phase 3: shared processes
The processes and procedures that require the departments to work
together, or feature a considerable overlap in activities, are designed in
collaboration. Call management and employee changes are the most
obvious examples with which to start. This will happen gradually, and
will not be equally relevant for all processes. After implementing this
new shared process, the process management must also be centrally
sourced. A tip: source this process management at the front end, with
the service desk team. This is where colleagues physically meet. The
management of the various departments plays an important role in
this. They will have to understand and promote the importance of this
phase and recognize the authority of the process managers.
The right ambition
Recent research performed by TOPdesk among 210 respondents indicates
that many organizations have taken the frst steps towards phases 1
and 2 (see fgure 5)
3
, but few have attempted phase 3. The probable
explanation for this is that the cut costs become smaller and less visible
the further one progresses in the growth model (see fgure 6).
As long as IT managers focus only on saving money, organizations
will not progress much further than phase 2. Optimal results can only
be achieved when managers not only focus on saving money, but also
the quality of services (regardless of the phase). It is essential to look
beyond costs: the quality must also improve. If you wish to achieve
this, the ambition must always be the right one, namely continuing
to meet the growing demands of the business by combining the
strengths of the supporting departments. And saving a lot of money
while doing so. Not the other way around.
Conclusion
The business continues to ask for more against lower costs. They
want to do things faster and more easily, while having to think less
and receiving consistent service. This is not something that every
supporting department can resolve individually. This is why it is up
to the manager to adjust the strategy accordingly and consciously
choose to collaborate with other supporting departments to improve
the quality of services. To achieve Shared Service Management,
strengths must be combined when it comes to the tool, the service
desk and the processes while each department maintains its own
expertise. The goal is realizing more collaborative services with
considerable savings. This lets you guarantee customer satisfaction for
end users in the future.
NOTES
1 Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our
Fingertips, Science, 15 July 2011, http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6043/776.
2 This term was introduced by TOPdesk during TOPdesk on Tour 2013
3 http://www.scribd.com/doc/192531941/Working-towards-shared-services
SUPPORTING
DEPARTMENTS
SHOULD COMBINE
THEIR STRENGTHS
11 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
How often does it happen that a room is double-booked? Or that the
ordered coffee and tea is not there, or that too much is delivered? Even
though you are a facilities manager, you dont always have an overview of
the occupancy of meeting rooms and other reservable rooms.
An easy process?
To internal customers, organizing meetings or appointments between
colleagues seems like a straightforward process. But there is more to
booking a room: there is an entire process before the meeting room and
the reserved services can be used. The facilities market still uses a variety
of solutions to support this process, from Excel and Outlook to a paper
calendar. This is a solution when you only want to reserve rooms. However,
when facilities management goes a step further for example when there
are several locations, services are provided, or performances need to be
measured it becomes more diffcult to maintain your current method.
The world behind a reservation
No extensive process description is necessary when it comes to booking
rooms. However, its a different story when it comes to booking the services
and products that belong to these rooms and meetings. The internal
customer has to frst make decisions in order for facilities management to
execute them. He or she must decide how much coffee to order, whether a
projector is required and what the best set-up is for the meeting. Once these
decisions are made, requests must be put in with the correct departments. A
facilities (service desk) employee approves the request and starts processing
it. This means that the facilities employee starts preparing the reserved
room for the meeting. Everything must be ready for the internal customer
when the reservation commences. The process is not fnished when the
meeting has ended. The internal customer is not the one who cleans the
room. This is also done by someone from the facilities department.
Automate reservations
Automating your reservations can ensure the process runs smoothly. It is
advisable to include the entire process in a supporting tool. A tool with the
right set-up can automatically place tasks in someones task list. This way,
service desk staff, the IT department, Technical Services, catering staff, and
cleaners always know when and where a reservation takes place, and what
they need to do. A system with a good set-up also makes sure that the
occupancy rate of the meeting rooms is measurable. It provides an overview
of the service costs and sends automatic emails to internal customers who
reserve rooms.
Clear communication with the customer
There should be a number of communication moments included in the
reservations process. The facilities feld still communicates mostly via
email, paper lists or telephone. Sometimes organizations tell us that the
communication about reservations leads to mistakes in the execution and,
eventually, to complaints from internal customers. But consider this: is your
organizations reservations process perfect?
RESERVING ROOMS AND SERVICES:
A SERIOUS PROCESS
Organizations often regard reserving and renting out rooms as an easy
process. Somebody needs a room, reserves it in a system and uses the
room on the day of the reservation. Its that easy, isnt it?
is part of TOPdesks Offce Sales team. After obtaining a
degree in Facilities Management, she specialized in facilities
trends and processes.
SHARMAINE JANSSEN
12 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Vivium Zorggroep is a Dutch health care
specialist. They offer round-the-clock
in-home care, nursing home care, domiciliary
care, but also rehabilitation care, youth
health care, social care, support with
volunteer aid and a variety of day activities.
Vivium has 4000 employees and volunteers
that work across 17 locations.
Viviums facilities organization is
decentralized. A CAFM like TOPdesk helps the
organization to work uniformly, structured
and process oriented. Previously, the
organizations various locations all worked
with their own methods. This often led to
(unwanted) diversity in service levels, making
the comparison between management
information of the locations impossible.
The consistent CAFM system now lets the
health care specialist generate management
information needed to optimize their internal
services and make the facilities organization
future-proof.
Good preparation is half the work
Viviums IT department already used
TOPdesk and, in the pursuit of uniformity,
the facilities organization also decided to
work with TOPdesk. Stan Ottevanger from
management bureau Humanagement was
involved as project leader in the TOPdesk
implementation. He frstly started with
making a list of all wishes and demands.
It is important that it is clear what can be
done with a CAFM system and what you
want to achieve when you want a good
implementation. To realize this, Vivium
created a Programme of Demands that
was unanimously agreed upon by all seven
facilities managers. The project would
have been unsuccessful without this PoD,
especially because the organization is
decentralized, according to Ottevanger.
Erna de Groot (l) and Ramona Beemsterboer, Vivium
Text: Sanne Brakel, photography: Aad Hoogendoorn
CAFM UNBURDENS VIVIUM
Vivium Zorggroeps facilities departments have been
working with TOPdesk since May 2013. How has Vivium
made a success of their CAFM implementation?
13 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Key users form the basis
A successful implementation mostly depends
on suffcient support of the people involved
at the various locations and departments.
Erna de Groot and Ramona Beemsterboer,
Viviums functional manager, feel the same
way. De Groot: During the implementation
of other systems, this support is usually
neglected. To create a strong foundation at
the various locations during the TOPdesk
implementation, we work with key users.
The key users are the contact point at a
location for training, questions and remarks.
We created a position profle in advance and
proposed this to the facilities managers of all
locations.
Testing and going live!
At the end of the implementation, Vivium
used the test environment for educating
and training future TOPdesk users. De
Groot and Beemsterboer experienced this
as an important implementation phase.
Beemsterboer: This lets us fnd out whether
everything functions properly in practice.
If it doesnt, we can ask around and make
improvements.
TOPdesk went live for all facilities
departments on 26 May 2013. According to
De Groot and Beemsterboer it is important to
make a moment out of this. Beemsterboer:
We asked several work groups such as the
key users and other people involved to bring
to everyones attention when we were going
live. We had cake and there was a short
demonstration.
From the moment TOPdesk went live,
the facilities point became the go-to
place for calls, reservations, malfunctions
and other questions regarding facilities.
Vivium designed an icon for the facilities
point in order to make it more visible and
recognizable. This icon can be found on every
employees desktop.
How are things now?
TOPdesk currently works to everyones
satisfaction. All predetermined goals were
achieved. A lot of calls and reservations
are already logged in the CAFM system.
Beemsterboer: People in health care are
forced more and more to digitize their work.
The fear for computers and software is slowly
waning. What we notice now is that people
make call, but they do not check the status
or the solution provided. In order to change
this, De Groot and Beemsterboer are already
working on aftercare. They are going to
evaluate all the facilities departments and
locations in the near future: what are the
successes and what could be improved? The
work isnt fnished after the implementation
and the launch. The actual work is only just
beginning, according to De Groot.
Final tips
Both De Groot and Beemsterboer found
the implementation a fun and instructive
period. They have communicated a great
deal with the key users and users to create
suffcient internal support for the software.
As a healthcare organization, you should
always involve your employees when you
start a CAFM implementation. You create
more internal support and the bar is lowered
to start working with the software. Do not
only communicate via email, but visit the
people and engage in a conversation so you
can listen to their wishes. Only then will the
employees and customers feel part of the
implementation.
Facts and fgures
2 functional managers, 7 facilities managers,
8 modules implemented, 30 key users,
126 rooms ready to reserve, 152 operators,
171objects ready to reserve, 369 services ready to
reserve,1100 gadgets to promote the TOPdesk launch,
3970 calls in the rst three months, 4000 callers,
over 10,000 reservations in the rst three months.
14 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Research performed by BHV Nederland shows that 55 per cent of all Dutch
companies do not have enough Emergency Response Ofcers (EROs) present
during the summer period. Additionally, the AED often does not function
properly, or has insufcient battery power. Using a Computer-Aided Facility
Management (CAFM) system as your central Health and Safety system helps
you prevent such problems. But how?
FLOOR PLANS, ESCAPE
ROUTES AND SAFETY
PROCEDURES
An AED is a good example of an object you can register in a CAFM
system. According to the Dutch Heart Foundation, the likelihood of
surviving a cardiac arrest improves by 50 per cent if someone is able to
correctly use an AED to help. This means that knowing where to fnd a
device is a matter of life and death.
The frst step towards a safe work environment is registering your
Health and Safety assets in the CAFM system. However, make sure to
take the right approach. For instance, there is no point in registering
each smoke detector individually because they are checked in batches.
However, it is useful to register each AED device.
You can register not only assets, but also Health and Safety
certifcates. Again, we do not recommend registering each individual
certifcate: there are usually several people with the same certifcation,
after all. Once Health and Safety assets are registered in the CAFM
system, it is easy to register calls about these assets: The frst aid kit
was used and needs to be restocked. You can also report potentially
dangerous situations at work, such as loose cables.
HEALTH AND SAFETY REGISTRATION IN A CAFM
SYSTEM CAN IMPROVE SAFETY AT WORK
is a facility management consultant for TOPdesk. She is
specialized in implementing Health and Safety solutions.
ELISETTE DAAMS
15 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Help! Where is my ERO?
EROs usually work in different departments across the organization.
You are probably familiar with the presence lists in the hall, indicating
which EROs are in the building. Such lists are good for checking which
response offcers are present today, but what about tomorrow? Or
next week?
In holiday periods it is not unusual for organizations to have too few
EROs available. A digital plan board in your CAFM system can help you
avoid such situations. Plan boards let you easily register which EROs
are present, and when they have planned their holidays and regular
days off. This grants more insight into their availability: you can see
whether the desired number of EROs is present every day. If it turns
out that you have a structural ERO defcit, you can respond to the
problem accordingly.
Help! Where are my visitors?
Your colleagues should have received instructions on what to do in case
of an emergency. They are familiar with the building, and have probably
taken part in a fre drill. However, things are different for visitors, such as
electricians who often work in areas far away from workstations.
Using a CAFM system for your visitor registration means that all
visitors are registered in one place, along with all contact details.
Recording arrivals and departures per person creates an up-to-
date overview of the days visitors, so you can always prepare for
emergencies.
Legionnaires disease checks
Most organizations plan their evacuation drills well. However, equally
important tasks such as checking escape routes and changing AED
batteries on time often fall by the wayside. Over the past two years,
inspections revealed that only a limited number of the 80,000 AEDs
in the Netherlands undergo regular maintenance. The CAFM system
makes it easy to keep track of recurring maintenance tasks. Its easy
for the person responsible to retrieve the scheduled tasks from the
system in the form of a to-do list. Operators who do not regularly log
in to the system can be kept up to date on tasks via email.
Evacuation procedures
CAFM systems are great tools for communicating with your
colleagues: your colleagues are often already familiar with them as
a channel. These systems can also be used to improve operational
safety. For instance, you can publish a news item about the results
of your evacuation drill in the user portal. The public knowledge
base or Products and Services Catalogue (PDC) is a good place to
explain your evacuation procedures. You can also register to whom
your employees can pass on information about allergies or medical
conditions. This lets you show your colleagues how you safeguard a
safe work environment. Later on you can expand the knowledge base
with health information, such as RSI prevention. A CAFM system can
also be a central information point for your EROs. They always have
information about registered Health and Safety assets, foor plans,
escape routes, and safety procedures at hand thanks to a knowledge
base. If your organization comprises several buildings, it may be useful
to register all information in a single easily accessible system.
Getting started
The Health and Safety assets are in a CAFM system. Now what? It
may sound obvious, but: just get started. In practice, we often see
people wait too long to start using their CAFM system. This is a shame,
because a CAFM system makes operational safety easier, quicker
and clearer to manage. The set-up wont be a perfect match for your
situation, of course. However, step by step, asset by asset, you can
expand and adjust your CAFM system to meet your wishes, until it
works perfectly for your organization.
Tip: Legionnaires disease process ow
If legionnaires disease is detected during an inspection,
various procedures are started, depending on the
detected levels. Many organizations want to include
the management of legionnaires disease in the CAFM
system. A digital process fow in the system can help:
the Communications department knows when to raise
awareness, for instance. An external organization is hired
to fush out the pipes, and the Facilities department
can schedule an extra legionnaires disease check. Each
department knows when to swing into action.
16 HOSPITALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Service Management Simplified
Want to learn more? Feel free to contact us:
TOPdesk UK limited
+44 (0)20 7803 4200
www.topdesk.co.uk
TOPdesk Nederland BV
+31 (0)15 270 09 00
www.topdesk.nl
TOPdesk Danmark A/S
+45 7015 7500
www.topdesk.dk