Entertaining Better FM

About the client

One of the largest entertainment operators in the Oceania region, this client is dual listed on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges, beholden to thousands of stakeholders.

The group owns and operations 5 casinos, three bars and 18 restaurants across New Zealand and Australia. Over the past 25 years of operations, their portfolio has grown significantly, and continues to do so, with the development of a new NZ convention centre.

The facilities team strive to create memorable experiences for anyone visiting their facilities. From temperature control, to lighting and moving around the venues, the team is critical to delivering exceptional experiences to patrons.

The challenge

For this client, maintaining beautiful venues that customers want to visit is extremely important. Although they were early adopters of facilities management software, many of their processes were still paper-based, and each venue operated independently of the others.

In 2015, the client decided to revamp and realign their facilities management processes and centralise operations. 

The facilities team wanted better confidence in their data, improved visibility of operations and asset management across the whole portfolio. The goal was to improve processes and technologies to allow for sustainability and scalability across the entire business.

The decision

With stringent procurement processes in place, the client first evaluated the market to ensure that they had the right solution in place to support their goals.

After clearly defining their requirements, they set out to select a platform that was fit for purpose, and within budget. The chosen solution had to be easy for their end users, provide valuable data insights, and support increasing reporting requirements.  

As part of their due diligence, the client spoke to users of a range of platforms, to determine how well each would meet their requirements. After careful consideration, they chose FMI Works as the provider of their facilities maintenance software, and embarked on an implementation plan that included a restructure of their existing data and the adoption of mobile functionality.

The journey

Ensuring the broader business was on board was a huge part of this client’s journey. While the facilities team had a grand, long-term vision, the project was planned to roll out gradually. Incremental changes over time allowed for the business, and the facilities team, to create carefully considered, incremental change, which minimised disruption, and allowed for a frictionless transition.

Their first priority was to improve work order processes, which over time had regressed to being predominantly paper-based.  

“We were working with literal piles of paper on people’s desks. They would print a job out, and when it was done would put it in a “done” pile. We had little visibility over what work was happening, and it was easy for jobs to get lost”, explained their Director of Facilities.

In the initial phases of the transition, the facilities team were equipped with new smart phones, enabling them to complete work orders in the field. This newfound mobility unshackling them from their desks and paper work orders, significantly improving process efficiency.

Change management

Given the magnitude of the change, it was expected that a few team members would have some initial hesitations. However, the few that did, quickly overcame these of their own accord once they started noticing the benefits their colleagues were enjoying.

Digitising the previously paper-based work order process offered stakeholders better visibility over what work was happening when. It also yielded benefits for individual team members, whose workflows could now run much smoother, reducing stress, and offering a greater level of fulfilment.

The extensive change management extended beyond the team, and into the whole business. The facilities team worked hard to re-educate facility users that if they wanted a job done, it had to be logged through the system.

Inherent in paper-based processes is a risk that work order scan be lost or misplaced. This can sometimes result in work either not being completed, or not being completed in a timely manner. Unfortunately, prolonged reliance on these processes meant this fear was rife within their facility users. As such, an early problem emerged, in that as users started adopting the system, 100% of jobs were logged as “urgent”.

Part of the change management process, therefore, was to demonstrate that the new system removed the risk of requests being lost, so confidence in using the system could be established. 

User adoption and implementation

To help adoption of the system to grow organically, rather than being dictated, the client elected a “champion for change” from within the facilities team. An end user explaining how the system has made their life easier gave credence to claims surrounding the benefits of the system.

This champion for change worked closely with the FMI onboarding team, to become an internal subject matter expert. Ongoing support provided by FMI ensures the team, via their advocate, can always capitalise on new opportunities within the platform.

Having an internal advocate for the system reduced potential hesitation from adoption of new processes. The individual in question was selected for their propensity to adapt to changing processes and technology, and was eager to help the rest of the business embrace the journey.

During the implementation process, the clients team worked closely with the FMI onboarding team. The client wanted to ensure their processes would support the creation of accurate, useful data moving forward. In redesigning their processes, they put their trust in the hands of FMI’s senior consultants, whose expertise in facilities management helped the client to create sustainable, scalable processes.

Outcomes

This clients digital transformation journey is one that has been carefully considered and planned, every step of the way.

Since implementing the solution, they have transformed from paper-based work order management to digitised processes across all venues. Efficiencies found through use of the solution have allowed them to embrace an impressive proactive maintenance strategy.  

As their Facilities Director explains, “We now go out to the different sites to proactively check if there is anything that needs doing, which allows us to act on things before they become a bigger deal.”

“The visibility in the system has allowed us to further develop our relationship with the broader business. For example, we can say to someone in one of the restaurants that we’ve noticed they have logged less jobs than normal this month and dig into why.”

“It could be that there are less jobs because they’ve been busy and not noticed things, or thought they weren’t a big deal, or it might be that someone has left the business. The benefit of the system is that we can identify when something is inconsistent with the trends and work out if that means an action needs to be taken.”

The use of consistent processes across the entirety of this clients operations has created a high degree of visibility. The broader business has trust that the data provided by the system is accurate, and the facilities team are now confident to use this data as a basis for strategic decisions.

What's next

As this client continues to evolve their use of the system, the visibility and accessibility of valuable data is at the heart of operations.

Moving forward, a focus is being placed on asset lifecycle management. Looking at how an asset has performed and evaluating the return on those assets is something the client hopes to continually develop.

Being able to work smarter and be more productive has buoyed the level of fulfilment the facilities team find in their roles.

“The team are happier because the systems and processes we use now better fit the way they work. They know what they need to be doing every day, and are able to finish each day with a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment” commented a spokesperson.  

For this client, facilities management and asset management are at their heart of their business, and will continue to be a focus.

“It’s not something we can ever stop developing. For our customers, being here is absolutely a choice, so if the facilities aren’t up to scratch, they can choose to leave, leaving us without that potential revenue” a senior spokesperson explained.