Healthcare Client Reduces Cost of Ownership

About the client

This client is a prominent healthcare provider in New Zealand, working across dozens of sites, including hospitals and health clinics. To improve their processes and asset management, they decided to migrate from a legacy on-premise FM solution to FMI Works cloud solution.

The challenge

With a legacy solution in place, this client had long struggled to get top down buy in to make improvements.

The existing solution provided the basic functionality needed, however had not evolved with the way the facilities team was working.

Being on-premise, updating, triaging, and closing work orders all had to happen on desktop devices. Trades had to physically obtain work orders, before heading out into the field to do the work. Delays in updating work orders occurred because the work order couldn’t be updated until a team member could return to their desktop.

The legacy system didn’t meet modern user experience expectations, and as a result training new users required a significant investment. While at face value, the system simply looked outdated, the old design also meant it didn’t operate in the ways modern users expect.

However, these issues were not seen as major show stoppers by upper-level management, and alone were not sufficient to justify investment in the move to a modern cloud solution.

The true catalyst for change in this organisation became the cost of ownership of this outdated system.

As is typical of on-premise solutions, the solution was hosted on the organisation’s own infrastructure. Combined with the expenditure on external IT support to conduct updates, keeping up with software changes was a challenge.

The process of downloading, testing, and upgrading to new versions was time consuming and costly when compared to modern cloud solutions, where upgrades are pushed automatically at scheduled times. The incurrence of these costs meant upgrades to the system were continually deferred in favour of more urgent works.

This caused the organisation to fall further and further behind, with the system becoming increasingly outdated. As the gap between the systems interface and the expectations of modern users widened, the issues with onboarding new users were amplified.

The decision

The organisation needed software that was intuitive to use, mitigated their risk, and reduced cost of ownership. With over 1000 users needing to log jobs on the platform, ongoing support was a consideration, as the facilities team couldn’t keep up with support requests.

Within the facilities team, there was a strong desire to improve their asset management. Improved reporting, and software that would fit the way the team worked was met with enthusiasm from the FM department.

“FMI Works fits in with how facilities teams work. Jobs can be actioned and updated on mobiles in the field, rather than tying them to a desktop”

-      Simona Riftin, FMI Customer Success Manager

The journey

Engaging in a demonstration of the FMI Works solution, this client was drawn in by the modern user interface, which promised to be intuitive and easy to use for new users.

The client quickly realised that FMI could not only meet their everyday needs, but could offer solutions to a number of concurrent issues. FMI Works offered the client capabilities that had never before been possible, but to utilise these, they would have to undergo significant change management.

Their initial fears about managing the changes internally were quickly put to rest, upon engaging with FMI’s expert consultants.

Undergoing a reverse briefing process, the FMI team worked with the client to first understand the goal, the business need, and the current processes. The team then worked to see how the client's desired state of operations aligned with the capabilities of the software.

During this process, efficiencies were uncovered that the client, up until this point, had never considered. From this point on, the client knew they would continue to engage with FMI consultants, to continually improve their daily operations.

The relationship built with the client during this onboarding phase facilitated a smooth transition for the client. The FMI customer success team quickly developed an in-depth understanding of the organisation's and FM team’s needs.

This understanding gave the client confidence that they could move forward with ongoing support for all users.

Being in healthcare, and operating with such a large volume of work orders daily, it was important to minimise disruption during the migration process. To minimise disruption to existing operations, the client embarked on their migration with a small project team of three, relying heavily on the support of the FMI customer success team.

The solution

In just a few short months, the client had completed a seamless migration from their existing on-premise system, to FMI Works cloud solution.

Now leveraging a cloud solution, upgrades happen automatically each month for the client, keeping them up to date and protected from emerging threats. Frequent upgrades align the product to meet market expectations and creates a better experience for their users.

They now enjoy less reliance on third parties, with infrastructure hosting and updates handled by FMI. This has allowed for a dramatic reduction in expenditure, while allowing the client to enjoy greater efficiencies and capabilities.

New users are onboarded easily, and the intuitive interface has drastically reduced the number of support queries. In the rare instance a user does have a query, the client is delighted to be able to direct them to the online FMI help centre. Alternatively, they can submit a ticket to get in touch with the friendly and attentive support team, to have that query resolved quickly.  

This client continues to work with FMI expert consultants, and has evolved their maintenance strategy from a purely reactive model. Engaging in planned maintenance has allowed this client to reduce the overall number of work requests in the backlog, reducing overall business risk.

The mobile optimised platform now fits the way the FM team operate, with jobs able to be actioned and updated without returning to a desktop. As a result, communications have improved within the FM team and beyond, to the broader business, and stakeholders.

Improved reporting and insights into operations has improved visibility into the value the FM team brings to the business. Their executive team enjoy insights that have never before been possible to obtain, facilitating more informed strategic decisions.