At the FM Giants Roundtable hosted on Ain Dubai, Marc Daly, Director – Hard Services at ServeU joined an exclusive roundtable discussion to discuss various topics and issues affecting the industry, such as contractual gaps, worker wellbeing, working closely with real estate developers, breaking into the hospitality industry, and so much more.
With over 10 experiences in the FM industry Marc has led FM operations in the UAE, KSA & UK with a keen eye on efficiency improvement on asset performance and service delivery. With technology being the main driver for both these areas; Marc has played a leadership role in implementing technology in FM operations for leading clients to help deliver efficiency through their assets and achieve benefits to their budget bottom line.
Managing Large Task-Force: The value of employee well-being by the FM Companies and Clients contracting manpower services
Investing in our people is important as they are most asset in the organisation. At ServeU, we invest in people moving up, getting promotions and we recently has one our cleaners getting promoted to electrician due to the training we give and to motivate the employees to develop new skills.
At ServeU we have various initiatives technology driven and psychological that enables our employee engagement to be very strong and effective. We believe and practice that the role of the task force is not just to do their day job and the role of the management is not just to manage the task force. As Management it is our responsibility to empower our task force to be more efficient and provide them with opportunities to progress. Herein lies successful management rather than having our employees on a leash.
Expanding into the Hospitality sector: How can the FM Industry break into the hospitality sector?
Traditionally it was normal for the hospitality sector to outsource the soft services side of their but in 2021 we have engaged with some high-end hotel brands wherein we have provided MEP maintenance work force as well. From a client perspective they have a twofold approach to this move; firstly, assurance for the trained skillset that a FM company can provide and secondly engaging for a technology advantage whereby they can use the various technological practices of the FM company to maximise their asset value.
Establishing a relationship with developers on projects: How can the FM Industry establish an open line of communication with developers at the beginning of new construction projects?
The early engagement between a developer and a Facilities Management service provider is fundamental and imperative to maximise the performance and life of the building and associated assets. With the advancement of the UAE construction industry and the maturing FM market this engagement has started to surface with PPP (Public Private Partnership) consortiums engaging with FM Service Providers. ServeU has in the last 18 months been in dialogue with established organisations to foster this early engagement.
Contractual Gaps: What are some of the gaps seen by the FM Industry when it comes to contracts and tendering processes?
The legacy gaps in FM industry contracts have narrowed to a great extent over the last decade. This maturity in the FM market can be attributed to the awareness across the customers and the increased engagement between the customers and the FM service providers.
A key focus area to bridge the gap is the reporting and almost dynamic visibility of performance. At ServeU we firmly believe and propagate what Peter Drucker said, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”. We continuously work with customers to develop and enhance reporting dashboards supported by PowerBI that gives them visibility and an awareness of our performance whilst allowing them to understand the performance of their assets.
Enhancing User Tech Experience: Adapting to new technologies can be demanding but how can proptech vendors better position themselves to explain the intricacies of their product without time being wasted
In-line with Dubai’s innovation-driven growth for the Dubai Strategic Plan 2030; we have implemented technology driven CAFM utilisation on 98% of our contracts. We have implemented a customised maintenance app exclusively for ServeU customers at EXPO2020. Furthermore, we have provided many of our customers with handheld devices at no additional cost burden for them to log and track jobs being attended by our teams. Our revamped customer app for the B2C segment is ready to be launched with a core focus on the customer journey and experience which is not just seamless but extremely easy to use and navigate. In 2021 we also introduced an innovative issue logging mechanism whereby even if the customer does not have any app the issue can be logged using WhatsApp. What is even more interesting is that the customer’s report is immediately acknowledged with a reference number they can use to trace the status. This technology adaptation and our continuous innovation drive has resulted in us retaining more than 94% of our customers with win rate on new bids being in the high percentile as well.
The Property Technology firms have a strong advantage when it comes to solutions since they have a very close collaboration with the Property Developers and Construction Prime Contractors which can be further extended to the FM companies. The statistics shows that there are only around one tenth of Proptech firms when compared to Fintech which creates a great niche for a seamless solution to provided right from design to facilities management enabling longevity to the asset life.
The Proptech companies are well positioned to provide bespoke solutions for FM services that will ultimately benefit owners and residents since their engagement from the design stage is very high.