Case Study: Property Asset Management Software System

Overview

One Consulting Group (OCG) were appointed by London Borough of Haringey to help implement a new property asset management software system. The new system would support the Council in bringing the FM services in house and establishing better control and management of their property and compliance data.

A decision was made by the Council to acquire TF Cloud a web-based modular system supplied by Technology Forge. This system enabled the council to better manage the following core business processes and activities:

Manage all the Corporate properties and assets in one single place including the leases, licences, disposals and valuations.
The production of planned maintenance schedules and ensuring that buildings are statutory compliant
All remedial works resulting from inspections/surveys are record, monitored and completed on time
Processing reactive maintenance requests via the helpdesk and as an outcome of a maintenance activity
Production of management information & client reporting such as future asset liability and key performance indicators

The Challenge

As part of Haringey Council’s delivery of their Borough Plan, they decided to demobilise their contract with Amey and insource the FM services with effect from 1st April 2020. The decision involved the Council working with Homes for Haringey and their internal services to create a Hybrid in-house model for FM services, which allowed them to regain control over local services.

Underpinning the delivery of the new service, it was important that Haringey acquired a modern and integrated property and CAFM system which ensured that the Council’s property data in one place, and supported key aspects of the service, such as the Helpdesk and scheduling of tasks.

Project Objectives

The overarching objective of the project was to work closely with the project team at Haringey and implement their new property and CAFM system TF Cloud.

This project was more than just system implementation as there was strong need to redesign the target operating model and introduce better working practices across the property, estates and FM teams.

Another key objective was to establish an electronic interface between TF Cloud and Service Connect, the system used by Homes for Haringey. This ensured a smooth transition of the working ordering process.

The Process

The implementation of TF Cloud comprised of a number of different workstreams as outlined in the illustration below

A new Customer Service hub was established within the Council along with a self-serve platform to allow staff to report new work requests.

OCG’s wealth of experience and expertise ensured this project was managed efficiently and staff in the Council were part of the journey in this change.

The Solution

TF Cloud is a modern and market leading software application and through its successfully implementation, Council realised a number of key benefits as set out in the diagram below

The results

The project was successfully delivered on time and met the Council’s objectives. These are set out below:

Met the recommendations of the Audit commission.
All property and FM data was centralised creating a single version of the truth.
Removed single points of failure and a sustainable team was created
Efficient management of the reactive maintenance spend through better planning and forecasting.
Reduction of risk on compliance and achieve performance against KPIs.
Reduction of annual debt relating to the commercial property portfolio.
Improved recovery methods of unclaimed service charge income.

“Waltham Forest instructed OCG to carry out a review of our Facilities Management service. The team were professional, and engaged with our staff and stakeholders in a manner that meant everyone felt comfortable and at ease in discussing what works well and not so well. OCG provided regular project updates, had a flexible approach and a delivered a detailed report with improvement opportunities that everyone could understand and follow. We were very happy with the outcome and look forward to working with the team again in the future”.

Craig Egglestone – Waltham Forest Council

The Facilities team at Tower Hamlets have worked with Consultants from OCG on many different projects over the past 10 years or so. This has included Procurement support, service review, the implementation of the Corporate Landlord operating model and Asset Management software advice and services. The Consultants are professional, knowledgeable, thorough and easy to work with.

Sam Brown – London Borough of Tower Hamlets

OCG have been appointed by Croydon to support the delivery of a range of projects over the past few years. Projects have included drafting the Asset Strategy, delivering our property review programme and the delivery of capital projects. The team are diligent, professional and work with all stakeholders to deliver excellent outcomes for the Council.

Steve Wingrave – Head of Asset Management and Estates