WELCOME TO INFOCUS, September 23
Yvette Greener, Client Director
Over the past three months, we have been continuing to focus on improving our client satisfaction. We have recruited more senior client managers and are putting more of an emphasis on better planning.
We're continuing to invest across our organisation to make sure that we are delivering the best service possible for our clients and customers. That includes investment in the latest technology, which is why we have now implemented Salesforce as our Client Relationship Management (CRM) tool. We're excited about its potential as an enabler to us becoming increasingly client-centric, focusing on your needs and wants in a more proactive manner. Release 1 has been for our people and Release 2 will see the tool extended to all of you - our clients. We are about to start Discovery, a great opportunity for you to get involved.
To enable us to continue improving our service delivery and to fuel our growth, we are committed to investing in developing the capability of our people through our Skills and Specialisms programme. Having skilled and qualified teams is important to us and we have recently refreshed our core skills training which includes being Customer Focused.
Our Workplace Services Transformation Programme (WSTP) continues its transformation journey, with clients and customers being at the front of our contract delivery. In June our helpdesk launched in three locations and has been well utilised. Our Performance Partner, JLL, is responding to and actioning over 580 work orders. We are now working towards the full rollout of the Helpdesk to our entire portfolio, with a go-live set from November.
As you will be aware from our correspondence with you at the end of July, our procurement process has been completed for new workplace services contracts for facilities management. We are delighted to award these new contracts as we continue our service transformation to meet the needs of our clients and customers. Our dedicated team will work closely with the current and new suppliers to manage the transition process and to ensure all business activities continue to be delivered.
Our progress with implementing property technologies continues with GovPrint being available in four government hubs and continues to be rolled out across government departments. It enables departments to pay for what they use, avoiding the complex procurement and management process for traditional print contracts.
Therefore, I am pleased to report to you the progress with our new Workplace Services contracts, our continued advancement with property technology and our own new systems and processes, which continue to transform the office estate and provide a better experience for our customers, and your people.
In this issue:
- Our new Client Relationship Management tool
- Workplace Services Transformation Programme
- Clients and customers at the centre of our Business Plan
- Launching our first ESG report
- Government of Singapore visits the GPA's Hubs for insights and inspiration
- Our annual performance 2022-23
- The GPA completes office refurb in South Colonnade
- GovPrint: simpler, cheaper, greener and secure
Our new Client Relationship Management tool
Investing in client-centric technology
We have now launched Salesforce, a Client Relationship Management (CRM) platform, to our people which will help us to deliver the best service possible for you and your people.
This is initially for internal use enabling our people who support clients to have access to real-time key information, including your queries, organised in the system by Client and Property. This has helped us work more collaboratively across our different business areas. This is a critical feature in our journey to become more client-centric and will help us resolve queries and communicate more quickly and effectively with you.
Engaging digitally with you
Our internal launch is a prerequisite for the next phase which will seek to bring the benefits of the technology we have invested, and how we communicate and partner with you.
From early next year, we're planning to use Salesforce as a collaboration platform with you, so that both us and you have a single reference point for key information.
This will give you access to the data that we maintain with respect to the services you take, the properties you occupy and your financial position. The CRM will be a single document repository for our latest Managed Service Agreement (MSA) and Occupancy Agreements (OAs), creating a single source of truth for visibility and transparency.
The key benefits to you:
- Ability to access real-time information on demand in relation to the services we are providing to you.
- Creation of a single source for truth for key documentation (including MSA and OAs).
- Clearer communication channels with defined roles for those of you who invest in our Portfolio Services.
Thank you to those of you who have already expressed interest in supporting us to design our processes on how we use Salesforce with you. We will continue to share opportunities with you to be involved, and will share more information with you shortly.
Workplace Services Transformation Programme
In our last InFocus update, we confirmed our new security contracts and the upcoming launch of our new Helpdesk at three locations. Since then, we have secured and awarded our final contracts to our facilities management suppliers and have begun demobilisation and mobilisation activities with our suppliers. We are on track to achieve our go-live dates which begin in October and continue through November.
Update on our Helpdesk
On 19 June we successfully launched our Helpdesk in three locations: Feethams House in Darlington, Piccadilly Gate in Manchester, and Quay House in Peterborough. The Helpdesk has been well utilised. Our Performance Partner, JLL, is responding to and actioning over 580 work orders covering more than 26 services such as cleaning, pest control, security services, fire systems, and more. Also, over 15 quotations for chargeable works have been submitted and are currently being processed at various stages in the approval system.
We are now working towards the full rollout of the Helpdesk to our entire portfolio, with a go-live set from November.
The Helpdesk will be the new way of raising building service requests and the first point of contact for any building queries. Initially, service requests will be logged by phone, and soon, it will extend to raising requests online by using the Customer Service Portal. This will give you the ability to track and monitor the progress of your requests, report on performance, and gain valuable insights, improving your overall experience.
We will be sharing further communications and information with you in the coming weeks so you'll know exactly what's happening and when.
New FM contracts awarded
Our procurement process has been completed for new workplace services contracts for facilities management (FM). We have awarded the contracts to the following suppliers:
Hard FM services: Focusing on customer comfort and safety, such as building maintenance, ventilation and air conditioning maintenance, will be delivered by ISS Mediclean in the North and Central regions, and Atalian Servest Ltd will deliver this in the South and London regions.
Soft FM services: Focusing on customer community and support, such as cleaning, housekeeping, hospitality and catering services, will be delivered by Atalian Servest Ltd in the North, ISS Mediclean in the South, Mitie in the Central region and ISS Facility Services across London.
We have entered into initial five-year contracts, plus extension options for a maximum of two years, with each supplier.
Our dedicated team is now working closely with the current and new suppliers to manage the transition process and to ensure all business activities continue to be delivered. The initial impact to you with these new contracts will be limited while the transition begins. There will be some phased adjustments as the mobilisation process completes but we will continue to keep you updated every step of the way.
Client engagement
We understand that there may be questions around the transition process and what is happening next. Our Workplace Services Director, Dominic Brankin and Deputy Director of Workplace Services Delivery, Louis Roberts, held 'WSTP Client workshops' on 8 and 10 August to confirm what the next steps are and the go-live plan.
We are planning further engagement with you and are currently working with the Client Solutions team to schedule further engagement sessions which will take place in the coming weeks. We are also providing a fortnightly transition update alongside the monthly WSTP update.
If you have any questions about the programme, please continue to reach out to our dedicated WSTP team -
