< Previous COVER STORY www.fm-middleeast.com20 April 2020 by Dubai Municipality and other authorities,” he says. He also says that the application of such chemical should be properly done in a trained manner. Macura says: “A lot of training is involved in understanding the chemicals, and only using the ones that are approved.” TRAINING Talking more about training for new practices, Macura says that his firm Al- Futtaim Engineering and Technologies already provides deep cleaning and sanitising as part of its service. However, on the backdrop of COVID-19 scenario, the firm has introduced further training, which includes protection to workers carrying out cleaning. He says: “We’re training them to execute cleaning services without being possibly infected by the virus.” Lee adds that BICSc’s (British Institute of Cleaning Science) specialised skill suites for bodily fluid and spill handling, and biohazard decontamination help organisations prepare for outbreaks such as this. She says: “[Khansaheb] being certified in these specialised skills in 2019 helped us familiarise ourselves with healthcare cleaning requirements, which are especially critical in recent times. We are now equipped with the skills and knowledge in observing high-standard sanitary best practices which proves our unmatched expertise in the region, especially for high-risk environments. Ultimately, the safety of the public, our clients and our staff is our utmost concern and this has helped us be equipped and ready in many ways.” Emrill too has been a BICSc member since 2012, making it one of the first FM providers in the region to be awarded the membership. As a result, Emrill was already practising cleaning methodologies designed to prevent cross-contamination and the spread of infection, Rodgers says. BICSc standards encompass protecting the operator, providing a clean and safe environment and producing best practice, and all of Emrill’s cleaning and housekeeping staff are BICSc trained before being deployed. Rodgers says: “Emrill hasn’t needed any additional certifications or accreditations to face the coronavirus challenges. Our focus is on continuing to do what we have always done – keeping our customers and employees safe by following BICSc guidelines and providing our people with continuous training.” To maintain the high standards required by BICSc, Emrill ensures colour coding guidelines and chemical usage instructions are followed at all times, and all cleaning methodologies follow BICSc guidelines. This includes the personal hygiene and self-care of the Emrill team. Onsite, its cleaning teams are taking the extra precaution of wearing their masks at all times, rather than just during specific cleaning activities. This is to ensure, especially in areas with high footfall, that it is not contributing to the potential spread of any illness when it comes into contact with so many people on a daily basis. Its teams are also using an updated procedure when handling garbage to minimise contact. SICK BUILDING SYNDROME Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a common worldwide health concern, where people in a building suffer from symptoms of illness or become infected with chronic disease from the building they work in or reside in. One way to prevent SBS is by following the WHO guidelines, says Abublan. According to the WHO or World Health Organisation: “Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand washing, ALL SUPPLIERS ARE FACING THIS UNPRECEDENTED INCREASE IN THE DEMAND [FOR HAND SANITISERS]. AHMAD ABUBLAN, MENA GENERAL MANAGER MIDDLE EAST AT KIMBERLY-CLARK PROFESSIONAL (KCP) All around the world authorities have been disinfecting common spaces. COVER STORY Ahmad Abublan, MENA general manager Middle East at Kimberly-Clark Professional (KCP).COVER STORY www.fm-middleeast.comApril 2020 21 covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.” Besides following the guidelines on an individual level, Macura says that there are things that can be done at a building level. He says: “Apart from regular cleaning and sanitation of premises, using approved chemicals will be able to prevent the spread of diseases, even after a month of application. In addition, it is important that AC ducts and fan coil units are properly cleaned and disinfected within buildings.” Rodgers too agrees that soft services and cleaning offer the first line of defence against sick building syndrome and the spread of viral infections. She says: “The best advice we can give is that building owners should ensure they are using providers who are qualified and approved by the relevant authorities.” According to Rodgers, some of the main culprits of sick building syndrome are poor ventilation, high levels of dust, the presence of mould or fungus, chemicals in the air from cleaning products, pesticides and heat or low all of our employees to take advantage of our flexible working policy if they need to, enabling them to make their own decisions regarding the health of themselves and their families.” Lee adds: “As experts, we would advise our clients and ourselves to consider robust hand touched surface and air quality inspection and audits. Checking VoC with the help of partner laboratory and approved QC test kits available in the market will give you condition reports. Analysing and conducting risk assessments and studying root cause will provide you the base and evidence of your report. You can minimise risk factors by implementing cleaning best practices in areas of poor ventilation. There are specifications on legislative standards that a building must follow. Overall, following planned preventive maintenance and cleaning regimes will help to avoid sick building syndrome.” FM firms are now at a very critical juncture. They should be mascots of cleanliness, especially during such times of crisis. Following crucial advice and guidelines from authorities and FM experts should help keep pandemics at bay Julie Lee, head of Soft Services at Khansaheb FM. humidity. When selecting a provider to oversee the cleanliness of their facilities and wellbeing of tenants and visitors, building owners need to be confident they can trust the provider can carry out the work to the required standards. She says: “Our advice for everyone else, including business owners, building owners and other FM providers is to be aware of seasonal and unique outbreaks and act appropriately. While it’s essential we take care of our clients, it is just as vital that we look after our own people. At Emrill, we have advised COVER STORY FM IN AVIATION www.fm-middleeast.com22 April 2020 I usually love to describe airports as the place in the world that is always full of life, no matter what day it is or what time it is; a place where it seems that life never stops; always full of people departing crossing with others arriving. This frenetic activity is managed behind the scenes, almost imperceptibly for the common people, but always taking care of the smallest details; becoming a perfectly choreographed ballet when the best professionals specialised in airport management and services are involved. Successful airport operations depend on numerous pieces fitting together perfectly, like a giant puzzle. That is why so many airlines and airports choose to outsource certain services, entrusting them to third party service providers such as our airport services activity. The main objective is to make passengers feel absolutely safe and relaxed, from the moment that they arrive at the airport until they land at their destination, despite the complex series of activities and skilled work force necessary to ensure that each experience is a success. Some of the activities performed by airport services providers like ACCIONA include passenger handling services and ramp and cargo services, among others. For example, the Operations Department does an essential job at airports, handling each flight and making important decisions related to them. It is also the communications channel between the service provider, the airport operator and other stakeholders involved during an airplane’s stopover. Another key area is the Ramp related activity, which is responsible for providing all of the required aircraft assistance while on the apron, collecting and transporting passengers within the Air Side and into the Land Side (and vice versa) and loading and unloading the aircraft, activity which is usually performed by a flight coordinator. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE AIRPORT SERVICES MANAGERS Coordination and specialised knowledge are central in any sector, especially when it comes to the aviation and airports sector which is used by millions of people every day. Airport operators are aware that each link in the chain must work smoothly, both for the passenger support services and for the aircraft ground handling. This is what is usually known as “Handling’’. That FLYING HIGH JESÚS SANCHO, ME MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR ACCIONA, WRITES ABOUT THE FIRM’S ROLE IN AIRPORT SERVICESFM IN AVIATION www.fm-middleeast.comApril 2020 23 is why Operators entrust these jobs to companies specialised in airport services management. As a result, the global market is extremely competitive with a large number of companies offering these types of airport services. Some of the ground handling services at the Middle East airports are performed by the flagship carriers themselves or by a few number of licensees. We are however detecting some privatisation initiatives and new licenses opening up to the market in the GCC. Let’s have a look to some of the main services that the handling activity entails: • Passenger service: Land Side support, check-in queues, passenger information, as well as flight connections, boarding and assistance with connecting flights. • Cargo: Safe-keeping, handling and delivery of all cargo in the terminal, including special or dangerous goods. • Operations and load sheets: The service provider operates the communication link between ground and the aircraft flight deck, the planning cargo load distribution, the weather information, the assistance during engine start-up, the coordination with the apron operators and even the assistance to the cabin crew. • Apron: Push-back of the aircraft, loading and unloading of the luggage, aircraft water and wastewater management, transportation of passengers and crew to the terminal building and aircraft cabin cleaning. • Boarding bridges and aircraft-steps: Controlling the telescopic passenger boarding bridges, which connect the aircraft with the airport terminal or the aircraft-steps when required. • Personal Shopper: Major airports are shopping centers with huge customer potential. This service advises passengers running short of time where can they find the products they need and handle their purchases. • Special assistance: People with reduced mobility needing special assistance get the help they need at their arrival starting at their on the aircraft when necessary. Similar assistance is available for unaccompanied minors and VIP passengers. So what does it make our offer different from the rest? With any doubt, our commitment to sustainability, key in all projects of ACCIONA and also present in our Airport Services activity: we have been steadily rolling out electric vehicles throughout our network, in line with general industry trends and 15% of the motorised fleet that we use at the airports where we operate are electric vehicles. And of course, a quality, flexible service capable of adapting to the needs of the client at all times; transparency and trust, ensuring these tasks are always correctly performed; punctuality and, of course, expert staff, trained professionally in handling and with a vast experience in dealing with clients. The key is clearly to position the passenger at the heart of all the operations, putting sustainability, well- being and satisfaction first. That means the client (in this case the corresponding Airport Operator) will also be satisfied with the services offered by the airport service provider, adapting the solutions to the needs of each customer. EFFICIENCY FIRST We have proven since 1993 our commitment to offer exceptional quality in those and many other activities related with airport services including facility management. This has made us to become in one of the world’s leading airport services providers. Emblematic airports such as Madrid (Spain), Barcelona (Spain), Dusseldorf (Germany), Santiago de Chile (Chile), Muscat and Salalah (Oman) among others have trusted us. It is noteworthy that since ACCIONA took over cleaning operations at Salalah airport (Oman), the airport has won in 2017 the Skytrax award for the world’s cleanest airport of its category. Our portfolio of services is a mosaic reflecting the complexity of human and technology management. Be it handling or facility management activities such as de- icing aircrafts, assisting cabin crew, running VIP lounges, soft-servicing terminals, providing personal shoppers, taking care of the outdoor garden maintenance, delivering cargo logistics, luggage check-in and collection, passenger boarding or operating telescopic boarding bridges, ACCIONA is there to deliver. To sum up, we have achieved an important position in the ranking of independent airport service providers through our commitment to offering the society the best services, while championing sustainability and environmental respect in all our activities. Jesús Sancho, ME managing director for ACCIONA.www.fm-middleeast.com24 April 2020 TECH TALK Facilities management is a rapidly changing industry. Over the years, technology has revolutionized the daily operations of build environment. It proves that the role of FM Tech is not only augmented hard services, but also soft services. Technology has created amazing tools and resources, putting useful real-time information at our fingertips. New technology and developments have created significant opportunities for financial savings and operational benefits. The revolution of mobile technology has played a dramatic role in the way we operate on a daily basis. Cloud technology has especially impacted the FACILITY MANAGERS CAN USE TECHNOLOGY TO IMPLEMENT PROCESSES AND BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, SAYS NAIJU ANSELAM, GENERAL MANAGER, AWTAD FM potential for greater efficiency within the management of building infrastructure and systems. For example, Awtad FM team use the cloud to store their records and as-builts, instead of having to wade through messy, disorganized, inaccurate or incomplete paper records. Cloud technology is also used to make these records accessible from anywhere in real time to our engineers to focus on higher priorities such as preventive maintenance and reducing response times for problems and service requests. TECH DRIVEN ENERGY MANAGEMENT On average, buildings consume about 30% of the world’s energy. Improving energy management in those buildings will go a long way toward conserving energy and saving money across the planet and sustainability. In our smart buildings use a combination of technologies to automate building management. First, user interface controls the different variables of a building’s operation. Second, sensors are used to detect changes, such as the rise and fall of temperature or motion in a room, and feed that information to the application. Improving energy management by real-time data analysis and energy benchmarks to identify saving opportunities. Building Envelope Technologies, Light Pipe Technologies, Cogeneration & Trigeneration, etc are TECH ADOPTION IN FM TECH TALK www.fm-middleeast.comApril 2020 25 some of emerging technologies. In UAE, 70% of energy consumption is used in air-conditioning. Therefore, adopt waste heat recovery technologies to recover the heat and an energy of 50 to 80% is recovered. The energy recovered can be further used for the heating or the cooling of the ventilation air that is being supplied to the building. TECH DRIVEN INDOOR AIR QUALITY Indoor air pollution is a complex issue that threats human health. According to research, indoor air quality is 2 to 5 times worse than outdoors. We spend 90 percent of our time indoor. This was one of the challenges I faced in my early career, major efforts should have been made to enhance indoor air quality. Thus, it was important to start by the control of indoor pollution sources. Nevertheless, when the suppression or minimization of emission sources is insufficient, technically unfeasible, or economically unviable, technologies have to be used. The sensor infrastructure helps us to collect a wide range of environmental monitoring components including light, temperature, humidity, CO 2, VOC and air pressure. Therefore, we could efficiently maintain mechanical and electrical filtration, adsorption, ozonation, photolysis, photocatalytic oxidation, biological processes, and membrane separation. We use technology which provides a detailed daily, weekly sequential IAQ profiling report. TECH DRIVEN MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT Recently, numerous developments have done within maintenance management in terms of corrective, preventive, risk- based and condition-based maintenance practices. We add standard IoT sensing inputs to existing assets including fire, smoke detection and alarms, motion detectors, CCTV, security and access control, lifts and so on. AI is easily integrated with IoT sensors and devices. These sensing inputs help us to capture real time diagnostics which can be aggregated and mined for advanced analysis and fault detection. Early fault detection is critical for cost saving and customers business continuity. We retrofitted predictive detection modules in the HVAC assets which exposed components within the assets near critical failure. AI and IoT enabled asset management system will pick up on abnormalities in asset functioning and report. And also predicts upcoming maintenance and even reviews and approves work orders with minimal human intervention. Drone technology offers a host of potential benefits. Drones typically carry cameras and allow operators to gather data from areas that are difficult, dangerous, or expensive for our technicians to get to. It is true that BIM-enabled facilities management is still fairly rare, especially when compared to BIM adoption levels during a buildings’ planning, design and construction phases. However, it’s a highly practical resource for both facility maintenance and ongoing use. It allows access to real-time asset profiles as well as improved awareness of asset locations (like where exactly a certain electrical circuit or piece of machinery is placed behind a wall). AR technology is especially useful when used in conjunction with BIM. For instance, when examining a plant room full of various unfamiliar electrical and mechanical equipment. Programmed with existing BIM models, allow to view digital representations over each piece of equipment, providing identification and added detail. This information might include written instructions, warnings, dates of installation, and troubleshooting for problems. Virtual reality and augmented reality are still far from widespread within the facilities management industry. We can witness a breakthrough in these technologies in the days to come. TECH DRIVEN CLEANING SERVICES One powerful application of IoT in cleaning service is smart toilets, or intelligent toilets. IoT sensors resolve issues even before they happen, smart soap and paper towel dispensers, for instance, digitally alert cleaning crews when levels are running low, or even self- restock or misused. Intelligent occupancy trackers determine when a restroom is full and, via a mobile app, allow visitors to find out its approximate wait time. On the back end, this kind of sensor also schedules cleaning crews after a set number of visitors have passed through. Now it’s time to eliminate manual job cards and ensure employee accountability and productivity. Evolve our employees time tracking with CAFM to have more control and less stress. After the entry of robotics manual labour can now be allocated to more productive work when a robot is taking care of some parts of the cleaning work. Transforming cities into smart cities starts with smart buildings. Day by day the built environments are become smarter and smarter. Technology enables FM professionals remotely to work smarter, efficiently and seamlessly. Facility managers can use technology to implement processes and business solutions that are based on stronger, more reliable data for cost-avoidance or at least cost-savings. We always advocate our customers to get benefit from technology innovation and value for money. IT IS TRUE THAT BIM- ENABLED FACILITIES MANAGEMENT IS STILL FAIRLY RARE, ESPECIALLY WHEN COMPARED TO BIM ADOPTION LEVELS DURING A BUILDINGS’ PLANNING, DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION PHASES. Naiju Anselam, general manager, Awtad FM. INTERVIEW www.fm-middleeast.com26 April 2020 There is a quote from Steve Jobs that goes, Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves. Biju Nair, head of Customer Experience & Service Strategy at Ejadah Asset Management Group, told Facilities Management Middle East, that he lives by this quote. Customer service is something which is often overlooked, especially in the FM industry. Nair admits that Ejadah too had not prioritised customer care back in 2016. He said: “Somewhere in 2016, customer orientation was a bit out of focus and the firm was facing challenges. That’s when, under the new management of Ejadah CEO Hussain Ali, there was the vision of introducing ‘customer centricity’ as one of the key pillars of the organisation.” Nair, who previously worked with Vodafone in India, joined Ejadah in 2017, and took over the responsibility of building a customer-centric strategy at Ejadah. He said: “When I came to Ejadah, we only had a small contact centre, which was a helpdesk. Our entire journey involved in reframing the orientation of the organisation into becoming more customer-focused; to move closer to our clients and customers.” BIJU NAIR, HEAD OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE & SERVICE STRATEGY AT EJADAH ASSET MANAGEMENT GROUP, EXPLAINS WHY PROVIDING GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ESSENTIAL IN THE FM SECTOR CUSTOMER IS KING! www.fm-middleeast.com Earlier, the helpdesk’s role was simply answering calls, registering service requests, handing over to operations and ensuring the requests were done. Nair and his team decided to format this particular vertical into a customer experience centre, which essentially took two years. “We transformed from a contact centre to a customer experience center,” Nair said proudly. Ejadah is divided into three main verticals called Idama, Arkan and Shabaka. Idama is the FM arm that provides facility management services ranging from soft services to hard services. Arkan is the security arm of the firm that provides total security solutions such as manguard services, security systems, and car park management. The third vertical Shabaka is the unit services arm that is similar to Idama. Nair’s team focuses on Idama, which is the firm’s key business. Talking about how they went about creating a customer experience centre, he says: “We introduced something called as the VOC process or voice of the customer. Initially, of the total service requests which were registered under us, only about 25% of it would be surveyed. We wanted to expand this process into a higher window. If possible, a 360 degree coverage to the entire customer base. This is what VOC is about.” Within Idama, there is both B2B and B2C and Nair wanted to first touch base with the former. “We wanted to understand what exactly we were lacking, and how we can improve ourselves. Our process as a team was to basically drill down into this VOC process. But for me to do that I wanted to gear up my team which had around 17 agents. My first process started with sitting with them and understanding how capable they were. The agents had a tenure of more than five years. I had to sit down with them individually and understand as to what level they could be geared up to. I selected three people who could manage some verticals. We launched three verticals: one was operations which completely looks into the operational matrices; second was quality analytics; and the third was training. “We identified the right people for these three verticals.” Nair’s exercise was to take them along with him and build their capability so that they could work as a well-oiled machine. Rather than just answering calls, they were also trained on developing other multifaceted activities. He said: “A couple of agents became trainers, and a few of them focused on becoming client-result-oriented people. Customer centricity is something which you can drive in two ways. One is as a INTERVIEW www.fm-middleeast.comApril 2020 27 Biju Nair, head of Customer Experience & Service Strategy at Ejadah Asset Management Group. INTERVIEW list for us.” The firm then launched forums to address the concerns. They formulated something called as the pain point meeting. Nair elaborated on the process: “Every month, we have pain point meetings, which is a summary feedback of operations of different sites. Whoever is responsible for that site will be present for that meeting. Then, we have something called as a scheduler. Every matter we discussed under pain point meetings, we would have a timeframe of revert, action, and closing. Now once this is done as a process, it will be reverted back to the client. The next time meet up a client, we ask them to evaluate us based on the action we have taken. We started measuring it on a metric called as NPS or Net Promoter Score, which would have a single question, Would you recommend Idama to your clients or business colleagues?” Idama’s initial NPS score in 2017 was 54 out of 100 and it moved to 72 in 2019. Nair pointed out that the other important aspect for good customer experience was having clear business strategy, where it becomes a KPI. The other is when it is driven as a culture. If you drive it as a KPI, it might stand for some time. But if you drive it as a culture, it is more effective.” After the team was structured, it started the process of carrying out customer satisfaction surveys. Nair said: “We started having client interactions, which meant meeting up with them. There was a questionnaire sheet, which goes along with the client interviews and interactions. We started receiving certain feedbacks, which was a laundry INTERVIEW www.fm-middleeast.com28 April 2020 communication. Giving an example, he said: “We found a huge gap in communication between the technician and the customer, either because of language constraints or because the technician was shy. This is where training comes in handy. “Grooming too is important for us. Soft services is about presentation; how he looks, how he does the job, how he interacts with the clients. We slowly started grooming team members right from the bottom to the top. Tarek Nizameddin, who is the Sr. executive director at Ejadah Asset Management Group, also had a vision to introduce small snippet videos. We created small videos of do’s and don’ts. “We also started induction process right from the time people joined. We have a heavy intake of employees every month who come from different cultures.” CUSTOMER NEEDS Nair said that the primary intention was to frame the entire customer journey. He said: “Earlier, there was only a questionnaire where satisfaction was checked. But later, we started charting the entire experience at different levels, right from bidding stage till the level when customer is active on the system. We got inputs from customers in areas where we need to improve. We started doing customer centricity workshops with the concerned department. There are certain levels at which cross functional teams also come into play. So a group workshop was done.” All the above efforts reaped awards for Ejadah at the Gulf Customer Experience Awards. The firm bagged two awards at the Gulf Customer Experience Awards (GCXA) 2020 ceremony held on 18 February 2020. The first of these awards was ‘Employees at the heart of everything’ that went to Ejadah for its success in enhancing its employee experience. This stems from the firm's principle that great employee experience, which is based on employee-centricity in the workplace, leads to great customer experience; this in-turn translates to delivering outstanding bottom line. The second award, ‘Contact Centre of the year’ was for making its contact centre highly efficient and industry leading in delivering exceptional service to customers. UPGRADE Nair explained that there are was also an upgrade of systems done for the agents in-house. Earlier, the agents only used a headphone and was toggling among multiple systems as Idama, Arkan and Shabaka were on different platforms. He said: “Every time when a call would come in, the agent would toggle between systems. In addition, it was purely voice- based. I wanted to expand the customer experience across the organisation. I wanted to empower my team members with technology as well as knowledge. We revamped the systems completely. We introduced something called as Genesis, which is an omnichannel contact centre platform. It’s a single screen and it can fetch data from anywhere and can throw to an agent.” The firm additionally moved from voice to digital by adopting chat messaging systems. The next 2020 vision for the firm is to automate 50% of the job that the agent is currently handling. “Through automation, the agent can be productively utilised for other things. With our current implementations, the agent’s productivity improved significantly. Earlier he would attend somewhere around 30 to 40 calls per day. Today, he is able to attend to around 70 calls. Speed of answering has improved as the information is already there,” Nair said. IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT The Ejadah management was supportive in the entire transformation process, Nair highlighted. He added that the FM industry in general has not factored customer experience as one of its key priorities. Nair concluded: “FM sector is always looking at profitability and the renewal of contracts. However, in the current market scenario, there are huge fluctuations in the economy and FM industry. Just because there are buildings everywhere that does not mean that you can survive without quality. Customer experience is something which you cannot ignore. We need invest more time to understand and speak to our customers.” Idama’s initial NPS score in 2017 was 54 out of 100; it moved up to 72 in 2019. JUST BECAUSE THERE ARE BUILDINGS EVERYWHERE THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT QUALITY. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS SOMETHING WHICH YOU CANNOT IGNORE.” What are some of the ideal HVAC maintenance practices, and more? MAINTENANCE CHECKLIST, Al-Futtaim Engineering & Technologies CEO on routine HVAC maintenance p34 plus A SP EC IA L R E P O R T F R O M FACI LITI ES M A N AG E M E N T M I D D L E E A ST HVAC MAINTENANCE Next >