< Previous UPDATE www.fm-middleeast.com10 May 2021 Dubai-based integrated facilities management company, Concordia, achieved its best Q1 yet. Despite the onset of economic challenges since the beginning of the pandemic, the fi rm has successfully demonstrated exceptional performance and resilience by building its client base and expanding its footprint. The exponential growth in quarter one of 2021, which led them to achieve the best results in the history of the company due to major wins in securing multiple contracts for master communities like Jumeirah Park, Jumeirah Village Circle and Living legends along with several high-rise towers, added to the recent accomplishments. "I am delighted in making this announcement. Due to Concordia's clients trust in the brand and its services and the company's ability to quickly adapt with the dynamic market needs, we were able to achieve this exceptional milestone in those challenging times," said Tamer Bishay, business development & marketing manager. In addition, Concordia has successfully diversifi ed its presence within the energy sector. Their most recent eff orts included extending its services to one of the new energy power plants in the UAE. Subsequently, venturing into the disinfection business since the beginning of 2020 positively benefi ted the company by acquiring a high volume of related jobs. All these factors, together, resulted in multi-million long term contracts that are secured for multiple years. On the customer- relationship front too, Concordia has managed to establish a reliable foundation. STAT ATTACK PERFORMANCE Concordia delivers its most successful Q1 in 13 years 29,000 By modernising more than 29,000 light points, the Spanish city of Terrassa, located around 30 kilometres outside Barcelona, has now reached an important milestone towards becoming an energy-effi cient, eco-friendly city. Tridonic’s dimmable constant current LED drivers played a big part in it. 17,000 MWh Back in 2013, the Terrassa city council launched the “Terrassa Energia Inteligente” (TEI) project. Its main objective is climate protection. Once the project has been completed, the Catalan city is hoping to save around 17,000 MWh of energy per year. It wants to achieve this by improving energy effi ciency and reducing pollutant emissions throughout the city. 100,000 hours The drivers have been designed specifi cally for street and industrial applications, are robust and come with a nominal service life of 100,000 hours. 94% And apart from their wide dimming range of 1 to 100% and high protection, the Tridonic LED solutions off er great energy savings. Depending on the model and design, the devices achieve an effi ciency of up to 94%. Tamer Bishay, business development & marketing manager.With an On Demand Labor Supply Trade license & a strong workforce of more than 7,500 employees, Tanmyah Services is one of the leading Manpower Outsourcing companies in the United Arab Emirates. We provide outsourced manpower with complete onboarding procedures to all our clients across the UAE, by ensuring that the non-admin tasks are well taken care of beforehand. Our clientele consists of a wide range of industry sectors like Banking, Malls, Retail, Construction, Hospitals, Power & Energy, Oil & Gas, Restaurants, Schools and other govt. and private entities. Send us your enquiries to tenders@tanmyah.ae We offer temporary and permanent Manpower solutions like the following: Follow us on: Info@tanmyah.ae | www.tanmyah.ae | 800 (TANMYAH) CREATING BETTER COMMUNITIES FOR TOMORROW CREATING BETTER COMMUNITIES FOR TOMORROW SERVICES TANMY AH • Administration & Executive Staff - Receptionists - Tellers/Call Center Agents - Clerks - Supervisors - Managers - Department Heads • Factory Workers • General Helpers - Office Boys - Cleaners - Waiters - Porters - Concierge • Temporary Staff for Events/Exhibitions • Skilled Workers - Technicians - Drivers - Operatorswww.fm-middleeast.com COMMENT 12 May 2021 he nominations for the 14th annual Facilities Ma na ge m e n t Middle East awards have now closed, and I am happy to announce that this year is the highest number of nominations we have ever received. If there is any indication it is to say that there now appears to be a sense of optimism in the industry. In the face of a crisis such as the ongoing pandemic, resilient organisations ride out the worst. The main advantage of organisational resilience is that resilient companies are able to cope with the challenges of day-to-day business on the one hand and have the skills to overcome problems in times of crisis. It can be said that resilient companies are better able to cope with crises and emerge from them more solidly. It should be noted that the establishment of a resilient organisation requires long- term planning, because building resilience takes time, and secondly because a resilient organisation tries to Want to enter the debate? If you have any comments to make on these issues, email the editor at rajiv.pillai@itp.com. VIEWP INT We have noticed a record number of entries pour in for the Facilities Management Middle East Awards 2021; the numbers indicate a sense of industry optimism. RAJIV RAVINDRAN PILLAI Positive trend ahead T About the author Rajiv Ravindran Pillai is the editor of Facilities Management Middle East. prepare for future risks before they occur. Also, another thing to consider is that once we are all out of the woods, and return to ‘business as usual’, we must never forget the past and be ready to prepare ahead. As well revealed in the cover story (p.16), Greg Ward, managing director, Transguard Group, says: “As the UAE appears to be firmly back on the road to recovery, I think the challenge I put forward in 2020 is even more apt today than it was a year ago. The reality is that people have short memories, and while FM was front-of-mind while we were all locked down, once the masks come off for good it is only a matter of time before the clock resets to pre- pandemic apathy. The FM providers who will thrive in a post-pandemic world are those who never take their foot off the pedal and who never look back. This is not the time for complacency; only innovation and a fierce focus on customer satisfaction that is built on solid service delivery will keep our industry relevant and vital.” I think Greg sums things up quite well. Let’s hope the awards will also bring us once again together not just to celebrate, but to unite as a community.www.berkele yuae.com Personalised Integrated FM Solutions. Cleaning Company of the YearExcellence in Training & Assessment Cleaning Maintenance Security Landscaping Laundry Support Services Fitout Opportunities don’t happen. You create them, with Excellence. OPINION 14 May 2021www.fm-middleeast.com How the integration of technology has contributed to Emrill’s success? By Gopalakrishnan, operations director at Emrill I t has been over a year since the global Covid-19 pandemic began. During this time, organisations have adapted to navigate the resulting challenges and uncertainties. Governments worldwide have taken action to curb the spread of the virus, assisted by health authorities and medical providers, who leapt into action to provide vital services, including tests, vaccinations and critical care for those who needed it. Education providers ensured students could continue learning with the provision of remote virtual learning. Organisations assisted their employees in the transition to working from home. Throughout the pandemic, facilities management providers have been among the unsung heroes, supporting government sterilisation programmes, minimising the risk of infection and working on the frontlines to ensure residents and visitors have remained safe. A YEAR INTO THE PANDEMIC In many ways, the global pandemic has forced organisations to assess their operations critically. Experience has taught us that any disruptive event, especially one as significant as a pandemic, will impact business operations and how we provide services to clients. In the facilities management sector, we have been faced with the challenge of ensuring the services we deliver support the government’s efforts to contain the risk of Covid-19 spreading further. In some cases, this has been achieved through the provision of tailor- made services, such as the deployment of additional staff and specialised fogging equipment to sanitise the communities we work in, including Emirates Living, Arabian Ranches and Downtown Dubai to support the UAE authorities’ national sterilisation programme. However, much of what Emrill has done over the last twelve months has been more an adaptation and evolution of services rather than launching new services. For example, pre-pandemic, the way we treated a door handle in a school may have been different from the way we treated a door handle in a healthcare environment. This is because the risk of an infection in a hospital is usually far more significant than anywhere else. However, as a result of Covid-19, we are applying the same cleaning regimes, including methodology and frequency, we would traditionally use in a healthcare environment in other sectors, such as education, residential, retail, logistics, hospitality and airports. As one of the first FM providers in the region to be awarded BICSc membership, Emrill was well-positioned to apply these methodologies across all sectors. Emrill has always been committed to innovation and giving its clients access to the latest technology and equipment. How we launched and integrated new technology has played an important OPINION May 2021 15www.fm-middleeast.com role in the company’s response to the pandemic. From the outset, we had a couple of goals in mind. We wanted to lessen contact between employees, reducing the physical contact they had with each other where it was not essential. We also wanted to empower our technicians to deliver services more effectively out in the field. However, above all else, we needed to ensure that whatever solutions we put in place would ultimately increase efficiency and add value to our clients, giving them confidence that we were doing everything possible to ensure the safety of their community residents and building occupants. Expanding on Emrill’s existing efficiency-enhancing app, which increases the efficiency of housekeeping and soft facilities management service delivery, we launched a web and mobile-based app for technicians in the field. This app enables them to log faults, upload photographs and raise queries, so they can work through a checklist of actions to be resolved and completed. Via their mobile devices, technicians can also access all asset- related information, including manuals, references, contact information for special, approved services providers and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) diagrams. The use of the app has minimised the need to call out an additional team to fix issues on-site and has reduced the time spent looking for asset-related data, freeing technicians to carry out other works. As the app captures all of the data, we have also eliminated the need to prepare paper- based work orders by up to 100 per cent on several sites. This process is good for the environment, saving travel time and decreasing paper waste, and for our employees, who have less non-essential contact with others. Emrill has also expanded the capabilities of its CAFM platform, FSI Go, to further decrease the requirement for Emrill’s technicians to visit site offices, thereby minimising any unnecessary contact with team members. Previously, technicians would log jobs, and these would be closed-off when completed by the administrative team. Now, to ensure optimum usage of the CAFM mobile apps, technicians can access FSI Go on their mobile devices and can log, update and close jobs without leaving the site. Again, this has reduced the need to share paper-based documents and face-to-face contact, but it has also improved accuracy and increased efficiency by approximately 10-20 per cent. Not all of the innovations Emrill launched during the pandemic have focused on reducing the need for Emrill’s technicians to come into contact with their colleagues. In a premier horizontal community in Dubai, we have implemented geofencing to optimise waste management. Each villa is geofenced in the system, so when the waste collection technician enters a villa’s vicinity to empty the garbage bins, his mobile device notifies the system he has visited that property. This data is uploaded in real-time, so if a villa is missed, we can immediately let the waste collection team know. Since launching this system, we have received no complaints from residents about waste collection, and we have achieved this without the need to deploy an additional supervisory element. We have also increased the application of automation to improve efficiency. For example, we have installed sensor technology on street and community lighting in the communities we manage. These sensors detect disruptions and outages, identifying which sector they have occurred in, enabling us to proactively restore power or change bulbs promptly instead of waiting to receive a complaint from residents. In the earlier manual auditing process, response to certain areas happens over 24hrs due to wide geographic coverage of the property. This is now being addressed within the hour as the notification is instantaneous, and callouts can be scheduled accordingly. The ability of the team to detect such failures has improved customer feedback. This is especially important to critical lights, where an outage poses a safety risk. Upon detecting an outage, the system automatically raises the alarm and puts a call into the duty technician. As a fail-safe, if this call is not answered, the system escalates the issue, calling the supervisor. Once the issue has been resolved and the current flow is restored, the alarm stops and the entire process is logged online in real-time. The implementation of automation has increased the ability of Emrill’s technicians to detect failures, which has had a direct impact on customer satisfaction and happiness. To further enhance this system, we are now trialling it for individual critical lights, in addition to sectors. Ultimately, technology without purpose is meaningless. Before the pandemic, we recognised that it is not enough to update IT systems to react to market challenges and evolving requirements. Instead, Emrill has continued to redefine its service delivery approach completely, harnessing the potential of young, tech-savvy technicians who have shared their ideas in our Continuous Improvement Workshops and are comfortable with the expanded use of technology with the aim of being more productive rather than clocking hours on a job. Gopalakrishnan, operations director, Emrill. COVER STORY www.fm-middleeast.com16 May 2021 IN A FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT, GREG WARD, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TRANSGUARD GROUP, REVIEWS THE EVENTS OF 2020 AND REFLECTS ON THE POWER OF PUSHING BEYOND THE BASICS OF SURVIVAL AND INTO THE CERTAINTY OF THRIVING I t’s been a year of rapid change for the entire world, hasn’t it? One year ago, when we first started grappling with Covid-19, it felt like the hits just wouldn’t stop coming, both in our personal and professional lives. For Transguard’s management and operational teams, work weeks bled into work weekends, and throughout the business there was a question of “what next?” hanging over our heads. Last summer, when we had settled into the new rhythm forced upon us by Covid-19, I wrote an article in Facilities Management Middle East where I said that because of the global pandemic, the world seemed to have finally woken up to the fact that good FM is absolutely vital; I also said that I hoped clients wouldn’t be as quick to stop investing in a quality FM provider as they might have done before the pandemic. I challenged the industry to dig deeper, to think more strategically and work more aggressively to break out of old habits so that we can meet any new obstacles that come our way – and all of this must be done while caring for and celebrating the people on the front lines who are out there, every day, representing our companies while they go about their daily tasks. A year later and I’m proud to report that this is exactly what Transguard has done! REDEFINING HOW WE APPROACH THE MARKET It is not an exaggeration to say that Covid-19 sparked greater innovation for us, as well as increased our focus on customer service. Being the first to market with insightful solutions for the new requirements of Covid-19 prevention provided with the best- in-class client support has offered an unprecedented opportunity for Transguard to broaden its already extensive work in the UAE. No matter what came our way, Transguard actively worked to redefine what we offer to the market, as well as how we partner with our clients to deliver those products and services. Because we’ve been delivering on our promises for the last 20 years, our customers felt valued and because of that trusted the solutions we crafted during a time when they perhaps weren’t sure who and what to trust. The global pandemic increased the need for thorough hygiene and sanitisation, which acted as the impetus for a number of remarkable achievements for our FM division. In addition to deploying more than 44,000 employees every month during the height of the Covid-19 crisis, a further 500 employees took on a variety of roles at the UAE’s field hospitals, while another contingent serviced the FM needs of one of Dubai’s largest hospitals. Our FM division also launched three new products and two new services lines to answer the requirements of Covid-19 prevention: Designed and produced by Transguard, these bespoke misting stations for individuals, crowds and vehicles were incredibly well received by businesses large and small, including a major airline and a multinational automation KEEPING UP THE MOMENTUMCOVER STORY www.fm-middleeast.comMay 2021 17 Greg Ward, managing director of Transguard Group. COVER STORY www.fm-middleeast.com18 May 2021 conglomerate. Two of our newest offerings also included ad hoc cleaning and sanitising fogging services, both of which were instigated and well received following significant market demand. Our FM division also landed a prestigious contract with a global leader in the Oil & Gas sector. We also expanded our retail portfolio with the addition of two malls, including Dalma Mall in Abu Dhabi, as well as the renewal of its contract with Global Village for the 11th consecutive year. Our consumer division, Transguard Living, also posted significant gains as it served the residents of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, with the expansion of its Move team and the introduction of four new mascots, each of whom was designed in-house. Also significant for Transguard Living was a contract with one of the UAE’s largest airlines, as well as the launch of Home Secure. With a service that includes a site inspection, a wide range of cameras and alarms and professional installation, Home Secure offers tailored home security products and packages to home owners and renters in all communities across Dubai. Finally, Transguard Living was named the sole provider of FM services for one of the most coveted residential towers on the Palm Jumeirah. The UAE’s most recognisable security team also expanded its sizeable reach with the signing of two significant contracts. Under the first agreement, Transguard Security Services is the sole security provider for the country’s largest bank. The second noteworthy agreement saw Transguard add the extensive residential portfolio of the nation’s largest property developer to its existing contract, which covers the developers’ Hospitality and Entertainment portfolios. This year has also seen Transguard secure the residential community of a major sustainable developer in Abu Dhabi. Our Systems Integration division played a lead role in Covid-19 prevention with the proactive expansion of its thermal imaging products, the largest and most significant of which is used daily in one of the UAE’s most heavily traversed pedestrian walkways, capturing body temperature information from travelers who hail from all over the world. We earned significant headlines in the field of systems integration with the December announcement of the MOU we signed with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Transguard Event Security also provided highly visible support during the UAE’s winter event calendar, with key assignments across the country but most notably at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. After two decades of leading the industry and new innovations being released all the time, Transguard Cash is by no means resting on its laurels. In addition to extensive back office support, our workforce of more than 2,500 services more than 18,000 machines and provides more than 100,000 cash in transit services every month, not to mention the fact that we are still the only company authorised to process cash airside, which makes For the past two decades, Transguard Cash has lead the industry, with new innovations being released all the time.COVER STORY www.fm-middleeast.comMay 2021 19 THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR COMPLACENCY; ONLY INNOVATION AND A FIERCE FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION THAT IS BUILT ON SOLID SERVICE DELIVERY WILL KEEP OUR INDUSTRY RELEVANT AND VITAL. process cash airside, which makes the processing times of Transguard Cash faster than anyone else. We’re also proud that our efforts also feature a strong welfare aspect. Last year we launched an extensive network of “Transguard Pay” kiosks, which give Transguard’s site-based staff easy, convenient access to top up their mobile credit or even send money to their families in their home countries. With warehouses and deliveries growing at an exponential rate due to demand, Transguard’s Manpower division signed agreements with multiple local and global logistics companies. In fact, in 2020, we expanded our portfolio to include contracts with all major supermarket chains in the UAE and provide manpower for warehousing, delivery services and more for these essential service providers. In addition, a major transportation project connecting Dubai and Abu Dhabi will also rely on Transguard employees as it enters the final stages of completion. We’re also about to go live with the launch of Transportation as a managed service, which is an exciting development for us. Following the country’s pandemic- mandated lockdown, Transguard also supported the gradual reopening of the UAE’s hotel and F&B sectors with its Hospitality division: A framework for multiple hotels within the umbrella of a major regional hotel chain was a significant highlight of the year. Further supporting the UAE’s tourism industry, Transguard Delivery began offering home check-in services for travelers anywhere in the country. As of 2020, Transguard Delivery is also working with the world’s largest ecommerce retailer to facilitate deliveries in the UAE. OUR ACCELERATED DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY Digital transformation has long been a priority for us, but the challenges of last year gave our specific initiatives a new urgency that accelerated our progress in a number of areas. Operations, training, welfare, logistics, payroll – all of these and more have benefitted from digital enhancements or completely new applications that improve customer experience and allow us to be even more efficient in how we deliver services, both internally and externally. This eye toward efficiency has led The global pandemic increased the need for thorough hygiene and sanitisation, which acted as the impetus for a number of remarkable achievements in Transguard’s FM division.Next >