Divisions Maintenance Group creates iPad Application to Deliver Real-Time Facilities Trend Analysis

Details

June, 2012

Divisions Maintenance Group, a provider of retail facilities maintenance services, has launched a new iPad application to provide field personnel with state-of-the-art mobile technology, linked to the Company’s online customer portal site. Implementation of these tools significantly enhances Divisions’ ability to provide timely and actionable information to customers. A breakthrough technology in the facilities maintenance industry, Divisions is using real-time data to prioritize on-site issues and provide trend analysis, facilitating the decision-making process for customers.

Many retailers employ facilities management teams in large regional or centralized locations, geographically removed from those companies’ stores. This makes it very difficult to consistently, physically view properties, which delays and hinders critical decisions regarding current maintenance needs. For this reason, the abilities to quickly deliver customized site inspections and quality site photographs for customers were central features in the application’s design. “The application guides Divisions’ field management team through service quality inspections, tailored to a customer’s unique brand and standards requirements,” said Kyle Murray, Divisions Chief Strategy Officer and the application’s architect. “Additionally, any issues identified while on-site are documented with photographs as well as real time proposals if the need is outside the scope of Divisions’ contracted services. It coordinates our field services more closely to our customers’ facilities management teams to a degree not otherwise achievable.“

Historically, facilities management professionals have utilized a variety of systems, technologies, and processes to track maintenance service calls and work orders. Because these tools are primarily focused on opening and closing records for individual service cases, review of those records does not provide an accurate description of the current condition of the property, or allow for trend analysis. “Divisions’ goal is to be able to help our customers and our Account Management teams identify their biggest problems, and then eliminate them,” says Murray. The application was designed so that each identified service need is assigned additional levels of categorization, such as liability issues, environmental hazards, and store zones (i.e. customer facing areas, employee facing areas, main entry, etc.). According to Murray, “this allows Divisions to show our customers exactly what their service patterns are so that they can make more informed decisions.”

With transparency and visibility driving the initiative, Divisions simultaneously developed an online customer portal. From anywhere, at any time, customers can log on to not only see detailed information being generated through the iPad application, but trend analysis on portfolio spending as well. The fluid nature of the technology also enables the customer to specify the points of inspection that Divisions’ field personnel are evaluating on-site. The result: rapid mobilization for new corporate initiatives or service changes.

Gary Mitchell, Divisions CEO, views the new application as a natural extension of the Company’s commitment to customer service and quality national coverage. “We are dedicated to producing today’s most advanced communication systems, keeping an effective and efficient line open between us and our customers at all times. It is paramount that we maintain a proactive program of facilities maintenance for our customers, letting them know that we are tracking pending projects, attending to immediate needs, acknowledging costs and budgets, and getting the work done right. The iPad was a natural fit. Better tools produce better results.”
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Divisions Maintenance Group is dedicated to providing national coverage of facilities maintenance services professionally, efficiently, and consistently across our customers' portfolios.

Founded in 1999 by five partners, Gary Mitchell, Grant Mitchell, Doug Lackey, Andy Smith, and Hugo Sakson, Divisions has quickly become a national leader in the facilities maintenance industry. Divisions' expert team of facilities management professionals and network of certified providers keeps properties running at their peak. Our position as a leader in the marketplace is the direct result of our unwavering commitment to provide uninterrupted peace of mind to our customers for their facilities maintenance management needs.