Winning hearts and minds through service delivery

Jones Lang LaSalle

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is the UK & Europe’s leading property and asset management provider, and is responsible for the management of over 2.6 billion sq ft of commercial property worldwide.

In 2011 Jones Lang LaSalle merged with King Sturge in a reported £197 million deal, making it the largest UK property company by turnover.

The Brief

Propertyserve (UK), which offers a fully managed helpdesk and procurement service for commercial buildings was approached by Jones Lang LaSalle’s property and asset management team shortly after the merger in 2011.

The objectives were to streamline and improve its FM helpdesk facility, and introduce a single partner for the procurement and management of fabric related repairs and maintenance, facilitating a transparent and honest approach that would prove best value to clients and tenants alike.

Propertyserve had been providing a similar service for the previous eight and a half years prior to the merger, a service that had measurably driven savings, improved control and increased tenant satisfaction.

The new portfolio consisted of over 1,600 service charge buildings nationally and was diverse, ranging from shopping Centres, trophy assets, Industrial estates, retail parks and multi let office buildings.

JLL wanted to appoint an industry recognised FM helpdesk facility to ensure its tenants received the highest level of customer care and satisfaction 24 hours a day. At the same time, it wanted to release its facility managers from the laborious, time-consuming tasks, such as chasing contractors for updates on works and allowing them to concentrate on tenant retention and facility management. In addition to this, JLL also wanted to create a partnership for the notoriously difficult task of procuring fabric maintenance services across their diverse portfolio.

The implementation

Following the successful award of the contract in October 2012, Propertyserve was faced with a mammoth task to implement the service. The implementation programme was split over five months with the FM Helpdesk service going live first.

Together, JLL and Propertyserve embarked on a nationwide road trip – where the new offering was presented to all JLL offices and staff. The journey started in London and worked its way up the country, finishing in Glasgow. Numerous webex and remote training sessions were conducted with site based staff and those that had been unable to attend regional road shows in person. Propertyserve spent over 200 man hours presenting, training, attending Q&A sessions, with over 300 end user clients.

Simultaneously Propertyserve were working on the re-procurement programme for the fabric maintenance service. JLL provided a list of key suppliers, Propertyserve was then tasked with reducing the supplier base to a loyal, service orientated and competitive final approved list whilst ensuring that the suppliers that were being engaged met all of Propertyserve’s specific requirements. Propertyserve introduced fixed rates across the country, transparency, control and risk aversion on supplier quotations and invoicing. Supplier invoices were no longer printed and stamped for approval they were able to be electronically approved on the Propertyserve bespoke system, vastly reducing FM and accounts time.

Propertyserve assumed all risk relating to the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS), payments to HMRC and debt liability to the client. Propertyserve’s health & safety management programme and ongoing monitoring of contractors was included as part of the procurement management.

The managed procurement service was rolled out region by region following a robust re- tendering exercise. The roll out of this service was completed in October 2012. Propertyserve, in partnership with the JLL Procurement team, had to convince the people on the ground that the helpdesk was going to be useful, they had to help with a culture change and make the transition as smooth as possible. The new service was well received by the FM’s.

Propertyserve immediately had an impact on the lives of the FM community, assisting with emergency work, providing a support arm 24/7 for FM’s and tenants, responding quickly and providing a professional and approachable Helpdesk service. The initial scepticism rapidly diminished and messages of thanks and appreciation began to filter through.

The outcomes

JLL now has a reliable and trusted helpdesk that tenants interact with.

In the first year, the helpdesk received in excess of 85,000 incoming calls from the JLL portfolio – showing a measurable saving of 1756 hours of JLL time dealing with anything from repair and maintenance issues, to potential tenants enquiring about space in a unit.

The average ring time for incoming calls to the Helpdesk in 2013 was 3.8 seconds.

Propertyserve has instructed monitored and managed to completion 26,000 maintenance repair orders for the JLL portfolio during 2013, these range from contracted M&E repairs with the clients own contractor to emergency fabric repairs with Propertyserve’s approved contractors.

Propertyserve has reduced the fabric contractor base working on the JLL portfolio to 75 contractors nationally, this has resulted in increased volumes to contractors, allowing Propertyserve and JLL to benefit from the economies of scale it is afforded, increased levels of service, productivity and efficiency, owed to closer management of fabric maintenance suppliers, real time reporting through Propertyserve’s bespoke system.

Gareth Hollyman – Director Head of Operations
“By initiating a single point of contact for all property maintenance or repair related issues, as well as responding to other service issues has made life easier for Tenants and JLL FM’s and Shopping Centre teams. The scale of operation has brought both cost benefits, improvement in service levels, reduced risk and overall operational efficiencies. Having worked jointly with Propertyserve to drive the change management process, we are now looking to constantly evolve the service and deliver new service lines to generate real benefits to our Clients and Tenants Quote, such as national agreements for lighting maintenance, and drainage maintenance.”

Ian Robertson – Propertyserve
“We are extremely proud to have been instructed by a significant global provider such as JLL. The implementation of the service on such a large scale represented a real challenge but we are delighted with the way it has been received and are looking forward to developing our professional partnership in the years to come.”