How a partnership based, on flexibility, responsiveness and innovation delivers big benefits for a large government portfolio. First 5 Minutes meets a global asset management company’s needs for cost-effective and flexible training and consultancy services, with streamline scheduling, invoicing and reporting.

Overview

• Challenge: A global asset management company needed a fire and emergency response training provider who could provide flexibility and responsiveness to meet the ongoing changes to its site portfolio and ensure continuity of compliance for a large government client.
• Solution: First 5 Minutes provides warden training and Emergency Management Manuals (EMM) tailored to each individual site, plus access to the live F5M online compliance portal for reporting.
• Result: The client benefits from cost-effective and flexible training and consultancy services, with streamlined scheduling, invoicing and reporting to meet its client’s needs.

Background

The client is a global leader in property services with a proven track record in managing large diverse portfolios. In Australia, this is continually demonstrated by its ability to manage a large-scale and quality property portfolio.

In April 2014, the client was awarded the contract for a large government department portfolio as shared service provider for approximately 285 sites. The portfolio comprises a rich diversity of mixed-use, owned and leased sites, from regional sites and car parks to buildings with over 4,000 staff. Therefore, for its emergency response training and procedures, the client needed a partner who could deliver efficiencies and compliance in a flexible way.

Continuous Compliance

Upon taking the reins, the client wanted to ensure continuity of services to its client. First 5 Minutes held the pre-existing contract to provide evacuation and warden training for approximately 180 of the sites and Ian Jones, Senior Facility Manager, was confident they would continue to provide a high level of service.

Since 1986, First 5 Minutes has worked hard to establish a formidable track record of success in the field of fire safety and emergency response training and consultancy. First 5 Minutes is now widely acknowledged as an industry leader, entrusted with compliance services for diverse and high profile clients.

Key Challenges

One of the biggest challenges for the client is its multiplicity of sites and stakeholders. In the contracted government department portfolio, stakeholders include a multiplicity of individual offices, landlords, building managers and owners. To add to this complexity, the nature of the portfolio is ever changing with sites continually being moved, added and removed.

Therefore, achieving continuous compliance depends on an ability to coordinate changes quickly to meet the requirements of each unique site. Timings can be tight and are bound by the client’s requirements. It is not untypical for the client to be notified of internal relocations of government departments on moving day.

In addition, occupancy and management costs are amongst the largest expenses for a government budget and the client is constantly on the look out for opportunities to generate efficiencies and deliver innovative solutions. The client was looking to First 5 Minutes for ways to show its client that they have the best practice compliance solutions, while simultaneously achieving the best return on investment.

A Streamlined Approach

From the outset, First 5 Minutes worked closely with the client to meet its client’s unique property requirements and respond with tailored solutions designed to meet diverse workplace needs:

Open communication: First 5 Minutes immediately established an open communicative relationship with the client’s group managers and the overall portfolio manager. They became known for their swift response times and ability to react to any changes quickly and professionally.

Regular updates: The client and First 5 Minutes keep on top of the unique client requirements in monthly meetings, where they review activities, look at training conducted in the last month and highlight new sites requiring training and evacuation plans. These regular status meetings are essential for First 5 Minutes to execute a smooth rollout of services when sites are added or removed from the portfolio.

Unique invoicing: The clients’s invoice process is unique; costs are mapped to each government department so they can closely monitor individual budgets and cost centres. First 5 Minutes quickly aligned with the client’s invoicing process, ensuring that monthly invoicing is broken down into the various government departments, which helps the client manage its costs and save time on administration.

Easy reporting: The client also has a growing need for compliance visibility and reporting, especially with the heightening awareness of security threats. Its clients demand real live reporting – something First 5 Minutes is able to provide through its online portal. The client can log into the portal 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a comprehensive real-time view of evacuation documentation and training. This gives the client everything they need to report to their stakeholders on compliance.

Results

With First 5 Minutes as its sole emergency and evacuation training provider, the client has realised the benefits of efficient reporting processes and a streamlined approach – right down to the invoicing. By leveraging the scale and national coverage of First 5 Minutes, the client gains from lower training costs than it would otherwise have using local providers.

Most importantly, the client knows that in First 5 Minutes it has access to dedicated staff who are experts in the field of fire safety and emergency response and will do everything they can to ensure complete compliance for its sites.

“Where we have providers doing compliance services, we need to know they are subject matter experts. We trust that First 5 Minutes are always doing the right thing and giving us the correct advice,” says Ian Jones.