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05/10/2015
Success Story
Minimising liability risks – quality management and assessment solution launched at ProPotsdam GmbH
Since June 2015, approximately 30 iPad users have been keeping a watchful eye on the building portfolio at ProPotsdam GmbH. As part of the building inspection procedure, employees use the easysquare mobile app to help them check the real estate objects and the associated infrastructures for potential damage or hazards. These inspection tasks are extremely important. Neglecting these quality assessment obligations, as they are known, can result in serious liability risks for the owner.
It is not only important to ensure that the quality assessment
inspections are carried out on a regular basis; documentation and archiving are
also crucial. After all, if damage or injury occurs in connection with the
property, the owner must be able to prove that suitable safety precautions were
in place at the real estate object. Such inspections are not a major challenge
for companies with small portfolios. However, as the size of the company
increases and the real estate portfolio grows, the numbers of objects to be
inspected, inspection tasks to be performed and inspectors involved also
multiplies. In some instances, external companies perform various quality
assessment tasks, although the monitoring and management obligations always
remain with the owner. The quality assessment obligation is thus an
increasingly complex task. This was a challenge also faced by
ProPotsdam GmbH. “With a portfolio of almost 17,000 apartments, it was
time for a rethink. We needed to find new methods that would make it easier to
organise and map the inspection obligations and facilitate implementation and
archiving. With this in mind, we developed a future-oriented solution together
with our long-term business partner PROMOS,” explains Monika Gräf, head of
information and communications at ProPotsdam GmbH.
ProPotsdam GmbH is the largest housing company in Potsdam, the
capital of Brandenburg, and the leading service provider for urban renovation,
urban development, residential construction and housing assistance. A total of
11 subsidiaries are housed under the ProPotsdam GmbH umbrella. The company
contributes to sustainable and future-oriented development in the construction
and housing sector with innovative concepts and socially responsible conduct.
In close collaboration and agreement with PROMOS, the project managers at
ProPotsdam GmbH created a new concept for holistic fulfilment of quality
assessment obligations. The requirements for the new system focused not only on
minimising costs and workloads in general while increasing transparency, but
above all on end-to-end digital processing of the process, including
involvement of all internal and external parties and complete SAP® integration.
Another key focus was automatic and audit-proof archiving of inspection
reports, as this is the only way to counteract any potential liability claims
in the event of damage. These arguments served as the foundation for the
solution throughout the entire duration of the project, and the result
succeeding in meeting the high internal expectations. The three-pillar quality
management and assessment solution based on easysquare is the right tool for
any group of users to perform their respective tasks:
- The SAP® system is a central hub and archiving location for ProPotsdam
- The easysquare platform is a management tool for external service providers
- The easysquare mobile app is used to carry out pending inspection tasks on site using a mobile device
Figure 1: Data is exchanged using the easysquare web portal with the aid
of a ready-to-use plug-in for connection to the owner’s SAP® system.
 Figure 1: Data is exchanged using the easysquare web portal with the aid
of a ready-to-use plug-in for connection to the owner’s SAP® system. |
“Ultimately, the key to success was a combination of mobile terminal devices and complete integration of SAP®. This is the only way to map existing quality assessment obligations holistically across the entire process,” says Torsten Friedel, project manager and COO at PROMOS.
Process organisation with SAP® and the easysquare web portal
Today, employees at ProPotsdam literally make short work of organising
their quality assessment obligations. In just a few clicks, processors can
assign existing inspection obligations to individual buildings and their
respective operators from within their SAP® systems. Examples include a visual
inspection of a building or check of a gutter, which a certain operating
company needs to perform on building XY. The idea behind the process: Why not
select and assign the inspection obligations in the same place that the master
data for the objects is stored? This saves time and also reduces susceptibility
to errors by avoiding media discontinuities. A particular advantage is also
that the inspection cycle for the individual inspection obligations is already
stored, so the employee in question does not have to make any more adjustments.
ProPotsdam GmbH’s work is now done for the time being. The company
can rely entirely on the relevant processors to complete their inspection
tasks. There is no need to send specific work instructions by email or to phone
the processors. The easysquare quality management and assessment solution takes
care of this. The planned inspection tasks are automatically transferred
together with the precise inspection instructions to the easysquare web portal,
and the processors concerned can then access them using their individual access
data. Now all the processors need to do before the individual inspection tasks
can be performed is to assign their employees to them. To do this, they select
the inspection task or assign it to the employee stored in the portal as a
one-off task. If the employee in question is on holiday or ill during the
inspection period, the task does not have to be postponed. Instead, it is
automatically assigned to an alternative employee based on the configured
rules. To ensure that the process is seamless, the inspection task is sent as a
digital form to the easysquare mobile app and thus to the inspector’s iPad. In
addition to the general organisation of the processes, various reports (e.g.
deviation and capacity utilisation analyses) can be viewed by owners in their
SAP® system as well as by operators via the easysquare web portal. This allows
inspection obligations and tasks to be monitored to ensure that they are on
schedule and complete.
Figure 2: The easysquare web portal provides
holistic management for operators thanks to transparency as well as planning,
controlling and monitoring functions for quality assessment obligations.
Easysquare mobile in action via a mobile device
on site
So how does the on-site quality assessment actually work? Digitally, of
course! Imagine that the quality assessment inspectors receive the inspections
perform on their iPad from the MRP planner or the portfolio assignment. Just
like in an e-mail program, the inspectors can now see in the mailbox all the
inspection tasks that are to be completed. The easysquare mobile app also
provides information as to where, how and within which timeframe these tasks
have to be performed. Using the integrated map function, our inspectors can
plan the day’s journey with ease and find their way to the first property. They
stand in front of the building, perform an initial visual inspection of the
property in accordance with the task, check that everything is okay and then
make a note of this by simply tapping checkboxes in the easysquare mobile app
form. The next task might be to check the gutter. They then inspect this
carefully based on the work order shown on the mobile device. If there is a
defect or the gutter is blocked, they can take a photo of the fault using the
app and add a description text, for example. At this point, they set the
inspection result to “Not okay”. The fault registration subsequently results in
automatic generation of a report in ProPotsdam GmbH’s SAP® system. The inspector
is now finished with the assigned inspection tasks. The digital form with the
inspection results is once again sent directly to the easysquare web portal,
where it is saved as a PDF inspection report.
Figure 3: Further inspection results (e.g.
report or resubmission) are entered in the detailed view for the inspection
tasks.
Last stop: Checking and archiving
Immediately
after a digital form is sent, employees of ProPotsdam GmbH can access the
inspection report in the SAP® system. All inspection results, photos and the
inspector’s signature are contained in the document automatically and can be
viewed. The employees thus have the opportunity to check the quality
assessments that have been performed. “Results do not have to be manually
transferred to the SAP® system, which saves our employees a lot of time and
effort. At the same time, the inspection reports are automatically archived in
an audit-proof manner, allowing us to develop the documentation of our quality
assessment performance in line with the law,” emphasises Robert Bolduan, head
of the Technical Facility Management department at ProPotsdam subsidiary
GEWOBA. However, if the worst comes to the worst in the event of damage, the
inspection reports are not the only thing available to ProPotsdam GmbH as
evidence that the company has met its obligations. An additional instruction
and evidence document can also be generated in the SAP® system. This documents
that the inspection task was assigned and fulfilled based on the inspection
results.
Figure 4: In addition to the inspection report,
the instruction and evidence document is available to the operator in relation
to audit acceptability.
Conclusion: A sound solution
The
easysquare quality management and assessment solution at ProPotsdam GmbH
is designed to map the entire quality assessment process seamlessly, from
instructions to audit-proof documentation. The avoidance of gaps in the process
and the high degree of interaction not only save effort and time, but above all
ensure precise documentation of the quality assessment inspection performed. In
their search for a new, straightforward solution, ProPotsdam GmbH found a
holistic and reliable solution in the quality management and assessment
solution. In the future, alongside the building inspection, further processes
(such as caretaker services) are to go live in stages. The solution is also
scalable in the event of further growth – whether it be enhancement to
include additional quality assessment processes, new operators or further real
estate objects. With the quality management and assessment solution based on
easysquare, ProPotsdam GmbH is equipped for the future.
redaktion@openpromos.de
