UNITE

The Challenge

UNITE is the UK’s leading operator of student accommodation with 40,000 students living in 129 properties across 24 university cities. UNITE provides well-located, secure accommodation with all bills included, and its in-house facilities management teams play a vital role in ensuring the high quality of its service. With such a large portfolio to upkeep, it is critical that the facilities teams can easily access and update information about any maintenance work that needs to be done. All jobs are managed through UNITE’s Maintenance Management System, which assigns, prioritises and tracks each service request. UNITE approached Mubaloo to see how this process might be made more efficient using an app. The objective was for the facility teams to have all the information they needed in the palm of their hand.

Our Solution

Our initial step was to consult with UNITE about the most appropriate smartphone for the users of this app and we concluded that the robust Motorola Defy was best suited to the nature of the teams physical work. A key requirement for the app was for it to be user friendly. Therefore, the initial scoping and design sessions needed to incorporate the user’s needs and be designed and developed specifically for the selected mobile device which was going to be given to everyone in UNITE’s facilities teams. Essentially, the app needed to integrate with the Maintenance Management System and give the facilities teams details of the specific jobs they were set, enabling them to see their schedule and also update the status of any job in real time. For security, the app was developed to require a unique six-digit pin. Team members are then presented with their assigned jobs, along with the priority rating, site location, specific information and the ability to change the job’s status. It also enables the user to view and add photos and notes so that UNITE’s customer service team can keep customers updated on the progress of the repair. The app automatically synchronises every 15 minutes so if there is no signal it will store the new information and update the Maintenance Management System at the next opportunity.

Conclusion

The end result is an easy to use app that enables UNITE’s facilities teams to view, update and sort information about their maintenance jobs, wherever they are. The back-end integration with UNITE’s Maintenance Management System means that city support teams in UNITE’s head office can now view real time information relating to each individual job, as well as add jobs and additional details for the facilities teams to view. This is a great example of how apps can be used to improve business processes and the value that can be subsequently realised.