Palm

Success Stories — Glad Cleaning Services

  • Glad Group cleans up using the Palm Treo 650 with Valorem's Kevah reporting software

    Glad Cleaning Services is one of Australia's fastest growing and leading providers of commercial, industrial and retail cleaning services. Established in 1989 as a small family business, Glad now employs approximately 589 staff who undertake cleaning in retail and commercial sites across the greater Sydney metro area.

    Glad's clients include AMP, Centro, Investa and Mirvac, as well as a number of other high profile and high traffic sites such as the QVB building in the city and Macquarie Shopping Centre in North Ryde.

    Glad has grown its business through its ability to respond to industry demands and has expanded its services to include property maintenance, security and waste removal, delivering high quality focused cleaning services to its clients. The company provides tailored solutions to meet the varying needs of its customers, their clients, traders and the community.

    Read the complete success story.
    (PDF: 128 KB / 2 pages)

  • "The Treo 650 has become a pivotal reporting tool and provides enormous advantages to our business."


    Nick Illoski, Managing Director
    Glad Cleaning Services

    The Challenge
    One of the major issues facing the cleaning services industry is accurately defining and recording what work needs to be done and then providing evidence that this has been completed. Glad believed a mobile computing solution would assist them with tackling this issue. Nick Illoski, managing director of Glad, explains, "You can quote on removing graffiti from a wall and complete the job, but within minutes of moving on from the site it can be defaced again. Frustratingly, in some cases the client may refuse to pay as they have no evidence to say you completed the job.

    "From my personal experience of using Palm® devices, I knew a mobile computing solution would be right for us. However we needed to find a solution developer who had a strong software solution that was compatible with Palm products, as I felt Palm's platform was much more stable than other solutions on the market."

    Glad approached Valorem Systems looking for a solution that would assist its managers with recording data in the field. Glad's initial requirements were:

    • to have calendar functions for scheduling activities at sites;
    • to record and verify occupational health and safety inspections and reports - especially incident reports, which needed to be completed quickly and efficiently;
    • to have the ability to quickly and easily complete weekly and monthly quality assurance inspections, and to be able to collate data and reports;
    • and to be able to immediately raise work orders or work requests with clients.

    The Solution
    Glad now completes all its old paper-based processes and site based activities on the Palm Treo™ 650 smarthphone using Valorem's Kevah reporting software. This includes Quality Assurance (QA) inspections reports on work completed, and generating quotes for extra work. The Treo 650's camera capabilities enable photos of work completed to be featured in reports. These time-stamped images are stored with the other data and locked in a format that facilitates a real audit trail for site processes.

    Using the Treo 650 email functionality, managers can now send reports wirelessly as an email from the field to clients and other managers in the business.

    Nick explains, "Using the Treo 650 and the Kevah reporting software, we can email a client a quote that includes a timeand- date-stamped photo. Once the job is done we can send another report with a photo showing the job is complete - such as a wall that has been cleared of graffiti. The beauty of this solution is that we can prove we've completed a job and can then proceed to bill the client for the work."

    The Treo 650 has also enabled staff to have more contact with head office while in the field as they have access to both voice and data communications. SD cards are also playing an important role in keeping staff informed, as each employee is issued with an SD card loaded with the contact details of more than 300 site staff, pictures of employees as well as rosters.

    "We have also encouraged staff to use other features of the Treo 650 so that they make the most of their smartphone. Email has been particularly significant, not only for sending clients reports - but also for more general correspondence. For example, if we have a new business meeting, within a short time of leaving the meeting we can email our prospect recapping the action items from the meeting and thank them for their time. It is small things like that which have helped give us a stronger competitive advantage," says Nick.

    The Outcome
    Following the deployment of Palm Treo 650's across the organisation, Glad has realised significant results. Staff have embraced the technology as they are now better equipped for their roles, and are enjoying less after hours work completing paper forms.

    Nick estimates, "Since the company commenced using Treo 650's, Glad is saving more than an hour a day for each of its area managers and site managers.

    "The Treo 650 has become a pivotal reporting tool and provides enormous advantages to our business. We now have real-time information for each customer which is critical to our key management information."

    The benefits of the Palm Treo 650 for Glad include:

    • productivity gains of between four to six hours per employee, per week;
    • more timely response to customers and prospects as the result of the Treo 650's mobile email;
    • in a measurement completed in the 2005 October to December quarter, one manager alone was able to generate additional revenue of $30,000 using reports with pictures to highlight extra work which was required at a site;
    • faster and more accurate reporting of OHS issues allows Glad to cut the number of public liability incidents and reduce its insurance premiums. This alone has resulted in savings of more than $100,000 per annum;
    • less issues management as the images captured on the Treo 650 can be used as evidence of completed work;
    • staff carry all critical information relating to sites such as staff contacts and rosters.

    As a result of these benefits, Glad was able to reap a return on its initial investment within the first three months of deployment.

    Since adopting mobile computer technology, Glad has been able to grow and expand the business by winning a range of competitive tenders. Glad is now a market leader in the highly competitive cleaning services industry.





 

Palm and Treo are among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by or licensed to Palm, Inc. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.