A long-term partnership with a focus on sustainability

With offices, factories and production facilities in several locations around Scandinavia, Schneider Electric had a large number of suppliers and solutions for ensuring the efficient running of their properties. In some locations, one supplier took care of both the ‘soft’ property management element, in other words service elements such as reception services, cleaning, flowers and catering, and the more technically demanding ‘hard’ element, which includes property maintenance.

Valuable expertise
For Jens Ellevang, the decision to use two different suppliers for the soft and hard elements has been a success.

– There are relatively few companies that are experts in both providing catering for lunch and refreshments and looking after technical issues, such as ventilation and re-roofing. So for us, it was a given to work with a company that are experts in the technical elements. With Bravida as a strategic partner I can be sure that we’re taking a long-term approach to work and prevention, rather than simply making repairs as we go.

How does the partnership work in purely practical terms?
– We cooperate on several levels, both at a general strategic level, where we see how we can improve our partnership, and locally at the various facilities. For each large facility we have a PPM plan that Bravida has produced so that our team at Schneider knows exactly what needs monitoring and following up on. This includes both statutory issues, such as checking fire alarms and lifts, and preventive checks, such as ensuring roofs and drainpipes are inspected and maintained.

Partnership offers a number of benefits
Having a supplier that can help with the technical property maintenance in a smart, organised and strategic way offers a number of benefits: security, predictability and cost-effectiveness. Another benefit is that Schneider Electric now has a comprehensive grasp of what needs to be done in terms of the technical aspect of the properties in order to achieve the company’s long-term goal of being CO2 neutral by 2030.

– We’ve completely changed our approach to managing our properties. Having Bravida as a partner makes both our day-to-day maintenance work and achieving our sustainability goals that much easier. For example, we are on our way towards a fully electric fleet of vehicles, which is something that Bravida will help us accomplish through their expertise in installing charging stations. In the long term, we also intend to install solar panels on our facilities, and that is also a project that will be easier thanks to our partnership with Bravida.

Strategic from a sustainability perspective
Jens Ellevang explains that the past few years have demonstrated the importance of maintaining control over your premises and properties in order to be able to counter the effects of both the pandemic and the energy crisis. And one of the keys to adapting quickly to a changing world is to have control over the technical aspects, both ensuring that your properties are at the technological cutting edge and that your TFM has the right expertise.

– Being able to reduce the heating and control lighting and ventilation to match the company’s actual needs has been necessary from a sustainability perspective, but also from a purely financial perspective, in order to cope with rising energy prices. Digitising our property portfolio is absolutely vital in order to optimise our operations and adopt a more preventive approach to work.

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