Repairs and Maintenance - Case Studies and Downloads

North Ayrshire Council: Who Dares Wins
Taking a bold approach to technology and business management

North Ayrshire Council (NAC) restructured in 1998. The director of the new Property Services Directorate, covering Housing, Building Services, Roads, Technical Services, Catering and Cleaning, Cleansing, Grounds Maintenance and Transport, decided to make a radical change in his own division's structure. The council now believes that its Property Services Directorate has taken a giant leap forward, having fully integrated its client and DLO functions, using ROCC's Uniclass™ business solution.

The council has 17,000 houses and the Property Services Directorate is responsible for repairs and maintenance to these and other council properties.

The Housing Term Maintenance Contract is currently let to the council's own Building Services section which has also successfully tendered for part of the non-housing maintenance contract. They carry out approx. 90,000 repairs per annum using a multi-skilled workforce of around 260.

The Uniclass integrated repairs and maintenance management system runs on a Sun enterprise E450 server with 80 concurrent users in four main locations. The system utilises document image scanning, bar coding and hand held mobile data.

Steven Good, divisional commented: "We were seeking a partner that was well established, with proven technology and the right attitude to the whole project."

"Uniclass does have a client/contractor split but the modules co-exist and work fully interactively. Our system would be the first of its kind for ROCC or any other software house. We wanted a new client entry system that ensured single entry only for the entire solution, with no interfaces."

"The client's performance is measured by the contractor's performance. Recent experiences within the council had not been good. We had to get it right this time, so a major investment to find the best solution, rather than a cobbling together of three existing systems split between two different clients and one contractor, was not an option."

"We believe the system we have in place puts us ahead of the game - a leap forward to take the council ahead of all others in the UK in terms of how they meet the demands of best value and efficiency within client/contractor management."

"ROCC had to take a chance - and so did we. Its people took an excellent partnership approach from day one, so NAC gained far more from the project than just what its money had paid for. ROCC has invested considerable resources and has remained consistent in its determination to succeed with us. We knew it had a good reputation and products, but the relationship we have built up with the company has exceeded our expectations."

"ROCC staff have put themselves out to ensure our success," concluded Good.