FOCUS INTERVIEW
MOBILE
MINDED
40 NOVEMBER 2020
Over the last six months the need to equip
FM field operatives with the most e icient
digital mobile tools has never been more
crucial to help ensure continuity of service
while maintaining social distancing. This is a
space where Totalmobile, specialists in field
service management and mobile workforce
so ware solutions can o er their expertise, but
surprisingly up until now the firm hasn’t had a
high profile in FM, despite being around since
the 1980s.
Explains Jim Darragh, Chief Executive O icer
at Totalmobile: “The firm was born and bred
in Belfast, beginning with delivering solutions
for local councils, which migrated to managing
social housing repairs. As mobility became more
prevalent within the housing space, we got one
of our technical experts to build us mobility tools
in earnest and the company pivoted and became
more about mobile workforces and mobile
workforce management.
“As the tech has matured the market has matured
alongside and we’ve now got quite a critical mass,
with local government bleeding into social care and
healthcare, to encompass housing associations,
hospitals and transport customers, a lot of which
is outsourced to FM. This all links to FM services
delivery for properties and so on. Our mobility
has become a part of the FM o ering and we bring
something di erent to the providers in that space.”
The di erence he believes is that the technology
is designed from the ground up with the mobile
worker in mind, “a subtle statement but one which
means quite a lot to us.” He explains that quite o en
the technology mobile workers are given is just a
version of a back-o ice system. They may be linked
in to a CAFM system which has a mobile element
that is adjusted for field workers, but in practise it
means taking a back-o ice system and porting it
into a mobile device.
He says: “We’re coming from the opposite
direction, saying ‘you’re a mobile worker, what will
make your life easier?’ We will allow you to be more
e icient. You’ll need data from the back o ice but
we won’t start with that. Instead we’ll say, ‘you’re
going out to the field today what do you need from
us to do your work?’
“Because we think of mobile workers first - that’s
what makes us di erent. We’re also very customer
centric so in any conversation with a client we’ll
make them think about what their before and their
a er will look like. It’s not part of the sales process
it’s part of the value add.”
While it is to be hoped that maintenance teams
are no longer using time sheets, there are some
organisations that are only now migrating over
to digital platforms. The duel benefit is making
individuals and groups of people more e icient
– particularly when it comes to the scheduling of
works.
Says Darragh: “We think the digital mobility
piece gives you 20 per cent more e iciency but the
second scheduling one gets you another, and 40
per cent more e iciency equates to two extra days
a week.”
Jim Darragh, Chief Executive Offi cer at Totalmobile
explains to Sara Bean why the technology needs to better
refl ect the needs of fi eld operatives