FMJ.CO.UK INTERVIEW FOCUS
MARCH 2022 41
problems they face and how our solutions
can help them. You’ll find that health and
safety challenges and the solutions linked
to health, safety, sustainability, and supply
chain compliance really do touch every
facet of the management team, so while
we generally start conversations with one
stakeholder in an organisation, because
of the integrated nature of what we do,
we end up speaking to lots of di erent
stakeholders.”
INTEGRATED APPROACH
Alcumus says Jones, is best described as a
full integrated risk management business
o ering a wide range of products, but
focused around three pillars:
Health and Safety
ESG / Sustainability
Supply Chain Compliance
The firm takes an integrated approach
to managing health, safety and ESG
across industries, locations, contractor
and supplier networks, and also has an
in-house team of specialists to provide HR
consultancy and workplace monitoring
services, training and UKAS accredited
certification and accreditation support.
Says Jones: “We work really hard to
connect small businesses with larger
businesses through our network. With for
instance our Safe Contractor product, we
tend to have large businesses that mandate
to smaller suppliers that they have to use
our accreditation standard in order to
access sites.
“That then creates a huge network of
smaller businesses who can integrate into
our other products – so if you’re a smaller
business you might take out health and
safety and HR support and if you’re a larger
business you may tend to move more into
so ware where you’ll be buying solutions
measuring accident incidents, e-permitting,
asset management and all the facets you
need for compliance across your supply
chain.”
Jones believes that smaller businesses
that go through the accreditation
programme can see it as a real opportunity
to raise the professionalism within their
organisation. This is because the process
covers such a huge range of topics in
order for organisations to go through the
accreditation. This in a smaller business
means reappraising policies and making
sure these are suitable and appropriate.
“Very o en this moves those
organisations on,” says Jones, “and that’s
a key di erentiator for Alcumus as we do
believe we are supporting the smaller
business as well, not just in winning more
work, but in working knowledge and
professionalism.”
Larger businesses she adds can benefit
on a wider scale. “If I go back to my days
as a facilities manager and the absolute
requirement for social value and using
local suppliers – I remember being on
google maps looking at a local area and
trying to find suppliers by checking post
codes. Now the tool organisations get
when they adopt our Safe Contractor
product from a large business perspective
is like the Expedia search of contractors
and suppliers. You can put in a
post code and say ‘I need
somebody within a 15
miles radius’ and it
will ping up and
tell you, which
is a valuable
resource.
“This drives
positive
impacts
within the
wider supply
chain because
they’re using
organisations that
have the right policies,
which raises the standards.
They’re also using businesses
within the local area and this includes
checks on their financial standing so that
larger organisations can ensure their
supply chains are secure.”
There is a huge amount
that this technology can off er,
but in all honesty, we’re still
seeing organisations taking out
spreadsheets and paper so we
need to move them onto the
TECHNICAL ADVANTAGE
While Jones agrees that one of the
most notable e ects of COVID has been
the widespread adoption of digital tools
within FM, from room booking to asset
management to BMS, she thinks the
industry is up to speed when it comes to
being customer focused but is concerned
there has been less focus on how digital
tools can support the back o ice.
“In a world where margins can sometimes
be single digit, anything you can do to
be more e icient in the back o ice is
something the sector needs to be looking
at. There’s a huge benefit to being able to
link data from your permitting systems
through to accidents and incidents and
through to your accreditation rate
with your compliance. We’ve got
customers that can do that and they
can see trends which help them
proactively manage some of the
scenarios that their teams may
be working under.
“There is a huge amount
that this technology can o er,
but in all honesty, we’re still
seeing organisations taking
out spreadsheets and paper so
we need to move them onto the
so ware journey.”
Alcumus Info Exchange is a popular
tool and Jones reports that several of the
larger FM companies are using it as their
compliance so ware but branded to the
organisation’s individual requirements,
as while it can generally be used for H&S
capture and EHSQ - users can add further
apps and requirements.
Explains Jones: “We’ve got a few
customers who are further along their
journey in capturing data and because
Info Exchange has the ability to create a
software journey.”