People Spotlight: Jamie Andrew, Account Director

How long have you worked for BGIS?

I’m what they call a boomerang…I have been with the business nearly 25 years all up although that has been in three separate stints originally starting as a graduate trainee believe it or not!  I have been in the current role coming up to 6 years.

Tell us about your contract/scope of work.

We deliver maintenance services to the company owned  BP Retail portfolio of around 500 sites across Australia and New Zealand.   We deliver the work through a mix of self performed and sub contracted vendors and we cover nearly everything building related from a planned and reactive maintenance perspective.

What is a highlight of your account management?

Well there is never a dull moment, it’s a high transaction contract where an efficient work order process is key.  With over 20,000 tasks a year and just 3 FM’s there is a lot for us to be across.  We have been in this relationship for nearly 6 years and in that time we have managed to hold budgets steady in an environment where the actual cost of delivery has increased by over 20%, this has been a significant outcome, and I am proud of what the team has achieved in partnership with the client’s team.

What is unique to working in your sector?

The health and safety requirements of working in and around hazardous areas and around the general public make this sector both interesting and challenging.  Coupling that challenge with delivering over 100 tasks a day across the 500 sites using over 60 vendors, with a relatively lean team adds to the complexity. We cannot be on site to physically oversee what is taking place and therefore put a lot of focus into hands on training of all of the technicians that support us on the contract, through a great team of vendors.

What innovation(s) has your team introduced into your contract?

We are constantly looking at ways of driving innovation and trialling different approaches, not all ideas work out, but we have an environment where the client supports us to try new ways of working and they listen to the feedback that we provide. 

Last year we held an Ideation session with many of our vendors that identified over 70 ideas to drive innovation, that has led to at least 20 tangible initiatives for improvement that have helped to drive down cost, reduce wasted time, improve first time fix, improve safety or improve customer experience.  Our Vendor and BGIS Technicians are the greatest source of innovation and we simply try to take one idea and share it across all vendors.

How do you stay client-focussed?  

We have a great contract model that keeps our team pointed in the same direction as the client team, and this enables us to pivot our focus quickly as the clients needs change.   The client regularly throws us challenges and we work together to drive the outcomes and it makes us feel we are a core part of their team.

A key piece of FM career advice…

Keeping the trust of the client is the most important factor in a sustainable and enjoyable relationship, and having a contract structure that promotes partnership really helps. Being quick to own our mistakes and to focus on the learning opportunity rather than become defensive certainly pays off.