In the last two decades, the Indian service industry has experienced essential changes in the customer conduct which is steering towards outsourcing of non-core activities. While outsourcing of housekeeping services has made successful inroads in almost all segments, integrated facility management is fast catching up. The launch of OCS India over a year back saw the onset of a new wave in the service segment in India – Total Facility Management Services (TFM).
The TFM is virtually synonymous with Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), encompassing everything needed to provide services for living, working, healthcare, education, industrial production, commercial development, retailing, utilities, transportation and other infrastructure, sports and leisure, entertainment and communication undertakings.
The UK based OCS Group, which began as a housekeeping company over a century back, today offers every service in the facilities management space. “In India, OCS is not just a Cannon Hygiene, a Radiant or an Absotherm, it is a convergence of services resulting in Total Facility Management whereby we manage the entire property,” said Srikanth Kumar Swami, Managing Director of OCS India.
The last one year
In July last year, OCS India officially announced the launch of TFM services in India and ever since “we have been growing and have tried to combine the strengths of four different entities into one entity which emerges as one company that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. When we go to the clients now, we are able to offer more than just feminine hygiene solutions or housekeeping services. Collectively we have a national presence.”
TFM as a concept in India is fairly nascent
Primarily, the Indian market needs to be educated on the benefit of a TFM based solution. Traditionally, housekeeping, engineering, hygiene solution and security services would be outsourced to four different vendors. However, working collectively with consolidated services is beneficial to both the client and service provider, making it a win-win situation. “As opposed to multiple vendor outsourcing and costs incurred thereby, OCS India is able to give a service package which consolidates into a solution rather than playing a numbers game.”
Transparency in manpower/service arrangement
“In a TFM model, the company begins to work with the client to reach realms far beyond service offering – they collectively work towards a more cost effective and efficient manner of functioning. The customer has to be educated that this kind of arrangement is beneficial to both the customer and service provider as it provides value both in terms of saving on operation costs and gaining on service levels.
“It is is not an easy concept to elaborate on, as at the outset it is difficult to quantify the kinds of cost savings that occur – they are far beyond just a reduction in the numbers of manpower. The benefits are a summation of multiple elements and components. When each component is looked as an cost saving measure, we are working towards actual overall savings through planned operations. Finally, what percentage of savings are made depends upon what the client is doing and the kind of services required.”
The cost saving potential arises from various avenues. A hotel GM busy meeting targets and tracking general occupancy, will be happy to handover the contract to a service provider to help him save energy over the next one year. “We tailor make the contract after scrutinising the place to be serviced. The cost saving section will depend upon the industry, the size of the unit.”
Our Focus
OCS India is focusing on four sectors – aviation, manufacturing, healthcare and education. “Privatisation of airports across the country and increase in new airports commissioned by the new government offers huge opportunity. We do some level of back-end engineering services in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad international airports, as these properties are already maintained by GMR and GVK. Many airports can outsource much more than what they already do. With the new and exciting initiatives being pushed forward by our new PM, we are motivated with the possibility for more outsourcing.
Manufacturing segment has wider scope where TFM service offerings are concerned. Given that India is being marketed by the PM as a manufacturing hub with the ‘Make in India’ campaign, we see possibilities of explosive growth in this segment.
The Healthcare segment comes with its challenges – especially as the level of hygiene necessitated here is much higher than in conventional areas. “We consider pharmaceuticals as part of healthcare because the cleaning is very different. The bacteria and infection levels are very critical here.”
With schools entering into international collaboration, Indian students are getting used to more comfortable classrooms. Better classroom will only give rise to better students. Moreover a large number of women employees work in these sectors. Cannon Hygiene has been making sure that a germ and infection-free environment is provided to women employees.
Specialised Solutions
“When it comes to industries, such as thermal plants, coal dust control is a major issue and we are working on out-of-the-box solutions to minimize this. We study the kind of dust particles suspended in the air and the means by which the particles can be made to settle down with the use of chemicals. We have partners like Diversey who work with us closely to find innovative solutions to these challenges.”
Pharma too experiences similar dust caused from the fine granulated particles during the tableting process which leaves behind a bitter taste in the mouth and is harmful to workers. Cleaning solution has to be custom made.
“A mop and a bucket is not the solution. We need to give best solutions within the parameters of health and safety. The OCS Group as a policy advocates that every company it serves gives priority to health. We also make all our workers to read out the pledge every day.”
TFM in India
OCS India is successfully delivering TFM services in several properties, including large residential complexes. “In India, automated solutions are sometimes more expensive than manual solutions; therefore, the level of automation is much less. Also because of the larger issues of pollutants and environment, the cleaning processes technically differ. Dust can be found in any place, even in an air-conditioned room. India, in compariso
n to UK, has large amount of manpower in a factory while the latter has robotics in place; thus, requiring more AMC type contract services rather than cleaning contract services.
“Cost is a major factor in India. Nobody wants to spend a dime more than they have to; so we have the KRAs and KPIs of our clients to reduce the cost. It is challenging, especially when clients demand products that are effective but cost less. So we have to keep innovating all the time.”
Procuring Equipment
“The key word for OCS is the efficacy of the equipment that we use. If a local equipment is found effective and meets the parameters, we would not import a machine just because it is universally used. Many of the international vendors have presence in India and they locally supply us the chemicals with the same formulations. We use Diversey chemicals and some equipment which are imported or procured from the local dealer. But when it comes to technologies like Active-Vap which belongs to our parent company in Dublin is essentially imported.”
New Cost-effective Technology
OCS India is also expanding into high-rise window cleaning services. Unlike the spider-man cleaning, OCS is exploring the introduction of robotic cleaning. “The robot system is not only safe but also reduces the time and cost involved in cleaning. It is interesting to note that our Indian entrepreneurs are coming up with such novel solutions.
“Clean smart is a technology that we are trying to bring here which teaches about how to clean a place in the most-efficient manner. CAFM is a part of the TFM solutions where it helps to organise things in a better manner instead of manual recording. Most TFM companies have their own version of CAFM which is critical, if they want the company to run well.
“The move from manpower based to a consolidated service provider base is happening in a very good pace. Just Offering multiple services does not qualify as a TFM. India is an emerging market and in future the market will grow. The more the companies think about this, the more employment opportunities will open up. It will lead to smart work than minimum wages work.”
IFM vs TFM
Talking of terminologies, for example, at the Inorbit Mall-Malad, OCS is not offering TFM but housekeeping, backend and feminine hygiene services. These are handled as three different services. “If these services have to be integrated as one, all the administration staff of the three verticals will be merged into one. The service delivery will be separate. The day we attain that, we will be an Integrated Facility Management service provider. A TFM is a lot more than integrating all the services and takes services to the next level.
“In conclusion, India is a huge market with huge opportunities. We do not compromise on our profitability or on the workers’ earning potential. That is where OCS is growing because we know the difference between a good company and a great company.”
1 comment