Millenium Services Group – September 2019

GIVING TECHNOLOGY A SEAT AT THE TABLE

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MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP: CLEANING UP WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY

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MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP

How Millennium Services Group is innovating with new solutions to manage cleaning and security services for commercial clients across Australia and New Zealand

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riginally established in 2003, Millennium Services Group was publicly listed in 2015 when three businesses, based in Mel-

bourne, Sydney and Adelaide, came together as a national company to offer cleaning and security 04

services, before expanding further the following year with the acquisition of Airlite, a Building Support Services provider from Perth.

Millennium’s Chief Information Officer David Benjamin has entered the second year of his tenure with the company focused on three key areas: cost, consolidation and stability. “We had to look at the total cost of ownership following the company’s listing in 2015,” he recalls. “The consolidation was about bringing systems together to give them that history of the organisation. There was some duplication of technology systems, so it was an opportunity to unify the four branches of the company. Lastly, we had to get to a point where our systems were stable and delivering where they needed to because, when I joined, the business had simply outgrown the technology solutions originally put in place.”

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MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP

$295mn Approximate revenue

The two main services the company provides are cleaning and security.

Millennium has commercial cleaning contracts with large shopping centre chains (such as Scentre Group, Vicinity

2003

Year founded

5,300

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Approximate number of employees

and Stockland), Myer, office buildings, universities and government buildings like Brisbane’s Queensland Investment Corporation. The security services often fit hand in glove with the cleaning services provided, where the same clients and sites also need security for the assets they own. In addition to the above, security contracts are held with Melbourne Racing Club, Sydney Metro, and multi-national high security Data Centre clients. These services can include shopping mall patrols, concierge services, remote monitoring systems and anything where physical security is required, including large public events such as the Caulfield Cup race meeting during Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival.

When Benjamin joined the company, it had three separate networks which have now been migrated to a business grade private cloud hosted by an external vendor. “CustomTec is hosting this for us,” he explains. “There were

also duplications around the payroll and

for collaboration such as web confer-

account systems, so we’ve migrated

encing,” says Benjamin.

those onto a single platform, resulting

Introducing new technologies is par

in significant cost savings by reducing

for the course at Millennium, where

the number of vendors.” Millennium has

the company has purchased 25 robot

also consolidated its phone systems

cleaners from Canadian firm Avidbots.

to VOIP in all of its offices in Australia

Typically programmed to run after

and New Zealand. “We’ve already seen

hours – for example, when a shopping

huge savings around telephony costs

centre is closed – the machines are

but also our travel costs, because the

monitored 24/7 from the vendor’s

solution has also delivered other tools

control centre. “It’s helping us in

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

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David Benjamin David Benjamin previously spent 10 years with National Australia Bank as its Delivery Manager for enterprise applications supporting 35,000 employees worldwide. Offering a unique blend of commercial acumen, program management and an understanding of comparative technologies, Benjamin is well versed in stakeholder management. “One of my key skills is the ability to translate technology into a business outcome,” he adds.

“It’s important to listen to staff and understand the business needs before entering solution mode.”

He believes being able to apply new technology requires experienced change management for successful implementation. “Technology alone won’t fix things,” warns Benjamin. “It’s the ability to introduce change, get it adopted, and bring people on that journey, that will deliver a positive transformation.”

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MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP

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reducing our labour cost, while

Other innovations include a staff

increasing reliability. Anything that can

tracking system offering the ability to

be automated offers a more consistent

provide reporting and data back to the

outcome, which our clients are

client on, for example, how often areas

demanding from us,” says Benjamin.

such as a shopping mall food court

“Robotics play a key part in removing

requires attention from cleaners. “It’s a

that dependency and giving us greater

key requirement for many of our clients

traction where large floor areas need

to ensure a ‘rotation’ is being met,”

to be cleaned. This leaves our staff free

adds Benjamin. “It could be that they

to do the more specialised cleaning

want cleaners to pass by a certain area

that the robots can’t do, such as glass

on site every 20 minutes.” He explains

or window sills.”

that cleaners aren’t just choosing

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where to go. There is a methodology at

Millennium isn’t just flying solo says

play to ensure the best coverage of a

Benjamin, who notes the importance

given site, enhancing the public’s

of alliances with the likes of CustomTec

experience and reducing the impact of

and Melbourne-based Elite-ID, which

public liability claims. “It’s a challenge

provides the tracking systems.

for Millennium where accidents will

“We also have a site auditing software

always happen in large public spaces,”

solution where our staff, in conjunction

concedes Benjamin, who is keen to use

with a client, will walk around a site

technology to protect the company’s

to document issues that need to be

exposure and risk to public liability

addressed, while also scoring how

claims by ensuring it meets the

clean an area is, ensuring that our

‘rotation’ terms of a works contract.

service is up to expectations,” says w w w.mi l l e nni um s g . com

MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP

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“ IoT is allowing us to track and measure areas like bathrooms, air quality control or waste disposal…”

— David Benjamin, Chief Information Officer, Millennium Services Group

Benjamin. “For this, we partner with SafetyCulture, which provides a software solution our staff can use via a tablet or smartphone.”

Millennium also partners with Adelaide-based Kineo, which runs the company’s learning and development platform. “Keeping our staff trained and up to date on how to use these new tools in the workplace is vital,” explains Benjamin. “Our staff are spread across two countries so we need a unified method to deliver training content for them.” A time and attendance system was also introduced with the help of Ento. “It’s a workforce management solution to allow staff to clock on and off from their rostered shifts and we’ve automated and digitised that process,” explains Benjamin. “Previously it was all paper based which created a lot of waste through follow up calls, duplication, and written time sheets which can be difficult to read, but Ento can be run on a tablet and is installed at all of our sites for team members to clock on and off.”

Meeting the challenge of the skills gap in terms of language barriers and technological experience is something w w w.mi l l e nni um s g . com

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Benjamin and his team, with the help

penetration for communication.”

of Kineo, are working hard to support.

Reliable mobile communications are

Allied to this, getting mobile internet

vital to ensure that Millennium’s plans

services to employees across a

to further utilise the Internet of Things

diverse range of sites is important to

(IoT) can be realised. “IoT is allowing

ensure infrastructure support without

us to track and measure areas like

impeding on the client’s side. “We can

bathrooms, air quality control or waste

generally deliver this through mobile

disposal… Technology is helping us to

data, which can be a challenge given

become more efficient and identify

that our staff might be below ground

areas that need attention and not just

level,” says Benjamin. “But that’s

stick to rigid rotation,” adds Benjamin.

changing. We’re currently partnering

Rather than just working with clients

with Optus, which is already rolling out

from the perspective of its service

5G mobile services offering greater

offering, Benjamin is keen for Millennium

TECHNOLOGY

Millennium Assist Developed in conjunction with our strategic partner, Circle T, all of the company’s solutions can now be managed on the client side through the Millennium Assist customer portal which offers reports on time and attendance of staff, staff rotation, metrics on how sites are patrolled, and learning and development. “It gives clients the information they need to ensure we are delivering the service, and are compliant with whatever their site requirements might be,”

asserts Chief Information Officer David Benjamin. “The traditional view was that technology was a cost, it’s a supporting function just to enable us to do our job. By developing this portal, I think we’ve f lipped that on its head to demonstrate what we can actually drive into our organisation and differentiate us from our competitors in delivering our service. And we’ve seen that in some of the contracts we’ve won recently.”

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MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP

“ When I joined, the business had simply outgrown the technology solutions originally put in place” 14

— David Benjamin, Chief Information Officer, Millennium Services Group

to give technology a seat at the table.

“Engaging technology earlier helps avoid missed opportunities; other potential solutions can be put forward, or a service can be delivered more efficiently,” he says. “I like to establish connections with my peers within our client organisations because for me to do my job well, and to do it better, I need to understand what they need from the services they contract with us. It’s our goal to focus more on this over the next 12 months. We’re a cleaning and security company, but we have the potential to become more than that by widening our core service offering to include technology.”

In tune with Millennium’s vision to create value where others can’t see it, Benjamin’s team is primed to take up the company’s mission and deliver more innovative solutions.

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Level 1, 205-211 Forster Road, Mt Waverley VIC 3149 Australia T +613 8540 7900 www.millenniumsg.com