C&M
SOFTWARE
So it may be argued that while smart
Continued from page 35.
us has had an important effect on the smart
are being upgraded in time for the 2020 Olympic
toilet revolution. Washrooms that offer sub-
solutions are not always strictly necessary in
Games. The facilities now feature voice-
standard facilities are regularly being named
the washroom, technology is helping to drive
guidance systems as an aid to the visually-
and shamed on blogs, websites and on social
up standards, generate publicity, improve the
impaired plus a light alert that acts as a signal
media while apps that invite people to rate
user experience, boost profits and - in the case
to the deaf in cases of emergency. And again in
public toilets are becoming increasingly widely
of Tork EasyCube - ensure that the washrooms
Japan, there are toilets in some facilities that
used. And those venues where the washrooms
are both better equipped and more efficiently
analyse the user’s urine and provide screening
have become a talking point - whether due to
managed. And as an increasing number of
services that could be an invaluable early
video games, magic mirrors or voice-activated
people see the benefits that smart solutions
warning of health issues.
capabilities - are attracting attention on social
can provide, such systems will soon become an
media and generating free publicity for the
integral part of the washroom experience.
establishment.
WWW.ESSITY.CO.UK
The fact that around three-quarters of us now take our smartphones into the toilet with
Joined-up thinking Rick Stoor, MD of Templa Computer Systems, explains how the opportunity now exists to capitalise on the newly-built interface between contractor and supplier software systems. SINCE 2017, full integration between the Enterprise
Why has this been a problem until now?
system, combined with an effective process for
Resource Planning (ERP) systems of cleaning
In the world of contract cleaning, the status quo
processing back orders.
contractors and janitorial suppliers has been
has always been that the contractor delivers
fully available and, where already in use, is saving
cleaning materials (stores) and washroom
use more than one supplier and it doesn’t
both partners in the arrangement thousands of
consumables to client sites using the middleman
take much imagination to see that things
pounds a year through reduced administration,
of the janitorial supplier. Each contractor has
can get complicated. Nowhere is this more
not to mention more effective budgeting and
hundreds of sites and each delivery is quite
obvious than in the key tasks of ordering
cost control. This major step forward has been
small - a couple of months’ supply. Contractors
and invoicing.
made possible by the introduction of e-trading,
also want to ensure that site budgets are not
or EDI (Electronic Data Interface), a technology
overspent, that only the permitted products
How is the process currently managed?
long missing from the industry that describes the
are ordered and that products rechargeable to
The top half of Diagram 1 shows how the
automatic exchange of data between a contractor’s
clients are correctly invoiced - often with prices
majority of cleaning contractors and their
and a janitorial supplier’s purchase order and sales
that vary between clients.
janitorial suppliers interact to manage the
invoicing systems - a process that removes the
On the supplier side, the janitorial company
Add to the mix that one contractor may
process. Areas of potential inefficiency
need for extensive manual intervention in the key
must deal with the high volume of small
include:
stages of order raising, order capture, contractor
deliveries to sites dotted all over the place
1. An absence of proper budgetary control for
invoicing, and client recharging.
and therefore needs an efficient routing
contractors at site level. 2. Considerable duplication of effort in placing orders - for example, a contractor’s admin staff will often place an order on a supplier’s website, key the detail into a budgeting spreadsheet, then again into the purchase ledger to raise an official supplier order and one final time to generate a client invoice - the same transaction recorded in four separate systems and all requiring manual reconciliation. 3. Time spent ‘unpicking’ supplier invoices. A single invoice might show up to 50 deliveries to different sites, all of which need to be validated in the contractor’s purchase ledger against a purchase order and a budget control sheet. Inefficiencies exist on the supplier side too. The creation and emailing of sales orders from the website and the production of a constant
Diagram 1
36 MAY 2018
Continued on page 43. WWW.CLEANINGMAG.COM