An Analytic Model of How Vendor Performance Impacts Your Portfolio

An Analytic Model of How Vendor Performance Impacts Your Portfolio

VENDOR PERFORMANCE CASE STUDY 

OVERVIEW

An Analytic Model of How Vendor Performance Impacts Your Portfolio

Managing your suppliers’ capabilities to meet the extensive demands of large multi-site portfolios is a task that requires strategic planning and monitoring.

Case in point, if a current national partner is not meeting the specific details of the scope of work or there appears to be an inconsistent level of service, the right move should be to reexamine your associated vendors and your approach to how you want the work executed.

Ultimately, the entire program’s success rests in the hands of those who are setting the program guidelines and ensuring the right vendor partners are delivering to expectation.

APPROACH

Assess

A multi-site client in the Senior Living industry with more than 500 properties had an on-going maintenance issue relating to their irrigation systems.

After 3-years in their current contract, they still lacked visibility into which properties had irrigation systems and which systems were operational. The client also wanted to streamline their spending to increase a more focused fiscal strategy for their entire portfolio.

When re-assessing your portfolio, the best advice is to engage with vendor partners who have the experience and resources to deliver a complete service solution. Taking this approach provides a more exact path to a long-term solution for your entire landscape program. 

Plan

When we first were approached, our preparation for evaluating the client’s situation involved setting up pre-RFP meetings with the Ferrandino & Son Landscape Team.

We outlined a more strategic approach to managing their irrigation system, including a more comprehensive site audit process.

Also, we developed a custom budget that outlined both capital repairs and on-going maintenance and included a more transparent reporting process that emphasized a higher cadence around each system’s status. 

Outcome

Based on our preliminary strategic outline, the client awarded their entire portfolio for routine landscape services and irrigation management. 

Within 60 days of service startup, we identified 93% of the properties had irrigation systems, but only 68% were fully operational. 

We then provided a maintenance strategy that allowed the client to budget out the maintenance costs over the first season resulting in 92% of their properties being fully functional. 

The remaining properties required more extensive capital improvements. Thus we incorporated that workload into their more considerable capital landscape improvements as part of an overall remodel program.

RESULTS

Timeframe

Identified 73.12% of problematic systems within 60 days of service implementation

Strategy

Streamlined maintenance budget resulting in 92% of property functionality

Application

Condensed outlining repairs into an overall remodel program

The results finalized an improved Brand image through a healthier landscape objective.

Our program helped revamp the client’s confidence to reaffirm the correct quality of services they were paying for and supported a reduced total capital expenditure for their irrigation.

Due to an improved process of maintaining their systems by executing minor real-time repairs, the client re-assessed their portfolio with ease and strengthened their Brand’s appeal for years to come. 

CONTACT US

866-571-4609

sales@ferrandinoandson.com

Maximizing Your Landscapers Performance

Maximizing Your Landscapers Performance

Maximizing Your Landscapers Performance

OVERVIEW

To deliver the best results for your landscaping, would it be enough to hire a local vendor and have them deliver on the scope? Instead, would you hire a roofer to build your entire house?

The reality of landscaping is that, like building a house, there are many different parts within its scope of work requiring many vendor partners with specific skills.

To maximize your vendor’s performance, you need to have them deliver the scope that best aligns with their experience and then set performance goals around those services.

By following this course, you’ll see significant improvement in your supplier’s performance and better success in the overall delivery of the scope of work.

Roofers Make Bad Plumbers

If you don’t want to hire a roofer to do your plumbing, why hire landscape mowing companies to perform complex irrigation repairs?

Unfortunately, your portfolio likely receives much of its irrigation work from companies with little to no experience in irrigation.

When engaging with a national partner, it’s vital to identify the right service partner for each work scope. Identifying the right service provider ensures you’re maximizing the performance of every crew on your property.

Maximize and Measure

Another way to maximize your landscape crews’ performance is to develop a clear set of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that measure performance across various metrics.

By measuring specific KPIs, primarily through mobile apps, you can respond faster to out of scope work orders and performance field surveys to identify one-off opportunities at individual properties and start to identify potential trends or gaps in your scope of work.

However, KPIs are not enough to measure the scope as a whole. You also need to report the results and coach the suppliers on the results. By holding the right supplier accountable for the right scope of work, you’ll benefit from a more well-rounded solution.

Call Ferrandino & Son at (866) 571 – 4609 or email sales@ferrandinoandson.com to learn more about how we maximize our landscaping crews’ performance. 

Inspect What You Expect

How often do you inspect the work of your service partners?

If you’re partnering with a national company, it’s a requirement that their field teams inspect your properties every 4 to 6 weeks, which ultimately benefits you in the long-run.

As we discussed earlier, once you match with the right crew to the right scope of work, and you provide them goals on their performance, the inspection walk becomes the final box to be checked.

From these walks, you can start to determine what’s working with your scope and where you may have opportunities to modify/adjust to drive savings and enhance the overall Brand.

By initiating a comprehensive inspection program, you can maximize the individual suppliers’ overall performance and the program as a whole.

Get What You Pay For

The landscaping industry has changed, and accepting poor performance due to unqualified crews is unacceptable. Looking at every aspect of your scope of work and assigning the right crew to each element is the benchmark for successful programs today.

Of course, all of these predicates on a clearly defined scope of work. Leverage your relationships and ensure you have a scope that fits your entire portfolio and the geographical nuances that exist.

Once that table sets, demand an execution plan that maximizes every service partner to deliver some portion of the landscape services.

You’ll see the difference in your customer surveys and the feedback from your teams.

CONTACT US

Call Ferrandino & Son at (866)571-4609 or email sales@ferrandinoandson.com to learn more about our landscaping vetting procedures and performance reports.

Practical & Proactive Approaches to Sustain Your Supply Chain Relationships

Practical & Proactive Approaches to Sustain Your Supply Chain Relationships

Practical & Proactive Approaches to Sustain Your Supply Chain Relationships

2020 brought about the most massive disruption towards building and maintaining supply chain relationships, and that disruption continues here in 2021. However, it’s essential to keep our best practices throughout these challenging times to manage our business partners and create the right relationship strategies moving forward.

Some acceptable practices would be to have overall good faith in building a business vision through confident expertise. Additionally, protecting your strategy from any losses while maintaining credibility is essential while making better decisions by leaning into change, resulting in practical solutions.

Specializations must evolve with the modern market environment, and valuable components can’t supply more value if the demand has shifted to newer ideas and arrangements.

Our Specialty Is Our Expertise

When building strong relationships, it’s best to focus inward. A smart starting point is to review your workflow strategy. Currently, many supply chains focus on tightening their team members’ disciplines towards their qualifications.

Streamlining your talents in this way frees up resources and allows you to refine and enhance your best services. Specializations must evolve with the modern market environment, and valuable components can’t supply more value if the demand has shifted to newer ideas and arrangements.

To stay ahead of the game and to remain profitable, keep your experts and their skills up-to-date, and don’t be afraid to adjust your perspectives. You want to make sure you’re creating the right ‘need’ within your partnerships.

Creating the ‘need’ naturally develops the sense to forge a stronger partner relationship rather than building one upon just a price point. If you generate enough value, you’re converted angle or pitches can attain a competitive edge in the long run.

Call Ferrandino & Son at (866) 571 – 4609 or email our business development team at sales@ferrandinoandson.com to learn more about our relationship initiatives.

Leaning Into Change

To reiterate, staying profitable means you need to be innovative. Innovation benefits both parties in a relationship, primarily when a supply chain adopts a better infrastructure execution or embraces more cutting-edge technology.

It’s important to highlight any innovations through shared strategic ideas so the partnership doesn’t become too flat. Collaboration from the start adds savings in the long run, so you should try your best to get suppliers involved in advancing a new project to have input ready.

Technology is required to boost productivity while serving the entire supply chain’s interests. Partners can contribute towards tech improvements by creating an opportunity to invest in those next steps.

Innovation isn’t always about reinventing the wheel. Working together to find positive prospects for efficiency to flow as quickly as possible is the primary key.

Reputation Is the Proof

Your presence in the industry establishes reputation and respect as a thought leader. When you present an image that you’re a reliable authority on what you can provide, it promotes more engagement during supplier interactions.

Earning loyalty and trust requires proof of positive reviews and experiences from prior partnerships. Providing evidence that your firm holds a healthy sense of balance, empathy, patience, and urgency is more effective at promoting strong relationships. Remember, keep your bridge gates open at all times, and don’t be in a rush to burn them when relationships end.

The prevalent disorder of supply chains during times of trouble is a potent reminder of how much business relationships matter. Relationships founded on pricing are easily replaceable, but a strengthened partnership continues through any crisis. In this way, partners are more likely to recuperate and arise from difficult events stronger than before.

CONTACT US

Are you looking for the right partner to build a great connection? To learn more about Ferrandino & Son, Inc. contact us now and let the connecting begin! 
Phone: (866) 571-4609

Case Study: Utilizing Best in Class Triage Solutions for Valuable Outcomes  

Case Study: Utilizing Best in Class Triage Solutions for Valuable Outcomes  

CALL TRIAGE CASE STUDY

OVERVIEW

Utilizing Best in Class Triage Solutions for Preferred Outcomes  

Call Triage processes are valuable strategies for companies who do not have the resources to triage every one of their service calls or go more in-depth with their approaches. We do this for our clients for thousands of work orders every week, so the process inherently continues to mature and improve every work order, every week, and every request.

Triage processes allow us to stand out from the competition who are unwilling to go beyond the ‘dispatching’ phase and provide the ultimate value by saving repair time and fees.

Asking preliminary repair questions and providing short-term solutions create the right steps to engage the proper resources to fix the problem.

APPROACH

Assess

It is late evening on a Sunday night, and one of the largest theater chains in the US is reporting a water leak at one of its locations. The theater manager reports that the water is gushing from the toilet and immediately inquires about dispatching a repair technician.

However, before taking the easy step of just dispatching a tech, we assess the prognosis by going through a series of questions to narrow down the repair’s true nature. Asking preliminary repair questions and providing short-term solutions create the right steps to engage the proper resources to fix the problem.

When dispatching the technician for the repair work, many of our competitors fail even to question the root cause of a repair, let alone provide a vendor who is well equipped to handle the situation.

Plan

After successfully gaining all the correct details for the repair, we advised the theater manager of a short-term solution for their leak. We indicated that they turn off the water flow and apply an “out of service” sign on the problematic stall.

Once the water stopped flowing, our next step was to downgrade their work order to a level-P3 (next day service), saving them a premium trip charge and saving the client time and a half on an after-hour service. Thus, the following Monday, the client received a much lower trip charge and a standard hourly rate.

Execution

When dispatching the technician for the repair work, many of our competitors fail even to question the root cause of a repair, let alone provide a vendor who is well equipped to handle the situation.

Most vendors are in the dark from the beginning phase, so when approaching the work order, they have either very little background knowledge or no knowledge of the previously communicated information, which creates room for more errors.

Our intensely vetted technicians are always prepared and well informed of what is ahead of their work before arriving on the scene, so they have all the right tools and replacement parts required for the job.

Overall, by applying a call triage process from beginning to end, we reduce our average time on site by 15%, by eliminating 20% of all trip charges and completing the job on the first visit more than 30% more often than our competitors.

RESULTS

On-site Time

Reduce on-site time by 15%

Trip Charges

20% of all trip charges eliminated

Job Completion

30% more first-visit job completions than competitors

Incorporating a triage process shows that our priorities are towards our clients’ best interests in mind. Our solutions are always to simplify rather than to complicate. Besides, we also want to incorporate strategies that lower the average cost per ticket in the process, inevitably creating another valuable outcome.

CONTACT US

866-571-4609

sales@ferrandinoandson.com

Increase Work Order Efficiency Through an Improved Call Triage Process

Increase Work Order Efficiency Through an Improved Call Triage Process

Increase Work Order Efficiency Through an Improved Call Triage Process

OVERVIEW

Typically, when you run into a maintenance issue, you dispatch a work order to your service partner, who then sends out a technician to help resolve your maintenance issue. However, even with the technician’s help, the issue may still linger, and if the tech isn’t doing their due diligence, it may not get resolved entirely. 

When you connect with the right FM partner, you’ll notice key differences between an ordinary vendor dispatch system versus a Vendor Partner that encourages a Call Triage process. A call triage process goes a step above and beyond just sending out a technician, allowing for more first-time repair visits and less time and cost spent on the repair. 

Scoping out the cause of the issue is the main priority before any dispatch of service.

The Biggest Difference Starts From the Beginning

When you partner with a national FM Partner, you’re essentially getting an extension of the client’s facility department. Therefore, you’re going to realize companies like this act in your best interests from the very beginning.

How so? For example, if you find an emergency leak or repair scenario, the first intuition isn’t just sending out a technician. Scoping out the cause of the issue is the main priority before dispatching the service. Breaks and damages aren’t isolated problems, and they can come from various sources. It takes a skillful approach to identify the problem to apply the correct solution.

Call Ferrandino & Son at (866) 571 – 4609 or email sales@ferrandinoandson.com to inquire more about how we can effectively support and solve your emergency repairs.

Ask, and You'll Receive

To scope out the work order and immediately define the problem, your partner has to ask the right questions. Asking the right questions is probably the most critical step within a call triage process.

For example, suppose your facility is reporting a leak. In that case, questions could range from the location of the leak, noticing any other surrounding causes, prompting to shut off the main water valve, and other short-term solutions before a dispatch.

This beginning step is to quickly cover the basics and gauge the work order’s priority level quickly, eliminating extra time and additional repair fees.

Having the right triage process is not about the difference in customer care than the competition, but rather about providing results, which creates a valuable experience.

Inspire Expectations Through Solid Delivery Methods

After you identify the repair’s exact cause, it’s now time to choose the right technician who has the qualified skills and equipment to fix the problem. You can almost guarantee that a company that takes the time to initiate a complete call triage process for their work orders evaluate their vendors accordingly, limiting a lack of knowledge and usage of faulty replacement parts.

As a result, identified issues treated as emergencies are now regular service requests, which minimizes a small repair from becoming an extensive repair. Having the right triage process is not about the difference in customer care from the competition but rather about providing results, which creates a valuable experience.

Time is money, and there’s no doubt about it. When running into roadblocks, streamlining your repair needs to obtain faster results is critical to managing your maintenance budget. You don’t want to settle for an incomplete call triage process because that can inevitably create delays in the repair through unqualified technicians and paying overtime for downgraded work.

Through a clearly defined triage strategy, clients reap the benefits of a reliable solution and gain valuable experiences to strengthen their future business relationships.      

CONTACT US

Are you searching for best in class solutions for your next emergency repairs? Please email us at sales@ferrandinoandson.com to connect with one of our specialists today!
Phone: (866) 571-4609

Pre-Construction Strategy Tips

Pre-Construction Strategy Tips

Pre-Construction Strategy Tips

OVERVIEW

One frustrating part of the pre-construction process is budget estimate creation for building owners and their representatives. There is never enough data on hand.

If your budget comes in too high, you risk project delays while you try to revise and lower the costs down, which can potentially tie-up the use of your funds.

Sometimes, your budget goals are lower than the vetted bids you receive, creating a stressful situation that forces you to choose between two complicated options: Cutting your project scope or asking for more money.

The above can limit your building users’ experience and can hurt your bottom line–quite the unfavorable choice.

Creating More Accurate Budget Estimates

To avoid deciding whether to either cut your scope or go over budget, you can now create a more accurate budget estimate through a comprehensive Scope of Work (SOW). An SOW gets your estimates off to a winning start.

Sadly, many projects run into difficulty because the SOW is incomplete, causing uncertainty for the construction team. To follow through with a complete SOW, make sure to report all the scope options.

Call Ferrandino & Son at (866) 571 – 4609 or email sales@ferrandinoandson.com to experience the full impact of our construction program projects. 

Scopes 101

When you think of a construction scope, most experts in this field think of AE Scopes. These are the bread-and-butter items that describe the work done and the list of people that complete the project.

What about Context Scopes? To some degree, AE scopes assess the ideal situation, while the Context scope describes the project’s shortcomings. Failing to consider any project context can lead to severe outcomes—such as lost time and money.

When implementing a Construction Process Scope, otherwise known as an Execution Scope, make sure you’re assessing how the work gets performed by communicating equipment needs, safety requirements, and production.

SOWs should lead you to one precise decision, leaving no room for clarification, so your budgetary expectations stay in-line.

Building Budgets Require Clarity

Tips to make sure your budget goals express what you want, make sure your word usage is straightforward and robust. Also, include additional aides to prevent confusion, like graphs and photos.

An over-explanation of your remodel budget objectives is better than leaving the possibility of a misinterpretation. As a seasoned professional, you know that clarity and thorough communication is a must for any construction project to succeed.

By gathering and preparing your scope data, you can simplify the purpose of your SOW to fit your spending.

Encourage Your Remodel Process Through Data & Expertise

Thinking like a contractor helps your overall SOW, but why not make things easier and partner with an experienced general contractor?

Searching out professional advice from trusted vendors lets you tap into the wealth of knowledge that their experience brings. Gaining contracting expertise can help ensure your scope is valuable and thorough.

Construction-cost databases are typically associated with estimations. To have a substantial cost database, you can fill in the right knowledge gaps in your accounts from the experts you’ve contacted that some clients might not consider.

This kind of data comprises all the components and labor associated with your next remodel jobs and is instrumental in the early planning stages in validating available costs.

In summary, proper SOWs set the whole project’s tone and for no questions to be unanswered!

CONTACT US

Are you running low on ideas to manage all your construction remodels? Contact us now to see how Ferrandino & Son can best deliver your remodeling goals today!
Phone: (866) 571-4609