ISS, a global leader in Facility Services, joined forces with Spica to revolutionise their cleaning operations through cutting-edge technology. With operations in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia nd over 490,000 employees, ISS sought to enhance service quality, optimise resource utilisation, and streamline cleaning operations for improved efficiency and customer satisfaction.

For ISS Norway, cleaning is a high-profile activity in FM-service contracts and provides a significant contribution to the business. As a people-intensive and manual activity consisting of many small and simple tasks, cleaning is the one service that always sticks out as the main contributor to good or poor-quality service delivery. A cleaning contract often has an intensive paper trail, training manuals, handbooks of instructions and complicated rosters to manage staff and tasks, to be completed.

Cleaning may be the least glamorous of all the facility management services, but it is also the most noticeable. The results of cleaning, or lack thereof, has a significant impact on the people working or using the building, its visitors and the overall employee experience. This combination of people management, manual tasks, and high visibility creates a significant resource and consistent service management problem.

ISS Norway addressed the problem by identifying some straight forward business goals:

• Provide an enhanced service quality
• Improve resource efficiency
• Reduce time spent across all cleaning operations
• Empower service employees

Spica and ISS Norway identified key areas where an integrated blend of sensor-based data and analysis software, would provide a much better understanding of cleaning operations within each cleaning contract. Spica`s GemEx Engine® for Smart Cleaning solution, combined with Disruptive Technologies sensors and service insights, deliver more efficient and improved levels of cleaning maintenance data.

By installing Disruptive Technologies sensors to collect data, and then have it presented via GemEx Engine® dashboards for analysis, Spica and ISS Norway were able to better schedule cleaning, including information on what and where to clean. As the data started to produce results, it was compared to a series of manual observations so that data from the sensors could be cross-checked to ensure that the technology produced an accurate picture of each situation.

Once baseline information had been evaluated on the current cleaning regime, the staff were provided with real-time alarms. These alarms were configured and based on, SLA`s and other requirements based on the initial data collection. The results were usage-based cleaning of the facilities (in addition to user requests), only areas that had been used got cleaned. An app was made for the cleaning staff to help them work effectively and engage them in the process.

Implementing the GemEx Engine® for the Smart Cleaning solution means providing significantly better resource allocation and positively impacting cleaning contracts. These contracts can now focus solely on the client’s needs, identified by the data analysis. Customer complaints at some sites have dropped down to zero. The information, process improvements and quality enhancements clients have experienced have provided much-improved customer satisfaction levels across the organisation.

“It is extremely important to spend time analyzing the process and the data. With many variables in a Smart Cleaning project we were dependent on a flexible company to collaborate with, and a company that could adapt to the feedback and understands the ISS business case.”

Christopher Muñoz, Space Management and Digital Excellence Manager, ISS Norway

This case study encapsulates how the collaboration between ISS and Spica led to the implementation of GemEx Engine® for Smart Cleaning, enhancing cleaning operations through data-driven insights, real-time alarms, and increased employee engagement. It highlights the challenges, the solution, implementation details, and the positive outcomes achieved.