ClikFix: "Please, Do It Now."

Last year Bentall launched ClikFix to automate service orders initiated by its thousands of tenants. Developed by SynchroSERV, ClikFix enables Bentall's tenants to generate a service request via the web, e-mail, or telephone. The handling of that request is determined by a series of customized rules that govern the operations of each property. According to John McDonald at SynchroSERV, about 90% of all service requests can typically be handled by 70 to 80 rules.

The process of writing rules down also produces a side benefit by requiring that the property management staff explicitly agrees on how a task should be handled. Without written rules, it's easy for different people to have different understandings of how a problem should be addressed. In fact, the time required to define rules for a building largely depends on how quickly a consensus can be reached. It's not the complexity of the rules themselves. It's the people!

The bottom line, according to Bentall's Laver, is that automating service orders becomes a competitive advantage when bidding for portfolios. Laver believes that Bentall can operate portfolios more efficiently, in part by lowering the cost of each service request by 28%. And that's good for both Bentall and its tenants.

--Peter Pike