About ARA

ARA is comprised of a group of Australian owned and operated, facilities management, building services, and specialised building products companies.

The Challenge

ARA needed to shorten its job turn around times, as well as improve visibility of its technicians while maintaining customer’s assets. They needed to:

• Provide real-time access to asset and maintenance data for management and customers; and
• Give the Group a singular software system integrating all of ARA’s diverse workflows, tailored services, and 50 business units.
• Provide closed loop call-to-job completion in order to digitize the complete customer request process and remove the weight of the current paper trail.
• Invoice customers faster and improve cash flow.

Loc8 To The Rescue

Ian Curl, General Manager IT at the ARA Group, faced a serious situation. His company’s latest client, a major Australian airline, was insisting on real-time visibility on all maintenance operations outsourced to the ARA Group.

With existing software proving unworkable, Ian sought a different solution – one that simultaneously addressed the needs of the specific client but remained scalable, complementing ARA’s future growth plans.

Ian’s foresight and final selection of Loc8 was a strategic windfall for his company. Fitting seamlessly with the CEO’s long-term vision for expansion while remaining on budget and flawlessly integrating with the existing work routine of technicians on the ground.

Loc8, with its user-friendly, web-based interface provided the client with up-to-the-minute visibility on maintenance operations from anywhere worldwide. In-field ARA technicians were able to rapidly report completed maintenance, shortening the time from job reporting to customer satisfaction and invoicing.

The ARA Group’s fifty plus business units use Loc8 Service Provider for:

• Mobile job management
• Reactive maintenance
• Preventative maintenance
• Asset management
• Customer call centre and help desk
• Subcontractor management
• Reporting and data analysis
• Compliance monitoring
• Customer web portals
• Work force management
• Inspection management
• Field service reports
• Draft invoicing & billing integration

Within the ARA Group there are nine individual help desk operations centres taking calls for reactive and scheduled maintenance customers. These customers include Australia’s largest companies who have outsourced the management of fire, security, property and technology assets to the ARA Group.

Improving operational readiness with Loc8

Loc8 was the only viable option when it came to the deployment of a diverse, high transaction access anywhere system for the provision of facilities management services, and solution puts ARA at the forefront of property and service management operations in Australia.

Total visibility of maintenance work is provided to internal and external clients through a secure web portal providing a central view of asset and maintenance status anywhere, anytime.

Infield technicians use Loc8’s various mobile options to have jobs allocated and pushed down to them in real-time. Jobs are then updated on their online / offline mobile device and synchronised live back the customer management centre.

The ARA Group, through Loc8, is delivering significant benefits to clients, including:

• Prompt, accurate and safe equipment servicing on-time, every time.
• GA comprehensive register of all assets under maintenance, providing accurate and up-to-date asset information at all times.
• Prompt, accurate and safe routine servicing of equipment on-time, every time.
• Guaranteed attendance of technicians on site, verifiable through mobile computing technology.
• A secure audit trail of all inspection actions performed.
• Reduced equipment downtime through the analysis of maintenance data and subsequent elimination of ‘catastrophic’ failures.
• Quick and easy monitoring of regulatory compliance obligations.

Loc8 has allowed the ARA Group to streamline and centralise its help desk and asset maintenance functions, significantly increasing business efficiencies and to gain a competitive advantage.

For more information about ARA Group, visit www.aragroup.com.au.