A new benchmarking service for your office

Citation

(1998), "A new benchmarking service for your office", Facilities, Vol. 16 No. 7/8. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.1998.06916gab.004

A new benchmarking service for your office

A new benchmarking service for your office

Keywords Benchmarking, Facilities management

Statistics, vital or otherwise, play a large part in today's commercial world. Usually in the guise of the calculations which enable the much-practised art of benchmarking. There is nothing new about benchmarking. Benchmarking provides peace of mind and a fairly good assessment of how a company is performing in terms of supplies and services acquisition. But, the number of companies which benchmark their office supplies cost says Peter Frost, chief executive of OfficeSMART Limited, is extremely low.

"Many FMs do not know or are not interested in the vital statistics of the cost of office supplies", he comments "Many look at the hard cost or price of office supplies and ignore the soft hidden costs, of dealing with up to ten different suppliers, lack of product standardisation, wastage and obsolescence. This can add at least 50 per cent to the hard cost and FMs should take a hard look at the real, total cost of office supplies."

As part of a nation-wide initiative to highlight the importance and real costs of office supplies, OfficeSMART, the UK's leading network of office supplies specialists, has launched a health check for FMs to start benchmarking office supplies called SYNOPSIS. SYNOPSIS is an integrated supplies management system, which looks at the total cost of office supplies, rather than the price of individual products.

There are eight steps involved in the SYNOPSIS health check. First, SYNOPSIS looks at the culture of the company ­ is it focused on growing its core business? The ethos behind SYNOPSIS is that companies should want to save money and real time, maximise their productive time and minimise costs. If this is the case, then an appointment is scheduled to learn more about the company, identify wants and needs, and identify areas where OfficeSMART can help FMs save both time and money.

Analysis of current methods against a "best practice" database identifies potential areas as a forerunner to a full, in-depth cost review. Next comes the auditing stage of the health check. Comprising four areas ­ purchasing, productivity, environment and health and safety ­ the audit results in detailed proposals and recommendations.

As a dedicated service provider, OfficeSMART make no charge for this facility. Instead, the group asks for a commitment to use OfficeSMART as their personal office supplies specialist. The system is then implemented entirely by OfficeSMART. Part of this implementation process also includes, where necessary, full user training for any products and electronic ordering systems installed (ask about eze).

The final stage is ongoing account management. This provides the company with complete reporting and budget controls, stock value, product usage by cost centre and comparisons with peer industry groups. Most importantly, this is tailored to the company, making SYNOPSIS a customised solution.

For more details call 0181 893 4488.