Real Estate Company Selects Canon for Facilities and Logistics Management Services
A leading real estate investment, development and management company needed a partner to provide facilities and logistics management services services that would help support a major real estate development project. This includes providing services for the first of several commercial buildings completed in the development. The building’s anchor tenants include leading retailers, financial and technology companies. When development is completed, each day scores of people will work in, visit, or call the development their home.
The real estate company first engaged Canon over nine years ago, before breaking ground on the first building as consultants for mailroom outsourcing and loading dock operations. Based on the results and expertise Canon demonstrated, as well as Canon’s knowledge of the development project, the real estate company awarded Canon a multi-year agreement at the end of Canon’s corporate capabilities/operational concept presentation.
Key Factors Driving the Agreement
Besides Canon’s track record with the development project, two important factors led to this result. One, Canon’s corporate capabilities presentation went far beyond the usual introductory details, highlighting company background and service capabilities. The Canon team outlined an approach, supported by in-depth analytics, on how Canon would initially create the right management infrastructure, processes, and personnel team necessary for success. Then over time Canon would consolidate the operations based on efficiencies gained through increasingly streamlined workflows, more efficient staff utilization and the use of business performance analytics to tie activities to labor utilization. This approach represented the type of thinking and partnership the real estate development management team wanted.
The other important factor was that Canon took real estate company executives to tour the facilities management work that Canon managed for a multi-national company and one of the leading children’s hospitals in the U.S. The post-tour feedback from the real estate company’s management team was extremely positive after the executives saw the scope and complexity of Canon’s operations at those facilities. The visits were further proof that Canon was the right partner for the real estate company.
Canon’s Facilities Management and Logistics Solution
Canon’s multi-year contract spans a variety of facilities management services. This includes an initial team of over 80 Canon employees managing functions for seven buildings that include vehicle scheduling, loading dock operations, vehicle screening and a mail/messenger center.
One key Canon service is overseeing the vehicle screening area (VSA). This includes utilizing an innovative software/hardware solution that allows tenants to use a website to pre-register any vehicle that is scheduled to make a delivery to the development. Registration details include the company making the delivery, vehicle type, information on the driver, certificate of insurance, desired delivery window, and more.
When a vehicle arrives at the screening area, the Canon team enters the vehicle's license plate number and pulls up related data on a handheld device. This enables Canon to scan the vehicle identification number and confirm relevant details stored in the system’s database. A security vendor inspects the vehicle with a bomb sniffing dog. Canon then seals the vehicle with a clip so it can’t be opened between the VSA and the loading dock, located a few blocks away. When the vehicle arrives at the dock entrance, the Canon team already has the pertinent information in a handheld device. They re-confirm all key details including the vehicle and driver, double check that the vehicle is still clipped and direct the vehicle to the correct loading dock bay. Once parked at the dock, a Canon dock supervisor makes sure that the vehicles and drivers efficiently utilize the dock time and move in and out of the dock based on a set of operational parameters.
Canon’s mail/messenger center management services involve the Canon team receiving mail and packages for tenants as well as picking up and transferring tenant outbound mail and packages to specified couriers or the USPS.
Supporting World-Class Customer Service
One of the most unique aspects of this real estate development firm is its total focus on world class customer service. The real estate management company wants to distinguish the development in two important ways. One is scale, which the development team has already accomplished. The second element is integrated world class customer service. It is critical to note that the project is not governed by facilities managers, engineers, or even financial experts. Instead, it is governed by principles set forth by the Vice President of Customer Experience. This is a singular approach in urban real estate and more akin to a Disney experience than the gruff, hectic world typical of real estate development in most major cities. Canon selected its staff members for this unique mission based on their customer service skills and relevant experience. All Canon staff members receive advanced customer service training from both Canon and the real estate developer’s Customer Experience Team.
The real estate company believes that this development can make a difference in its home city. There have been few real estate development initiatives that have committed the number, breadth, and depth of first-class companies to a project this far before it’s over. Canon is now among those first-class companies that, together with development, are redefining how real estate projects of this magnitude are managed.