Business Technology

Management software,
services peak cleaner’s interest

Cleaning management and inspection programs created a buzz at the recent Building Service Contractors Association International Trade Show, this March in Dallas. Many in-house and contract cleaning executives said they were looking for a faster, easier way to handle inspections and were intrigued by the following new solutions they found:

S.M.A.R.T. software
One option was 3M Commercial Care Division’s new S.M.A.R.T. software program — designed to help with workloading, budgeting, scheduling and inspections. The system targets building service contractors and in-house medical housekeepers, but can be used in a variety of other facilities.

The Maintenance Analysis portion of the program is compatible with hand-held computers. It compares costs, measures tasks and estimates labor hours, as well as preparing and analyzing quality control inspections. There also is a cleaning training module that offers a variety of computer-based lessons in English and Spanish. It also will help track employee test results.

For more information, call 651/733-7266.

Online inspection records
Attendees at the BSCAI show also were talking about a new monthly-fee-based service called TangoPoint. Cleaning executives use a hand-held computer to enter inspection data which can be wirelessly transmitted to the TangoPoint Web site for storage and report generation.

The twist here is that all an executive has to have is an Internet connection to access a wide variety of inspection forms or to store customized data on TangoPoint’s server. This allows supervisors in individual buildings or on different shifts to remotely connect and update information as needed though a password protected system.

The program has been in the field for about a year and so far, operations using the service have experienced between 40 percent and 75 percent savings from their previous paper-based inspection processes, says Timothy Sheehy, president and CEO of TangoPoint Inc.

Click here for more information.


Making the ’Net work for you
Online options can make housekeeping management much easier

In today’s Internet age, it seems that if you aren’t doing half your business electronically, you’re behind the times. Yet, not all professionals can do their work via the World Wide Web, limiting its use for them. Cleaning would fall into this category.

While many of the industry’s main functions can’t be done online, there still are many ways the Internet can help improve cleaning operations.
Product research: Even if a completely different department has control over purchasing, these people still rely on housekeeping executives for their recommendations. That’s when cleaning managers can use the Internet for product research. Many manufacturers and distributors offer online catalogs with worthwhile descriptions.

One useful resource is a buyers guide, which offers updated listings of every manufacturer to offer a certain product, by brand name, product category or manufacturer search.

Finding contractors: Finding contractors to do special project work such as window cleaning or floor repair also can be much easier on the Internet. Individual company Web pages often provide plenty of background information that the Yellow pages would leave out.

A new trend, auction sites, even allow managers to put work out to bid via the Internet, saving the trouble of personally handling individual bidders. Two sites are www.bigmop.com and www.freemarkets.com.

Trouble-shooting: Then there are those days when you’re trying to find a solution to a pressing problem. When you’re trying to find the best way to extract motor oil from a carpet or restore grout without eating it away, online trade publication archives can come in handy. Bookmark some of the industry’s leading publication Web sites and with a few quick keystrokes you can download years of coverage on a specific problem.

And when you’re too busy to even get past your office door, it’s nice to know you can enter forums and chat rooms to discuss pressing questions with peers from across the world.


Listserv Connects Cleaning Managers

The next time you have a quick question — from employee issues to product application concerns — try tapping into a little known goldmine of custodial information.

JANITORS@raven.cc.ukans.edu is an e-mail listserv established for school and university janitorial decision makers. The listserv, hosted at the University of Kansas, tends to receive a steady stream of question and answer postings each day from around the world. To join the listserv, send an e-mail with a blank subject line and “SUBSCRIBE JANITORS” and your first and last name in the body of the message.