The Royal Mail
How Royal Mail uses Alcumus Info Exchange
The Royal Mail is one of the oldest organisations in the world, with its origins tracing back over 500 years. Today they employ around 160,000 people across the group, 141,000 of which are in the UK. Their contribution to the UK economy, including employment and procurement, totals in excess of £10 billion year on year, making them the seventh largest contributor of all UK corporations.
The safety, health and wellbeing of their people, suppliers and the communities that Royal Mail operates in is of paramount importance. With one of the largest corporate real estates in Europe and an organisation with strong integrity and corporate governance, the Royal Mail adheres to the highest standards to ensure their buildings follow legal and industrial regulations and, most importantly, are always safe.
"Alcumus Info Exchange has made our property compliance journey a lot simpler and efficient. We love the high performance and reliability of the system and I personally feel it’s the best system Royal Mail has ever had.”Alcumus has improved the way we service our clients, and in turn, it has helped us to successfully pitch for a significant amount of new work."
Andi Whittle, Data and Reporting Manager for Royal Mail Group Compliance and Sustainability
Before the adoption of Alcumus Info Exchange, The Royal Mail operation was beset by resource heavy, manual processes. Andi Whittle explains; “We were mostly paper based and providing access to building information when a contractor came to site was very difficult and time consuming. We also undertake annual compliance checks on all our buildings, which previously generated c130,000 pieces of paper that needed to be filed in the site log book, along with follow up actions. We needed a platform with a workflow system to allow us to proactively manage and follow up any remedial works identified.”
Since 2013, Alcumus has partnered with the Royal Mail’s Compliance and Sustainability team to implement a Property Management and Compliance system to help them proactively manage their real estate portfolio in a compliant manner and provide a document management facility for their contractors to access their guidance documents.
In recent years, the Info Exchange platform has been further developed with additional modules including Property Inspection, Action Register, Ventilation Assessments and COVID-19 Return to Work. Through the course of the coronavirus pandemic, the Info Exchange has further proven its worth through the ease of managing inspections and demonstrating better control in terms of having the data readily available. Speed of delivery has been a key benefit for Info Exchange, demonstrated by the implementation of the COVID-19 Return to Work app within a matter of weeks from the initial consultation, as has simplicity, with over 2,500 users the Exchange needs to be intuitive. This app also enabled tracking of which sites had not completed the work risk assessments, which was very powerful in mitigating risk.
To date, Info Exchange has over 2,500 users who access the system regularly and this has delivered many benefits, including providing contractors with the ability to plan their works in advance of coming to site. Andi explains; “Within our platform, contractors have access to a wealth of information they can use prior to coming on site. We hold asbestos information, building plans, our annual inspection reports and much more. It means they can easily identify hazards and prepare their risk assessment prior to coming on site, making it much timelier and more cost effective for everyone.
"When we had kit installed at a smaller site, the contractor was able to look at the asbestos data and know where they could and couldn’t drill to plan their work in advance. Having the building drawings easily accessible via the software allows contractors to plan where to locate the install factoring in ongoing maintenance and accessibility"
Info Exchange has provided the Royal Mail with an effective framework of systems and controls to proactively plan and manage their property compliance. In such a large organisation, stakeholder engagement can be challenging. Andi commented; “We get great feedback about its simplicity, intuitive layout and the integrity of it.
“We get great feedback about its simplicity, intuitive layout and the integrity of it. When one of our site managers gets a call from an EHO for example, they can easily access the platform, find the information they need and provide it quickly, giving the authorities confidence we are acting with integrity and are compliant.”
Find out more about Alcumus Info Exchange's property and asset management solutions.
