Founded in 1994, Service Works Global (SWG) develops and supplies specialist software for the facilities and property management marketplace, providing a suite of applications for end users, occupiers and service providers. The company’s flagship product, QFM, is a flexible application which can be implemented as a completely integrated package or as separate modules covering facilities management, property management and bookings. The company also offers specialist applications, including mobile solutions for handhelds, space planning, electronic signage and a PFI Payment Mechanism.

Working in close partnership with clients, SWG utilises a product design strategy that allows it to adapt software to the ever-changing needs of the workplace. Their software is used by facilities departments to manage both reactive and planned maintenance regimes, assigning different service levels to contractors and manage assets and lifecycle costings. “Facilities Managers’ overall goal is to manage the physical assets of an organisation, to help it meet its wider business objective,” comments Annie Gales, SWG’s Marketing and Operations Director. “Effective facilities management directly helps business performance. People often don’t realise that facilities overheads are one of the highest in any company and efficient management can have a positive effect on the bottom line.”

Like most Independent Software Vendors (ISV’s) SWG has a complex sales cycle. Typically, SWG’s clients need the co-operation of in-house IT departments to install software within the corporate IT infrastructure; delays in the sales cycle are often created by the need for a client’s in-house IT staff to fit a new project into their heavy workload or waiting for new servers to become available. Whilst SWG sells to business users it also often needs to ensure that in-house IT departments are involved and committed.

SWG launched a web version of its software applications in 2002. Clients found this very helpful, especially for the management of remote sites. SWG realised that if it could go one step further and create a fully functioning and supported online offering of its solution, then it could sell to business managers without necessarily having to burden the IT departments. More importantly, at the same time this would create extra benefits for clients.

SWG began to proactively look for a partner to enable it to become a fully developed Application Service Provider. After an extensive review of the market place, Attenda was chosen to host the online delivery of its applications, because SWG felt that Attenda had the necessary experience and could offer the levels of security and reliability that its clients require. Clients can elect to have online delivery of all functionality using either Citrix or Windows Terminal Server, or limited functionality through the browser based version of the application. In all cases, the software is installed on servers in Attenda’s data centre utilising dedicated infrastructure for each SWG client.

The key requirements were reliability and security. As Annie Gales explained “We were very conscious of the fact that if we decided to work with a partner, then our name would become associated with them too. This meant that if there were any issues, that this would reflect badly on us. Attenda has an excellent reputation and some prestigious contracts, such as Microsoft and MFI, so we knew that we would be in good company. We were also confident that we could establish a good working relationship with Attenda.”

SWG was clear that it wanted a hosting partner with strong credibility. “Clients immediately trust our choice of provider when we tell them that Attenda runs applications like SAP and Peoplesoft for clients such as HaysDX and Avis. We do not have to sell our hosting partner. The conversation is more focussed on the benefits that the hosted delivery model offers.”

Another aspect which attracted SWG to Attenda was the ability to provision short term pilots, demonstrating the business benefits to potential clients and improving sales conversion ratios.

SWG began selling the hosted model in 2003. Clients now include Reliance Integrated Services and Banner Facilities Management. “The hosted model is an excellent solution for our clients” says Annie Gales, “especially for service providers. They have the reassurance of no hidden costs and can both budget more easily, whilst still managing and reporting on their contracts more effectively.”

With Attenda, SWG and its clients have absolute security, which is a critical consideration especially for those in government or the finance industry. There is no need to be concerned about maintenance and support because that is all carried out centrally. This also reduces SWG support costs because it’s easy to separate real application problems from clients’ infrastructure problems. Upgrades are completely seamless; nobody needs to be there to monitor or manage them.

“Our clients have access to the system 24/7 and have the benefit of pure business functionality without the headaches, which save on the overall cost of ownership” says Annie Gales. “Our clients are dealing with assets and managing services that need constant monitoring and attention and can be critical to the business, so it’s important that they are supported by a reliable system.”

From SWG’s perspective the sales cycle is shorter and the implementation timescales are also reduced. With a purchase or lease option actual implementation depends on the availability of a clients’ IT department. According to Annie Gales things are now moving more quickly. “We can now have an application up and running within a week, whereas it could have been up to a month before.”