GIVING TECHNOLOGY A SEAT AT THE TABLE
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MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP: CLEANING UP WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY
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MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP
How Millennium Services Group is innovating with new solutions to manage cleaning and security services for commercial clients across Australia and New Zealand
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riginally established in 2003, Millennium Services Group was publicly listed in 2015 when three businesses, based in Mel-
bourne, Sydney and Adelaide, came together as a national company to offer cleaning and security 04
services, before expanding further the following year with the acquisition of Airlite, a Building Support Services provider from Perth. Millennium’s Chief Information Officer David Benjamin has entered the second year of his tenure with the company focused on three key areas: cost, consolidation and stability. “We had to look at the total cost of ownership following the company’s listing in 2015,” he recalls. “The consolidation was about bringing systems together to give them that history of the organisation. There was some duplication of technology systems, so it was an opportunity to unify the four branches of the company. Lastly, we had to get to a point where our systems were stable and delivering where they needed to because, when I joined, the business had simply outgrown the technology solutions originally put in place.”
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MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP
$295mn Approximate revenue
The two main services the company provides are cleaning and security. Millennium has commercial cleaning contracts with large shopping centre chains (such as Scentre Group, Vicinity
2003
Year founded
5,300
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Approximate number of employees
and Stockland), Myer, office buildings, universities and government buildings like Brisbane’s Queensland Investment Corporation. The security services often fit hand in glove with the cleaning services provided, where the same clients and sites also need security for the assets they own. In addition to the above, security contracts are held with Melbourne Racing Club, Sydney Metro, and multi-national high security Data Centre clients. These services can include shopping mall patrols, concierge services, remote monitoring systems and anything where physical security is required, including large public events such as the Caulfield Cup race meeting during Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival. When Benjamin joined the company, it had three separate networks which have now been migrated to a business grade private cloud hosted by an external vendor. “CustomTec is hosting this for us,” he explains. “There were
also duplications around the payroll and
for collaboration such as web confer-
account systems, so we’ve migrated
encing,” says Benjamin.
those onto a single platform, resulting
Introducing new technologies is par
in significant cost savings by reducing
for the course at Millennium, where
the number of vendors.” Millennium has
the company has purchased 25 robot
also consolidated its phone systems
cleaners from Canadian firm Avidbots.
to VOIP in all of its offices in Australia
Typically programmed to run after
and New Zealand. “We’ve already seen
hours – for example, when a shopping
huge savings around telephony costs
centre is closed – the machines are
but also our travel costs, because the
monitored 24/7 from the vendor’s
solution has also delivered other tools
control centre. “It’s helping us in
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
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David Benjamin David Benjamin previously spent 10 years with National Australia Bank as its Delivery Manager for enterprise applications supporting 35,000 employees worldwide. Offering a unique blend of commercial acumen, program management and an understanding of comparative technologies, Benjamin is well versed in stakeholder management. “One of my key skills is the ability to translate technology into a business outcome,” he adds. “It’s important to listen to staff and understand the business needs before entering solution mode.” He believes being able to apply new technology requires experienced change management for successful implementation. “Technology alone won’t fix things,” warns Benjamin. “It’s the ability to introduce change, get it adopted, and bring people on that journey, that will deliver a positive transformation.”
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MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP
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reducing our labour cost, while
Other innovations include a staff
increasing reliability. Anything that can
tracking system offering the ability to
be automated offers a more consistent
provide reporting and data back to the
outcome, which our clients are
client on, for example, how often areas
demanding from us,” says Benjamin.
such as a shopping mall food court
“Robotics play a key part in removing
requires attention from cleaners. “It’s a
that dependency and giving us greater
key requirement for many of our clients
traction where large floor areas need
to ensure a ‘rotation’ is being met,”
to be cleaned. This leaves our staff free
adds Benjamin. “It could be that they
to do the more specialised cleaning
want cleaners to pass by a certain area
that the robots can’t do, such as glass
on site every 20 minutes.” He explains
or window sills.”
that cleaners aren’t just choosing
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where to go. There is a methodology at
Millennium isn’t just flying solo says
play to ensure the best coverage of a
Benjamin, who notes the importance
given site, enhancing the public’s
of alliances with the likes of CustomTec
experience and reducing the impact of
and Melbourne-based Elite-ID, which
public liability claims. “It’s a challenge
provides the tracking systems.
for Millennium where accidents will
“We also have a site auditing software
always happen in large public spaces,”
solution where our staff, in conjunction
concedes Benjamin, who is keen to use
with a client, will walk around a site
technology to protect the company’s
to document issues that need to be
exposure and risk to public liability
addressed, while also scoring how
claims by ensuring it meets the
clean an area is, ensuring that our
‘rotation’ terms of a works contract.
service is up to expectations,” says w w w.mi l l e nni um s g . com
MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP
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“ IoT is allowing us to track and measure areas like bathrooms, air quality control or waste disposal…” — David Benjamin, Chief Information Officer, Millennium Services Group
Benjamin. “For this, we partner with SafetyCulture, which provides a software solution our staff can use via a tablet or smartphone.” Millennium also partners with Adelaide-based Kineo, which runs the company’s learning and development platform. “Keeping our staff trained and up to date on how to use these new tools in the workplace is vital,” explains Benjamin. “Our staff are spread across two countries so we need a unified method to deliver training content for them.” A time and attendance system was also introduced with the help of Ento. “It’s a workforce management solution to allow staff to clock on and off from their rostered shifts and we’ve automated and digitised that process,” explains Benjamin. “Previously it was all paper based which created a lot of waste through follow up calls, duplication, and written time sheets which can be difficult to read, but Ento can be run on a tablet and is installed at all of our sites for team members to clock on and off.” Meeting the challenge of the skills gap in terms of language barriers and technological experience is something w w w.mi l l e nni um s g . com
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Benjamin and his team, with the help
penetration for communication.”
of Kineo, are working hard to support.
Reliable mobile communications are
Allied to this, getting mobile internet
vital to ensure that Millennium’s plans
services to employees across a
to further utilise the Internet of Things
diverse range of sites is important to
(IoT) can be realised. “IoT is allowing
ensure infrastructure support without
us to track and measure areas like
impeding on the client’s side. “We can
bathrooms, air quality control or waste
generally deliver this through mobile
disposal… Technology is helping us to
data, which can be a challenge given
become more efficient and identify
that our staff might be below ground
areas that need attention and not just
level,” says Benjamin. “But that’s
stick to rigid rotation,” adds Benjamin.
changing. We’re currently partnering
Rather than just working with clients
with Optus, which is already rolling out
from the perspective of its service
5G mobile services offering greater
offering, Benjamin is keen for Millennium
TECHNOLOGY
Millennium Assist Developed in conjunction with our strategic partner, Circle T, all of the company’s solutions can now be managed on the client side through the Millennium Assist customer portal which offers reports on time and attendance of staff, staff rotation, metrics on how sites are patrolled, and learning and development. “It gives clients the information they need to ensure we are delivering the service, and are compliant with whatever their site requirements might be,”
asserts Chief Information Officer David Benjamin. “The traditional view was that technology was a cost, it’s a supporting function just to enable us to do our job. By developing this portal, I think we’ve f lipped that on its head to demonstrate what we can actually drive into our organisation and differentiate us from our competitors in delivering our service. And we’ve seen that in some of the contracts we’ve won recently.”
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MILLENNIUM SERVICES GROUP
“ When I joined, the business had simply outgrown the technology solutions originally put in place” 14
— David Benjamin, Chief Information Officer, Millennium Services Group
to give technology a seat at the table. “Engaging technology earlier helps avoid missed opportunities; other potential solutions can be put forward, or a service can be delivered more efficiently,” he says. “I like to establish connections with my peers within our client organisations because for me to do my job well, and to do it better, I need to understand what they need from the services they contract with us. It’s our goal to focus more on this over the next 12 months. We’re a cleaning and security company, but we have the potential to become more than that by widening our core service offering to include technology.” In tune with Millennium’s vision to create value where others can’t see it, Benjamin’s team is primed to take up the company’s mission and deliver more innovative solutions.
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Level 1, 205-211 Forster Road, Mt Waverley VIC 3149 Australia T +613 8540 7900 www.millenniumsg.com