BUSINESS OVERVIEW
Duke Realty Corporation is one of the nation’s largest real estate companies, with a total market capitalization exceeding $10 billion. Duke owns, manages, or has under development, more than 112 million square feet of property, serving more than 3,600 tenants and a company portfolio of 735 office, industrial, and retail buildings.
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Duke is firmly committed to providing its tenants with excellent customer service. The technology solution Duke was looking for would enable it to build this commitment to service into a differentiator—increasing customer retention, while also enhancing maintenance-related revenues and reining in operating expenses. Duke envisioned a system that would streamline maintenance order management, making the process easier and more convenient for customers. In addition to boosting process efficiency, a key requirement was availability of reporting tools and the data needed to achieve accountability and ongoing improvement. A specific concern that Duke wanted to address was capturing lost revenue when it provides above-standard
services. As a full-service company, Duke often provides services that may be individually billed back to a tenant. However, its existing system lacked the ability to effectively capture billable services and process invoices. Ideally, the solution put into place would enhance project tracking and help Duke recapture this lost revenue stream.
CORRIGO SOLUTION
In 2001, Duke deployed Corrigo’s service management system and integrated it with existing leasing, payroll, and accounting systems. This provided Duke with a state-of-the-art service management solution that supported its entire service delivery process.
“We looked at several vendors and applications, and Corrigo really stood out. The robust functionality, product stability, and Corrigo’s focus on the customer experience made it our vendor of choice for automating the maintenance and service side of our business.”
Duke Realty CIO, Paul Quinn
END-TO-END PROCESS VISIBILITY
Duke Realty now uses Corrigo’s systems to manage the entire service delivery and asset management process across its portfolio. More than 28,000 work orders per month are handled by the system, and about 25 percent of all service requests are now received online, submitted directly via Corrigo's Tenant Web Portal, which is custom branded as Duke's TenantConnect web site. Manually dispatched service requests are a thing of the past. Duke was able to consolidate its numerous call centers into a single location—with half the original staffing—and to provide higher quality, more consistent service to its tenants. Because the TenantConnect system provides both robust reporting capabilities and real-time process visibility from start to finish, Duke has been able to reduce operating costs, increase productivity, and improve customer service from service request submittal through to completion of the work order.
KEEPING THE CUSTOMER FOCUS
Tenants consistently rank maintenance service—response, professionalism, and communication of service status—as an important, contributing factor in their satisfaction with their management company. Through TenantConnect, Duke tenants are able to place new service requests, check on the status of or modify previouslyplaced requests, and view Duke Realty announcements and notices. TenantConnect’s success was cited as one of the contributors to Duke Realty being named one of Building Magazine's “A-List” in the “Who's Who in the Buildings Market ”.
THE INFORMATION ADVANTAGE
As part of the Corrigo deployment, all maintenance personnel were equipped with Internet-ready phones that enable them to instantly access relevant work order and preventive maintenance data. When a tenant or staff member enters a service request, it is automatically turned into a work order and routed to the appropriate field technician based on portfolios and specialties. This use of wireless technology and real-time information saves valuable time. Technicians have everything they need right at their fingertips, eliminating wasted trips and enabling them to resolve more service requests in a given day. Key vendors are also set up on the system and receive electronic notification of work orders, eliminating the need to call them. Wireless communication has also translated into more timely and accurate accounting of maintenance costs. When service personnel pick up and complete work orders with their web-enabled phones, a system timer records the actual time required to complete tasks. Also using their phones, field personnel can select materials and parts used from a materials catalog and add overtime or any other applicable charges, such as travel time. Once the field technician completes the job, he can close out the work order in the field and move on to the next tenant service request. Because Corrigo is directly integrated into Duke's back-office accounts receivable system, completed work orders are automatically routed to accounting for processing.
RESULTS
“Corrigo has given us incredible insight into our operations, enabling us to be much more proactive in managing our processes, from monitoring staff utilization and productivity to obtaining multi-dimensional, real-time, actual cost data for services we provide to our tenants. All of these capabilities enable us to have an accurate overall picture of maintenance and service costs, and help us determine yearly maintenance budgets and lease terms.”
Dennis Oklak, Duke’s President and Chief Operating Officer
“In addition, the information we are now able to collect and track, specifically in our bill-back process, has helped us recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously lost revenues, and enables us to more accurately bill back customers for above-standard services going forward.” Since deploying Corrigo, Duke's tenant bill-backs have increased revenue by an estimated $400,000 every year. In short, Corrigo has enabled Duke Realty Corporation to reduce administrative overhead, capture lost revenue, and improve tenant service—all at the same time. By putting Corrigo to work for its business, Duke has seen benefits at every step of the maintenance management process.
About Corrigo, Inc.
Corrigo, Inc. provides on-demand service management solutions for all types of maintenance, installation, and repair organizations. Corrigo's web-based applications deliver control and insight to service management customers nationwide. These service management tools enhance the delivery of maintenance services, work order and dispatch management, and asset management by delivering an integrated solution that enables a seamless, real-time flow of communication between customers, service personnel, management staff, vendors, suppliers, and senior management. Corrigo is headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon. For more information, visit
www.corrigo.com.