Only here — read this article to learn everything you need to know about the Infraspeak Network™ — our collaborative, shared maintenance workplace.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


1. What is the Infraspeak Network™?


The Infraspeak Network™ is a shared, open-access, collaborative workspace where facilities managers, suppliers and service providers can connect to work and communicate together.


The Network exists to put an end to the logistical nightmare that has plagued our industry for decades — managing procurement and work execution with third-party providers. 


We have added new features and buttons to your core preventive and reactive maintenance apps which will cut out unnecessary emails, phone calls and admin that previously impeded your partner relationships.


These platform additions will bring total control over key processes so you can meet sales targets, improve asset health and build stronger, longer-lasting client relationships. 


Everything happens on the Infraspeak Network™
Managers meet new suppliers, service providers close more deals and crucially, everyone is kept in the loop!



2. Main benefits of the Infraspeak Network™


The average facility manager loses 60 hours a month handling supplier relationships! 


It's therefore no surprise that the biggest benefit of the Network is that it saves you time, lots of it.


It will cut out human error, repeat conversations and endless app hopping so that everything is handled centrally from your platform. 


As well as saving you time, using the Network will bring big improvements to your: 


  1. Operational efficiency. New interaction frameworks automatically synchronise information meaning any work orders or planned jobs can be completed in just a few clicks.

  2. Communication. An in-built messages function and shareable documents and data mean it's much easier to communicate important updates with your team, partners and other stakeholders.

  3. Service quality. When you improve agility, communication and transparency, it's natural that you'll be able to deliver a better service! Trust us, your clients and partners will thank you for it.

  4. Purchasing decisions. Ensure you're getting the best deal thanks to simple quote selection processes, and simplify the search for new vendors by choosing from a list of trusted suppliers.

  5. Sales opportunities.  Expand your book of contacts for new business opportunities by up to 40%. Centrally stored profile data on your Infraspeak platform will make it easier to manage new clients.

 


3. What will the Infraspeak Network™ do for you?

If you’re a facilities manager or owner buying maintenance services, you’ll be able to:

  • Find new business partners — new suppliers and services

  • Share quote requests with existing or potential suppliers

  • Negotiate and communicate using in-platform Messages

  • Receive quotes from suppliers, compare them and confidently choose the best one

  • Turn your approved, final quote into a purchase and manage it smoothly from a dedicated app (Purchases app)

  • Integrate Infraspeak with invoicing and accounting software and ERPs  


If you’re a supplier or service provider selling a service, you will be able to:

  • Find new clients and business opportunities

  • Receive quote requests and add them to your book of contacts

  • Negotiate and communicate using in-platform Messages

  • Use Infraspeak to create or send quotes

  • Increase opportunities and business volume

  • Turn your approved, final quote into a sale and manage it smoothly from a dedicated app (Sales app)

  • Integrate Infraspeak with invoicing and accounting software


If you’re a facilities manager or owner who’s searching for an external partner for collaboration, you’ll be able to:

  • Share maintenance and service work orders and their essential information with the subcontractor directly from Infraspeak.

  • Share entire planned jobs with partners, along with all planned job orders, tasks and measurements, complete with all essential information.

  • Collaborate from a shared, transparent and intuitive virtual work environment

  • Follow all work updates in real-time

  • Communicate directly with your partner using the Messages function

  • Benefit from transparent, agile and auto-synchronised work processes

  • Centralise all key info on your Infraspeak — this will facilitate economic analysis, report generation and enhance integrations with other tools your company uses


If you’re a supplier or service provider who’ll complete a job with an external partner, you’ll be able to:

  • Get access to all the data you need to complete work orders or planned jobs on your Infraspeak (either simplified or full version)

  • Work from a shared, transparent and intuitive virtual work environment where your client will be able to follow and be a part of your work progress.

  • Communicate directly with your client using the Messages function

  • Centralise all key info on your Infraspeak — this will facilitate economic analysis, report generation and enhance integrations with other tools (e.g. invoicing tools) your company uses 

  • Improve service quality automatically synched updates to create a transparent service that keeps your client well informed and with total visibility 



4. Do my suppliers need to be Infraspeak clients?

Nope! Quite the contrary. They’ll be given access to a simplified version of Infraspeak.

In order to enjoy the full, personalised and integrated experience, they will need an advanced version of Infraspeak, but it is not mandatory. 


The Infraspeak Network™ connects our platform users and offers a simplified version of Infraspeak to anyone who isn’t yet a client and needs to improve their service quality for clients.


The core capabilities of the Infraspeak Network™ are accessible to everyone — no limits, no exceptions. The whole maintenance world will access this new way of working. Say hello to maintenance done with collaboration, agility, synchronicity and efficiency! 



5. The Infraspeak Network™ reactive maintenance workflow


From quote request to executed maintenance 


The biggest benefit of the Infraspeak Network™ is the ability to share work orders and planned jobs with your partners and suppliers from a common workspace. It's this simple capability which allows you to harness all the other operational benefits outlined above!


Let’s make this a bit easier with some personas and an example workflow on the processes involved:

Client: Marina Maintenance Ltd. — Facility management company

Supplier 1: HVAC Rocky— AVAC service provider

Supplier 2: Clean Air’us— Climate and air quality company

Supplier 3: FairAirCare — Air conditioning company


5.1 Sharing a quote request

  1. A problem is detected in one of the air-con units in one of Marina Maintenance’s buildings.

  2. The facility manager at Marina needs to quickly find a specialist company to fix the problem before it gets worse.

  3. They enter Infraspeak, clicking on the Quote Request app in the Purchases app, and create a new quote request with all relevant information — this includes material lists; required services and the respective quantities of each that are needed in order to fix the AC unit.

  4. After creating the quote request, the manager is ready to choose which suppliers he wants to send it to:
    HVAC Rocky — Marina’s regular supplier who they already work with. They receive the quote request on their simplified Infraspeak account.
    Clean Air’ Us — A new supplier they found on the Infraspeak Network™. The manager at Clean Air’ Us accepts the connection request.
    FairAirCare — Another supplier they’ve worked with in the past. They receive the quote request on their Infraspeak platform.


5.2 Sharing quotes

  1. After they all receive the quote request and analyse what needs to be done, HVAC Rocky and Clean Air’ Us respond and say click ‘Approve Quote Request’ and proceed with a quote.

    FairAirCare doesn’t have any free technicians and so can’t proceed. They click ‘Decline Quote Request’ and provide a quick written explanation for the FM at Marina.

  2. HVAC Rocky and Clean Air’ Us each prepare a response to the quote request, filling in the details of their quote.

  3. HVAC Rocky sends a few messages to Marina Maintenance explaining what the added “travel costs” line in the quote means.

  4. Both quotes are shared with the FM at Marina Maintenance.

  5. After cross-checking both proposals, the FM decides to Accept Clean Air’ Us’ quote. When he clicks this button, HVAC Rocky’s quote is automatically refused, and Mr. Rocky is informed his quote was turned down.


5.3 Buy and sell

  1. The FM turns the accepted quote into a purchase. From here, his colleague, Sarah, takes over and orchestrates managing the quote internally from the ERP system their company uses, which happens to be integrated with Infraspeak!

  2. When Clean Air’ Us sees their quote was approved, they turn it into a sale. An invoice is automatically sent to Marina Maintenance thanks to their invoicing software integration with Infraspeak.


5.4 Sharing work orders

  1. With all the commercial terms of the maintenance job agreed, Marina Maintenance can now share the work order relating to the AC unit failure. This includes the location, the priority and the work order area, type and description. The relevant assets and tasks are also shared by Marina.

  2. Clean Air’ Us receives the work order, analyses all the information and clicks “Approve”. This status update is reflected on the Marina FM’s Infraspeak account.

  3. Clean Air’ Us executes all tasks and when finished, clicks “Close” on the work order to inform Marina’s FM that the maintenance work is finished.

  4. After checking everything is okay, the FM at Marina Maintenance sends a message to Clean Air’ Us thanking them for their hard work and confirming that they’re happy with the work. The FM then clicks “Confirm” to conclude the work order.



6. The Infraspeak Network™ preventive maintenance workflow


Three weeks later, after their positive experience working with Clean Air' Us, the team at Marina Maintenance come to the decision that they want to sign a long-term contract with the company for them to manage their HVAC preventive maintenance. Here's what it looks like on the Infraspeak Network™.


6.1 Sharing planned jobs

  1. With both entities connected, the FM at Marina Maintenance can go straight to their Infraspeak platform and create a new planned job to cover the annual preventive maintenance plan of the assets. 
    1. This includes setting up all the tasks, measurements and interventions that each planned job order will require.

  2. When the planned job is finished, using the green Share button at the top of the planned jobs window, Marina FM shares the planned job along with all relevant details for Clean Air' Us to start work.

6.2 Receiving planned jobs

  1. On Monday morning, the maintenance manager at Clean Air' Us checks his email and sees an email with the new planned job. He clicks the link and finds himself in the planned job menu.

  2. Knowing that his colleagues had separately sorted the commercial side of this preventive maintenance plan, the manager clicks View Details and then Start. All planned job orders are listed with their start dates meaning they have visibility over the entire annual plan

  3. The first planned job order (monthly) is scheduled to start on Wednesday and he briefs his team ahead of the first visit.


6.3 Executing planned jobs

  1. The planned job order includes 4 tasks and 8 measurements (2 each) that need to be taken. 2 Clean Air' Us specialists arrive at Marina Maintenance on Wednesday at 9 a.m. and begin work.

  2. They update the planned job order and change the status of the task and measurement so that both managers (Clean Air' Us and Marina) have an idea of what is going on. It's all done in real-time and the one or two small problems that came about during the routine preventive maintenance were successfully resolved using the chat function. 

  3. Once the manager is satisfied with the technician's work, he changes the status from Active to Closed, informs his contact at Marina Maintenance and smoothes over some logistics ahead of the next planned job order in one month's time.