Implementation at KU – University of Copenhagen

In august 2016, Mainmanager and University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet) made a contract on implementing MainManager as a Facility Management solution for the University. One faculty from the University had already been a customer for a few years. At this point they decided to expand the usage to the other faculties, so employees at the University could use the same system to manage their buildings. The University build mass counts around 970.000 square meters floor area.

When a project like this starts, time schedules and milestones are set down for the coming work. The first part – setup of the building structure and a space management module – was successfully launched in fall 2017. In this cooperation we developed new things in our Space management module regarding how the University manages the use and lease of their building spaces. KU, like so many of our Danish customers use 2D drawings a lot in this work. It was very exciting to be a part of developing new things to extend this usage further.

Furthermore, after launch of the first part and an integration to IdM, which manages the organization and employee structure of KU, we planned to launch helpdesk, operation planning and management with work orders and Navision integration for finance at the end of 2018. This was the biggest part of the project. Since the processes are going to be widely used inside the organization, we saw it was necessary to keep all parts involved and allow each project owner to have a saying for the final solution. Therefore we have used a lot of time defining, designing, describing and decisioning to make sure that everyone gets a system they can use in their daily work. When I am writing these lines we have nearly reached the finish point, modules are being accepted and “Go live” is just ahead.

Getting together in Iceland

In august 2018 a group of people from the implementation team at KU came to visit MainManager head office in Iceland. The main focus of this trip was to synchronize our minds before going into the final phase of the implementation, but also to get to know each other and the two companies better.

In the week before, all participants of this gathering found a picture that represented the culture of their nation. They also wrote a note on difference in the culture between the two companies. The interesting part is that most everyone agreed on the cultural difference between these companies. KU is a big organisation with many various employees and aspects. Decision making is a long process and things are not implemented without careful consideration from a wide range. MainManager is quite the opposite. We are a small unit and decisions on all kinds of matters are made by few persons quite quickly. We are flexible and execute right away after a decision has been made.

After this great work session I think all of us are more aware of this cultural difference. I am pretty sure it has helped me to understand the project and the participants of the implementation better. We at MainManager need to learn to be patient and allow good things to grow slowly. I have been so lucky to get the chance to be involved and see how the KU team works closely together and how they value each others opinion. Communication is the key in this cooperation. I find that participants in this implementation are positive and enthusiastic to make this project a success.

Almost there

In January 2019 most of KU employees will be using MainManager in their daily work. Students of the University will also use it to register incidents. We surely hope that the MainManager will simplify internal processes at the University and give an excellent facility management overview in the coming future.

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