From blunt Excel lists to accurate pricing with Planima
Challenge
A blunt tool without quantities or prices
Marks Bostad, which with its around 3,700 rental apartments is the largest housing company in Mark Municipality, is driven among other things by the goal of managing resources in the best possible way – with regard to finances, quality, the work environment, and the environment. Getting there required a more proactive approach to property management than the one they had before they found Planima in 2019.
“We used to work in Excel. For us, it was a blunt tool for maintenance planning, which made it hard to plan, prioritize, and price measures. We didn’t have any actual quantities, counts, or prices either.”–
Pär Brundin, operations & maintenance manager, Marks Bostad AB
Without reliable quantities or prices, budgeting and prioritizing upcoming maintenance work became an uncertain exercise – something that stood in the way of the company’s goal of proactive and resource-efficient property management.
Solution
Structure, inventory, and a dynamic price list
Marks Bostad got in touch with Planima at an early stage of the work to change its processes. They were careful to build a sound structure and avoid too many different maintenance measures – instead, they focused on coordination: what else can be done at the same time, when maintenance work is being carried out anyway?
“We’ve also spent a lot of time taking inventory of all our buildings and determining the age of all the materials and quantities they contain. This has given us a very good grasp of our buildings, which can be managed easily and efficiently in Planima.”
When Marks Bostad started with Planima, they used their own price list, but quickly realized that the static model would be hard to keep current over time. When Planima-priser™ – Planima’s built-in, dynamic price list – was launched, they were immediately interested, since their own pricing matched it well.
“We now get current pricing every time we use Planima. That’s especially important now, when the world is uncertain and prices rise and fall quickly!”
Andreas Norlander, Customer Success Manager at Planima, led the implementation of Planima-priser™ together with Pär and the team. The transition went unusually smoothly, since Marks Bostad already had a well-established structure for its facilities and components in Planima – a result of the structured work they had put in earlier.
Results
Quality-assured bids and accurate forecasts
Since Marks Bostad switched to using Planima-priser™ exclusively in its maintenance planning, the effects have been noticeable right away in day-to-day work.
“We finally have a good program where all buildings and materials with maintenance intervals are gathered in one place. This gives us a powerful planning tool that makes things much easier when we coordinate our procurements. And the pricing is very accurate!”
The company can now quality-assure bids and produce accurate forecasts for upcoming renovations and maintenance – forecasts that can be presented easily and confidently to both the board and internally within the organization.
“We can’t save the world, but we’re big enough to make a difference!”