August 23, 2002—Harvard Medical School has outsourced all engineering and trade functions for mechanical systems maintenance to UNICCO Service Company, an integrated facilities services outsourcing company. The contract covers preventive, predictive, and emergency maintenance for the School’s 19 buildings and 1.6 million square feet.
Supported by an onsite 24×7 call center, the UNICCO staff of almost 50, including electricians, mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, and locksmiths maintains all building systems, including HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and utilities. UNICCO also handles light construction and other special projects, as required.
The contract calls for UNICCO to provide several advanced services including:
- Utility management: UNICCO monitors utility usage and works with Harvard Medical School facilities management to control costs and find efficiencies.
- Facilities systems monitoring and maintenance: UNICCO maintains the alarm systems that monitor building equipment and automatically responds to sensor alarms throughout the facilities to address “out-of-norm” situations before they escalate.
- Call center and work order management: The call center uses the latest in CMMS (computerized maintenance management systems) which allows UNICCO to control work orders from the time they are issued until they are closed. The system also has a self-service feature that allows Harvard staff to submit and track work orders.
- Automated inspections: Using hand held devices, maintenance staff can record inspection results through bar codes and keypads as they are making their rounds. This information rolls up to the CMMS system in the call center for more accurate and timely reporting.
- Management reporting: Harvard operations management also has access to up-to-the-minute reports through the myUNICCO.com Internet portal. Through this Web-based system, management can track current work orders and develop customized historical management reports. For more information, contact UNICCO.
