Ep 24: Building FM From Scratch at Ocado Retail (and When You Actually Need CAFM)

Lewis O'Brien, Facilities Manager UK at Korn Ferry, joins the Comparesoft Facilities Management Podcast to explain how he manages suppliers and contractors across three offices, and why he still runs most of the operation on spreadsheets rather than a Computer-Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) system. Lewis started at Korn Ferry as an Operations Assistant in March 2020 before moving into the UK Facilities Manager role, and now oversees the London, Manchester and Dublin offices. This is a candid look at a manual facilities management (FM) operation: how contractors get selected and onboarded, how work orders are raised and closed, how planned preventive maintenance (PPM) schedules get built from call-out history, and what still gets missed when it all lives in spreadsheets. In this episode, Lewis talks about: Running FM across offices of 1,000, 200 and 50 people, and why the small sites are not a smaller job Managing work orders, maintenance schedules and compliance dates on spreadsheets Extending an existing IT ticketing system to facilities, and why nobody pushed back on adoption Building trust with contractors, and how quickly it breaks Handling substandard work face-to-face without a blame culture Onboarding contractors for a Dublin office relocation from another country Using response time and call-out history to judge contractor performance Three things every new facilities manager should get right about contractor management 🔗 Listen and read more 👉 https://comparesoft.com/facilities-management-software/podcasts/supplier-contractor-management/

Rachael Lawton, Head of Estates at the Royal Armouries Museum, joins the Comparesoft Facilities Management Podcast to share advice for new and entry-level facilities managers, and to make the case that you do not need an expensive software system to run an estate well. Drawing on more than two decades in facilities management (FM), from accommodation assistant to leading the estate of a national museum, Rachael explains how she runs a team of 24 on SharePoint, spreadsheets and a ticketing tool, and what really matters when you are starting is having the right team, tools, and knowledge at your disposal. In this episode, Rachael talks about: Why real-world experience should come before formal FM qualifications How to run an effective estate without a complex or expensive set-up The case for keeping FM teams in-house, and when to outsource PPM servicing How to use KPIs that drive decisions, instead of measuring for the sake of it Deciding what you actually want AI to do in an FM role Showing the value of the FM team and winning budget from senior management Whether you need CAFM software yet, and how to decide 🔗 Listen and read more: https://comparesoft.com/facilities-management-software/podcasts/fm-team-tools-knowledge/

Aissam Drai, ERP Head at the Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC), talks through his journey of selecting, implementing, and adopting an ERP system. He explains how he runs Oracle Fusion across six countries and 38 legal entities, with more than 25 integrated applications covering finance, procurement, HR, and project and performance management, at the largest broadcaster in the Middle East, and why he chose to implement it in-house. In this episode, Aissam talks about: How MBC runs Oracle Fusion across six countries, with payroll configured to each country's labour laws Why he moved from legacy Oracle E-Business Suite to cloud as a phased early adopter, not a Big Bang (plus a comparison between SAP & Oracle Fusion) The three legacy pain points that drove the move: interface, customisation, and upgrades Why he implemented in-house after two external implementers failed, and when that model does not fit How a small pilot in Jordan built the momentum to win management's backing How he uses agentic AI to tackle shadow systems, and where AI and human-in-the-loop automation fit into ERP adoption Listen and read more: https://comparesoft.com/erp-software/podcasts/in-house-erp-rollout/

Marianne Martin, PPM and Statutory Compliance Manager at First Rail London, joins the Comparesoft Facilities Management Podcast to unpack what it really takes to build and manage a planned preventive maintenance (PPM) schedule across mission-critical sites. With over a decade in facilities management across demanding environments, including Wembley Stadium and rail depots, Marianne is currently responsible for PPM and statutory compliance across more than 80 London Overground stations, sidings and depots. She is the central knowledge hub for PPM information in her team, and in this episode, she shares the practical details behind keeping a complex, multi-site schedule compliant and on track. Marianne talks about: Why an accurate asset register is the most important element of any PPM schedule How to keep a planner trustworthy, and why a separate RAG register helps Matching maintenance frequency to how hard an asset actually works Building the case to replace ageing assets instead of repeatedly repairing them Managing split maintenance responsibilities across Network Rail and TfL The CAFM capabilities that matter most for running PPM at scale

Can you run facilities management for a major retail head office without a CAFM system? Lisa Assiotes does. She's built an FM function from scratch four times, and in this episode she explains how a lean team, an integrated provider and a disciplined RAG report keep a single site compliant. Plus, the exact point where software starts to pay for itself. In this episode, Lisa talks about: The first-90-days gap analysis Integrated vs multiple vendors The single-site vs multi-site CAFM decision The "15 days of AI" and where AI helps Managing reactive vs planned maintenance costs Dogs in the office and 100% standing desks 🔗 Listen and watch: https://comparesoft.com/facilities-management-software/podcasts/ocado-retail-fm/ Guest: Lisa Assiotes, Facilities Manager at Ocado Retail (formerly NSPCC, Paddy Power Betfair, Hotel Chocolat). Host: Ryan Condon, Head of Content at Comparesoft. ------- 00:00 A typical day in retail head-office FM 02:20 Building an FM function from scratch: the first 90 days 07:20 Standing desks, dogs in the office & desk booking  12:15 Why an integrated service provider works 15:40 When a CAFM system is (and isn't) worth it 17:45 Where AI fits: the "15 days of AI" 21:45 Managing FM budgets & getting value from suppliers 25:40 Proving the value FM brings 30:15 Advice for new FMs: be curious

Ibnu Pookkayil, Engineering Supervisor at Gosh! Food, a B Corp-certified food manufacturer in Milton Keynes, joins the Comparesoft CMMS Podcast to explain what running maintenance in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturing really involves. Drawing on more than a decade of food-industry engineering, from a large plant in Saudi Arabia to a lean one-engineer-per-shift operation in the UK, Ibnu shares the disciplines that keep perishable products moving through tight delivery windows, and what an engineering team needs from a computerised maintenance management system (CMMS). In this episode, Ibnu talks about: What running maintenance at an FMCG manufacturer involves day to day How to prioritise when two production lines break down at once Why perishable products and tight delivery windows raise the cost of downtime The Friday planning meeting that brought maintenance under control Cutting reactive work from around 35 per cent to below 20 per cent How to approach preventive maintenance across older and newer lines The CMMS capabilities a small or mid-sized manufacturer actually needs Using fishbone (Ishikawa) analysis to break the firefighting cycle Listen and read more: https://comparesoft.com/cmms-software/manufacturing/fmcg/

Ashley Birrell-Riley, a change management lead with over a decade of experience on large-scale ERP transformations, joins the Comparesoft ERP Podcast to explore the single factor that most often decides whether an ERP implementation succeeds or fails: change management. 88% of programmes with excellent change management meet or exceed their objectives, against just 13% of those with poor change management. Ashley explains what sits behind that gap, drawing on programmes across local government, construction, and transport, including an award-winning ERP implementation at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. In this episode, Ashley talks about: What change management actually means inside an ERP programme, beyond communications and training How to measure adoption with stage gates and readiness surveys, before and after go-live The difference between a skill gap and a will gap, and how to handle workarounds How to build a change strategy from scratch after system selection Why change champions carry the load when supporting 30,000 employees with a team of four How to make the business case for change management investment to a CFO 🔗 Listen and read more: https://comparesoft.com/erp-software/implementation/change-management/

Josh Clarke, Senior Maintenance and Engineering Manager at Arla Foods, joins the Comparesoft CMMS Podcast to share what good maintenance really looks like in food and beverage manufacturing. Josh runs maintenance at Arla's Aylesbury site, one of the world's biggest dairy factories, where his team handles 500 to 700 work orders a week across processing, production, and a purpose-built energy centre that generates the plant's own electricity, steam, and refrigeration. He has spent his career building maintenance programmes across dairy, bakery, and meat processing, including a 90% downtime reduction during his time as Engineering Manager at Délifrance. In this episode, Josh talks about: What a day looks like running maintenance at a 24/7, 365 dairy site How his team prioritises and moves 500 to 700 work orders a week How food and beverage sites maintain uptime without a shutdown window How he tripled preventative maintenance output by doing one job a day Why plants revert to spreadsheets even when they have a CMMS in place How he cut downtime by 90% at Délifrance, starting from a stabilise-first mindset The three things that separate well-run food and beverage sites from the rest 🔗 Listen and read more: Comparesoft: 👉 https://comparesoft.com/cmms-software/manufacturing/food-beverage/

Laura Pointer, Founder of Pivotal Project Management, joins the Comparesoft ERP Podcast to explain how she has built a 100% go-live success rate across ERP implementations in oil and gas, engineering, manufacturing and facilities management. In this episode, Laura unpacks what ERP go-live actually means, why most buyers mistake it for the end of the project, and the methodology that has kept her record intact. She walks through the checklist non-negotiables, the most common causes of delay, and what it takes to sustain a go-live once the consultants have demobilised. Laura talks about: What ERP go-live really means, and how to define a successful one beyond "the system is on" The honesty-first methodology behind her 100% success rate, including why RAG greenwashing kills programmes faster than any technical issue The go-live checklist non-negotiables, from people-first sequencing to multi-date sign-off on customisations What go-live day actually looks like, including the field-rename incident that almost broke a fully integrated solution Why change management is the single biggest cause of go-live failure, and how to spot the quiet resistors How big bang and phased rollouts compare, and where peer cascade pays off What it takes to sustain a go-live in the first six months, including hypercare, top-down messaging, and letting it settle 🔗 Listen and read more: https://comparesoft.com/erp-software/implementation/go-live/

Andy Mellor, Founder of Pragmatic Maintenance & Reliability, joins the Comparesoft Maintenance Podcast to break down what a successful condition monitoring strategy actually looks like, and why so many programmes fail to deliver, even when the right tools and data are in place. Drawing on over 20 years of hands-on experience across heavy industry, including eight years at British Steel and contract work at sites such as Anglesey Aluminium, Andy explains why culture, communication, and trust matter more than technology when it comes to turning predictive data into maintenance action. In this episode, Andy talks about: The real reasons condition monitoring programmes fail to deliver ROI What a successful condition monitoring strategy looks like and how to measure it How to present vibration, thermography, and oil analysis findings to plant managers Why proving business consequences matters more than proving faults Simple, low-cost wins most maintenance teams overlook What to look for in condition monitoring hardware and software How to balance AI and remote sensors with the judgement of trained technicians The four principles that prevent machinery from needing emergency troubleshooting 🔗 Listen and read more: https://comparesoft.com/cmms-software/condition-based-maintenance/monitoring-strategy/