Excellent in Iceland 2019


We are generally a pretty happy crowd here at the Icelandic office, but today is extra special!
Big shoutout to our offices in Denmark and Norway too, we all pull together!

FEELING A LITTLE PROUD TODAY

In September 2019, MainManager received the Fyrirmyndarfyrirtæki í Rekstri (Excellent in Iceland) recognition by Viðskiptablaðið and Keldan. MainManager is among the 3% of companies in the country to receive this award. That is kind of cool!

In order to get listed, companies need to live up to various conditions;
The companies must have delivered a positive return in the 2018 fiscal year. Revenues must have exceeded 30 million IS krónur, assets over 80 million, and the equity ratio must have exceeded 20%. In addition, other factors, like the results from previous year are taken into account.

You can read the special edition of Viðskiptablaðið here.


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SKI 02.19 Cloud – KMD Opus MainManager got listed

In late 2018 we started the initial talks about developing a joint ERP and FM-solution to municipalities with KMD in Denmark. We shared a mutual understanding of the market, and the need for a KMD Opus MainManager was recognized by both parties. Our Proof of Concept was the joint application to participate in the Facility Management software tender process in Aarhus.

In July 2019 we were proud to announce that KDM Opus MainManager had won the competition in Aarhus. The second largest municipality in Denmark – and the 15thmunicipality in the Nordic market using MainManager.

SKI 02.19 Cloud

Now we are taking our cooperation to the next level, having our Facility Management software offer accepted by SKI.

SKI negotiates contract terms for public organizations, so neither the national, regional or local ones, need to invest resources in the long and often complicated process involved in carrying out a tender. As of august 31st KMD Opus MainManager is approved for contracting public institutions directly through the SKI 02.19 agreement covering cloud applications.

OUR JOINT EFFORT HAS PAID OFF

The first two important milestones – Aarhus and SKI 02.19 – have been reached. This fall, sales and marketing at KMD will go to market, launching KMD Opus MainManager to all municipalities in Denmark.

You can read more about SKI in this link. https://www.ski.dk/Viden/Sider/Facts-about-SKI.aspx.

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The secret is out!

Hi there!

My name is Kristian. For 3 weeks I have carried around a very “spectacular secret”, which I am really happy to share with you today; On Tuesday the 28th of May, MainManager officially “ignited” the collaboration with two very important future business partners in Denmark – the Municipality of Aarhus and KMD.

In the foto below you find me – the “happy knight”, in the upper right hand corner – surrounded by decision-makers from the Municipality of Aarhus and KMD. All gathered to sign an important contract.

Great new collaboration

The Municipality of Aarhus is the second largest Municipality in Denmark. They have decided to implement KMD Opus MainManager as a result of an extensive competition process. KMD Opus MainManager is our joint FM-offer to the Municipalities in Denmark, and we feel very proud of this new collaboration.

KMD is the leading distributor of ERP applications to municipalities in Denmark, with a market share of around 70% in the segment. The municipality of Aarhus has a portfolio of more than 2,2 million square meters – and will very soon be the largest client in Denmark, using MainManager. KMD Opus and MainManager has a huge potential in creating outstanding synergies by integrating ERP and Facility Management processes in a joint value proposition to the public market in Denmark.

Scandinavian readers can find more information in this press release from KMD Opus:

Finally a warm thank you to KMD and all my colleagues for their extensive contribution to make this dream come true!

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FACILITY MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE IN ICELAND


Last Friday we held a Facility Management conference in Iceland.  The goal was to talk about the different uses of MainManager in Denmark and Norway. We also wanted to share what we have learnt within Facility Management for the last few years.

This was one of the hottest days until now in the Icelandic summer (around 10 degrees). That did not stop the enthusiastic crowd of Facility Managers from attending our conference. We would like to thank them all, because we know how hard it is for an Icelander to stay inside, when there is sunshine outside : )

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TALKS

After a nice introduction from our CEO Guðrún Rós Jónsdóttir, Gulli B. Hjartarson, the Manager of MainManager Norway, honoured us with the first talk of the day. He told us everything (and more!) about Facility Management and the effects of the digital revolution on Facility Management as an industry. He was followed by our Norwegian based employee Einar, who told us about Statsbygg (The Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property), and how MainManager has become one of the critical systems within their organisation. 

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Statsbygg’s use of MainManager by Einar


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THE DANISH MARKET

After a 15 minute break where attendants were able to stretch their legs and consume some fuel in the form of mini burgers, it was time to talk about our Danish market.

Our Danish Branch Manager, Guðmundur, kicked it off by talking about how Danish municipalities are using MainManager, focusing on the Danish municipalitie Slagelse. He then moved on to talking about Region Midt (Central Denmark Region), and how they are using BIM within MainManager. Our Iceland based employee, Þorgerður, then concluded the Danish part of the conference, by talking about Copenhagen University, and how they use MainManager within Space Management.

Our energy specialist in Iceland, Sævar, then proceeded to talk about how MainManager can be used within energy consulting. 

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Sævar on energy consulting

SNEAK PEAK TO MAINMANAGERS NEW SOLUTION

Then it was time to give participants the opportunity to stretch their legs again before the last talk of the day.  Elísabet, Guðjón and Hilmar gave participants a glimpse into the new version of MainManager that is on its way later this year.

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Hilmar and Guðjón happy to show off parts of the new solution

Overall the conference was a big success. We hope that all the participants went home a little wiser about Facility Management as an industry, and with more knowledge on how MainManager can be used to optimize success, within that industry. We noticed that people were very excited about the development of our future MainManager FM version.

This will defenitely not be the last conference MainManager will hold. We are already looking forward to the next one!

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Travelling to Mid-Norway

CASE: Municipality of Trondheim, Norway

As you might know, MainManager consists of a mix of Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic employees, and we are not necessarily residing in our native country. We have Icelanders at the office in Oslo, and I am a Norwegian ‘gal’ living and working in Denmark. So I always get a little excited, when I get to connect with our clients in Norway. Our yearly ERFA meeting is certainly a nice opportunity. This year’s ERFA was no exception. Our project specialist Henriette and I were seated at the same table as Kenneth Løkslett from the Municipality of Trondheim’s Property department.

Our customer in Mid-Norway

Trondheim Property is the largest unit in the municipality of Trondheim, with close to 600 employees. They are responsible for management, operation, maintenance and cleaning of all 4000 municipal buildings – approximately 1 mill m2. They are also Mid-Norway’s largest owner / developer, and builds for approx. one billion NOK every year. Kenneth – and a couple of his colleagues – participated on last year’s ERFA meeting as brand-new customers. This year he was one of our guest speakers. First of all, he gave us insight in how they will use MainManager software for efficient operation and maintenance, with the help from 2D drawings and municipal mapping. Furthermore, how the 2D drawings likewise will be a great asset to the planning of cleaning tasks in the municipality.

Getting ready for work

Henriette has been working for quite some time on creating interactive 2D drawings of all kinds of buildings managed by the municipality. For now, a total of 919 drawings are ready to be implemented to the system.

One of the 919 drawings – done in 10 seconds…

Working with MainManager

About this time of the year – 26 years ago – I was living in Trondheim. It was my first real home away from home, and I was working at a primary school called Charlottenlund barneskole. It was a great school. What I remember the most, is that the kids were cool, and that the teachers were really, REALLY into soccer – their pride and joy – the city’s team Rosenborg. I finally left Trondheim to live in Iceland for some months, and I fell in love with the beautiful island. Now my Icelandic employer has taken me back to Trondheim. Among other things, because of 2D drawings of my old workplace, Charlottenlund. Henriette was teaching the team at the Municipality of Trondheim’s Property department on how to implement the drawings to MainManager.

Henriette and Berit working their way through implementing the drawings to MainManager

I was there to assist – but also to see how it works in the customers hands. It’s the absolute best way of finding out how to move next, both for us, but more importantly, for the hands-on users in Trondheim, starting up a whole new system. We went home with a lot of feedback, and the group in Trondheim got insights on how to start up their work of implementing their drawings to the MainManager system. To be continued…

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MainManager ERFA meeting 2019

Just before Easter, MainManager arranged this years ERFA meeting.

We were 43 participants from Denmark, Norway and Iceland. And like last year, with speaks from some of our customers – and as something new – a speaker from outside our business circuit; Esmir Maslesa.

Ronni Egebjerg Petersen from Danmarks Nationalbank talked about how their solutions have developed over the years, and how the Bank has solved and structured their solutions for Contract Management.

Esmir Maslesa talked about his findings in his Phd.: “Improving Real Estate Management and Environmental Building Performance through systems and dynamic data”

Kenneth Løkslett from Trondheim Kommune gave us insight on how to place buildings in public maps. Finding ways to identify your property portfolio is fundamental for Property Management.

Heidi Hardis from Københavns Universitet gave us examples on how they work with MainManagers Space Management. She also talked about the experience they have gathered since implementing the Space Management solution in 2018.

Thank you!

To you guys: We are very grateful for how you were sharing your experiences. Not only to us, but to fellow users of our solutions! These meetings are of great value to us – and to other customers – as we always get a little bit further in our quest for making our Facility Management solutions as good as they get. The combination of great speaks with various different takes on Facility Management, and what we got from all our participants during our workshop – both the TOP 5 list of what is the most important for our users, but also all from other more informal input from you – we are definitely ready to continue the work from our part!

Benificial for all

There was representation from all kinds of MainManager users. Some have very different needs, others learned that they are very similar, and that further contact could be beneficial. We have a variety of customers, from those with thousands of m2 property mass, to smaller customers that might just need one module for the time being. We all learn from each other! It was really nice to see the many interactions across the room during the day.

On a more social note, we are also feeling changes are coming. Many of our customers have met a few times now, and I know plans are already shaping for next years meeting. Maybe a meet-up the evening before the ERFA meeting, just to chat over a drink or something. Sounds good to me!

Moving on with our solutions

From different groups within MainManager, I know there has been a lot of eager, to show off bits and pieces from our new and improved web-solution. We really believe in it and we were very happy to feel your enthusiasm! We look forward to sharing further development with you all!

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New interface for the MainManager system

My name is Hilmar Steinthorsson and I started working with MainManager in 2001. I know I’m a dinosaur : )

In this blogpost I’m going to recap a little bit the history of the MainManager solution. I will also tell you about the exciting work that is going on at the moment. We are working on a brand new interface for the MainManager system. For the past 18 years I’ve taken part in many redesigns and changes to the MainManager system. I have to say though, that the current design we are working on, is the most exciting yet!

MainManager version 10

When I started working at MainManager, the solution was only available as a Windows program. It was accessible through something called terminal server.  The web technology was on the rise and the goal for MainManager was to design a 100% web-based solution.  That goal was first accomplished in 2010, with the release of version 10. This allowed our customers to work with all their processes on the web for the first time, without the use of a windows program on the side.

MainManager version 11

In 2012 we released version 11 of the MainManager solution.  That version contained a newly designed interface implemented with the latest web technologies available at that time.  We introduced a new process layout that guided the users through a specific process within MainManager. For the past 7 years we have made small adjustments and additions to this interface. Today our customers are using version 11.14 of the MainManager solution. Version 11 has served our customers well for this time, but is starting to show it’s wear and tear, especially with all the exciting new web technology that has emerged over the past few years. Also, the demands of our customers have changed with new devices available, such as powerful smartphones and tablets.  As a result of that we have been working on a complete redesign of the MainManager interface, using all the new technologies available.

 

MainManager version 11 – Setup of sites process

 

Facility Management is a big field that contains a lot of complex processes. The challenge when designing a FM solution is to be able to work with all these processes, while keeping it simple and intuitive for the user of the solution. Through the years we have listened to our customers while also comming up with new ideas internally.  Therefore, when we started working on the redesign of the MainManager interface, we wrote down some design goals that we would try to accomplish throughout the whole process.

Simplify as much as possible

Even though the subject of Facility Management can be a complex subject, it doesn’t mean that the FM system has to be.  In the design of the new interface we have asked the question constantly: “How can we make this as simple as possible for the end user?”. To start with we have broken down the subjects that MainManager offers into independent processes that are predefined and require minimal setup. Each process provides extensive help and guidelines and all relevant settings are readily available.  We have kept all the things that make MainManager great, such as extensive filtering possibilities, grouping of data and accessability. In the new interface though, they are presented in a more non intrusive way.  If you are not using the feature it does not interfere, but access to it is only one click away.

Responsive design

Responsive design is an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on any device and screen size.  In the new design we have used all the latest technologies available, to make every process within the solution usable no matter the device used.

 

The same module on a big screen and a small screen

The same module on a big screen and a small screen

Performance

In today’s world users are used to have access to information within microseconds.  That can be difficult to achieve when dealing with large amounts of data as the MainManager solution does.  We have completely redesigned how we present and work with data within the solution using all the latest client side technologies available.  All unnecessary refreshes have been removed and in those places that need updating of data asynchronous web service calls are used to enhance the user experience as much as possible.

Graphics

For the past years it has been possible to use what we call the 3 graphical worlds in MainManager.  Those worlds are GIS maps, interactive drawings (2D) and BIM models (3D).  It gives the user of a FM system a big advantage to be able to use these graphical worlds within his daily work for viewing information and creating it.  The problem within the current solution is that these possibilities are not as visible as they should be and therefore are not used to their full capabilities.  In the new interface, we have worked on adding these graphical capabilities to every process, by making them readily available no matter where the user is and no matter what he is doing.

 

GIS map used to show buildings

GIS map used to show buildings.

 

Possible to open up a BIM model directly from the map

You have the possibility to open up a BIM model directly from the map.

One click setup

Our goal with the new design is to be able to offer a solution that can be up and running within minutes.  The biggest hurdle in that is to populate the system with the customers relevant data such as their sites and buildings.  Therefore, we have added integrations to the public data services such as Matrikkel in Norway and BBR in Denmark.  With just one click the customer can then populate the solution with the data available in these services.  All import of data has also been redesigned in a way that the user should always have a way to populate the solution with needed data no matter the data source.

User defined

An addition to our new interface, is the possibility for our users to create their own property windows, lists, filters and new fields.  This greatly reduces the cost for our customers since these things don‘t have to be programmed any more.

When

We estimate releasing the new interface for the MainManager system to our customers later this year. We are so looking forward to allowing them to experience a completely new MainManager. Hopefully it will give them the feel of all the hard work and joy that we have poured into it. Until that time I can give you a sneak preview of the new design through this video that shows the Helpdesk process within MainManager.

 

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Until next time I bid you farewell.

Hilmar

Looking forward to the new year!

As time moves by

It seems like the year has just flown by since I started my new role as CEO of MainManager in March this year. In my former position as account manager I had been overseeing MainManager’s customer relationships, implementing our software and last but not least listening to you, our customers and partners, determining and understanding your needs. So far it has been both a challenge and a joy to serve the company as its new CEO, and I am looking forward to the new year and the many things that lie ahead of us.

New improved version in 2019

At MainManager our team comes to work every day driven and motivated to solve our customers’ challenges, deliver innovative solutions and create real value. Currently our experts are working on a SaaS (System as a Service) version of the system which will be using the latest web technology and  cloud infrastructure. The new web application layout will be responsive, and thus suitable for use on any device. Setup and data management will also be much simpler than in the current version. This will improve the reliability, efficiency and sustainability of our customers’ assets and processes.

Thank you for your trust in MainManager and our products.

The MainManager team wishes you all restful and happy holidays.
We look forward to working with you in 2019.

 

CEO
Guðrún Rós Jónsdóttir

PS! You are very welcome to write me a comment!

Case story: University of Copenhagen

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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Mission statement: “Facility Management excellence for everyone”

In the beginning…

Our company has now worked on consulting and implementing Facility Management software and processes since 1994. When the company started this journey, the concept of Facility Management did not exist in the minds of its founders. The main objective at the start was the maintenance of buildings and the development of knowledge banks for durability of building parts. We were lucky to get good customers from the very beginning. Our focus was on documentation of building components, with maintenance needs as a central theme.

Champions of registration

It must be said that, that in cooperation with our customers, we probably made all the mistakes that could be made in these early years. Brave men and women were sent out to the buildings sites to measure and record every building component, ranging from windows, roofs, walls, technical systems etc. Everything was recorded with accuracy and put in a database. Photographs were taken and marked on. We were soon champions in registering and marking all building parts on photos and drawings. Soon, however, we in MainManager and our customers got our wake-up call. How could – and should – we maintain all this information, and what did the building owner gain with this detailed information? We were thinking as maintenance consultants but not of the needs of owners and operators of the buildings. All this information was good for consultants who had to prepare offerings of building maintenance every 8 years…

Finding our way

This was a good lesson for us and our customers, and it should be mentioned that they are still our customers today. It was not until we were told; “We need tools that solve our daily tasks“, that we really began to identify what kind of processes are useful in general management of real estate. Since then, we have learned that our subject has been named „Facility Management“. We have from the beginning, been keen to develop this subject further with great partners in Scandinavia and Great Britain. The journey has been extremely instructive, and now we are in a place where MainManager has developed recognized and tested solutions within the FM sector.

Our mission

We have worked with the largest and most skillful asset management companies in our market. This way we have learned which processes in Facility Management gives the most benefits. Our goal is to create FM solutions that small and medium-sized companies can use less costly. This is therefore our mission “Facility Management excellence for everyone”.

Founder
Gunnlaugur B. Hjartarson

PS! You are very welcome to write me a comment!