Why is SOL Baltics ordering goods through the order centre of Puhastusimport?
SOL Baltics – a company providing property maintenance services in all three Baltic states – is ordering their consumables from the online order centre of Puhastusimport property by property. Priit Sipelgas, CEO of SOL Baltics Estonia, kindly shares his experiences with us and shines some light onto what makes using the online order centre important, how the order centre increases the efficiency of daily work, and which operations help leave a smaller environmental footprint.
Why did SOL Baltics transfer to ordering consumables for the properties maintained by them from the order centre of Puhastusimport?
We made the decision to order the consumables for the properties maintained via the order centre years ago for a number of different reasons. Namely, we saw how time-consuming it was for the properties to look for goods from stores or over the phone and deliver them to the properties. The working day is limited, and we would like all employees to be able to spend their working hours doing their main work, which in the case of object managers means organising the work on the site, ensuring that everything is in order, and supporting the service providers as and when needed.
We started practising teleworking and hybrid working at SOL Baltic already before the coronavirus pandemic. Our people have what is needed for teleworking and can work from anywhere where performing their duties may take them. Thus, we have agreed that orders are placed by managers through the order centre, saving valuable working time by avoiding driving around. We have a big team and changing the habits took some time, but 80% of the orders are placed through the online environment now, which is nice to see.
What are the advantages of ordering from the order centre?
Saving time, of course, as I said before, but there are also other advantages. For example, all previous orders can be browsed by property in the online environment, and it is very convenient to place repeat orders. By using the wish list, those placing orders can highlight the products required at a specific property or their favourite products in advance. It is also very important to be able to get an overview of the consumables used at properties and of the orders placed, as well as the volumes and budgets of ordering consumables. In-house movement of information is also faster when everything is ‘visible online’. Before, the information about a property could often only be found from the journal of the object manager and lack of information could create unpleasant situations when a new employee took over.
If orders are placed remotely, how do the employees get information about new solutions and products?
It is important to us that our employees use their working time to do their main work, not on the logistics of delivering the goods needed to our properties on a daily basis. Thus, we operate based on the principle that the daily orders are placed quickly through the order centre and our people take time every month to visit the sales offices to get acquainted with new products, chat with their contact persons, or take part in the trainings of Puhastusimport. We prioritise training our employees at different levels, including sending them to various specific trainings of our sector and product trainings in order to provide our clients a high-quality property maintenance service.
Which operations help leave a smaller environmental footprint?
We can begin with the delivery of the consumables to the properties, for example. If all trips to buy the goods and deliver them to different properties are made separately, it is not very environment-friendly. We value the service of the goods being delivered to the properties by a courier company or by the delivery team of Puhastusimport very highly.
We hold partnership and wider cooperation in a high esteem for our employees to be able to concentrate on their main duties. It is important to us to move towards environment-friendly solutions with respect to our tools as well as work processes.
