PlanRadar and British Land Team Up

PlanRadar has announced that is has formed a new partnership with British Land. As of May 2021, British Land’s Retail Operations division will start to use PlanRadar in the field to track repairs, works and recurring maintenance at locations throughout the UK.

The company’s retail portfolio reaches from Plymouth to Inverness and includes retail parks, shopping centre and superstores.

Management of such a large portfolio spread throughout the UK requires members of their field-based team to travel extensively and maximise the time spent on the ground at each location.

Richard Nield, Head of Retail Operations at British Land, said: “After trialling PlanRadar in 2020, we’re excited to begin using the software at all our properties.

“At the moment, there is particular pressure on retail managers to reduce operating costs. We see PlanRadar as an option that will provide concrete time-savings for our colleagues, while being cost-effective. The initial rollout will focus on streamlining the repair and maintenance process, but we see plenty of other processes that could benefit from this flexible solution in the future.”

While some of the retail team operations at British Land have been digitised, management of repairs requires a manual input. This has necessitated additional time after site visits to record evidence, make decisions and file purchase orders.

With the new flexible task management feature from PlanRadar, property management can use mobile devices to pinpoint faults on digital plans while at properties. They can then add photographs, voice memos and other evidence and send the task directly to a supplier for resolution. Suppliers are also able to access the platform via free accounts so they can communicate directly as well as updating progress.

By digitising this process, the property manager will automatically be able to compile a complete record of all communications and decisions, along with date and time stamped evidence, which will be stored in one place for all to access.

PlanRadar’s Matt Ryan, Country Manager for the UK and Sweden, commented: “British Land came to us looking for a simple, cost-effective solution for repairs and maintenance – and crucially one that wouldn’t be an additional burden to staff or suppliers, instead adapting to their existing processes. We’re delighted that the testing phase went well and we look forward to a successful collaboration, and helping the team to reduce their operating costs.”

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