On 7 April, 2016, in Katerina hotel, Loftice, supported by Administrativny Director magazine, organised and held the 14th practical administration round-table meeting for administrative managers and procurement department representatives.
The subject read, Office Management And Servicing: Building Relationships With Contractors.
Yelena Sopova, head of office servicing in Russia and the CIS countries with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, explained how relationships are built at Hewlett Packard Enterprise with contractors who offer administrative services for offices.
Yelena went into quite elaborate detail on pros and cons of contracting out office administration and servicing, noting that it allows to control and lower costs, achieving complete transparency and a model aimed at obtaining qualified personnel and raising the level of service. Noteworthily, on the other hand, administrative leverage could turn out inadequate, while contracting out of the country could result in insufficient understanding of local cultures by the contractor.
The quality of supplier’s work is directly dependent on the engagement of the Employer in the relationship with the supplier. Not being limited to setting goals for the contractor and building an efficiency management system (walk-abouts and see-arounds, progress reports, etc.), it must also include the development of transparent KPIs which will make it possible to assess the contractor’s work and reward, correct, or penalise the contractor based on it.
The second part of the round-table meeting saw Yelena hold a training session. The participants received scoring cards that showed brief data on companies and offices occupied. Conclusions about the state of the office had then to be made based on the scores, and recommendations on improvement, when appropriate, had to be given.
After a break, the participants created their own scoring cards, assessing the quality of reception, cleaning, delivery, and taxi services, identifying primary competences and key zones requiring attention, within them.
We thank every participant for the warm atmosphere, lively discussion, and their huge desire to share knowledge and experience.
