Rahul Samuel

In order to lay the groundwork for ISO: 9000 certification, the company commenced complete migration of its documented processes to on-ground practices. It began with undertaking vendor training, which was critical because – though the planning and brainstorming was done by the FM team – it was the vendors who were responsible for the final execution. The next step was interacting and learning from organisations known for practising the best strategies in this vertical. After establishing a solid foundation to build upon, the FM team at IDFC Bank now continues to upgrade operations by developing and setting-up the Management Information System (MIS) to track performance and the output of their infrastructure.

The bank’s CRES (Commercial Real Estate Services) team first decided to conduct research on the real estate aspect. “We concluded that the more we interact with the team heading the business, the better our understanding of their requirement would be. This would help us arrive at the best property options,” says Samuel. The exercise included collation of data and market intelligence by consulting IPCs and research organisations; studying existing companies; and also, data from internal operating teams. Armed with these reports, the team then negotiated with vendors, agents and property owners. The exercise helped gain a realistic perspective of the market and led to a structured negotiation.
Continuing the thread of sustainability, the bank successfully harvested solar energy by installing photovoltaic panels at all branches. This helped the company eliminate the need for additional DG sets altogether. Echoing the prevailing concern that industry professionals have with regard to the staggered development of the field in India, Samuel opines that the grassroot solution is structuring the academic course itself. He believes that the curriculum currently pays too much attention to the engineering aspect of buildings.