Digitalisation will eventually affect all the actors in cleaning industry. There is a need for that. People and companies buying cleaning services ask constantly for lower priced services but still the demand is for first class quality. Many would say, impossible equation!  When this is true, and for some part a current scenario, companies needs to be more effective on their operations. A change in the industry is inevitable. However, with a positive attitude towards the change, companies can find new ways to compete in the low margin industry of cleaning.

Robotics are coming!

Automation is the word! Companies are looking to replace manual labour with robots where it is possible. It will not decrease the need for manual labour since there are certain limitations for the robotics. It will do great in spacious environment such as malls, schools, airports etc. Where is manual labour needed then? Well, first thing is that a robot will not run on its own. It will need a person to maintain the robot. Typically it is the janitor who works at the premises who takes care of the service of a cleaning robot. One needs to fill up the machine with water and detergents. The machine needs to be cleaned up and also programming of the operation times. Secondly, manual labour can now be allocated to more productive work when a robot is taking care of some parts of the cleaning work.

Applications for reporting

The infrastructure for smart device applications is ready for use in cleaning industry as well. Almost each one of us own nowadays some kind of smart phone or tablet. The price of devices has come down drastically so it can really be used as a tool in cleaning industry. Capex of investing in such devices are nowadays bearable.

Applications helps employees in their reporting responsibilities. Companies will benefit a lot of real time reporting features. Manual errors in reporting will diminish. This will save a lot of time for instance when payroll is made. Employees stay honest when they use electronic time keeping devices, since they know that everything works in real time and can be easily tracked. Employee time reports will indicate clock in and out times, travel times and breaks. If there is a deviation in process, alarms can be sent to supervisor in order to react immediately. This will definitely improve the overall service delivery process.

Integration is for all size of companies

No matter what size of the cleaning company, every size of companies will benefit big for integration solutions. As it was in health care for over 10 years ago, the need was to bring the fragmented standalone software solutions platform as one solution platform. Integrating different solutions enabling that the data can be utilised where ever it is needed, will bring huge productivity benefits. The same applies with cleaning companies. By integrating different systems with each other, huge productivity benefits will be achieved. Office staff can use their time in more productive tasks than for instance entering work times for payroll purposes from manual time sheets.

Some countries are already quite far within the cleaning industry in utilising technology. As stated earlier in the text, the infrastructure of mobile devices are available for using applications. This will have huge impact in productivity, efficiency and profitability. Companies being the first ones to implement the technology, will be ahead of competition both in internal efficiency and external factors.