“POPin gave us all new insight into our process, and prioritized issues causing the most pain so we could focus on the changes that would deliver the most value to users. It was invaluable to the team to be able to engage such a large group and gather candid, organized feedback.”
Tom Birdsall is the Vice President of IT at Macerich, a real estate investment trust, and third largest owner operator of shopping centers nationwide. Tom and his leadership team continuously look for opportunities to maximize investment in IT solutions while driving operational efficiencies in the business.
Following the implementation of a new Request for Bid (RFB) tool and process used by site operators to source local contractors, Tom’s team faced a high number of support calls. They also heard anecdotal stories that the solution was less efficient than the manual process it replaced. The site operators were struggling to quickly qualify, hire, and execute projects inside tight deadlines managed by the firm. Optimizing the RFB tool and improving the process would not only drive adoption, but more importantly, it would enable Macerich to identify and hire local contractors more quickly, and complete more projects on time. Tom wanted to get to the truth of the solution challenges and looked to POPin to engage the site operators in identifying opportunities for improvement.
Tom and his team immediately set out to learn from the sites how to improve the Unifier RFB process and streamline it for the business. Leveraging POPin, the team gathered critical insights from site operators. The team provided feedback and identified areas of improvement in the process and the tool. Although Tom’s team already had a list of enhancements for phase two, they quickly realized they needed to re-prioritize items on the list and add new ones to address what was most important to the business.
Armed with specific feedback and ideas, the team developed an action plan to facilitate training sessions for site operators, so they could better lead partners and vendors through the process. In addition, modifications were made to the RFB Platform to make the tool more intuitive for users, enable proactive communication, and ultimately optimize the process for expedited completion.
Improving the RFB Platform tool and educating users significantly improved the process, driving further adoption of the solution. This resulted in faster qualification and selection of vendors and partners. In addition, enhancements to the tool minimized the need for IT support, enabling better utilization of those critical resources. This improvement shortened project timelines and helps drive revenue to the business. According to Tom:
“POPin gave us insights into the tool and process challenges that we never guessed were an issue.”
