Q3 enhances Facilio CAFM and Helpdesk system with Bruce and Bernard apps incorporating AI

Q3 is expanding the scope and functionality of its Facilio CAFM system with exciting, new developments which will make it even more intuitive and user friendly to clients, workplace end-users and Q3 mobile engineers.

Q3 works with Facilio because of the inherent flexibility of the platform’s architecture and the ability to integrate easily with other systems. We’ve already connected our CAFM with finance systems, IoT sensors for real-time fault detection, and compliance tools like SFG20. We also use Facilitiesline to monitor supplier accreditations.

So, adding an interface with WhatsApp and incorporating voice-based bot agents was a natural next step.

Bernard Bot is an agent which allows customers to log issues and requests via voice, email and WhatsApp and to obtain progress updates on the actions being taken through the same channels. AI allows Bernard to learn and understand these users, so it becomes unnecessary for them to repeat key details like contract, location, or job responsibility, every time they make a call. So, long as the user can quote the right job number, Bernard can interrogate the CAFM database and provide the answer. Only, a broad Glaswegian dialect has confused the voice activated channel on a couple of occasions.

Alongside Bernard is Bruce Bot. Bruce provides a simple interface for mobile engineers to access the works management system and report on their jobs without having to directly access the Facilio portal.

It works like this. Via WhatsApp, an engineer reports he is working on Job 123, and Bruce checks whether this is starting now, or whether the job may have started earlier, perhaps when the engineer was in a basement without phone reception. Everything is timed and date-stamped and once the job is completed, the engineer goes through a prompted series of checklist and water-risk compliance questions.

Lynne English, Operations Director at Q3, said “Like any FM system these days, it’s all about the data. These innovative steps make it quicker and easier to ensure that all the data is collected accurately and on time, giving us a 360° view of what’s happening. Frankly, it shifts CAFM up to a whole new level!”