Keys. We still can’t live without them yet staying in control of them is time consuming and frustrating for facilities and building managers the world over. Having solved this problem for hundreds of letting agents and property managers, Keyzapp is now bringing its knowledge and tools to the facilities sector.
Founded in 2014, Keyzapp takes advantage of the low-cost contactless technology now found in most credit cards and mobile phones, completely removing the need for spreadsheets and logbooks. As with all innovations that improve business practices, the idea is simple. Just tap a key fob on your phone or reader to see instantly what a key is for, and issue it to the person who needs it without fuss. The app then takes over, giving you an instant view of who has your keys, sending automatic reminders to people whose keys are due back
Keyzapp’s three co-founders were certain they could find a better way to keep track of small, hard-to-track assets like keys, after seeing at first hand the sheer nuisance that misplaced keys can cause in the lettings industry. “Our mission is to completely eliminate paper-based logbooks and spreadsheets for tracking keys in business. We had to come up with something different that’s accessible to everyone” says director Tim Hill. “Managing keys is a people-process, so the answer was to make the whole thing extremely easy to pick up and use. At the same time, it had to be flexible enough to respect the different ways companies tag and record their keys. We also had to make it low cost so that it was a viable option for people managing 20 key sets or 20,000.”
Until now, facilities managers trying to improve their key controls have had limited options, with most solutions focusing on expensive hardware that physically lock keys into cabinets. Keyzapp takes a completely different approach because it focuses on capturing the responsibility for keys as they pass from the storage locations, to different people. When scanning keys, staff see simple guided processes that tell them what information needs to be captured at each step. Front-line staff have described Keyzapp as “childsplay” to use, whilst managers quickly observe improvements in operational efficiency and improved KPIs. Savings often depend on the processes required, but range from cutting a 30-minute daily process to just 5 minutes, right through to one housing association saving £10,000 in 6 months of use.
“Moving to facilities seemed like the natural next step for us, not least because of the demand coming through our website from facilities teams across the world” continues Tim. To date, Keyzapp has been implemented in 14 different countries, with clients ranging from Shopping Centres to Airbnb hosts. “Our attendance at the Facilities Show marks the beginning of our focus on this sector and we’re excited to solve this everyday problem in commercial locations around the world”.
Keyzapp have recently completed a video case study with Amthal Fire and Security, who chose Keyzapp because of the way they could set it up to meet the needs of their 24-hour engineering workforce. You can see the resulting video from their website https://www.keyzapp.com/amthal
Keyzapp will be exhibiting at the Facilities Show at London’s Excel Centre on 18th-20th June. For more information, visit www.keyzapp.com.