Idul Fitri Big Holiday - A Big Working Day - Tri Yuliantoro

It was Idul Fitri in 2005, the annual celebration day for Moslem after the fasting month. It is a big holiday for Indonesia, a day when everyone get together with their families. At the same day, there was a trouble at Citi's Semarang Branch, the city where Tri Yuliantoro is responsible for. There was a power failure at the branch.

Upon receiving the report, Tri went to the branch and found that the Automatic Transfer Switch fails. This equipment is suppose to automatically supply the electricity from the available generator set to the branch in the case of power failure from the PLN (State Owned Power Company). It happened that in that very day, the Idul Fitri, the ATS failed, thus there is no electricity at all to the branch.

Tri quickly coordinated the specialist vendor and technicians from PLN to come to the site to do whatever possible. This was surely not easy considering it was a big holiday. Luckily Tri managed to persuade them to come on-site and to do the work. They did what they can and it took them the whole day to provide a temporary solution whereby the electricity is on again at the second day. They still continued the work until the ATS is completely repaired and completed all the work necessary in the 4th day, which was still a holiday.

Tri Yuliantoro practically left his family during the time where he was supposed to be in a holiday with. The bank was closed but the ATM needs to be in a full function. Tri managed to minimize the business interuption so Citi can continue their service to their clients.

Citi appreciated Tri Yuliantoro's effort in this along with his good character which he shows on a daily basis in providing his service as part of Colliers FM. In mid 2006, Citi's Semarang Branch nominated Tri Yuliantoro in Citi' STAR Award representing Citi Semarang Branch. Tri is certainly not Citi's employee, whereby this Award is for. It showed the appreciation from Citi, as the client to a Colliers FM's staff.

We are all proud of it.

Jakarta Flood 2007 – Half Swimming To Work - Fariz Rinosky & Parjono

It was in Feb 2007, the time when Jakarta was flooded. Being in a team assigned by Colliers FM to manage Citi (Citibank) properties, Fariz Rinosky and Parjono – or Alex, as we call him – did all that they can to provide our support to Citi. One of Citi's branch is located in Kelapa Gading area, which is one of the worst area hit by the flood. Fariz and Alex were instructed to go to Citi's Kelapa Gading branch to do all they can to minimize the flood impact and to allow business continuity to the maximum extent.

Fariz and Alex took the order and went there with Citi's pool car. The car can only go as far as Pulomas area which is still a few kilometers away from Citi's Kelapa Gading branch. The flood caused heavy traffic jam and no water had reached 1.2m high.

They both got off the car and continue the journey by walking, and took a ride on a truck that was helping evacuation in the area. To a certain degree, they had to walk through the water which has reached 1.2m in the area.

They both managed to get to Citi Kelapa Gading, all soaking wet. They quickly organized the cleaners who managed to get to work before water went up, to do all they can to reduce the flood impact.

Citi decided to close the branch that day, like any other banks in that area, but with Fariz's and Alex's presence, a lot of things were done thus allowing the branch to re-open in less than a week's time.

Flood is a force majeure, Fariz, Alex and our entire Citi team can just gave up and can easily find an excuse, but they didn't. We don't just provide Facility Management service, we facilitate our clients' life.

No Electricity - Not Our Scope, We Solved The Problem Anyway - Bertha M. Gani

Most of our work is in Commercial Facility Management, but we also do Residential Facility Management services, for most of our clients, we also manage and pay their utility bills including electricity, water, waster removal, pool maintenance etc. Hess, one of our client opt to do this internally, meaning that for Hess, it is not within our scope of work.

Somehow, electricity payment for one of the house which is occupied by the Shucart was late for two months. In October 2005, PLN, the state owned power company cut of the electricity. The husband was on a business trip, the wife was in USA and their daughter was at home with domestic staff.

We were called to help, Bertha M. Gani, our Account Manager stepped in. She could easily say that it was not Colliers FM's scope of work and we got nothing to do with the cause of the problem, but she didn't. She arranged for a hotel accommodation for the daughter and Colliers FM's Technicians ensured that the available genset could be operated continuously for some part of the house whilst Bertha was trying to solve the problem with PLN.

The husband came back and decided to stay in the house with the daughter even with the limited electricity.

The next month, the same problem came again. Payment was late, PLN sent its officer to cut of the electricity, it all happened during a weekend. This time Bertha negotiated with the PLN officer to delay the electricity cut off until Monday for her to solve the problem. They agreed.

In the Customer Service Satisfaction form we did in Jan 2006, the Shucart wrote, "Bertha was very helpful on a problem I had when I was out of town. She should be recognized for this extra effort she exhibited".

It was easy for Bertha just to say no, afterall it was not within our scope of work, but we are here not just to make business, we are here to facilitate your life.

Water Problem - Between the Landlord and the Tenant - Amron K. Wahyudi

In Facility Management, we also do Residential Facility Management, we manage the repair & maintenance of houses of our clients, typically multinational corporations. One of the clients we have is Hess, an oil company. They have a number houses occupied by their expats in Jakarta.

One of the tenant was the Fell family. The house is located in Cipete Area, South Jakarta and the lease was just been renewed. The house had been having problem with the water pressure, which was not stabil. It surely was not convenient for anyone taking a shower or doing kitchen work.

As the lease was being renewed, the tenant, who is an Engineer by profession, asked the landlord to add a booster pump in the water reticulation system to solve the problem. The landlord agreed and he installed the booster pump.

Apparently the water pressure was still not stabil after the booster pump was installed. As Colliers FM manages the house, the tenant asked for our help at 7th August 2007. With the given condition, Amron K. Wahyudi, our Account Manager and Achmad Chotib, our Chief Engineer analyzed the problem, and come up with a solution to install a pressure tank. The tenant wasn't convinced that it would solve the problem, insisting that the booster pump should be the answer and it should had been working.

Even worse, the lease agreement said that capital expenditures like installing a pressure tank should be borne by the landlord. The landlord, had already spent a lot with the booster pump, didn't agree with our proposal at all.

Amron didn't give up, he continuously tried to talk to the landlord and the tenant explaining the reason behind our proposal and what we have experienced before in other houses that we managed. It was a difficult task as from a layman's point of view, our is not something can can easily be understood. Meanwhile, the water pressure instability was still creating a lot of problem for the tenant.

With his finesse in dealing with people, Amron managed to convince both the landlord and the tenant. The pressure tank was installed at 10th Sept 07, fully paid by the landlord.

Guess what? Problem solved.

In her e-mail, Mrs. Fell wrote: "Thank you so much for fixing our water problems. It is great to be able to take a warm shower now. We also can use 2 showers at the same time and have enough water. It has helped with our time schedule especially in the morning. Thanks so much".

We are in Facility Management service. We facilitate our clients' life.

Jakarta 2007 Flood - Business As Usual - Christina Ng

Thursday, 1 Feb 2007, Jakarta was hit by a flood. Citibank, our client who has branches all over Jakarta was of course much affected. The branch in Kelapa Gading is right in the middle of a flood prone area. Colliers FM dedicated team assigned for Citibank put their best efforts to handle the situation well. Under the direction of Christina Ng and Andradi Maliki, the team closely work together to provide all the support functions to allow business continuity of the branches.

Christine had been able to maintain the coordination, putting her best efforts to arrange for transport of sand bags, coordinating security guards, and certainly, managing the Facility Management team to ensure the business continuity to the maximum extent including backup power, emergency communication line, handling of inquiries coming in to our Helpdesk, and lots and lots of things, after all this is a force majeure.

The only thing was, Christine's home was also flooded. Since early morning 1 Feb 2007 her home in Karet area, in the center of the Jakarta CBD was flooded. She could just excuse herself and focus on her own needs, but she didn't. Although she can not get to the office, she was still willingly receiving calls for help from different branch managers and she maintained to keep all coordinations as needed going. There was no electricity at her home because of the flood and water was getting higher and higher. She was relying on her handphone which battery lasted only up to almost midday. Then, she borrowed her friend's handphone and use the available battery to continue coordinating the team.

By noon, water was about 1.5m high, Christine decided to leave her home to her friend's which was safer, yet, coordination kept going strong. None of the people on the other end of the phone knows the condition she was facing herself, just business as usual.

In the end, we got a big thank you note from Citibank's Corporate Real Estate Services in Jakarta and the Regional Office in Hongkong. Mr. Handoko Hartanto, Citibank CRS Asset Manager in Indonesia specifically wrote, "I would like to thank you for your support to the bank during the Jakarta flooding disaster period. Christine: although her house was flooded, still kept to manage the team".

This is a true story.