Insight from Valon Statovci, Subii
Subcontracting is an inevitable part of FM; it can’t be avoided. But what can be avoided are the challenges, hurdles and complications that the process of subcontracting often brings with it. Introducing Subii…
Subii is an innovative online platform designed to connect service providers to share resources and ensure delivery of service. It makes the process of posting unallocated shifts and jobs super quick and easy, and equally quick and easy to find new opportunities, shifts and jobs.
Founded around a year ago, Subii was born from the idea that subcontracting in the security industry needed to be much more streamlined, easily trackable and less complex.
Valon Statovci, co-founder of Subii, has a strong background in the security industry, and previously a security company owner. Therefore, he was acutely aware of the challenges that subcontracting within that industry can bring. “One of the pain points we always had in our company was finding other security companies to help us fulfil all our jobs, and another was keeping on top of all the jobs that we’d send out to these suppliers,” Valon explains.
He says that this was particularly difficult for bigger jobs which required a mix of suppliers. “It was always a headache because one company might supply 10 people and then another could do 12, and then and then maybe another could do 5,” he says. “We had to resend the information about what work was still available to all of them, trying to confirm who could do what. It was always very difficult.”
And the challenges didn’t end there, as Valon goes on to explain: “We then had to collect all the information we needed from the suppliers, such as staff information. The transfer of information wasn’t very efficient and so that’s how we came up with the idea of Subii – to have a platform where you can centralise all your subcontracting.”
Subii makes the whole subcontracting process simple, acting as a supply management tool which allows companies to manage their suppliers effectively.
“You can see who’s being invited to jobs, you can set all the agreed payments for the different types of jobs/suppliers and then you can report on it. You can easily see which supplier did what, and how much they’re owed, because it’s all agreed on the platform. There’s no room for dispute about hours or payment because it’s all there in black and white,” Valon explains.
Valon also talks about how Subii can help companies avoid wasting money by ending up with too many workers. He says: “There are times when companies find themselves in a staffing emergency, desperately ringing round asking for staff. Before they know it, four or five might turn up, when only two were needed because the system of allocating and confirming jobs wasn’t efficient. All those workers still need to be paid, which is a waste of funds. Subii stops all that. You only get the workers you need, and therefore only pay for what you have to.
“The platform centralises everything. It’s a lot clearer, more streamlined and direct and as a company, you can view the entire subcontractor operation from the top down, drilling down into individual parts when and if you need to.”
Still in its relative infancy, Subii has only just soft launched, but has already made a significant impact on the industry, garnering lots of support and enthusiasm from companies in the security industry.
“There was a gap in the market for this type of platform, and we’re working hard to fill it. We’re learning a lot from our soft launch but it’s an ongoing process,” Valon explained.
Valon’s aim is for the Subii platform to become part of companies’ everyday outsourcing procedures, not just something that they use from time to time because it’s useful, but the standard procedural way they handle subcontracting day-to-day.
And what sets Subii apart according to Valon? “The main thing is that we’re not trying to compete with other security firms,” he says. “We’re trying to facilitate communication between companies. We’re just here to help. We’re not directly supplying security staff; we’re trying to make it easier for companies to outsource the requirements that they need to fill.”
He adds: “Many companies don’t like the fact that they have to outsource, but often it’s just necessary. Not many firms are always in a position where they have everything they need to fulfil all of their clients’ requirements, and so it’s vital to have an efficient supply network. We just want to make it as easy as possible for people to communicate with each other.”
A venture like Subii doesn’t come without its challenges, and Valon goes on to explain some of the key hurdles they’ve faced in developing the platform and how they’ve navigated them.
“A big challenge has been adapting to the multitude of variables. There are so many moving parts to the subcontracting process – a customer might want certain information or to build a job in a certain way – we’re still discovering new variables all the time and so adapting to those is tricky, but we’re getting there.”
Valon adds: “The biggest challenge for any kind of self-service platform like Subii is whether it’s intuitive enough. How much training will it need? How much better do we want to make it? That’s been a challenge because when you’re creating it you understand it so you know how things should be done. But then you set it out in the wild and everyone’s doing it in a different way, you must adapt and really try to refine it continuously so that we can make it better for the users.”
Looking to the future, next up is Subii’s hard launch, but beyond that what do the next few years hold in store? Valon says: “We really want to make a splash in the security world. We know the industry, we know how it operates, and we want to prove that our kind of platform works for all companies, both big and small. We also want to expand into the rest of the UK FM space, starting with cleaning. Temporary recruitment is also on our radar, but that will be a little further down the line.
“Ultimately, we want to help facilitate the supply chain management of all people providers in FM.”
For more information about Subii, please visit https://subii.co.uk/
