East Anglia RFCA is developing strong working relationships with VIVO Defence Services in preparation for the new arrangement which will see VIVO take over hard facilities management on the Reserves and Cadet estate in August 2024.
Representatives from our East Anglia RFCA Estates Team and Chief Executive Col Leona Barr-Jones visited VIVO’s customer services call centre team in Liverpool. In future, all reactive maintenance calls from regular users of our RFCA estate will be directed to the Vivo call centre team.
Peter Terrell, East Anglia RFCA Estates Officer, sat with members of the team as they handled incoming calls during the visit. Peter said: “I was impressed by the efficiency with which they handled calls individually, as well as by their warmth and positive attitude as a team.” The VIVO Defence Services call centre team will be offering a 24/7 helpdesk service for our estate as part of a larger national agreement to achieve better value for money, adopt industry best practice maintenance standards, improve health and safety compliance and improve technology to inform and manage the delivery of services.
Col Leona Barr-Jones, Chief Executive of East Anglia RFCA said: “I was delighted to visit the VIVO Helpdesk with our Head of Estates, David Routledge and some of our East Anglia RFCA Estates team. We were very impressed with the warm and open welcome from our new partners and could see the genuine care and attention that the VIVO team gave every call. I look forward to collaborating with VIVO to ensure we deliver our shared purpose to modernise the lived experience of our Reservists and Cadets who use the Volunteer Estate.”
Reciprocally, representatives from the Liverpool team came down to Chelmsford to meet with our wider estates team. VIVO have shown keenness to meet with the RFCA team and build a strong working relationship to deliver a safe and compliant estate, collaboratively.
Following the recent Volunteer Estate Value for Money Study, VIVO was awarded a Built Estate Supplier contract as part of the Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) agreement for hard facilities management for all UK defence sites across the region.
VIVO will be working with our estates team beginning this August to cover key maintenance work, repairs, servicing and hard facilities management across the volunteer estate.
