Flexible, scalable & cost-effective

Flexible, scalable and cost-effective

Karvan Jayaweera, Founder and Technical Director of the Our Management Group, talks to WMR about his company’s affordable operations platform for waste management.

Our Management Software (OMS) was founded out of a sense of frustration with operating high compliance waste management businesses on a tight budget.

For those running small-to-medium sized businesses – especially waste management businesses – there are proliferating demands when it comes to operations, customers and compliance. And this is to speak nothing of the mountain of paperwork that accompanies all these management processes.

Karvan Jayaweera, Founder and Technical Director of Our Management Group, says that the growth and complexity of these requirements makes operating waste management businesses increasingly onerous.

Prior to founding OMS, Karvan did serious work in the waste industry – including co-founding an electronic waste operation and holding senior management roles in ASX-listed waste management companies.

“Waste management can be a challenging environment,” Karvan says. “Among the challenges I faced were ever-growing regulatory requirements. And at the same time, many of the companies I worked with were still reliant on manual- and paper-based systems and spreadsheets,” he says.

“Naturally, this necessitated heavy administrative involvement and guaranteed a lack of real-time insights – often resulting in data discrepancies.”

Karvan says that although electronic management tools are available, they are usually either too expensive – pricing many businesses out of the market – or too slow to implement. And if they are implemented, he adds, they are often difficult to adapt to changing circumstances.

With such issues in mind, Karvan and his team have introduced Our Management Software Platform (OMS), a cloud-based operation service delivery platform. Karvan says that OMS provides a set of tightly integrated management tools as well as the ability to affordably build customised solutions.

“In brief, it is an operation platform that focuses on serving the waste sector,” Karvan says. “Usually, if you are going to get a system like this it would cost an arm and a leg. What’s unique about our system is the way it’s designed. You can create a tailored solution for each individual waste company.

“Every waste company has their own individual risks and challenges, as well as their own processes for accepting waste – so what sets OMS apart is its ability to provide bespoke solutions to these companies in a price range that’s appropriate for them.”

Market leaders Cleanaway are one of many waste operators who have seen exemplary results while utilising OMSs software platform.

Cleanaway Major Contracts Manager Silas O’Hara says the tailor made OMS software has enabled the waste giant to optimise its operation.

“We required waste tracking for an upcoming project basically from the point of excavation through the onsite classification process and the final downstream disposal location,” he says. “OMS actually customised their software to suit our needs.”

“The software allows for the same data set to be accessed by our clients, management and contractors on site. The level of reporting functionality has offered a whole new scope of accessibility for our clients, which has created a level of transparency throughout the whole process.”

The evaluation of operations in real time has been a major benefit for Cleanaway, allowing the business to enhance the efficiency of its projects.

Our Management Software’s customers range from small recycling operations and not-for-profits all the way up to top ASX-listed waste management groups. The OMS platform allows for scalability both in terms of functionality and cost, says Karvan. That way, smaller companies needn’t pay for functions they don’t need – but they can also flexibly scale up as their business needs grow and adjust.

“A client will come to us asking for a solution around waste tracking, so we supply them that system,” he says. “But they may also need help with day-to-day stuff such as safety and environmental management – and we have a set of tools to accommodate that on our single platform. Our service can be extended to areas such as safety management training – and much else besides.”

Karvan says that OMS’s core market is the waste industry, and that its eco-system replaces traditional spreadsheets and word documents for areas including waste and process tracking, Supplier and downstream recycler management and document management.

He adds that OMS has been built as a progressive web application that can be used on both desktop and mobile devices, with all data stored and encrypted within Australian Amazon cloud servers.

There are a multitude of tools available on the easy-to-use OMS interface to track key metrics in waste management, Karvan says.

“By using OMS, the various areas of waste management are rolled into one, reducing problems associated with multiple subscriptions – such as excessive expenses, and staff training problems as they come to grips with multiple software applications,” he says.

Karvan says that the single eco-system also means customers can focus on a single problem, and then add additional modules to address new issues as they arise.

“The real time data is also a real boost in terms of decentralising information to the entire staff, which in turn optimises efficiency and increases accountability,” he says.

And “accountability” might be the key word in waste management, for individuals and for organisations. Karvan points to a notable instance of the accountability imperative, with the new Victorian environmental laws that came into effect in July 2021.

“There is more focus on environmental duties and compliance,” he says. “In addition to the new Victorian laws, recent incidents concerning illegal operations and fires has meant the Victorian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is focusing much more on stockpile management and disposal pathways.

“This push towards greater environmental oversight and regulatory compliance also means that insurers have become more focused on operations management.

Karvan says that the risk profile of waste businesses is a paramount consideration in this context.

“OMS can assist our customers by tracking on-site waste as well as the processes being utilised,” he says. “We can also assist in general day-to-day management of operations around safety, environment, and quality.”

Yet while Victorian businesses operate within certain constraints, each state and each business has its own unique conditions to contend with, Karvan says. And that’s why a flexible, cost-effective, scalable solution is needed.

“Everyone has different problems. They may be similar – but they are never the same.”

For more information visit www.ourmanagement.com

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