Sodexo + Urbanise FM

Urbanise Team
Jul 30
4 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

Mobilising Complex FM at Scale: How Sodexo Delivers Operational Excellence and Wins New Business with Urbanise FM

Picture of Sodexo team on site. — *Sodexo’s team at one of its camps in Eastern Australia. Photo credit: Sodexo*

Overview: Scaling Integrated FM with Confidence

Sodexo is Australia’s number one village services provider for the Energy and Resources sector, supporting over 20,000 workers daily with services like catering, hospitality, transport, asset and building maintenance, and more. The company has steadily expanded its operations to become a fully integrated facilities management (IFM) provider, delivering services across more than 30 projects in the mining, energy, and remote infrastructure sectors.

Within this operational model, Steve Arndt, General Manager FM for Sodexo in Australia, plays a key role in shaping how contracts are mobilised and supported through technology. His focus is on building and maintaining a reliable technology stack that enables efficient service delivery, clear data visibility, and scalability across diverse sites.

Urbanise FM has become a critical part of this operational toolkit, supporting rapid mobilisation, reducing risk, and enabling consistent service delivery nationwide.

Operational Readiness as a Competitive Advantage

For Sodexo, winning new contracts isn’t just about pricing, it’s about demonstrating how the work will be delivered from day one. Urbanise FM plays a key role in that process by helping bring the delivery model to life well before mobilisation begins.

When bidding for major contracts, the Urbanise team supports Sodexo by creating a dedicated sandbox environment within the platform. Using client-provided asset data, they pre-populate the system with real-world structures, sample work orders, and reporting configurations that reflect the scope of the contract. This gives prospective clients a tangible view of how their operations would be managed.

“One of Australia’s largest natural gas suppliers was impressed by our capabilities,” says Steve. “During our presentation, they couldn’t believe we had their data and camps already set up in a fully operational system. Their reaction was along the lines of, ‘You’re clearly ahead of the pack in terms of readiness and capability.’ We’re proud to now count them as a client, with our partnership spanning Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia.”

This process typically takes less than a day, leveraging Sodexo’s standard configuration and Urbanise FM’s flexible architecture. It enables Sodexo to demonstrate more than just capability, but true delivery readiness from the outset.

Accelerating Mobilisation: The Case Study

When Sodexo was awarded this multi-year contract, covering 26 remote camps across Australia, it required careful coordination across multiple service lines, including hard FM, inventory management, procurement-to-pay, and integration with Sodexo’s MyVillage resident app.

Urbanise FM played a central role in the mobilisation, providing both system capability and on-the-ground support to ensure a smooth go-live. In the three months leading up to deployment, Sodexo collaborated closely with the Urbanise team through weekly planning sessions, configuration workshops, and integration reviews to align on requirements.

“We had to deliver a fully functional, integrated system from Day 1,” says Steve. “And Urbanise helped us build it well before boots hit the ground.”

Key Contributions:

Pre-mobilisation support: Defining system structure and loading client asset data
Integrated ecosystem: Connecting Urbanise FM with MyVillage resident app for real-time interactions
Rapid site rollout: All sites were brought online within the mobilisation window
On-site presence: Urbanise team members supported deployment, training, and issue resolution in person

This rapid mobilisation helped Sodexo avoid the costs and risks of downtime and ensured KPIs were met from day one.

From Go-Live to Day-to-Day: Driving Efficiency, Visibility, and Trust

The value of Urbanise FM doesn’t end at mobilisation. Once the system is live, it becomes an integral part of Sodexo’s day-to-day operations, supporting consistent service delivery, regulatory compliance, and client engagement.

The platform’s features are designed not only to support frontline teams but also to empower clients and improve contract performance over time.

GPS-Tagged Asset Management

Technicians use Urbanise’s mobile app to photograph and geotag assets like emergency safety showers, enabling precise location data for future work orders. This functionality is especially critical on expansive or unfamiliar sites.

“Without GPS tagging, a tradesperson could spend hours searching,” Steve explains. “Now, they can walk directly to the asset.”

Embedded BI Analytics

Unlike traditional ERP systems that require data lakes, Urbanise FM includes embedded business intelligence dashboards that provide a live view of all work, KPIs, and compliance metrics. Clients can self-serve reporting in real-time, enhancing transparency, reducing email noise, and reinforcing trust.

Streamlined Client Approvals

Sodexo and Urbanise also collaborated to embed a client approval workflow directly into the platform. This replaced manual email chains with a digital process that captures decisions within the system, reducing risk and ensuring full traceability for variation works and cost approvals.

Continuous Improvement: A Living Base Model

One of the most impactful outcomes of Urbanise FM’s deployment is Sodexo’s evolving “base model”. Every new contract is a chance to refine workflows, reporting, and configuration, insights that are then rolled back into existing projects and forward into future bids.

“We’ve evolved our base model each time,” Steve notes. “Now, even projects we mobilised four years ago are benefitting from the latest improvements.”

This creates a genuine continuous improvement loop across Sodexo’s entire FM portfolio, driving standardisation, reducing setup time, and enhancing client outcomes.

Beyond Technology: A True Delivery Partner

What truly sets Urbanise apart for Sodexo isn’t just the software, it’s the people.

From on-site support during mobilisation to rapid development of new features, Steve points to the hands-on, high-touch service model as a critical success factor.

“I don’t know that you’d get that level of service from any other provider,” Steve says. “Having James and Raph on-site with us was invaluable.”

This partnership model extends into co-development too: when Sodexo proposes new features or improvements, Urbanise’s development team often builds them into the platform roadmap, benefiting all clients.

Conclusion: Scaling FM with Confidence and Clarity

By standardising on Urbanise FM, Sodexo has unlocked a new model for FM delivery: agile, repeatable, and trusted. From sandbox demos that win business, to high-speed mobilisations that reduce risk, to transparent reporting that builds lasting partnerships, Urbanise FM powers Sodexo’s promise of excellence.