As the National Key Account Manager for Facilities Management at Bunzl Australia & New Zealand, Martin Tofts is at the forefront of exciting innovative products and developing technology in the industry. He sat down with us to discuss his career, the emerging trends he’s noticed as well as the exciting technology he’s seeing in the facilities management space.
Tell us about your role.
I’ve been in my current position for three years and, in it, I am constantly collaborating with Bunzl’s local account managers to discover pricing solutions and better efficiency methods, as well as building good relationships across all levels of customers in the industry. A lot of my work is analysing data and developing new systems to support the overall effectiveness of our customer processes.
What keeps you professionally inspired and motivated?
Seeing the technological advancements in the Facilities Management space over the past few years, particularly in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for data analysis purposes. The reporting capabilities of robotics mean you can efficiently map out cleaning, understand the time spent on different areas and better identify flooring issues. These innovations are what help us to discover better systems for our customers to achieve their targets as well as highlight where we can find better efficiency gains.
How have your previous work experiences been of benefit?
I started my career as a chartered accountant working in tax before shifting into audit. When I joined Bunzl in 2010 it was as a Financial
Accountant before I became a Sales and Commercial Analyst in the National Sales Team, then transitioned to the role of a Business Partner in the Facilities Management sector. Not coming up from a traditional sales stream has given me the ability to look at customer operations from a different viewpoint with an increased understanding of their perspective.
What are some of your career highlights?
I’ve enjoyed working on large mobilisations at Bunzl. In these instances, you’re working directly with customers, often for weeks or months, to find what we need for each site and putting together a labour network to ensure that everything runs smoothly. It’s almost like pre-production of a TV show – with months of planning, months of work and a lot of meetings, all in an effort to best achieve the businesses goals. Coming out on the other side and enjoying the positive feedback when everything has been achieved is always a big highlight.
