Maidstone Innovation Centre

Maidstone Innovation Centre needed a central place for members, customers and staff to raise requests, report issues, and find important building information — covering everything from IT and connectivity problems to HVAC, maintenance, lighting, access and everyday consumables. Without one structured system, requests and building information were harder to track, route and respond to consistently.

Following an initial consultancy and system design phase, POEM designed and built a dedicated Jira Service Management system for the building, centred on a custom member service portal. Members and customers can submit requests, select the right category, track progress and receive updates directly. Requests are structured into clear categories and components — IT and connectivity, HVAC, general maintenance, lighting and electrical, access, and consumables — so they're automatically routed to the right person and duplicate issues are easy to spot.

Alongside the portal, POEM built an initial knowledge base structure for building policies, safety documentation, operational guidance and FAQs, and configured a dedicated MIC Status Page so members can see live updates on lift availability, WiFi and internet disruptions, and planned maintenance — with the option to subscribe to notifications directly. The system also keeps communication with external contractors separate from member communication, while tracking everything centrally on one platform.

The full system — portal, knowledge base, categorisation, status page and contractor integration — was delivered within four weeks of the project starting. POEM then provided direct training on request management, portal administration, knowledge base upkeep and best practice for responding to member requests, backed by eight hours of structured aftercare support to help the team settle into the new system with confidence.