On-chain global maintenance services: technical, legal and managerial implications

Facility management deals with all activities that are not core business for a company and are consequently outsourced to specialized companies. Maintenance is a fundamental activity in facility management and it is often handled by Global Maintenance Services (GMS) where some maintenance activities are delegated by the company to service providers and are remunerated according to measurable results expressed as Key Performance Indicators. In this context, it would be desirable to have information systems trustable by all involved actors. In this paper, we discuss the design of a blockchain solution capable to support a GMS on-chain. We first introduce the GMS concept and how it is related to the Principal-Agent relationship, and then we show a reference architecture to implement GMS on-chain. We discuss a use case and a proof-of-concept of on-chain GMS in a hospital showing how smart contracts and oracles can be used in this context. We finally discuss the main legal and managerial implications of the proposed approach.

Automated summary

Facility management involves outsourcing non-core business activities to specialized companies. Maintenance is a crucial aspect of facility management, often handled by Global Maintenance Services (GMS). This paper presents a blockchain solution for supporting an on-chain GMS, including a reference architecture, a use case, and a proof-of-concept in a hospital setting. The legal and managerial implications of this approach are also discussed.