The Maintenance Connection Blog

Profiles of Success – City of Orlando

Arlene — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:32:29 +0000

Maintenance Connection periodically solicits feedback from customers, obtaining valuable input regarding their decision to select our software and, more importantly, the factors that led to a successful implementation. We would like to share the responses received from two of our customers, providing insight to the keys to their success. In this week’s blog, we will showcase the City of Orlando, a customer of Maintenance Connection since 2006. Next week, we will look at the responses from Wellmont Health Systems, a leading healthcare provider in the Tri-Cities region of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

Customer: City of Orlando

What system (if any) was in place before Maintenance Connection was implemented?

Prior to selecting Maintenance Connection, we had HyperPM in place, which did not provide us a universal location for tracking work like Maintenance Connection could.

What were your top reasons for choosing Maintenance Connection over other CMMS options?

Besides looking for a CMMS that could provide us with a universal location for tracking our work, we liked Maintenance Connection because:

Their software was web based
It was also SQL server based
And the overall price created the best value for us

Describe the general usage of Maintenance Connection within your organization?

Our primary use focuses around tracking asset cost, tracking replacement dates, and utilizing cost estimates. We have also enjoyed the ability to track labor training, as well as our entire work order history.

How was your experience during implementation, from the initial purchase through “go-live”?

The implementation process was really smooth and surpassed what we were expecting. From the beginning, we partnered with the Maintenance Connection staff and projected how the project would look. They helped demonstrate how everything would look when implementation was finalized, and how all of our needs, and what we wanted to use the software for, were being met.

We then analyzed our data with in-house staff and modified it to ensure our transition would run as efficiently as possible. From there, Maintenance Connection worked with us, input “fake” data to test our modifications, and began cleaning up the data prior to migrating the final system to our on-site server.

Overall, this process went really well and we did not experience any major problems.

Do you have any suggestions for someone just beginning the implementation of CMMS?

The two best pieces of advice we could give, which definitely helped us during our implementation process, would be:

Make a strong effort, prior to implementation, to understand the overall business process that the system will be used in.
Ensure that any data from previous databases is cleaned-up prior to migration.

All this will make working with the system much easier when the final “go-live” takes place.

Maintenance Connection Customer Coordinators

Arlene — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:55:29 +0000

At Maintenance Connection, we often review our customer management process to ensure it best serves the needs of our growing customer base. We determined that new customers would benefit from greater assistance transitioning between sales and implementation. To this end, we created a Customer Coordinator role, managing the Pre-Implementation Process, to ensure that customers have the proper building blocks for a successful implementation:

The Customer Coordinator is the first point of contact following the sale being finalized. During a “Welcome Conference” the customer is provided an overview of the implementation process, as well as a demonstration of the customer support tools available to them. More importantly, the Customer Coordinator uses this opportunity to learn more about the customer, gaining a better understanding of the size and complexity of the implementation effort. This information allows the Customer Coordinator to determine the Implementation Consultant who would best match the customer’s needs and anticipated timeline.

After this initial “Welcome Conference,” the customer transitions to the assigned Implementation Consultant, with whom the remaining implementation is managed. As the above diagram illustrates, once the implementation is complete, the customer transitions to the Post-Implementation Phase, working with the general support team (Solution Engineers) when questions or needs arise. Although the Customer Coordinator Role is most active during the Pre-Implementation Phase, their skills are also used to manage Post Implementation training requests, again ensuring the best match between a customer’s needs and an available training resource.

The MC Customer Coordinators are always looking for ways to improve the long term customer experience. As such, they are currently developing an audit process to more quickly analyze database configuration to determine potential areas for improvement. More importantly, they are working on designing a new customer support center with enhanced tools for customers to interact with our support team and gain access to guidance and technical information. Stay tuned for additional information on this valuable new service in the coming months.

It’s Your Preference – 3 of 3 – PO Report

Arlene — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:00:02 +0000

As with the Work Order Report covered in last week’s blog, the Purchase Order Report can be tailored to meet the needs of your organization using available Preferences. To modify the Purchase Order Report, select Tools->Preferences from the Menu Bar, ensure the Purchase Order Folder is selected, and then scroll down to the section on the Purchase Order Report.

The “Show” preferences highlighted above control the content that will be displayed in the top section of the report. These preferences often vary dependent on your organization’s use of the Purchase Order Report. If the report is intended for a vendor, contact information and shipping/receiving information are likely to be desired, as shown below.

In contrast, if the report is to be sent to staff members, you might desire more information about internal processing and departments. As shown below, the “Show Enhanced Status” preference was turned “on” to show additional information about the individuals requesting, issuing and approving the purchase order. The “Show Additional Detail” preference was also enabled to display organizational information such as repair center, department and account:

The section of preferences for “Line Items”, allows you to control the columns that will be displayed. In the first example, the display is more vendor oriented, showing “conversion to issue units” in the “Order Qty” column, as well as displaying any applied discounts:

In contrast, preferences can be set to provide more information for internal staff, such as “location” (stock room and bin), and account:

The additional settings allow you to replace the Purchase Order ID with a UDF that stores an internal ID, and determine the type of approval information that should be displayed at the bottom of the report. To clarify the options for the Approval Section, “default” lists approvals that been made, “static” provides blank lines to allow for approval, and “enhanced” shows approvals if they exist, providing a blank line if none exist. The “line height” preference determines the amount of space provided when approval lines are displayed.

It should also be noted that the Purchase Order Barcoding Preferences, found directly below the Purchase Order Report Preferences, allow you to determine whether or not barcodes should display on the report:

It’s Your Preference – 2 of 3 – WO Report

Arlene — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:00:12 +0000

In this second post in the “It’s Your Preference” series, we will explore the extensive preferences available to customize the appearance of the Work Order Report that is often printed or emailed to technicians. To modify this report, select Tools->Preferences from the Menu Bar, ensure the Work Order Folder is selected, and then scroll down to the section on the Work Order Report.

The configuration options available are especially helpful for formatting the presentation for online/email display, versus a printout on which information might be written down. As an example, the first preference listed allows you to specify “line height” so that you can extend the space between lines in the “fill in the blank” sections when technicians will be writing information on the form. Additional settings indicate the number of blank “fill in” lines that should be displayed, such as lines for technicians to “list” parts that were used. If technicians in your organization update information directly into the system, the Work Order Report can be configured to minimize or hide these “fill in” sections.

As the above image indicates, there are a set of preferences that allow you to configure the “Maintenance Details” area displayed at the top of the report, as well as specify the level of detail that should be included (e.g., asset address, asset details such as model and serial number). A number of these settings were added in Version 5.0 of Maintenance Connection.

Additional preferences are available for each section of the report, allowing you to specify whether the section should display (always, only when there are records), and indicate whether or not particular columns should display:

Lastly, you can determine whether approval information and the Labor Report should display, as well as indicate whether or not a signature block should be included:

Stay tuned for next week’s post in the series, in which the options to configure the Purchase Order Report will be highlighted.

It’s Your Preference – 1 of 3 – Reports

Arlene — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:00:40 +0000

Maintenance Connection’s System Preferences are a great way to tailor the system to meet the unique needs of your organization. Once the focus on system set up has passed, these valuable preferences can be overlooked. To refocus attention on this feature, we are publishing an “It’s Your Preference” Blog Series to highlight popular settings in three areas. In this first post we will cover several helpful Report Preferences. In the next two posts in the series, we will review the preferences available to tailor the appearance of the printed work order and purchase order.

Report Preferences

To access Report Preferences, select Tools->Preferences from the Menu Bar, and then select the Report Folder. Since several preferences are repair center based (the ones that do not display a globe), these settings can be unique for each repair center as needed. In the following example, the XYZ University has defined their report preferences, some of which are unique for their “Athletics” Repair Center.

Return Path for Bounced Email: This preference allows you to list a specific individual to receive messages from bounced emails. Listing “SENDER” will result in the individual sending the report receiving the “bounce” notification.

BCC/CC Email List for All Outgoing Emails: These preferences define the email address of any individual who should be copied (or blind copied) on reports sent via email. Listing “SENDER” will result in the individual sending the report receiving a copy (or blind copy).

Email Address FROM/FROM NAME: These preferences determine the Email from Name (and Address) that is used when a report is manually emailed (using the Email Button on the Report Preview Window). If a value is not set, the email address of the logged in user will be used.

Number of Lines Per Report Section: This preference determines the default number of rows (records) that will be displayed before another “report section” is generated. Records included in the same section are displayed on a single HTML Page, allowing you to scroll down to view other records without moving to another section using the control available on the Report Preview Toolbar. This preference is set to 1000 records by default. If you would like to have more records displayed on a single “HTML Page” to avoid navigating to different sections, you may wish to increase this value (e.g. to 2000). It should be noted, however, that there are performance implications to increasing this value, as the system must retrieve and present more data at once.

Replacement/Additional Logo for Reports: The logo preferences allow you to have a logo displayed on reports that is different from the one displayed on your MC Home Page (or in addition to). This setting is often used when a different logo is desired for a particular repair center’s reports. In the following example, XYZ University uses a different logo to display on reports generated by the “Athletics” Repair Center:

Work Order Software Made Easy

Brad Squires — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:40:37 +0000

Let’s face it; most business managers despise the software that runs the various aspects of their company. Executives are forced to accept the shortfalls of software that runs their internal processes because they don’t have much else in the way of choice. Business has to roll forward and implementing a new system can seem like a heady task. As a result, there are many that have thrown their hands up in disgust and simply settled on the idea of work order software being a necessary evil. That doesn’t have to be the case, though.

The headaches usually erupt from software controlling the synergy between groups of different systems. One kink in the line and the whole thing can go down. It can be challenging to turn everything into a well-oiled machine, but one element that you won’t have to worry about once you partner with Maintenance Connection is work order software. You don’t want ordering issues backing up production, preventing you from running your store or holding up projects/contracts.

We understand where you’re coming from, and that’s why we set out to create software that was effective, reliable and simple. You don’t need to be a computer software engineer in order to comprehend how our software works. And why should anyone have to be? We analyzed what was out there on the market and determined that most of the systems that were available were simply too convoluted for daily usage by facility managers. That’s not a slight against the managers; it’s the unfortunate reality of where work order software was before we got involved in the game.

Our comprehensive software will get your materials ordered and on their way. This allows you to put worries about low stock out of your mind and get back to focusing on plowing ahead. Give us a call for a full explanation of how you can cut out unnecessary distractions and get back to business.

Checkpoint 2012 Registration Available

Brad Squires — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:07:10 +0000

Announcing 2012 Checkpoint User Training Seminar
Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, April 24-26, 2012

Are you or your team looking for a little extra training with your Maintenance Connection implementation? You can’t miss this once a year opportunity to join hundreds of other MC users all taking their CMMS skills to the next level. You’re guaranteed to leave with a full tank, with new tools, tips, and tricks to take back with you to enhance how you use the software every day.

For more information or to register online today, check out:
www.maintenanceconnection.com/checkpoint

We will be releasing discount codes for our fans on Facebook and Twitter on Friday, January 13th. If you’re not already a fan of Maintenance Connection, please visit our page for these discount codes.

Still need some convincing? Here are 10 reasons we feel you can’t miss this important experience:

Network and connect with other MC users in your industry
Attended before? This year’s seminar will be an all-new format with unique topic-based classes
Learn from the Maintenance Connection experts
Get a hands-on look at the latest Maintenance Connection v6.0
Gain useful insights to save time and clicks every day
Be among the insiders to learn about MC product plans for 2012
Win prizes in a poker tournament by enjoying our private casino event on Wednesday night
Break away from the office for a couple days for focused learning time
Enjoy a group discount and bring others from your team to learn together
Tackle specific issues one-on-one with MC during the Ask The Experts time

Check out the Checkpoint 2012 Promo Video:

If you have any further questions, we’d be happy to help you out. Contact our Checkpoint team via email checkpoint@maintenanceconnection.com, or call (888) 567-3434 x1.

Thanks!

Maintenance Connection Checkpoint Team

A New Year and over 120 new customers!

Cary Yocum — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:07:43 +0000

The Staff at Maintenance Connection would like to wish you and your family a happy New Year! As we plan for 2012 and get excited about all that it has in store for our company, we wanted to take a moment to welcome over 120 new organizations to the Maintenance Connection family.

a few of the new customers

If you are a current Maintenance Connection customer, you understand the unique approach we take at our company. Many of you were instrumental in helping to bring these new customers on board by providing outstanding references. To both the new customers and our outstanding family of current customers, we say “thank you”, not only for making 2011 a great year, but for setting up 2012 to be the best year yet!

Make this Holiday a Game Changer

Brad Squires — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:00:56 +0000

We have an inside joke at Maintenance Connection about “game changers”. We just like them. And we’re trying to create more of them by building more value for our customers with game changing software updates. We also hope our renewed vision of making a positive impact in our world through our MC Gives Back initiatives becomes our new purpose for working so hard.

In a year of game changers, we’re excited to have welcomed another 11 members to our team to help support our new customer growth. We made major strides internally to enhance the customer experience, including a new department called “Customer Experience” which focuses on just that. We had record attendance at Checkpoint 2011 in April. We took the first of what we expect to be annual trips out of the country to give back in Cambodia. Our staff enjoyed a great holiday celebration earlier this month. And now we look ahead to what is shaping up to be a game changing Version 6.0 targeted for release in 2012.

At Maintenance Connection, we’re counting our blessings this holiday season. We are heading into our ninth year since the original launch into the market and we’ll be making our way over the 1,000 customer threshold very soon. Our nearly 95% customer retention track record is something we’re proud of. We have a great culture of employees and customers who understand what we’re all about, and individually contribute to making Maintenance Connection great.

While we take this time of year to reflect on what’s important, don’t forget to count your blessings. Thank you to our customers and partners for another great year. And remember that game changers can be created. Do something for someone this year that makes their holiday season a game changer.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Maintenance Connection. Have a safe and fun New Year, and we look forward to big improvements in 2012 so we can continue creating a positive impact in our world.

Brad Squires
Vice President

Get Workplace Disasters Under Control Before They Happen

Brad Squires — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:42:03 +0000

Maintenance issues can get pricy, especially when a mission critical piece of equipment goes down. It’s only sensible that companies would constantly be working to better their maintenance management system. After all, DuPont reported in the mid-nineties that “the largest, single controllable expenditure in a plant is maintenance, and in many plants the maintenance budget exceeds annual net profit.” A budget that spirals out of control is unacceptable, and that’s why we’ve worked so hard to help companies get their maintenance systems under control for years now.

At many organizations, the individuals who work in facility maintenance routinely have to operate in fire-fighting mode. They are constantly running around dealing with prioritized emergencies that must be dealt with in a hurry. The result is that they are left with virtually no free time with which to work on preventative maintenance. That’s no way to run things, but many managers and professionals are stuck in a never-ending cycle and it seems as though there is nothing they can do to break out of the rut and make time to prevent future disasters from occurring.

What they need is a streamlined maintenance management system — one that tracks all happenings relating to their firm’s facilities. The software we offer here at Maintenance Connection is designed to ease the flow of day-to-day management and keep you prepared for those inevitable emergencies that always seem to crop up at the worst time. Our professional maintenance management system will set you up with the tools you need to seemingly be everywhere at once and keep business running as usual. Forget about stomping out fires every time you turn around, and focus on preventing them from ever happening.

Listen, things are going to wrong on occasion and we know that; but it disaster recovery need not be a part of your everyday routine. Put our system into place and get back to being proactive.