An Educator's Guide to Evaluating and Selecting Computerized Maintenance Management Systems
By: Paul Claybaker
Educational institutions rely upon thousands of assets to keep operations running smoothly. Keeping track of the maintenance these assets require can be a daunting and never-ending task. Furthermore, facility operations spending continues to demand a greater portion of the institutions' entire budget and now represents 15 to 20 percent of the total yearly spending. With a strong link between well-maintained, safe facilities and student performance, as well as teacher retention, educators are embracing computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software to manage assets and facilities effectively.
CMMS software maintains a database of information about an organization's assets and related maintenance operations. This information helps optimize maintenance and operating productivity, and it provides the data educators require to make better and more informed decisions to tighten operating budgets and focus more capital on education.
Benefits of CMMS Technology
Properly specified and implemented, CMMS software will:
* Maintain detailed data, status, and complete maintenance history on assets
* Track and analyze preventive maintenance procedures leading to improved maintenance quality
* Optimize maintenance schedules to maximize equipment uptime
* Maximize utilization and productivity of limited resources
* Prolong the life of assets and equipment
* Minimize emergencies by transforming the maintenance organization from a reactive to a proactive maintenance approach
CMMS Basics
Of foremost importance to consider when selecting a CMMS is the "core" product, which should be made up of three primary, seamless components:
* Work Management - Optimizes daily operations, manages corrective and on-demand work orders, and supports a robust preventive maintenance program
* Physical Asset Management - Provides tracking, control, and reporting of detailed and descriptive asset inventory
* Resource Management - Supports a full inventory and order fulfillment system, and tracks in-house labor and contracted service costs
Additional modules educators and maintenance managers may want to consider after implementing their core product solution include:
* Building Reporting and Facility Condition Assessment - Assesses the physical condition of the facilities, calculates the total cost of operating a facility and compares to cost projections, and provides corrective work budget projections
* Space Management - Provides visual identification of assets, allows for occupancy analysis to determine the most efficient utilization of space, and provides the foundation for facility modifications, upgrades, and expansions
* Event Scheduling - Schedules rooms and spaces along with all requested assets (e.g., tables, chairs, audio/visual equipment); integrates with work order module for monitoring set up activities and tracking associated costs
* Secure Track - Tracks security events and accidents from incident through resolution to provide for improved safety and security
* Key Management - Establishes key controls, and tracks and documents all physical keys and associated hardware used to control access to the facilities
Many schools manage facilities with index cards, a clipboard, or disparate spreadsheet programs. However, it doesn't take long for these systems to get overwhelmed even with a small collection of equipment to maintain. If you have more than 20 major pieces of equipment to maintain, it's time to switch to a CMMS. As technology becomes more affordable, even the smallest and most budget-constrained schools can easily achieve significant operating cost reductions by using CMMS software.
Evaluating and Selecting the Right CMMS Technology
Educators and administrators should consider the following seven criteria when evaluating and selecting CMMS solutions:
1. Application Service Provider (ASP) Solutions
2. Vendors with Faith-Based Organizations and School Expertise
3. Easy to Learn and Use System
4. Extensive Asset Modeling Capabilities
5. Management Reporting Capabilities
6. Software Reconfiguration and Customization
7. System Scalability
1. Application Service Provider (ASP) Solutions
Internet technology has made ASP solutions the preferred choice of schools and school districts regardless of size. ASP solutions have all but eliminated the need to maintain in-house IT expertise, thereby allowing educators to focus on their core mission.
In an ASP solution, both the application and the data reside on the vendor's servers in a single, central database, and staff members use a Web browser to access the application and data via the Internet from any location. The application and data are maintained by IT professionals at the vendor's site. Multiple layers of firewalls and security, uninterruptible power supplies, fail-over, and reliable backups all virtually guarantee that your data will always be secure and available. ASP solutions typically provide the lowest total cost of ownership. Start-up costs (ranging from zero to a few thousand dollars) and ongoing costs (typically several hundred dollars per month or more) are significantly less than those required for in-house solutions.
2. Vendors with Faith-Based Organizations and School Expertise
Select a vendor whose primary focus and expertise is serving the unique needs of faith-based organizations and schools. The vendor should have field-proven longevity and offer a complete suite of software support services, including data collection and entry, training, implementation, and post-implementation support. Vet the vendor's references and determine if the vendor is more interested in partnering for the long term or selling a solution to meet today's sales target.
3. Easy to Learn and Use System
CMMS software should be ready to go "out of the box." Ask the vendor for a copy of the software and have several different users/user groups take it for a "test drive." The software should be easy to learn and use with clean, clear graphics and an intuitive approach that makes extensive training sessions and manuals unnecessary. While streamlined at the user end, it should offer the technological sophistication to handle any facility needs.
4. Extensive Asset Modeling Capabilities
The software should offer unsurpassed flexibility for complex asset modeling and total facilities management. Increasingly, maintenance managers are required to manage complex asset chains ranging from mechanical and electrical equipment to dorm rooms and art collections. A robust CMMS provides the ability to view assets by function, filter out unrelated assets, and track assets anywhere in the system.
5. Management Reporting Capabilities
CMMS software should provide management reporting capabilities that include detailed and summary reports, graphical reports, and report writing tools that do not require programming skills.
6. Software Reconfiguration and Customization
The software should be customizable to reflect facility-specific requirements and accommodate the organization's specific operating and maintenance needs. CMMS software should be "future-ready," and upgrades should be transparent to all users with tailored screens, terms, procedures, and database definitions being preserved without any reconfiguration.
7. System Scalability
CMMS software should use the same code base for all variations of the system regardless of size. Scalability allows administrators to add or subtract without sacrificing functionality or changing systems. The best software vendors provide the tools, services, and technology to meet the varying and ever-changing needs for operating and maintaining facilities.
Analyzing CMMS solution's core components for fit against your school's needs and objectives and evaluating solutions against the seven factors cited above will help ensure selecting and implementing the proper CMMS.
Paul Claybaker is a consultant with FacilityTree.com, a facility management software service company serving the needs of schools and faith-based organizations.
Sidebar
Digital Media Gives Schools Way to Engage Students and Enhance Lessons
By Stephen Wakefield
Located in Saratoga, California, Saint Andrew's School serves a unique area - where the majority of parents play a role in the surging high-tech Silicon Valley. Students generally stem from affluent homes, but as an Episcopal school, funds for large purchases are not always available.
Despite budgetary constraints, St. Andrew's currently manages a one-to-one program where, starting in the 5th grade, students have access to their own laptop. In addition, the school recently installed ceiling-mounted projectors to provide their 35-person teaching staff with more accessible ways to incorporate digital media throughout instruction.
Carol Mann, Director of Information Systems, coordinates the school's technology program, including the infrastructure, configuration for student and teacher laptops, and general maintenance. Mann also attends county meetings where she is able to learn new ideas to bring back and discuss with her team members about best practices and technology products, including an online digital media tool called Discovery Education streaming.
"Our goal is to provide technology-rich instruction, so, with our limited budget, we are extremely thoughtful in the purchases we make," Mann said. "We spend our money on things that we know will be used often in the classroom. We make sure the products will work for our teachers in real life, and Discovery Education streaming is one of those products."
The leadership of St. Andrew's is committed to using technology as an integrated part of the curriculum.
"The expectations of the community and the students are to use technology on a daily basis, and our teachers are all confident and excited about using digital media and hardware as part of their teaching," Mann said.
Shortly after Discovery Education streaming became available in California , St. Andrew's researched and decided the tool would be a good fit for their school. The school's technology teacher learned how to use the online solution and then trained other teachers to use it as well. Soon, teachers were experimenting and sharing ideas of their own.
Discovery Education streaming is a video-on-demand solution proven to increase student achievement. The tool offers more than 4,500 full-length videos chaptered into more than 40,000 content-specific videos for educators to incorporate into lesson plans.
Video clips can be streamed or downloaded directly into the classroom, either via the Internet or though locally hosted servers.
"Discovery Education streaming has a search component for state standards. This addition made such a huge statement to our teachers," Mann explained.
To St. Andrew's nearly 350 PreK through 8 th grade students, the digital media helps to keep them engaged. Teachers are able to intersperse videos throughout the lesson, breaking up the lecture to visually show them what they are learning.
Discovery Education streaming can be used in multiple grade levels. For example, the school's elementary students watch videos during their unit on the solar system. After discussing and reading about the planets and stars, teachers have pulled up a 10-minute piece about the moon. Other teachers have used a longer video and have shown it in parts, pausing it often to discuss what they are seeing and to tie it back to the lesson.
The school's higher-grade level classes often use streaming video in social studies and science. Teachers show videos to model what cannot necessarily be shown on a whiteboard, examining video that is apt to what they are teaching.
St. Andrew's students also are learning to use the tool, incorporating videos into PowerPoint presentations. The school's 8th grade class must create a report prior to graduation on a decade of their choice. These students are using the videos to provide their classmates a sense of what the decade is about and what it means to them.
"We want our students to graduate with refined research skills," Mann explained. "Students should be able to judge what they deem as valid and certify that judgment. Discovery Education streaming gives us a nice portal to credible resources, helping to teach students what is appropriate and what is not."
As most other parochial and public schools, St. Andrew's challenge is to always stay current with available technology without getting into things that do not truly support the goal of the learning process. The school plans to spend more time mentoring teachers, modeling how to take advantage of the technology available to them, such as blending subjects and activities.
"Our future goal is to move beyond applications and delve more into hands-on problem-solving," Mann said. "It is a good idea for school tech coordinators to really do the research. Determine which products are best for your school, for your teachers, and for your students. Build trust with your staff, and they will help you to make decisions in the future. It's all about the leg work - knowing what is available and how it can be used in the classroom."
