Education facilities, whether a public-school system or a large private research university, have to support hundreds to multiple thousands of people every day, including students, faculty, staff, administrative support, and visitors.
To properly support these large numbers of people, academic facilities are often very expansive, consisting of many different buildings and areas, such as: classrooms, restrooms, administrative offices, faculty areas, recreational areas, medical facilities, athletic departments, gymnasiums, auditoriums, dormitories, libraries and more. These different buildings and areas can be spread out across multiple locations in different cities, states and even in different countries.
Within these large expanses of buildings and areas come hundreds to thousands of critical assets such as HVAC systems, broilers, air conditioners, computers and electronic equipment, and fleets like busses and other school-owned vehicles.
The Importance of Maintenance Management on Academic Campuses
Considering these large amounts of people, buildings and assets, facilities and maintenance managers at schools and universities are juggling countless service requests, work orders, and proactive and reactive maintenance tasks each day.
It takes an incredible amount of organization, task management and communication to efficiently and effectively carry out the daily responsibilities of a facility manager at a school or university. And considering that the safety and well-being of thousands of students, staff and visitors are dependent on the proper upkeep of these facilities, maintenance oversights and mistakes cannot be afforded. Thus, it is the priority of maintenance managers at schools to make sure all facilities and assets are in perfect working order.
The Need for a CMMS Tailored to Schools and Universities
Computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) for schools and universities helps facility managers carry out their critical tasks and goals within the context of a fast-paced academic environment. A CMMS offers asset management, work order workflows, communication tools, task management, and file organization all within one centralized and mobile platform.
This way, maintenance managers at schools and universities can carry out their responsibilities in a more efficient and effective manner. For example, they can check on the status of the computer lab with the IT department while working on maintenance budgeting with the finance department – all from their phone or desktop. What’s more, all of their work orders, contracts, and correspondences can be stored for future reference and compliance matters. It’s safe to say that the benefits of a CMMS for facilities managers at schools and universities are numerous – let’s take a look at some of the specific features available.
Axxerion CMMS for Schools and Universities: A Comprehensive Solution
There are several ways Axxerion’s CMMS solution can help facilities managers optimize their maintenance operations at schools and universities:
Streamlined Processes and Collaboration
Axxerion’s CMMS for schools and universities provides one centralized online platform that connects all school buildings, areas, assets, internal personnel, external vendors and suppliers through a customizable workflow. This allows maintenance managers to operate at high levels of efficiency and easy collaborate with other team members in different departments.
All different types of maintenance tasks can be carried out within Axxerion’s CMMS, including maintenance budgeting, work order execution, analytical reporting, accounting, preventative maintenance scheduling, vendor management, inventory management, and more.
Further, Axxerion’s CMMS makes it easy to store and track all maintenance information, documents and records so that everything is organized and accounted form. This greatly increases productivity and can prevent unnecessary mistakes and cost savings. It also eliminates a lot of tedious manual labor and unnecessary paperwork.
School Asset Management
Considering that schools and universities own many critical assets, such as HVAC systems, computers, fleets, sprinklers, and alarms, it is essential that facilities managers have a solid asset management system that includes preventive maintenance, routine inspections, clear documentation, and on-the-go work orders.
Axxerion’s CMMS database stores all critical asset information in depth, including information on the asset’s condition, manufacturer, assignment, repair history, usage and more. Managers can also store key documents on their assets such as their warranties, manuals, and leases.
With GPS and barcoding capabilities, Axxerion tracks the real-time location of key assets so that all critical equipment is accounting for at all times. Axxerion allows managers to assign individuals specific security and access rights with regards to specific assets.
Further, with Axxerion, maintenance managers at schools can set up customized processes for the purchasing, maintenance, and assignment of their assets through powerful workflows that cover everything from request to approval to review.
Efficient and Mobile Work Order Management
The sheer number of facilities, assets and people within schools and universities guarantees that maintenance teams are receiving a high influx of service requests and work orders every day.
Thus, it’s vital that facilities managers can quickly organize and prioritize work orders. With just a few clicks, Axxerion’s CMMS for schools and universities allows managers and team members to generate, schedule, assign, track, and close work orders in real-time from a centralized, online platform.
Axxerion CMMS mobile features boosts the entire maintenance management team’s productivity by allowing everyone to access maintenance information on-the-go, communicate information, and juggle tasks without having to report back to the office every time. The mobile offerings also enable third-party vendors and technicians to move around school premises all day providing service while still being able to communicate with maintenance managers and access the details of different work orders.
Preventative Maintenance Planning
Without consistent attention, a school’s structure and systems will begin to deteriorate and fail. That is why it is essential for facilities managers to have strong preventative maintenance programs in place at schools and universities. Maintenance cannot just be performance once an asset or overarching infrastructure is broken. It needs to be conducted regularly over time while things are still working so as to prevent unexpected breakdowns. This means it is necessary for facilities managers to constantly be scheduling inspections, replacements, cleanings, and repairs and tracking this type of proactive maintenance.
Axxerion’s CMMS for schools and universities helps managers develop a strong preventative maintenance program through their facilities in a streamlined and efficient manner. The system automates the planning and scheduling process and allows managers to track the entire preventative management program execution.
The result is less asset breakdowns, safer students and employees, and tons of cost savings. In fact, research shows that organizations can save up to 20% in costs when they develop a strong preventative maintenance program.
Supply Inventory Management
Schools run on endless amount of supplies, whether that be paper and pens or spare parts for a school bus. The inventory management capabilities within Axxerion’s CMMS for schools and universities allows facilities team to manage different types of stock in different warehouses.
This makes it easy for managers to count the existing inventory for a whole range of different supplies as well as track specific details and information for each type of item. For example, managers can list the maximum and minimum amount of stock for each item, as well as prices and packaging numbers.
Easily establish stock reorder levels and receive alerts from the system well in advance to prevent stock-out or excessive inventory levels. When stock runs low for a certain item, Axxerion’s CMMS automatically reorders the product from preferred supplies. The history of transactions can be accessed at any time in order to track spending and save costs by optimizing stock and order quantities.
Room and Equipment Reservations
Whether it’s a conference room or a projector, schools and universities need to have a system in place where students, faculty and employees can reserve the spaces and equipment they need.
Axxerion’s CMMS for schools and universities offers a comprehensive reservation system so that spaces and assets can be reserved efficiently and professionally. The system offers easy check-in and check-out system for rooms and equipment. It offers different types of booking forms based on different assets and spaces. Shared calendar functions mean that students and employees can see which spaces and assets are available and which are not.
This prevents unnecessary double-booking and no shows – so that students and faculties can carry out their academic tasks without any headaches and facility managers can track which spaces and assets are being used.
Regulatory Compliance and Safety
Every school in the US is subject to strict regulations. Some categories of schools may even lose support and funding if they fail to meet regulatory standards. Often, regulatory inspections are unplanned, so preparation and readiness with regards to compliance is key.
Axxerion’s CMMS for schools and universities makes it easy to store, organize and retrieve important information, records and documents that are needed for such inspections. This central information database provides keeps academic institutions in line with regulations and provides clear evidence of a school’s compliance.
Beyond general compliance, safety is key priority for maintenance managers at schools. A CMMS software solution like Axxerion’s helps maintenance teams track areas and assets, address work orders, schedule maintenance and inspections, and organize key information so that all maintenance items are accounted for, unforeseen incidents are prevented, and safety is ensured throughout the entire campus. Axxerion also helps track visitors and external entries into campus grounds through key management, barcodes and GPS offerings.
Summary
Axxerion’s feature-rich and easily customizable software offers schools and universities the opportunity to automate their maintenance management operations. The overall result is a learning environment that is ideal for students of all ages. Axxerion’s team of implementation specialists can customize the CMMS software to each academic institution’s unique maintenance needs.
Free Demo
Want to learn more about how Axxerion’s CMMS can help your school or university? Contact us today for a Free Demo.
