Results
Vincennes University is Indiana’s first college. Founded in 1801, 18,897 students attend the private school.
Like many of its peers, Vincennes’ facilities needs are vast throughout its four campuses. To support students and staff, the maintenance, physical plant, and architectural services teams collaborate to provide comprehensive campus operations.
To improve outcomes and processes, the teams combined to find a new facilities management solution that provided more functionality, transparency, and generally improved their day-to-day.
“We had a previous program that was not user-friendly, said Andrew Young, the Director of Architectural Services and Facilities. “Our last system took way too many clicks to get anything accomplished. FMX is much more technician-friendly.”
Beyond helping those in the field, the office team also found it more user-friendly.
“It’s much easier on the backend as well,” Andrew continued. “Just much more efficient and easier to find things. Very easy to use and what we were looking for.”
The user-friendliness has increased productivity, reducing manual tasks while improving visibility and efficiency. Tasks that previously took hours now take staff mere minutes with FMX.
Benefits after FMX implementation
1/30th
of the time spent generating reports
5-10%
more team efficeincy
½
implementation time of previous systems
Before FMX
Previously, Vincennes utilized MPulse to complete its maintenance and operations efforts. However, the system was too unwieldy, requiring more from technicians and office staff. Moreover, it had little visibility, location-based data, or inventory management capabilities.
To increase efficiency, the maintenance, physical plant, and architectural services teams worked together to find a more helpful unified solution.
Enter FMX. With its robust facilities, inventory, and asset management capabilities, it presented the Vincennes with a centralized solution to tackle needs across campus.
With the new system, the teams can more easily track asset information, generate maintenance reports, assign work orders, and manage inventory. It’s increased the school’s efficiency and reduced data entry needs, freeing staff to tackle more important tasks.
“We are building-driven, but the previous system was not, and it caused major issues,” said Sandra Potter, Secretary of Architectural Services. “When there were upgrades or things that changed, it didn’t capture asset data and it resulted in a lot of problems for us. Our behind-the-scenes data was very difficult to change and make accurate.”
Beyond the technical issues, the university wanted better customer service to help iron out challenges.
“Their customer service was a little lacking,” said Christina Perkins, Inventory Control Manager. “We could tell them an issue like our database is slow, and they would say it’s not. It could take months to fix a bug, and they wouldn’t communicate what changed or why it was fixed.”
Now, the team experiences best-in-class customer service at FMX to help get the most out of the system.
“FMX addresses our issues up front,” said Sandra. “Whatever that takes. We are very pleased with the support we’ve gotten.”
Switching to FMX and implementation
The team was eager to find a more effective solution to their challenges. However, they wanted to find the best fit and weren’t interested in finding a patchwork solution. After deliberating as a group, the collective settled on FMX.
The facilities, asset, and inventory management capabilities convinced the committee. Because of their previous experience, the group was nervous about the switch. It took multiple quarters to get up to speed with past solutions.
Despite the anxiousness, the team found FMX to be less daunting.
“We were anticipating six months (to implement), but it took half the time we thought it would,” said Andrew.
“When we had questions or issues, they were corrected quickly,” said Sandra. “You guys were supportive and helping us. Our contact has been fantastic.”
Now, all the teams involved in the decision consistently use the platform. Among added visibility and process improvement, the noticeable change has been in efficiency.
“Our office folks are probably 10% more efficient. When compared to the previous system, it’s probably even higher than that,” said Andrew.
“The technicians know FMX works,” said Bill Kroeger, Director of the Physical Plant. “I don’t hear the grumbling anymore. FMX has made them happier. Things are better.”
Now past the implementation phase, FMX continues to be an effective tool for keeping the campus in top working order. The university plans to expand platform use by fully leveraging Interactive Mapping and Capital Planning features.
“Our goal is always constant improvement,” said Andrew. “We want to improve processes and make things easier so staff can be happier with the work they’re doing. And be more efficient in the long run. FMX has been an important part of that.”