“We started looking for a system because our entire process was manual, which was cumbersome. We would hand write work orders and hand them out to the team. If we wanted to look at our historical data, one person would have to spend hours sifting through hundreds of paper work orders. Doing a report could take weeks and we needed to have easier access to our information.
"After extensive research, we chose Brightly because we thought that MaintenanceEdge was the best option with the quickest startup. When we were looking at systems, implementation was a concern because I was the only one who would be working on it. Looking back, getting started was a lot less effort than I expected it to be. All I did was take what we were already doing and plug it into the system as we went. MaintenanceEdge is great because you don’t have to have everything set in stone before you start entering work orders. We were able to make adjustments as we used the system more and realized what we needed. As I make changes to the account setup names, the system will automatically update old work orders, which is really nice. It’s been easy to keep tweaking our information. Here’s the perfect example: I recently decided to edit our Event Setup purpose code to indicate whether the event is a routine or special event (such as the Christmas parade). I want to make sure we accurately track those types of events because we get reimbursed from the Chamber of Commerce for any overtime when our guys block off the streets. I ran a report on our Event Setup work orders and within an hour, I had the city’s routine special events for the year all accounted for. It was lickety-split and put my mind at ease to know we have a handle on those now.
"The most important thing we have gotten out of the system was the ability to search our historical data. By looking at our work history, we can identify the areas of greatest need, which let us know if upgrades are called for. If any of the guys have to address a situation with a citizen, having records is helpful because we can tell them how many calls we’ve had about an issue and give them the history. That’s a huge advantage for them because they like to be informed when responding to the public.
"MaintenanceEdge has saved me time because now with a few clicks, I can create a work order and hand it off to the guys. Also, now we can make sure no work orders get lost. It was easy to lose a handwritten work order and if you did, there was no other record of it. Now, we always have a record of our work, and if anyone misplaces a work order, we can easily print it again.
"Coming from a city with a population of 1,700, I don’t think any place is too small to use a system like MaintenanceEdge. I can’t stress enough that it won’t make things more difficult, it will actually simplify a lot of things.
We have so much more control over our processes now. The system has been fantastic for us.
Whether you use it a little bit or a lot, it’s a very valuable tool for the cost."
