The Galveston Island Park Board of Trustees oversees beaches, parks and various facilities in this popular tourist town. It’s a policy-making board that provides guidance and sets the budget, while employing 91 full-time staff (and hundreds of part-time employees depending on the season) to keep the beach and non-beach parks, visitor’s bureau and other buildings clean and tourist-friendly.
Sheryl Rozier is the Project Manager for the Park Board, and she’s been in the position for almost three years (and a volunteer for 10+ years). When she started in her position, another manager had made her aware of Brightly's maintenance management software for work orders.
“Because of all of the facilities we have and the conditions of those facilities and trying to get a handle on how to deal with general maintenance and operations, we recognized that a software tool was going to be our best bet instead of inventing something ourselves,” Sheryl said.
They then worked in partnership with County of Galveston who already used Brightly's software and got a testimonial from them. Now, they have been using the maintenance software for a year, and have added preventive maintenance, inventory and capital planning to their solution set.
Tracking & planning made easier
Sheryl said tracking everything that goes on within the Park Board has been much easier with the software and having conducted a facility condition assessment on seven of their buildings.
“Going through the FCA process was very helpful for my job and for the budgeting process moving forward,” she said. “Having those snapshots on the FCAs in Capital Forecast to relate back to is a really good tool for the team.”
The type of work that the maintenance staff on the Park Board does on a daily basis can range anywhere from general facilities maintenance to fixing toilets to cleaning beach areas. For Seawolf Park Manager Larry Jackson, he manages 13 full-time employees, including maintenance, people who manage the ticket booth and an assistant manager. When he started in the position about a year ago, he jumped right into the software since “there weren’t many records of any type of maintenance kept.”
He and his system manager input and assign most of the work orders. “It’s easier to keep track of the maintenance and when we need to do it,” Larry said.
Budgeting & resource needs made clearer
The software has also helped significantly with budgeting. “Everything that I spend money on, I’m able to put in where that money came from in my budget and how much,” Larry said. Each month, he pulls a report that shows everything for the fiscal year (October 1 and forward) and keeps a running balance total for the year. This report gets automatically emailed to himself and the superintendent.
Larry really appreciates the detail of the software and that there’s a spot for everything you need to keep good records. “I find more that I can keep records of every day,” he said.
The reporting capabilities also give him more leverage for the future. “If I ever have to ask for another maintenance man, I have data to show that my maintenance men don’t have enough time to fix things. If we add something else to the park, I have the data that says I need to hire another person,” Larry said. It also provides data to use if he’s requesting a high-dollar item (like a new chopper for the restrooms) to the Board.
Similarly, Sheryl has found that the software empowers her to do more in her day-to-day job.
Now, I have tools. I have the ability to run reports. I have stuff that I can actually quantify and show that we weren’t able to before.
In fact, the reports and “quantified data” from the system have helped them realize that they need more resources to deal with the wide range of crafts and types of buildings (wood, concrete, brick and glass, stucco, etc.) they maintain.
“When the FCA and preventive maintenance data came in, it also showed us how many man-hours or certain crafts would be required,” Sheryl said of future projects. “If we are going to develop this new team, these are some of the skills that they should have. That was an ‘aha’ moment.”
She said ease of use is crucial to the team. “Once you have training on the work order software, all of the other components are easy to navigate. And the online help site is great.”
Customer support has been important, too. “Your customer service is outstanding. Every single person I have spoken to with your organization has gone above and beyond to do their job.”
