by Shane Henson — June 30, 2014—Recognizing that better physical environments enhance the learning process, Canada’s Calgary Board of Education says it has jettisoned paper-driven work order processes and fragmented facilities management databases to create a Web-based, centralized, and highly scalable ARCHIBUS system that streamlines processes and is expected to cut work order time by 80 percent, among other gains.
According to ARCHIBUS, its integrated workplace management system (IWMS) system has also improved delivery of a growing range of services at the 225-school system, which manages a billion-dollar budget and 15 million square feet of space. The advanced system features a range of real estate, space, maintenance, and safety applications from ARCHIBUS, a leading provider of real estate, infrastructure, and facilities management software.
“We once had a very paper-driven work order process where a work request could take up to three and a half weeks from initial request to getting that work order into a tradesperson’s hands. Now it takes three days,” explained Murray Hunt, Calgary Board of Education’s manager of integrated workplace management systems. “Shortly, we will have that happen instantly with the introduction of mobile technology.”
The Calgary Board of Education has leveraged ARCHIBUS’ technology in further ways, the company says. A Technology Council, established by the school system’s chief information officer, exposed stakeholders to what the facilities management department was accomplishing with ARCHIBUS applications and recognized the possibilities in also adapting the software to track asset information for academic and vocational programs. The ARCHIBUS platform is being used system-wide, for example, to collect inventory information on musical instruments, as well as on career and technology education assets such as shop tools and other vocational program equipment.
“In the future, we expect more integration with other enterprise systems, such as PeopleSoft and other Calgary Board of Education core business systems,” said Hunt. “With every five-year strategic plan, we’ll review where we are and decide where we’re going with our technology investments. We expect that ARCHIBUS will continue to play a prominent role.”
For more information, see the ARCHIBUS Web site as well as their FMLink ad.
