Customer Profile: Central School District

Central School District is located in the City of Rancho Cucamonga, nestled in the foothills of the Los Angeles/San Bernardino basin. It serves approximately 5,200 students in grades K-8 and consists of five elementary schools, and two middle schools. The Maintenance and Operations (M&O) Department maintains the district’s eighty five acres and 437,883 square feet of building area. “Supporting Our Students with Safe, Well-Maintained Schools” is their District motto.

Jeff Christensen, Director of Maintenance and Operations at Central School District, has been with the district for fifteen years. He started as a Grounds Worker, and has served as a Carpenter, Supervisor, and now as Director. His staff consists of an Office Manager, six Building Maintenance Workers and six Grounds Maintenance Workers. Jeff estimates that they receive 150-200 work orders per month.

Before implementing Maintenance Connect Pro (MCP), the M&O department used a client-based, computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) that fell short of meeting their expectations. “Our last system was really cumbersome and complex,” Jeff recalled. “I had to read a couple of manuals to really learn how to operate it, and I still couldn’t get it to do everything I wanted it to do. It just wasn’t pleasant.” The process of upgrading the system was also difficult and it caused a lot of problems to his operation.

Those experiences led Jeff to research cost-effective, web-based solutions as an alternative to the system he was currently using. His objectives were to find an efficient and user-friendly solution with seamless system upgrades, and support that would be an asset not a hindrance.

Jeff found Tom Rayburn, Maintenance Connect Pro’s Chief Architect and Project Manager, to be just the asset he needed. Tom provided the initial training of MCP to their end-users and also his maintenance department staff. “Tom is awesome,” said Jeff. “He has a great amount of experience in maintenance but he’s also extremely proficient in technology. He’s the perfect man for the job.” Tom’s training of the district staff and MCP’s ease of use made it a much easier solution for the entire district to use.

Central School District, as one of Maintenance Connect Pro’s “First Thirty” customers, has also had the opportunity to contribute to enhancements of the system. This has been a great bonus to Jeff. “Tom’s availability, graciousness, and his willingness to work with all of the districts (MCP’s customers) have made MCP a perfect fit.” Since becoming an MCP member, Central has already influenced a significant enhancement that will be updated in MCP in the very near future. Jeff is thrilled to have the ability to be a part of these enhancements.

Using Maintenance Connect Pro has improved Jeff’s entire operation. Jeff notes that turn-around time has improved with MCP. “MCP’s functionality exists on many different levels. The Calendar allows us to effectively schedule and prioritize our work orders. The Dashboard simultaneously gives us quick references to statuses, priorities and graphs allowing us to manage our heavy workload.”

Maintenance Connect Pro has also allowed Jeff to change his method of reporting to aid in his mission of going paperless. He has allowed selected users at the administrative level to access MCP’s reports themselves. While they can print the report if necessary, they have the ability to view the information they need quickly and easily without requesting a hard copy from M&O. It was Jeff’s vision of going paperless that piqued his interest in becoming one of Maintenance Connect Pro Mobile’s first customers. MCP Mobile is a new module scheduled to release this fall, that will allow maintenance technicians to access MCP from the browser of a web-enabled phone such as a Blackberry or Treo. Jeff believes that MCP Mobile could be the next step toward a paperless department.

Having been in the Maintenance and Operations department at Central for 15 years, Jeff feels that he finally has a solution that enables him to efficiently manage his operation. Central’s M&O Department now has sufficient software support, increased communication with their schools, and they have a user-friendly solution that everybody loves. “I know the [school] sites love it,” touts Jeff.