“By integrating vx Maintain and vx Field, we’ve managed to better understand and manage our maintenance needs, optimize the use of our internal workforce, and reduce our reliance on external contractors. This led directly to a 47% reduction in reactive maintenance spend in the first 8 months, or roughly £140,000 in savings.”
Adrian McGillion, Director of Facilities Management

The Challenge

EHU’s aging, internally developed facilities management system had become costly and inefficient. The ticket-based help desk could not keep pace with growing campus development, leading to job allocation challenges, reactive rather than proactive service, and an over-reliance on external contractors. The department also needed to improve compliance and customer communication, while gaining insights that would allow for more informed planning decisions and better cost forecasts.

  • Inability to capture and provide real-time work order status updates
  • Ineffective work order allocation and workforce scheduling processes
  • Over reliance on contractors and lack of visibility into their work
“vx Field provides us greater control over our maintenance team. Because of the automated workflows based on skillsets and priorities, and the insights generated regarding task tracking, we have an increased ability to allocate jobs that ensures the team is operating as efficiently as possible.”
Adam Palmer, Systems & Innovation Manager

 

The Solution

With the implementation of vx Maintain, EHU has created structured scheduling processes for preventative and reactive work orders, complete with live updates and risk assessments that ensure procedures are done in a safe, compliant manner. The university also implemented vx Field to automatically allocate work orders depending on skill set, categorization, and priority, all while considering available resources.

  • Intuitive, self-service tool for staff and students to submit maintenance requests
  • Real-time updates from internal and external field teams on work progress
  • Fully integrated workflow lifecycle, from request to invoicing to payment
"vx Maintain helps us better serve our customers by providing them with a simple way to record maintenance issues, as well as enabling our maintenance team to keep them updated on the status of those requests from the field without the need to return to the office.”
Adrian McGillion, Director of Facilities Management

 

The Result

The use of vx Maintain and vx Field have led to greater workforce efficiencies and measurable cost savings for EHU. Improved workflow processes allow for less reliance on contractors, leading to maintenance savings that more than doubled original estimates. Team members work more efficiently thanks to automatic task routing and mobile tools for immediate updates, and customer satisfaction has increased with an easier request process. Clear visibility into maintenance history has also improved budget forecasting.

  • 30% reduction in use of external contractors
  • 47% reduction in reactive maintenance spend
  • £140,000 reactive maintenance cost savings
  • £36 average savings per work order