PROFILE
CLIENT:
Mount Royal University
LOCATION
Canada
PARTNER:
Archibus Inc
PORTFOLIO:
Buildings
Mil Square Feet
Students
Mount Royal University is one of Canada’s top destinations for undergraduate studies. It offers small class sizes and personalized student services within a scholarly community renowned for academic excellence and a focus on teaching and learning. Founded in 1910, Mount Royal remains dedicated to the success of its students. Today, nearly 15,000 students choose from 12 bachelor’s degrees and 35 majors. More than 100,000 Mount Royal alumni are contributing to their communities worldwide.
CHALLENGES:
- Building and facility data kept in system no longer supported by the developer
- Preventive maintenance schedules were manually managed
- Existing database crashed, though no content was lost
- University staff phoned or emailed maintenance request; no automation
RESULTS:
- Streamlined and centralized request process, including notifications of when task is completed
- System view allows people from the same department to see requests to mitigate duplication
- Faster reporting on preventive maintenance data and trends
- Modules tailored to data needs
- Data now supports budgeting and staffing decisions
- Space Console has further improved space management processes beyond the initial 2013 module implementation
Replacing a “Piecemeal” Database
The buildings that make up Mount Royal University (MRU) are as diverse as the students and staff that occupy them. Three structures on the university’s 118-acre campus are LEED certified while some residence buildings were acquired after the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. There are early 21st century apartments mingled with 50-year-old administrative buildings. The campus is even built on the remains of a World War II flight school airstrip.
“When I started in 2007, only a few members of the Facilities Management team could input maintenance requests into our system. Requests came in via phone and email. When we decided to switch to Archibus in 2012, the import caused our old database to crash. Luckily, we got what we needed.”
Jason Philipchuk, Archibus Technology Support Analyst, Facilities Management
Using the Archibus On-Demand module, MRU staff now can submit requests to a streamlined and centralized system. Notifications are sent when tickets are resolved, and other members of a requestor’s department can see submitted tickets, so they don’t duplicate a request.
That automation is critical to the Facilities Management team’s response times. In 2012, Philipchuk said there were 3,000 requests. Today, that number is 14,000-plus a year and growing.
“We didn’t have single source of truth when it came to generating reports,” he said. “With Archibus, we improved our equipment inventory to ensure assets needing preventive maintenance were scheduled and given a means to track asset life cycle. That way, we keep our craftspeople out in the field and not in office working on reports.”
MRU implemented Archibus V24.1 last summer, which included the new Health and Safety module. Testing was in the works when COVID-19 hit, so Philipchuk’s team hasn’t had the chance to implement it. “We see the initial value and it will be great to get more testing done to see what merits it has.”
