As stewards of buildings and grounds, Facilities Services staff work hard to maintain SFU’s unique Burnaby Campus landscape. To ensure its manicured lawns, planted areas, and natural green spaces are properly cared for, the University has contracted local business Popular Landscaping to handle the soft landscaping needs such as the maintenance and upkeep of lawns, sports fields, gardens, hedges trees, and planters. No small feat considering Burnaby Campus covers 195 hectares of land with approximately 32.2 hectares of greenery.
Earlier in the year, Jay reached out to Gerry Lopez, Manager of Strategic Initiatives to discuss potential solutions. After extensive discussions between team members and departmental leadership, Gerry began a project to improve service delivery.
The team quickly enabled the WebTMA mobile solution and provided the contractor with a mobile device. While there were a few technical bumps along the way, the enhancements not only streamlined the fulfillment process but also eliminated printing paper copies, improved customer service and communication and coordination between the contractor and SFU managers.
Since implementation, still-open work order requests have dropped from 120 to just 10. Additionally, mobile functionality has allowed the contractor to complete work orders on the go as well as monitor the system for new work orders several times a day.
While mobile support for work orders is still quite new for the department, Larry Waddell, Chief Facilities Officer, applauds the initiative as an innovative tool helping departmental personnel make improvements to their work processes.