Canad Inns Releases Case Study on their Use of CMMS

Making Hotel Maintenance More Efficient with CMMS Software

• 
  SAVE
• 
  SHARE
• 
  TEXT SIZE
• 
  PRINT
• 
  COMMENT
• 
  PDF

. January 20, 2017

In order to provide quality maintenance, hotels now look towards computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) to give a piece of mind to their customers. This means finding the right software has become a priority in the facility maintenance industry of hospitality.

There are several factors to determine which software is the right match. In 2014, the Canadian hotel chain, Canad Inns, signed on with Hippo CMMS once deciding it was the best choice for their maintenance team. With their hotels located across the province of Manitoba, and one in North Dakota, they were looking for a maintenance management software solution to integrate across all their locations. Their facility management department released a case study which explained their research into facility maintenance software and what made Hippo CMMS stand out as the ideal solution.

Their case study covers several aspects of their journey researching CMMS; how the software accommodated their company structure along with the right features and support for a large maintenance team. There were also the goals of upper management to better resolve current maintenance challenges. This included accurate records of maintenance and repair costs as well as ease of use and user permissions. They also had concerns regarding software access - cost per user and ROI.

Here are some of the reasons why Canad Inns used Hippo CMMS for their facility maintenance needs.

Maintenance across Multiple Locations

With Canad Inns being the biggest hotel chain in Manitoba, they needed a system to manage all their locations across the prairies. Hippo CMMS is a maintenance management software company located in the downtown area of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Having a software whose office was local to them was a huge plus. Lane Ledohowski, Canad Inns VP Construction and Facilities Manager, was looking for a system to incorporate across each hotel. This helped to be able to review each hotel's maintenance performance and how the company's maintenance management as a whole. Lane believed Hippo's HipPro+ software package was the best choice of implementing a maintenance management system. Canad Inns chose this software package because it included Hippo's Advanced Dashboard setup. This contained customer branded facility screens and interactive floor plans for each hotel. Maintenance management and upper management could see in real-time where work was being done and what tasks are involved. Technicians could now access their work orders from any computer or device from any location. This also made their work orders easier to share as two users could access the same work order remotely.

Paper-free Maintenance Tracking

  Canad Inns had to address what was their current use of paper only reports and maintenance tracking. With a paper-based system, this made it difficult to keep tabs on work order requests and status updates. Lane explained that prior to CMMS, their ability to manage work order requests was nothing but, “an archaic system.” With three different maintenance departments across multiple locations, this became another opportunity to improve the team's efficiency. Impactful workflow requires access to maintenance information on the go - this meant going from solely paper to a web-based solution.

Hippo CMMS provided a web-based solution to no longer relies on paper work orders. Status updates could be done in real time with the option to print a copy of work orders when needed. One of their concerns was what the software would charge in relation to how many users they wanted to have. The Hippo software package Lane chose gave their team unlimited users and unlimited work order request accounts. This meant Canad Inns' maintenance team was not the only ones to benefit from maintenance management software - other departments could benefit as well.
 

Communication

  Canad Inns needed an effective way to communicate across multiple locations. Lane explains how the use of the Hippo app has empowered their maintenance team to complete work orders while all staying connected. He stated, “When we started to streamline a work order system it was very good at providing us with an archive that was transferable to different people hopping onto the system.”
 

This was a significant benefit as it helped to resolve one of their current issue with transferring information among maintenance management. Using a mobile app, Lane and his team were able to work on updating work order status in real time while out on the field. They also were able to better structure their CMMS with user permissions that replicated the roles and responsibilities of their organization.

Work order requests were another effective form to communicate maintenance requests and issue repairs. With unlimited user accounts, their team could issue as many or as few members of staff to access the system. The requester logins solely gave access to a request portal for the maintenance management to review and approve. With these new forms of communication, the team became to be more connected. Fewer breakdowns in communication occurred and work efficiency improved.

Simple Implementation

  Lane wanted a CMMS software solution that was user-friendly for their team to use regularly. This meant a CMMS software simple to install but complex enough to successfully adjust to the various roles of their staff. Hippo's software had a user-friendly approach to CMMS and layered user-permission system. This helped Canad Inns' have a successful implementation of the software.
 

Hippo's services included a quick startup process and internal tech support direct from their Winnipeg office. A Data Integration Specialist was assigned to Lane's team to support the setup process. Meanwhile a Training and Tech Support Specialist provided them with training and answering questions. Once the setup was completed, the maintenance team was ready to get started. Much of the concerns prior to implementation were also resolved and the team had access to ongoing support when needed.

Conclusion

Canad Inns had found Hippo CMMS, to be the maintenance software solution they needed for their facility maintenance. Before the change to a web-based system, work orders were solely made on hard copy. As work orders are created across multiple locations, breakdown in communication began to emerge. This lead to missed updates of maintenance activities; tracking the repair and maintenance costs had become a serious challenge. The simplicity to manage tasks through Hippo CMMS while having the flexibility to create as many distinct users as possible resolved these issues. Lane stated, “…It is no longer a matter of running around and looking for it. You know where everything is.” Tasks are easy to assign directly to other locations and recall when needed. No longer are work orders solely print based. Communication Canad Inns is has improved and they are confident in Hippo's ability to support them when needed. Canad Inns continues to successfully use Hippo and find relief from prior maintenance headaches. They are now able to work with more efficiency and a clear focus on their maintenance goals.

To learn more , check out Hippocmms.com and read their case study.

If you are a hotel executive who has yet to make your business more efficient and cost effective by implementing a CMMS software, please get in touch with Hippo CMMS to discuss possible solutions catered for you.

Daniel Golub GM, Hippo CMMS E. [email protected] T. 866 956 2859 ext 233 W. www.hippocmms.com