How Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry Built Comprehensive Maintenance History with FTMaintenance

Maintenance Management Challenges

In the non-profit industry, maintenance needs and corresponding tasks tend to lack continuity. Months can go by without the need for maintenance and then several needs can arise at once. Without recorded work history, GHCCM staff was left scratching their heads trying to remember past maintenance job details. Another related problem was that maintenance tasks sometimes fell through the cracks—without a formal method of requesting maintenance, some repairs were forgotten. Before FTMaintenance, GHCCM had no consistent way of tracking their maintenance activities. They used Excel spreadsheets, along with written notes and printed materials to record what little data they had. This caused confusion and uncertainty among staff and volunteers when it came to facility maintenance. They didn’t know what was getting done, or not getting done.

GHCCM has a small paid staff; therefore, they use outside contractors to complete any critical maintenance work. It’s important for everyone to know who their trusted contractors and vendors are. Before they had FTMaintenance, GHCCM’s team didn’t know who to call for plumbing, electrical, or structural maintenance because there were multiple lists and no stored vendor history.

Rich Colton and Steve Fee are both volunteers at GHCCM. In 2017, they oversaw the renovation of the thrift store warehouse by a commercial contractor. During that time, GHCCM management became aware of their management skills and after that project was completed, asked their help in solving a number of maintenance issues they were having throughout the ministry. Rich and Steve began looking into their maintenance needs and records. The few records they did have were scattered and incomplete. The spreadsheet of needs also proved difficult to manage as things were changed or added. Rich and Stephen thought, ‘there has to be a better way.’ That’s when they began researching CMMS software and found FTMaintenance.

Solutions and Results

Now that GHCCM is fully utilizing FTMaintenance, they have built an extensive maintenance request and demand maintenance (DM) work order history. Like many organizations, the main goal when selecting CMMS software was to get their maintenance management under control. They have achieved that and more. Steve Fee, a lead volunteer said, “FTMaintenance has made our maintenance work a lot more organized. We now have a process in place.” He highly recommends FTMaintenance for other organizations like theirs. He also places a lot of value on FTMaintenance Service Request. The other volunteers say they don’t know what they ever did without it. Within the first nine months of using FTMaintenance Service Request, GHCCM Coordinators submitted 122 service requests, from which 66 work orders were created. Of these, 47 were completed in the first nine months of the program.

When a volunteer submits a request for maintenance through FTMaintenance Service Request, the administrators are notified and it becomes a work order if approved. Completed work orders then go into work order history, which allows them to look back and see the past vendors they used for every job, making it easy to contact those that did quality work in the past for upcoming jobs. An FTMaintenance Service Request feature that makes it easy for Steve and Rich to use is 24/7 mobile accessibility. They often work outside the office, and can access the application at home as well as at the facility. They love that they “don’t have to be there” to manage maintenance requests.

A significant benefit of FTMaintenance Service Requests for GHCCM is its simple, user-friendly interface. Anyone in the organization is able to use it regardless of how “tech-savvy” they are. Requesters can fill out a few fields, hit the Submit button, and they’re done. These requests are then sent directly to a designated email group, and from there, maintenance managers can decide how to delegate them.

FTMaintenance also provides GHCCM’s directors with complete visibility of maintenance data across all divisions, including the thrift store, medical facility, pharmacy, dental office, nutrition center, and counseling/programs center. This visibility lends to increased awareness of potential maintenance needs. If records show that one location repaired a ceiling tile for example, someone viewing this data at another location may recall that they need similar maintenance completed and submit a service request for that job. In conclusion, managers and directors around the facility have been providing positive feedback about FTMaintenance to Rich and Steve, and are very satisfied with the software.

About Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry

Celebrating their 50th Anniversary, Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry (GHCCM) was founded when several churches in the Hickory, North Carolina area came together to form a small staff supplemented by volunteers to help those in need. They opened a thrift store and warehouse first, funneling profits back into the facility to support their growth. And grow they did—now with 60 churches in the cooperative, their community efforts expanded to include a nutrition center, medical clinic, and pharmacy.

Just recently, they added the Whole Life Center, in which volunteers work with those in need of assistance with life goals such as purchasing a home and finding a job. In addition to those services, GHCCM also has their SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery), NETworX, and Partners Behavioral Health’s Shelter Plus Care programs. These programs all help individuals and families to overcome poverty, as well as obstacles within the health and state benefits systems. GHCCM has been an FTMaintenance customer since 2018.