Moody Bible Institute, a private Christian college in Chicago, Illinois, is dedicated to training students for life in the ministry. Offering year-round classes since 1889, the institute has more than 800 employees and approximately 1,500 students. About 15 buildings on campus house typical college facilities such as classrooms, dormitories, a radio station, a bookstore, and executive offices.

Keeping the campus operating smoothly can be quite a chore. “We have an engineering department with three divisions and 15 total employees to make sure that everything that needs to get done actually does,” says Scott Rough, a maintenance engineer who has worked at the institute for the last four and a half years. “We tried to keep everything straight with a paper system but it wasn’t really working. Eventually, it became apparent that we needed something better.”

The "something" that they needed turned out to be FaciliWorks, which the institute purchased at the end of October 2000. The software allows them to better manage their equipment database, including scheduling preventive maintenance and tracking unscheduled service requests. “Little by little, we are also working towards tracking each and every work order that comes through the department so that we can build a good maintenance history on all of the buildings and the machines on campus,” says Scott.

One of the reasons the engineering department chose FaciliWorks was because it is very simple to operate. They also liked the amount of time it saves them. Formerly, when a machine needed new parts someone would have to track down the machine itself to get the necessary information. Today, this data can all be accessed via computer.

According to Rough, another very useful feature is the ability to track work orders. He explains that prior to purchasing the software, it wasn’t uncommon for each of the engineering supervisors to keep their divisions’ work orders in their own areas. With FaciliWorks, it is all in one central location and anyone can check status.

Finally, since the institute uses its own terminology, Rough cites FaciliWorks’ ability to change label names and clone equipment information and maintenance tasks as a major benefit.

“Aside from all of the features, we purchased the software because of the customer service and support we received when we were running the demo,” explains Rough. “Every time I had a question I got an answer right away and if the person I was talking to didn’t have the answer, they found someone who did."