Background
The Cherry Creek School District, encompassing more than 53,000 students across 67 schools in western Arapahoe County, Colorado, faces the paramount need for efficient facilities maintenance and management within its various schools and facilities.
Incident IQ offered a unified platform that streamlined their processes, improved response times, and provided comprehensive support for their facilities and technology needs.
Quicker Response Times
Toni Hawk, Staff Support Specialist for Cherry Creek, noticed that the adoption of Incident IQ significantly improved response times.
One of the pressing challenges Cherry Creek School District faced was managing their in-house facilities, including HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and more. Their previous paper-based system led to delays and inefficiencies.
“Incident IQ is the first process that we’re using that is actually paperless,” said Hawk.
With Incident IQ, work orders are sent directly to the right personnel, reducing the time it takes to address facilities maintenance issues.This streamlined approach ensures that the right people have their eyes on the task within hours or even minutes, a vast improvement over the old system.
“No longer do requests sit in mailboxes all day, waiting to be addressed,” said Hawk.
Comprehensive IT Support Bolsters Cherry Creek’s Operations
Cherry Creek was also impressed by the level of support provided by Incident IQ. Weekly meetings with Incident IQ’s support team have been instrumental in addressing district questions and fine-tuning their platform.
“Having access to the support team has been a game-changer. We meet weekly, and I can reach out for quick help, whether it’s 15 minutes or an hour. This support allows us to work through permissions and rules seamlessly, even though we’re not tech experts,” said Hawk.
The availability and consistency of Incident IQ’s support team have been invaluable in ensuring a smooth transition and continued success. Unlike platforms with inaccessible or outsourced support staff, Incident IQ provides the advantage of familiar faces, ensuring discussions build upon prior interactions, facilitating ongoing progress and knowledge sharing.
“There’s never been a time where I’ve tried to reach out and somebody’s not available, somebody’s always available. I can email and if I don’t get an answer right then, they’ll respond and fill me in,” said Hawk.
The Incident IQ Community also proved to be an invaluable resource for Cherry Creek, offering access to a knowledge base where they can explore existing topics, find insights for problem-solving, and check if their questions have been previously addressed by other users. Knowledge Base articles are recommended based on issue type — automatically directing team members or requestors to appropriate help resources.
Allocating the Proper Resources with Enhanced Features
Cherry Creek finds value in including photos and videos with maintenance requests, especially when a mere verbal description falls short in conveying the extent of facility problems.
“We had someone turn in a ticket for a leaky faucet and in the photo it showed two small drips. Once you saw the attached video, you could see that it was gushing water where if they would’ve just seen the photo, they probably would’ve kept it at a medium priority. They were able then to up the priority and get somebody out there right away after looking at the video,” said Hawk.
The attachment feature significantly improved the accuracy of assessing issues. This not only enhances the quality of service but also optimizes resource allocation by addressing urgent matters promptly.
iiQ Facilities not only allows users to create tickets for tasks, but also provides leadership with a detailed report of tickets, their resolution time, parts inventory supplies, and other mission-critical analytics. Thus, you can fine tune the troubled areas to develop a strong facility maintenance process.
Keeping Everyone in the Loop
Incident IQ’s “Followers” and “Subtickets” features have been monumental for workload management at Cherry Creek. With their previous system, only the assigned technician could view a ticket, but now, multiple stakeholders can collaborate on the same ticket, increasing transparency and efficiency. With ticket followers, easily add other agents or managers as followers to keep them notified of progress made on a ticket.
Subtickets have been particularly useful in managing complex tasks which require input from various departments.
“I’ve been using subtickets with fire code violations where there’s multiple tasks that need to be done by multiple departments before the fire marshal comes back out. So we’re able then to do the subtickets and we can get it out to the electrician, the plumber, the fire department, and have everything all in one [place],” says Hawk.
This streamlined approach eliminates the need to create separate tickets, ensuring that everyone involved is working toward a common goal, which was previously challenging.
“I believe it will greatly benefit our staff, offering a convenient one-stop shop for submitting technology and facility tickets. Additionally, we have plans to incorporate event requests, further streamlining the process for more user-friendly and efficient operations,” says Hawk.
Cherry Creek School District’s journey with Incident IQ showcases how a unified platform can revolutionize facilities management, boost efficiency, and enhance overall support for schools and districts. By choosing Incident IQ, the district has found a partner that aligns with their goals of delivering the best possible educational experience to their students.
See What K-12 Districts Are Talking About
Incident IQ is an award-winning workflow management solution that puts multiple K-12 support teams on the same page. If you’re tired of switching between platforms to find the data you need, it’s time to move to the unified platform that thousands of districts are talking about.
Schedule your demo today and see how Incident IQ can transform your district’s tech stack and building maintenance operations.