Directorate of Public Works at Fort Eustis Streamlines Business Processes
and Eliminates Redundant Data Entry
A Single Point of Entry Facilities Management System

“Dedicated, professional, willing.” That’s the motto of the specialists who work at the Directorate of Public Works (DPW) in Fort Eustis, VA. They’re the ones who get the call whenever an internal Army customer in the Northeast Region of the United States says he or she has a problem – and those problems can range from transportation issues to aviation maintenance, from family housing to potholes. While this DPW prides itself on implementing best practices in all it does, bringing together data from disparate systems has proved a challenge.

Fort Eustis leaders knew that part of this challenge could be met by a fully integrated facility maintenance management system with a single point of entry. Such an approach would lead to more efficient procurement efforts by bringing consistency to the data available, reducing duplication of effort and curbing error rates. To develop the system, the Fort Eustis leadership team turned to the dedicated and willing professionals of Total Resource Management, Inc. and the solutions TRM designs to complement industry leading Maximo® enterprise asset management software.

“Here in the Army, and particularly at Fort Eustis, we’re always looking to improve business profits while saving taxpayer money,” says Brenda Murphy, an Army information specialist involved in developing the new facility management system. “TRM was able to meet these needs – to keep the government, Fort Eustis and our contractors all happy at the same time. They were able to mesh all parties’ needs as we took three systems down to one, single point of entry system. This has brought efficiency to everything we do.”

Such results are not possible without extensive planning and testing. It took several months of preparatory work to bring the Maximo software online. For six months after that, TRM worked with Fort Eustis planners to create an interface with the government’s Integrated Facilities System (IFS). “As we became more engaged, we could see how TRM’s tools would eliminate duplicate entry work related to pulling work orders, requisitioning materials and scheduling labor,” Murphy says. “We began to look forward to loading the system with more data and reports.”

The implementation team members utilized TRM’s ScreenBuilder and RulesManager products to tailor their systems and screens with data elements that matched internal user-driven fields and business processes. The result is a better, more flexible facilities maintenance management system that offers increased efficiencies. For example:

• The Service Order process (once based on a “fix me now” approach) now allows for the assignment of priority status – which in turn allows Army specialists to address emergencies appropriately according to required standards.
• Labor and material information is passed directly into Standing Operation Orders for repair and maintenance, the base ops contractor and into IFS.
• Input fields are sequenced and forms fields are automatically populated, thanks to the system’s ability to relate customer IDs and category codes.
• Emails are automatically generated and routed to the teams whose attention is required – there’s no more guesswork.

“What TRM offers goes far beyond out-of-the-box software applications,” Murphy says. “TRM people assisted with every milestone, from setting up the equipment to data field design. They provided onsite training whenever we went live with a new interface. There always was someone working with us to ensure that our decisions were smart ones.

“The single point of entry approach has eliminated much of the potential for error, and a great deal of paper. Plus, every user is looking at the same set of data, which gives me – a data administrator – great peace of mind,” Murphy says. “The software provides many user-definable fields and processes we can add and adapt. And with the rules engine sitting outside the core Maximo code, we’ll be able to leverage these efforts during future upgrades.”

TRM RulesManager is a configuration engine that enables users to enhance and tailor Maximo 5 system behavior and functionality without the need for Java programming. ScreenBuilder is a browserbased graphical screen editor that complements RulesManager by enabling users to interactively build and modify Maximo 5 application screens. Easy to use and featuring “drag and drop” functionality, ScreenBuilder also lets users perform rapid prototyping and testing. Used together or separately, these TRM productivity tools allow organizations such as Fort Eustis to benefit from faster deployment cycles and improved configuration management.

Of course, the dedicated, professional and willing specialists at Fort Eustis already are dreaming up new uses for this facilities maintenance management system that will continue to improve work processes. They’re looking at inventory and purchasing opportunities and in fact already have completed an inventory catalog. They hope to bring more and greater efficiencies to their organization including additional preventive maintenance functions in the near future.

“Our team has been working very hard to reduce problems with data conversions as well as to provide more flexibility and lower costs,” says Tom Jennings, facilities support division manager. “Now we have a solid system with an upgrade path that will be quite beneficial for the government. We’ve created an effective interface, and are passing work order information in an efficient manner. Everyone knows where we stand at any point in time. We have the ability to more accurately determine budget priorities and forecast budgets. Working with TRM has helped us develop a totally flexible solution that have brought efficiencies to everything we do.”

“The entire project team, has certainly lived up to our slogan of being dedicated, professional and willing,” said Richard Reynal, deputy director at Fort Eustis. “It’s that combination of a great plan and good people with solid skills that make positive solutions a reality.”

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