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The Wyoming School Facilities Commission (SFC) was struggling with managing their facilities management and capital project funds due to the use of various spreadsheets and nonintegrated databases. This made reporting a difficult and time-consuming task. There was no structure in place to manage funds effectively and they did not even know how many projects were being funded. Controls over capital project monies did not exist and there was very little documentation on SFC business processes. After extensive analysis, the SFC concluded that out of 1,100 projects, 750 of those projects were overspent.

ASU’s Physical Plant Department is responsible for creating and maintaining an aesthetically pleasing, environmentally sustainable and energy efficient environment for the campus community by maintaining campus buildings and grounds, providing auxiliary services and preserving the value of the university’s infrastructure. Prior to installing a Web-based Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS), ASU relied on a homegrown UNIX system that was originally developed in the 1980’s and ran on a legacy DEC server. Over the years, this system became increasingly difficult to maintain and update, because much of the information was deeply hard-coded into the software. Sharing information inter-departmentally was difficult and the existing library of reports was inadequate. ASU realized a modern maintenance management system was needed to keep pace with the demands of a growing university. The university initiated a search for a system that would enable them to effectively share data and quickly make informed business decisions given the daily operational demands facing the Physical Plant Department.

California State University, Fresno, was facing significant challenges due to a budget crisis in the State of California. The university's maintenance management system, known as the Maintenance Management System (MMS), was outdated and could no longer support the school's evolving needs. The university needed a system that could provide online access to facilities records, up-to-date information, and the ability to put real figures behind key business assumptions. The university was also looking for ways to run lean while preserving service quality amidst budget cuts and growing service needs.

In 2015, Caltech was ready to usher in significant technological changes in their Facilities Department. After conducting both internal and external audits, the next steps were clear: Caltech needed a Facility Management Software (FMS) to support their complex Facilities Management practices. The former IWMS was not configured to support Caltech's innovative processes or Facilities Management vision. Staff was unable to easily pull desired metrics. The outdated user interface was difficult to learn and use for some employees. The demand maintenance process was highly variable. Customers were frustrated with lack of information regarding work order status, timing, and billing. There were no clear cut work processes.

Scott County, Minnesota, shares an instance of AssetWorks FleetFocus with partner organizations in the local area, allowing for data sharing and benchmarking, best practices and more. This collaboration has been a challenge at times, but also has shown that all parties can benefit from using the same software. Jason Allen, the System Management Specialist for Scott County, is responsible for the functionality of the fleet management software for the County. He spends his days deep in the FleetFocus system, discovering intricacies and tips that will improve Scott County’s reporting, performance and analyses. At the same time, he communicates his tips and discoveries with their partner organizations, while also receiving tips from them.

Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) is a large school division responsible for 86 school centers and a fleet of over 650 buses on the road daily, with a total of 1200 managed assets. They were using an outdated Windows-based system for fleet management, which was not efficient or effective for their needs. The team was apprehensive about the transition to a new system, fearing loss of old work, having to adapt to new workflows, and learning new screens.

As the fleet services manager for the City of Long Beach, Dan Berlenbach is responsible for capturing, compiling, and making usable data from various streams that come from servicing the fleet, fueling it, and operators driving it. The fleet is large and extensively data-driven, making it challenging to make the data usable given the amount available. Berlenbach's responsibilities are directly tied to the financial operations of the City, requiring him to prioritize and tackle tasks daily. Despite the fully integrated nature of his software, Berlenbach recognizes that a fully integrated team is essential to the wellbeing and success of the organization.

Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) manages the city's extensive park system, which includes over 400 parks and natural areas. One of SPR's primary roles is to manage and maintain the thousands of assets within the park system. However, the department had been using separate work order and asset management systems that were not integrated, leading to duplicate work, inefficient data collection, and other issues. SPR believed that an integrated asset management software system would improve efficiencies, maintenance tracking, and data quality. During the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, SPR had clear requirements for an asset management software solution, including ease of navigation for staff, meeting reporting needs, integration with certain existing systems, and configurability.

Ferus, Inc., a company focused on the production and transportation of oilfield consumables, was facing several operational challenges. They were dealing with slow invoicing times, inefficiency in labor costs due to manual ticketing, and reliability issues caused by multiple systems operating independently. They were looking for a solution that would offer single point tracking, ticketing, and invoicing, while also reducing labor costs and improving invoicing times. They had previously selected a different field service provider, but it didn't meet their needs as it only switched paperwork to electronic and required additional add-ons for tracking items and adding ticketing.

St. Charles Parish, located on the banks of the Mississippi River, Louisiana, was facing challenges in managing over 60,000 assets. The existing processes were inefficient and relied heavily on the memories of employees. The organization was spending money on assets that should have been phased out, but they had no way to track the costs incurred by the assets. They also lacked a preventive maintenance schedule and had no efficient way of generating reports for any information they might want. The Parish was operating reactively rather than proactively, and they needed a system to manage their assets more efficiently and improve their reporting capabilities.

Three Star Trucking, now operating as Vertex, is one of the largest oilfield trucking companies in Western Canada. They contract a wide range of transportation services in harsh environments throughout Canada and the United States. As they have grown, their active number of drivers can fluctuate on a monthly basis. At the time of this success story, Three Star had 165 drivers utilizing the rugged Ranger vehicle device and Vertex had committed to continue using these devices in a number of their units. On average, they see about 150 drivers in their system at any given time. They had previously tried using iPads for their drivers, but managing all of those iPads was a nightmare. They needed a solution that was cheaper, more efficient, more durable and came with extended support. While scouting out potential providers, they noticed that many didn’t have a dedicated support team. As a result, they would have to jump through hoops and call several different providers to ensure they had integrated support solutions that would work with each of their non-integrated systems. They needed a solution that offered full customer support access for each of the modules and systems and provided a dedicated Project Manager.

Torq Energy Logistics Ltd., a leading independent energy logistics and midstream company in Western Canada, was facing challenges in streamlining processes, transitioning from paper logs to electronic ticketing, and using data to enhance driver safety. The time-consuming process of collecting paper tickets from various locations across Alberta and Saskatchewan was posing significant challenges. The company was also looking for ways to utilize real-time data to improve operations and safety. The invoicing process for its trucking business was another area of concern, with delays in ticket submission leading to delays in invoicing and payment from customers.

Peri & Sons Farms, a certified sustainable farm in western Nevada, was looking for a way to improve its decision-making process and overall operations. The farm, which employs over 2,100 employees and produces over 500 million pounds of onions each year, initially implemented AssetWorks in 2018. However, they significantly underestimated the software’s potential. They initially thought they would use it for their parts teams and mechanics, but they soon realized that the software could be used for much more. The farm was also looking for a way to improve its fuel accounting and keep track of its spending to stay within its allotted fuel budget.

The City of Minot, North Dakota, had been using a system purchased in the 1980s for all city functions, including vehicle maintenance tracking, purchasing and inventory, and financials. While the system was computerized, many of the team’s necessary processes were paper-based, leading to inefficiencies and the potential for lost or damaged data. The city decided to modernize the system and began looking for a new asset management system to be used by the Public Works Department. The software deployment process coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, which shifted meetings and training sessions that would typically be done in-person to a virtual platform.

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) operates a fleet of over 2,000 units and 12 maintenance locations spread throughout the San Diego area. They manage and maintain 1.4 million electric meters and 873,000 natural gas residential meters across SDG&E’s 4,100 square miles of service area. SDG&E makes significant use of the AssetWorks FleetFocus suite, including EquipmentFocus and the Notification Manager module. As a utility organization, SDG&E uses one aspect of FleetFocus in a unique way: SOX compliance and invoicing. Before using FleetFocus for invoicing and SOX compliance, SDG&E originally developed an in-house process that populated an Excel spreadsheet when someone entered a part receipt or commercial charge into the fleet management system. However, this process was not secure and could be manipulated or altered. SDG&E needed a method that would be SOX compliant, which required that the same individual could not both submit an invoice and subsequently approve it.

Woolf Farming’s permanent crop manager, Kevin Visser, wanted to find a way to work closer with his agronomist and, at the same time, recognized that he needed a digital tool that could help him create better plans and reports than what he was used to. Kevin’s agronomy provider, Soil Basics, introduced him to Agworld and showed him the opportunities and capabilities of the platform. Once Kevin realized how this system would benefit Woolf Farming on a daily basis, he decided to adopt Agworld as well.

Up until 2015, Valley Agronomics was using legacy software that did not fulfill the needs of the organisation. The agronomy team was not happy with the tools they had, and they did not offer any opportunity for client interaction either. The existing software was outdated and did not provide the necessary features and functionalities required by the team. This posed a significant challenge as it hindered the team's ability to effectively manage and monitor their operations. The lack of client interaction features also made it difficult for the team to effectively communicate and collaborate with their clients. This was a major setback as it affected the overall efficiency and productivity of the team.

Wairakaia Partnership, a mixed farming operation in New Zealand, was struggling with data management. The company was using spreadsheets to track their operations, but this method was time-consuming and inefficient. The cropping manager and co-owner, Bruce Graham, was frustrated with having to enter all his data back in the office at night, instead of being able to do so in the field. Additionally, he was unable to access his farm data when he needed it most: in the field. The company needed a solution that would allow them to create and access records wherever they were, and provide detailed historical data to inform their decision-making process.

In 2014, Drew Bell with Coleman Ag recognized the need to start collecting farm records electronically and in the field, by the people performing the actual applications, instead of behind a desktop in an office. The main drivers for this need were state regulations that enforce pesticide application tracking and to provide workers with accurate information about re-entry intervals after these applications. The Coleman family has a long history in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, having first arrived on the Oregon Trail in 1847 and settling in the Saint Paul area. The Coleman family soon started farming in the Willamette Valley, which is a tradition that the family has continued ever since, with the sixth generation Colemans currently at the helm.

Junior Loza was using Excel to keep track of his field applications and costs but was not able to easily run reports or identify his agronomic costs per field, variety or acre. Junior also did not have a tool to help him manage his workforce, up to 40 people in peak season, and ensure that everyone was involved in recording all of the job details. Growing hops is unlike any other crop, from planting through to harvesting. The hop varieties that are grown get decided on a supply and demand basis by the brokers and the end users, often resulting in farms growing lots of different varieties. Loza Farms for example grows over 10 different varieties, with some fields as small as 7 acres for the niche varieties.

Gillieston Fresh Produce, a tomato grower for wholesalers on the East Coast of Australia, was facing challenges in accurately tracking nutrition and other inputs applied to each field. They were also unable to record the cost of production and profit for a specific field. The lack of detailed records was affecting their ability to optimize their production process and maximize profitability. The company needed a solution that would allow them to plan and budget their whole season, record every single field operation as the season progresses, and have accurate historic records available per individual field.

David Boersma, who runs a custom farming operation in Manteca, California, was facing a challenge with his billing process. At the end of every month, he had to go through eight hand-written books to find out which jobs had been performed and worried that some jobs might get missed. The process was time-consuming and prone to errors. He was looking for a solution that could make his billing process quicker, easier, and more accurate.

K•Coe Isom’s AgKnowledge team was looking to improve their service offerings to their grower clients by moving towards a more dynamic way of communication. They wanted to create improved metrics on a more detailed level for their growers to empower them to make more profitable decisions. The team was using spreadsheets for their farm planning, which did not allow for two-way dynamic communication. They realized that the time of using spreadsheets for everything was rapidly coming to an end and they needed to find a better and more sophisticated farm planning solution.

The Jansz Parish vineyard, a 220-hectare property in Penna, Tasmania, was struggling with gaining insight into the detailed cost per hectare of their wine production. They also wanted to produce accurate production budgets for future seasons without adding extra layers of administration and complexity. The vineyard has three types of soil and focuses on biodiversity by planting flowering crops every 10th row, along with corridors of native bush and a cover cropping program. This diversity required them to monitor their nutrition closely with soil testing six weeks post-harvest, petiole analysis pre and post flowering, and dry ash analysis at harvest.

Lilliput Ag, a farming enterprise that grows a variety of crops and produces seed for sister-business Baker Seed Co., was looking to adopt a newer recording platform linked to the cloud to track production data. The co-owners, Andrew & Sue Russell, felt that they had to be able to connect production data to their finance software in order to remain competitive. They were using an older software solution for 20 years and felt the need to advance to a cloud-driven mobile platform. The goal was to capture as much data as possible in order to dial back inputs where possible and decrease costs. The more data they had to reference, the more precise they could be with the inputs they applied.

The Roberts’ family farming operation captured data, but mainly in excel spreadsheets together with a total of 55 separate apps. When Ben Roberts joined the family farm, he was determined to make the process of capturing and utilizing data easier and derive more value from the farm data in the end. The family was using excel spreadsheets, which were difficult to update and understand for anyone else but the person who created them. Ben Roberts wanted to be able to drive into a field, see where he was at, click on the field, and have the year-to-date information right there in front of him.

Whitesides Dairy had been looking for a record-keeping program to suit their operation for a few years but were unable to identify a tool that measured up to their standards. They needed a tool that could help them keep track of how much nutrition they apply to their fields, as they use most of the manure from their dairy in their cropping operation, as well as some commercial fertilizer. They also needed to track the EPA registration numbers with the rates and applications dates for the insecticides and pesticides they use on their crops. They had been using spreadsheets for these tasks, but it was becoming increasingly labor-intensive.

The Baldock family, who manage a farm in Buckleboo, SA, needed a tool to capture data in a one-touch electronic format that everyone could access. They wanted to know exactly what happens in the field. They also needed more reports from their farm data to make more transparent management decisions. Tristan Baldock, who had recently joined the family farm, was familiar with Agworld and its advantages for agronomists. He soon discovered what Agworld could do for growers as well, and the family decided to adopt Agworld as the data capture platform on their farm.

Cavaso Farming Partnership, a family-run farming operation in Australia, needed a simple and efficient way to create records of the spraying operations that take place in each individual crop and field. This was particularly important for their prune crops, which are subject to food certification requirements. They needed to be able to supply accurate records of exactly what inputs have been applied at any given time during the season. The family was looking to digitize and simplify their record-keeping process, which was previously done through hand-written books and piecing together various data.

Jack Phillips, owner and manager of J F Phillips Farms, needed a farm record keeping platform that allows him to keep track of everything that happens on his farm. He wanted a system that would not offer seed, chemical and fertilizer companies or equipment suppliers any kind of transparency into his data, so they could use this data to his disadvantage. The challenge was to find a system that would meet these requirements and help him manage the many moving parts of his operation.