Background
Solano County’s Facilities Management division, led by Facilities Manager Jason Alvarez, oversees approximately 55 buildings, with grounds located across seven cities. The facilities team manages properties ranging from major facilities in Fairfield, Vacaville and Vallejo to smaller venues like veterans’ halls and touchdown spaces in other cities.
With an impressive 91% completion rate on work orders, Solano County was asking themselves what else they could be doing with Brightly Software — which was later acquired by Siemens — to make their county more efficient. In the end, they implemented a preventive maintenance schedule that enabled them to leverage even more of the software’s features.
Streamlining maintenance practices
Siemens Asset Management (formerly Brightly Software) has transformed how Solano County manages its facilities operations. The software enables the team to effectively track and manage work orders across their diverse portfolio of buildings. And, it has significantly improved the county’s resource planning capabilities. According to Alvarez, the team can now forecast needs more accurately, manage scheduling more efficiently and handle vacation requests more effectively.
The team can also review the maintenance history of any piece of equipment. That even includes fixes for a failed piece of equipment. Alvarez says that tracking this is “huge when you’re troubleshooting.”
The County attributes Brightly’s software, now a part of the Siemens portfolio, to organizing and streamlining their maintenance practices and operations. Said Alvarez, “You’re just kind of shooting from the hip without it.”
Saving money by extending asset lifespans
Alvarez wanted to switch Solano County from reactive fixes to more proactive maintenance workflows, so he implemented a new preventative maintenance schedule and partnered with Alpha Facilities Solutions to make it happen.
The new PM schedule will help extend asset lifecycles while saving the county money in the long term. Previously, he required an annual contingency budget, and now, he can accurately request the budget he needs to sufficiently care for the county’s assets without guessing. “My goal is actually to be more efficient with the budget,” says Alvarez.
Looking forward
The facilities team is focused on fully implementing their preventative maintenance process and integrating their maintenance data with capital projects and facility condition assessments. This integration will enable more data-driven decision-making for equipment replacements and facility upgrades.
As Alvarez explains, their ultimate goal is to create a unified system where all facility data is seamlessly connected, eliminating the current challenge of working with segmented information across multiple platforms.
Solano County is also exploring additional products from the Siemens Asset Management suite for government, including Event Manager for their facility rental needs and Origin to further their capital planning strategy.