Brightly Asset Essentials™ vs. ServiceChannel

SchoolDude has been great for us to easily submit maintenance requests, keep them organized for tracking, and simple for staff to view and respond to.

Incentivized

ServiceChannel is well suited for companies that have multiple locations or a few very large buildings. In my experience the system allows one person to manage 150 to 200 small retail locations but when you add restaurants and buildings with lots of equipment then it gets more complex and the number of locations that one person can effectively manage is greatly reduced. You can effectively manager 50 or 30,000+ locations with this system if you have the personal. There are several free or cost-effective programs available if you are only looking to manage a dozen or so locations.

Incentivized

• For maintenance requests, Dude Solutions Help Desk documents the request and then allows the custodial staff to record updates for the staff member to see. So, the request and solution are available for all parties involved.
• For building use, I find some of the features helpful including the ability to see if what you are looking for is available before you book it.
• Overall, Dude Solutions Help Desk is not difficult to use.

Incentivized

• ServiceChannel listens to me the user more than any other product I have ever been involved with. It seems like every few months there are some upgrades and improvements to an already great system.
• They have some great folks employed who are very accessible and very knowledgeable in this system, they are eager to help out and jump in, and they are never trying to up-sell me during these times.
• I believe they have some of the best practices around for helping out new vendors, who have never been exposed to any CMMS system, they help to ease the fear that contractors/vendors have from the onboarding process thru system training.

Incentivized

• The overall user interface is bland.
• Switching to the IT application takes opens in another tab.

Incentivized

• Sometimes the functionality of the software is slow.
• Example...I insert a WO# into the home search box and it comes up with "nothing found". I return to the home screen and repeat the exact same process and it takes me to my WO. This happens at least 50% of the time.
• They just finished up with a system upgrade (I think), and during the 3 week period I could not pull mass approved invoices for my AP department. That was a real hindrance.
• I am not particularly fond of the new dashboard format. It's not as easy to move around in. However it's new and I'm sure I will get used to it quick enough.

Incentivized

I gave it a high rating because it's an easy to use platform.

• It walks you step by step to goal accomplishment
• It doesn't drown you in tech speak or unnecessary steps
• It appears to be created by the busy facilities manager that just needs the good stuff with no fluff.
• Not to be rude but if a facilities manager can't function in SC easily they may not be in the right field.

Incentivized

I find the basic concept and use of Dude Solutions Help Desk to be good, but I think it could use an update to look and work more smoothly. The maintenance aspect of Dude Solutions Help Desk is definitely better than the scheduling tool. The maintenance request does have a decent set-up and does offer clear communication between the staff member and custodial staff. The scheduling tool needs a calendar feature and the ability to receive a notification in your calendar. Both tools do have an email service that directly sends updates to your email.

Incentivized

Sue Thomas is the reason...

• If a vendor has a template to upload I can ask for her support and it's done.
• If I need immediate data for a meeting and I'm away from my computer she can grab it for me on the fly.
• I've walked out of meetings looking like a stud based on the foreground work Sue did to prepare me.
• If there is a technical issues she will find a work around for me so I can focus on my job not my admin work.
• Clear and timely communication on every and all open issues.

Incentivized

It is very easy to set up ServiceChannel but the one thing I believe they could make easier is the vendor portion of ServiceChannel. We get a lot of complaints on how difficult it is for them when trying to get set up.

Incentivized

I have used a ticketing system through FirstClass that does not come anywhere close to where SchoolDude is in ease of use and quality of a program.

Incentivized

Service Channel bridged the gap for us to issue work orders directly to vendors. Maximo Asset Management did not have a user-friendly way for us to do what Service Channel does on the vendor side. Also, at the time of our selection, Maximo was missing the site portal but has since developed a solution of their own.

Incentivized

• We can calculate the need for IT workers based on work orders.
• We can track issues at buildings and what buildings may need more help.
• A simple approach where it makes it easy to get work order information rather than emails and phone calls.

Incentivized

• It increased visibility on how much we were spending on HVAC repairs/replacements and allowed us to make changes to reduce costs
• Before we were using paper invoices from the vendors, which creates a scenario of losing/missing invoices into AP. Then we start using the Service Channel invoicing and reduce errors to below 1%.
• Gives you the capability to add trades and adjust to your needs, so you can get better tracking of specific items.

Incentivized