Reviews, Testimonials and Case Studies

Improving In-field Efficiency with the Pervidi Paperless Inspection Application and Digital Asset Management Solution

Since its inception, Walker Certification has been committed to safety and compliance whilst providing; first class on-site inspection & testing services, exceptional support & advice, and quality products.

Andrew Walker – Managing Director of Walker Certification, recognised the need for a robust paperless solution that could automate inspection and servicing requirements, report discrepancies, and minimise company reliance on paper.

“We saw an opportunity to become an industry leader with the advances in technology, which would in turn speed up our overall workflow and allow us to better serve our clients”.

“We heard good reviews about the Pervidi Asset Management Solution and paperless inspection app, and we were keen to try it. We were looking for a paperless solution that would be easy to use, powerful, had local support and could offer more features than other applications, whilst still being affordable – Pervidi met all our criteria.”

– A. Walker, Walker Certification.

“Techs4biz worked with Walker Certification to set up the asset management database as well as the Pervidi paperless application. We provided online, video and email training to the admin users and the field technicians” said Naaman Shibi, General Manager at Tech4Biz.

Walker Certification now uses the Pervidi paperless application on iPhones to complete inspections and servicing out in the field. With access to the Pervidi solution, the technicians can complete and provide near real-time reports and certificates, whilst taking into consideration relevant Australian Standards and feeding data back to the online asset management database.

Digital Field Force Automation

By becoming a more mobile and digital workforce, the technicians at Walker Certification can work more efficiently, utilising the features of their iPhones to easily complete checklists and access reference material.

“Going digital and paperless has been a huge success for us. We’ve had great feedback from all our staff about the ease of using the mobile devices and from our customers.

Looking Ahead

Into 2022 and beyond, Walker Certification is looking to continue its move into paperless applications and cloud-based solutions.

“At Walker Certification we are always searching for ways to remain ahead of the game. We want to continue to do our job well and be the best at what we do and offer our customers. By using the Pervidi mobile application and the cloud-based Asset Management Solution, we continue to provide the best service to our clients”.

For more information visit:

www.walkercertification.com.au

Regular playground inspections are essential to ensure that safety is maintained for all visitors. Bruce Stephens Playground Services (BSPS) provide professional inspection services for playgrounds in metropolitan Melbourne and throughout wider Victoria. Whether you are from local government, a childcare centre, any school, or private business; BSPS offer a playground inspection service to suit your needs and requirements. With experience also working with clients in Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia, it’s safe to say that BSPS know what safety means around playgrounds. Working together with you, BSPS can help you design, build and maintain a Better, Safer Play Structure.

To conduct the highest quality inspections and checks of playgrounds, BSPS came to Pervidi seeking a paperless solution fit for purpose. Not only did the inspection require collecting of information on playground equipment in the community, but there was also a need to provide reports to all stakeholders.

Before using Pervidi, BSPS was generating reports manually, which was excessively time consuming. Each inspection report for each piece of equipment and asset had to be manually verified, to ensure that the information had been collected.

“No more manual work when we can generate reports with a click of a button. The technical support provided by Pervidi is excellent!”

– J. Stephens, Bruce Stephens Playground Services

Manually creating a report can be very time consuming, with processes such as: transferring photos to the computer; typing out the defects; formatting of reports; etc. all summing to a notable timespan. Since implementing Pervidi, Bruce Stephens Playground Service can now generate reports quickly, streamlining the process for their clients, and enhancing safety for all in the community.

For more information please visit:

www.bsplaygroundservices.com.au

Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest gold mining company in the world, with operations in Australia, Africa, North America and South America. At their Elko, Nevada location, Fall Protection Coordinator, Vince, coordinates fall protection for more than 200 employees in their transportation division. There, mechanics do much of the repair work or preventive maintenance on Barrick’s truck fleet while suspended over 10- to 20-foot high vehicles. In addition to training staff on fall protection, one of Vince’s other responsibilities is conducting equipment inspections. Up until 2011, Barrick tracked all their fall safety equipment data manually—what Vince describes as a laborious process.

“I would fill out a separate sheet for each piece of equipment I inspected—and we have close to 800 pieces,” he explains. “This usually resulted in a stack of paperwork about 3-4 inches high. I would then take that paperwork to my office and enter the data manually onto my computer”. Then he heard of the Pervidi™ System – an electronic system that supports inspection tracking, consistent compliance and safety management and risk mitigation. He immediately recognized its potential and was eager to give it a try, but first knew he had to get buy-in from his supervisors.

So, he presented them with estimated cost and time savings, then walked them through the manual recordkeeping process, so they could see firsthand how slow it was—and how potentially inaccurate it could be. He also discussed how he would be able to devote more time to other critical aspects of his role, such as researching new ways to keep employees even safer. Although his bosses were impressed, they asked him to talk to another company that was already using Pervidi to find out how it was performing for them.

“So, I called a former colleague who is now working for a different company that uses Pervidi,” he says. “He told me, ‘Vince, it’s absolutely worth it. You’ll never have problems with recordkeeping again.’ So I told this to my boss, and they approved the purchase.”

In January 2012, Barrick purchased the Pervidi Network solution. To get more familiar with the system, Vince says Pervidi support specialists worked with him about once a week, for several weeks. Now, if he has a question, he just calls support and says that they are highly responsive. Today, to do an inspection, Vince simply grabs the Pervidi scanner, scans RFID tags on the equipment, answers questions when prompted, and provides his signature. When he returns to his desk, he puts the scanner in a cradle which synchs the data up with the system. (Note: Barrick uses the Network Edition, where their data resides on their own computer systems. Customers can also choose a Pervidi hosted system as well.)

Pervidi has helped Barrick in other ways. For instance, if someone retrieves a piece of equipment but doesn’t know who it belongs to, all Vince has to do is scan the tag and he can locate the owner, versus the past process, which involved going through stacks of paperwork and checking serial numbers. “Pervidi has cut my inspection time in half—I’m very impressed with it,” he says. “If someone is considering Pervidi, I would tell them, that they can’t go wrong. And even though it takes some time to get familiar with it, you begin benefitting right away.”

Brian works as Emergency Response Administrator at a uranium refinery in Canada, where he is responsible for all safety equipment maintenance and inspections, as well as health and safety training.

“We are regulated by the federal government. That means we not only adhere to regulations other refineries follow, we have additional, stricter codes,” explains Brian. “For instance, when working at 8 feet high, our crew is required to use fall protection, which is not necessarily the case at other facilities.”

When Brian first began working in the health safety department in 2006, he took a “train the trainer” course offered by an outside training organisation. There, the instructor suggested attendees look into using the Pervidi System, an electronic system from Techs4Biz, that supports inspection tracking, consistent compliance and safety management and risk mitigation.  Because equipment safety tracking was being done manually when Brian came onboard – and lacked consistency – Brian believed his company could benefit from Pervidi™. There were other problems that came up related to their overall tracking system, too, some that resulted in increased costs. For instance, sometimes crew members borrowed other employees’ equipment. If they lost it or forgot to return it, there was no way to track the item, and likely a new piece of equipment would need to be purchased.

“Pervidi offers incredibly tight tracking and because of that we noticed many improvements, including reduced purchasing costs,” he says. “Plus, it’s easy to use and saves time. Once a week, my inspector goes out with the Pervidi™ hand-held scanner and scans RFID tags attached to equipment, then brings it back to me and I synch it up to my computer.”

As they were getting the new system up and running, Brian says he was impressed with how Pervidi staff were able to work with him to quickly customise the program so it fit not only their company, but their specific industry and regulatory reporting needs. He says the training was also excellent.  Now that the system is fully operational, Brian is able to more fully understand the benefits. When asked what it has brought to his team and organisation, West cites that Pervidi:

• Reduces equipment costs: “It tracks so tightly, we don’t have    to repurchase missing equipment.”
• Reduces administration time: “I have one inspector who scans tags once a week. Then it only takes me a few minutes to download the data from the scanner.”
• Simplifies the auditing process: “I never have to search for what auditors want. When they arrive, all I do is hand them a printout. The auditors have been very impressed with the level of detail on my reports.”

But the best benefit, he says, is the ability to easily to produce quality reports. “Knowing that good, complete records are available is a huge benefit, especially since we are so heavily regulated,” he says. “It’s great not to have to worry about that, so I can focus on other aspects of my job.”

James, Rig Safety and Training Officer for a major offshore drilling contractor, is responsible for all safety equipment maintenance and inspections on the oil rig organisation he helps oversee in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We have a 200-man rig that is 834 feet long and 30 stories high from crown to keel. It’s as heavy as an aircraft carrier,” he explains. “To do our work, we cover a lot of ground in a day and are constantly moving back and forth across the rig.”

When James first began his offshore work for the organisation in 2001, equipment safety tracking was done using hard-copy printouts of Excel spreadsheets. Safety staff would record their notes by hand, taking care that the paper didn’t get wet or sustain damage before they could return to the office and type the data into their computers.

In March of 2008, James was introduced to the Pervidi™ System an electronic system that supports inspection tracking, consistent  compliance and safety management and risk mitigation—and he  immediately recognised it could be of value for his organisation,  and he was eager to try it. However, it wasn’t until March of 2009  when he began working on a brand new rig that he was able to  follow through and test Pervidi.

“The new rig was being built in Korea,” explains James. “I approached my manager and told him I had heard of Pervidi and wanted it. Fortunately, he said yes, and we ordered it and implemented it right away.”

James explains that they chose the Pervidi Web Pro edition where data resides on a Techs4Biz data server and information portal.  The system allowed them to track and record information online from where the rig was being built in Korea and when the rig was finished and transported to the Gulf of Mexico, nothing needed to change, and there was no interruption in their work or any data conversion needed.

As they were getting the system up and running, James says he was highly impressed with how Pervidi developers were able to work with his team to quickly customise the program so it fit their rig and their unique needs.  “They did everything I asked, and customised the program for us,” he says. “It worked great and because it worked so well here, we adopted Pervidi on some of our other rigs.” Today, his team tracks more than 700 pieces of equipment using Pervidi and he says he estimates it saves them approximately 150-200 tracking hours per year.

On the back end, there is tremendous value in the sense of assurance that goes along with Pervidi — knowing that good, complete records are available immediately when an auditor requests them. “What’s the bottom line?” says James. “With Pervidi, you invest a little up front, but you gain major dividends almost immediately.”

Faced with escalating complexities involved in the routine inspection and maintenance of Essential Safety Measures in accordance with Building Regulations, Australian Essential Services Maintenance (AESM) decided to embrace the efficiencies and accuracy that technology and the Pervidi suite of dedicated software had to offer.

AESM assists building owners, managers and tenants in meeting their ongoing compliance obligations for the upkeep of buildings’ essential safety measures, to ensure the safety of the occupants and the buildings.

AESM would receive calls from facility managers for inspection and work order requests.

These requests would be recorded through a paper based work order system, and depending on the urgency of the request, AESM administration staff would notify the designated inspector via phone, and that inspector would fill out their own work order and run sheet while away from the office. With scheduled essential service maintenance, run sheets would be created for maintenance technicians on a weekly basis.

The need to measure and manage work performance, and thereby increase efficiencies however, exposed the problems that existed with the use of paper-based systems, including the following:

• Inaccurate recording of inspection results and data.
• Inability to accurately analyse technician Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as Hours spent on site and actual attendance on site.
• Double data entry – Inspectors would record results and findings on job sheets and hand them back to AESM administration staff to re-enter into another basic template sheet.
• Quoting and invoicing times were inhibited by paper-based delays, costing potential new customers and delaying payment from existing customers.
• Follow-up procedures and corrective actions for failed inspections were also delayed since AESM administration staff needed to merge multiple forms to create the follow-up Work Order.
• Customer and Site management was also disadvantaged through the lack of readily available real-time information.
• Since reporting methods were basic, only basic work order and inspection reports could be created from the system.
• Lack of connectivity with technicians out on the road.

AESM manager and owner Mario Apela stated: “We needed a system which would improve our operational efficiency and effectiveness and allow us to grow to maintain our competitive edge in the Building Maintenance industry.

“Since AESM highly value customer service and satisfaction, we wanted to provide our customers with the best service – service provided through real-time accurate information. We knew that our significant growth could not have been achieved had we persisted with our previous paper based system and therefore a fully automated and integrated system was needed for our field force.

“We invested a significant amount of time and resources into finding the right solution for our needs. We needed a system that would not only incorporate electronic and field force automation but also be flexible enough to allow us to customise and match our business processes and practices.

“We came across Pervidi CMMS (Computer Maintenance Management System) developed by Techs4biz and knew straight away that it would cater for our current needs while allowing us to grow and expand”, Mario said.

The implementation of the Techs4biz Pervidi CMMS system enabled AESM to provide their inspectors with a PDA (personal digital assistant), which held all their previously and current paper-based work orders electronically.

The PDAs removed the need to print copious numbers of job sheets, provided more information about the job to the technician, greatly assisted in securing the data captured, and allowed more depth in their accuracy of data input, such as the ability to set a maximum and minimum score and if a result was not in range to alert the technician.

The PDA also allowed technicians to create work orders whilst on site, add new locations, assets and/or equipment into the database, move assets/equipment that currently exist in the database and access in depth site information, safety notes and comments.

From an administration perspective, Pervidi has enabled AESM administrative staff to log incoming calls and to create new work orders and job requests utilising the Customer Call centre of Pervidi Desktop.

Pervidi Desktop allows the user to view all customer sites in an easy-to-read user interface, which serves as a handy quick-reference tool for use with customers who call to request a work history of a particular site, or an individual asset.

AESM’s paper-based reports were fairly limited and simplistic, whereas Pervidi provides over 150 dynamic and adjustable reports. Pervidi allows AESM to create a variety of work order, staff, facilities, assets and client information reports, including customised reports that match their business processes.

AESM customers are also able to submit job requests through the Pervidi WebPortal which is accessible via AESM’s website. Customers simply log in and add their particular request without having to telephone. The web portal allows customers to view the status of their requests, while offering AESM administrative and technical staff the controls to manage the information that is available and accessible to their customers.

The Pervidi CMMS suite has enabled AESM to improve their operational effectiveness, minimise paper work, eliminate unnecessary or redundant administrative tasks, and maximise customer satisfaction.

These productivity benchmarks have been achieved through provision of the following benefits:

• Increased amount of information available to technicians while reducing the cumbersome amounts of paperwork taken to each site.
• Increased data input accuracy and minimisation of human error.
• The ability to better manage their technician’s time and resources and create efficiency gains.
• Pervidi’s ability to invoice completed jobs, allowing administrative staff to email invoicing reports directly to the desired recipient.
• The ability to deal with work orders with failed items promptly, utilising the Follow-Up Notice and Corrective actions features in Pervidi.
• Automatic rollover of Repetitive tasks (for example: A monthly Inspection of a particular piece of equipment) ensures that AESM staff do not need to remember to reschedule these jobs manually.
• Queries received from customers regarding their buildings can be efficiently dealt with on the spot with various site reports, Work Order Reports and Asset Reports available on demand.
• The ability for technicians to add new work orders on their PDA, saving time and effort, and removing the need to return to their office or fill out paper work orders on site. If a particular piece of equipment has changed locations, the technician can make the correction on the PDA, and the central Database will be automatically updated when the data is sent back.

AESM’s continued embracement of new technology such as Pervidi Desktop, Pervidi PDA and Pervidi Web Portal has enabled them to gain a greater market share through the competitive advantage gained over their rivals, who are still utilising basic and inefficient paper based systems.

“We are continually looking for efficiency gains and currently we are bar-coding all of our equipment and areas, enabling our technicians to scan the barcode and automatically bring up the work that needs to be done for it. We are also looking at expanding into the Pervidi wireless model, which will enable real-time interaction with our technicians and allow us to move into other states and potential new markets” said Mario.

“We saw an opportunity to become as paperless as possible with the advances in technology and efficiency of in-field technicians, which would in turn speed up our overall workflow and allow us to better service our clients,” said Mr Herreen. “We started working with Tech4Biz in 2007 to move our data and analysis systems across to Pervidi Software – paired with a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance) application that automated the process of data entry and reporting with a paperless inspection solution,” he said. “When Pervidi became available on the Android operating platform, we were keen to upgrade to the bigger screens available on tablets. We were looking for a mobile device that would be easy to use, offer more features and allow for memory expansion to enable us to complete inspections with all necessary resources at hand and in a more efficient manner. The Samsung Galaxy Note tablet met all our criteria.”

Seamless upgrade to a new mobility solution

The company worked with Tech4Biz to purchase and introduce the Samsung Galaxy Note tablets, maintaining the existing data in the back-end Pervidi system. “With seven years’ equipment and inspections data already housed in Pervidi, it was critical to have a smooth transition to the new devices. Tech4biz worked with Anaequip Medical to install the Pervidi paperless application on
Samsung Galaxy Note tablets, maintain access to existing data and train staff on the new products. We also maintained a backup system for the Pervidi Software application which secures the company’s database,” said Mr Naaman Shibi, General Manager, Tech4Biz.

Anaequip Medical service technicians now use the Samsung Galaxy Note tablets when completing inspections and servicing in the field. With access to the Pervidi paperless application, the technicians can be notified of scheduled parts replacements and electronically record the results of medical equipment servicing using manufacturer checklists, while taking into consideration relevant Australian Standards and feeding data back to the asset management database. The system also flags outlier and suspected false data for immediate correction

Real time automation and increased employee efficiency

By becoming a more mobile and digital workforce, Anaequip Medical’s technicians can work more efficiently, utilising the features of the Samsung Galaxy Note tablets to easily complete checklists, access reference manuals, capture defects and report in real-time to clients.
“Previously, we had to carry large equipment manuals to each inspection site and take numerous data sheets and price lists to fill in which could be lost along the way,” said Mr Herreen. “The Samsung Galaxy Note tablets, hosting Pervidi paperless application can provide easy access to our electronic resources. The S-Pen and speech-to-text functionalities can also allow the technicians to make their own notes on manuals and documents.”

“Our technicians can also quickly follow up on faults and maintenance required, utilise the tablet’s camera to take high quality images for visual identification of faults and automatically order replacement parts in real-time, which saves on potential downtimes. We can also save time conducting the inspection by selecting results from a drop-down list and by having the ability to deliver remote support from Tech4Biz if required,” he said.

“Going paperless has been a huge success for us. We’ve had great feedback from all our staff about the ease of using the tablets and how we are now all synced together. By linking calendars as well, we all know each other’s location and can respond to callouts in a much more efficient way.”

To read Samsung’s white paper review, click here.

CMMS Software solution has been successfully implemented by Pervidi on one of Australia’s largest banana farms, covering almost a thousand acres in Northern Queensland.

Prior to the use of Pervidi CMMS software, the banana farm had previously used a paper-based system to manage and track equipment, activities, and safety which had proved costly and inefficient.

The implementation of the CMMS software allowed for asset information and pre-scheduled work orders and inspections to be sent to handheld mobile devices, in this case a PDA (personal digital assistant). All field work can recorded on the handheld devices loaded with the CMMS software. If a new activity needs to be recorded, the technician can use a set of pre-loaded checklists to quickly add a new inspection or work order onto the device.

The CMMS software from Techs4Biz addressed many of the issues faced by the farm. It allowed for all the paper-based systems to be automated, increasing efficiency and allowing for maximum equipment uptime.

The use of Pervidi CMMS software on the banana farm is another good example of the software’s flexibility. The software is completely customisable to any business or process. Pervidi CMMS software can be delivered as a turnkey package of training and software. It can be provided with consulting or as part of a completely customised solution.