Maritz Inc.

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Background
Ranked No. 150 on the Forbes list of largest private companies with $1.44 billion in annual revenue, Maritz Inc. provides a wide range of performance improvement services to clients worldwide. The company delivers market and customer research, communications, learning solutions, incentive initiatives, meetings and event management, awards and recognition, travel management services, and customer loyalty programs through 20 operating companies and associates in a total of 42 countries including in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy.

The Goal
Based in St. Louis, Maritz’ headquarters campus includes nine buildings, 3,000 employees, 180 acres of property, and a building engineering department of 25

	Quick Facts 660 work orders per month Worldwide workforce of 6500 in 42 countries 3000 employees at 9 sites using Datastream 7i Inventory costs down 30%

maintenance operators. These operators are responsible for managing all aspects of the campus, from HVAC, plumbing and electric equipment, to two theaters, two cafeterias and an expansive deck that accommodates 1,000 people.

Without an automated asset management solution, it was simply impossible for Maritz to manage this sprawling facility in an efficient manner. "Our stock room was out in the open with four entrances and not a lock in sight," said Bill Wright, administrative supervisor in facility services for Maritz. "When an employee needed something, they'd do go to the local hardware store and charge it. Equipment records were equally in bad shape. Our employees relied on binders full of hard-to-read data and inaccurate information."

This was 12 years ago, and Wright knew that there had to be a better way to manage the Maritz facility. He needed an automated asset management solution that could help his organization manage inventory more efficiently and standardize processes for maintaining the facility.

The Challenges
Maritz needed a way to automate its facility management operations and optimize inventory levels so it could drive down maintenance costs and improve overall facility performance.
Wright and his team also needed a way to track and quantify the results of their operations so senior management could budget more accurately and make sound business decisions.

To meet these criteria, Wright sought out an asset performance management system that could automate the tracking and maintenance of assets and provide automated management of inventory. Back in the early 1990s, there were not many products available. But, he found one from Datastream that fit his needs perfectly. It turned out to be a prudent choice, because in the ensuing 12 years, Datastream provided Maritz with new, improved products and services that helped Wright continuously improve his operations and adapt to changing operational requirements.

Recently, Maritz chose to upgrade from MP2 to Datastream 7i, Datastream’s Web-architected Asset Performance Management solution. With this upgrade, Maritz would have access to far more robust functionality and reporting capabilities, enabling the company to further optimize its facility management operations.

The Solution
“The upgrade from MP2 to Datastream 7i was incredibly easy,” Wright said. “Datastream’s professional services organization transferred all of our equipment and inventory data and we were up and running very quickly. With Datastream software, we’ve already achieved a 30% cost savings in our inventory and we rarely run low on parts, thanks to the integrated Datastream 7i Buy advanced module.

Maritz chose to upgrade through Datastream Now!, a service designed to get companies up and running on Datastream 7i in as little as three weeks.  With Datastream Now! Maritz received on-site training and accelerated Web implementation, and within days was able to benefit from a Datastream 7i configuration of work processes, screens, menus, and reports based on industry best practices. 

These capabilities give Wright an effective way to quantify performance improvements and justify costs to executive management at Maritz. "Datastream 7i enables us to track everything about our operations and show the performance improvements year-over-year.  This makes it much easier to justify budgets to upper management,” Wright said.  "And, with Datastream constantly refining and improving its solutions, we’ve actually decreased downtime an additional 90% since first implementing the software."

Maritz has deployed Datastream 7i as a hosted solution. The hosted model delivers the lowest total cost of application ownership by eliminating the costs and manpower required to host an enterprise application in-house. This adds to the enormous return-on-investment that Maritz has realized with Datastream solutions.

“The hosted deployment model frees us from having to think about managing the application, so we can focus on what we do best: keeping Maritz’ corporate headquarters up and running at peak efficiency,” Wright said. "Maritz is in the business of helping corporations optimize their performance. We feel that by implementing Datastream’s asset performance management solutions, we’re practicing what we preach!”