“In 2022 St Bede’s College engaged Plan Heaven to develop the school’s Long Term Maintenance Plan (LTMP). Plan Heaven was recommended to me by professionals in the property management industry and our due diligence convinced me that John Bradley and the Plan Heaven team provide an excellent product at a reasonable price.
After being engaged, Plan Heaven undertook a property survey of the school campus, prepared our LTMP, and loaded all the data into their online app. This LMTP was then reviewed by school staff and adopted by our Board. The whole process was unexpectedly easy.
The online app now allows us to maintain and update the LTMP ourselves. It gives us a tool to consider the effect of timing of major maintenance projects on our finances and helps enormously with our long term operational and financial planning.
We have found the Plan Heaven team professional, knowledgeable, and easy to deal with. I’m very pleased that we engaged them, and very happy to recommend them to others. ”Steve Kelsen, General Manager, St Bedes, Christchurch
At Plan Heaven, our plans are built in the cloud using our own proprietary software
1. We use our own bespoke long-term maintenance planning software
About a decade ago, when we couldn't find any software to help us build LTMPs in the cloud, we decided to build our own. Since the first version back in 2015, we've had many upgrades and added services so that the app is now much more versatile and feature-rich, especially for schools that have different needs from other property owners.
2. Why use a cloud-based app?
There are several advantages of a cloud-based app.
Anyone can create and edit plans from anywhere, 24/7.
This, in turn, allows us to recruit and train our own planners, who can work from home anywhere in New Zealand.
It also means that once the initial LTMP has been established, any person the school chooses can be granted access to edit and update their LTMPs. Why pay us as a consultant to update your LTMP when you can log in and do it yourself?
Your LTMP becomes a living document and provides a permanent long-term solution to maintenance planning and budgeting.
3. By investing in our own software, we can be more customer-responsive because we control the ongoing development. One school asked us for multiple funding streams, so we added that feature. Another asked us for Asset Management and Capital Expenditure budgeting, so we added that, too.
If we were paying to use someone else's software, we would have no control over what features or benefits we would like added.
4. A subscription is payable
The only caveat is that an annual subscription is payable if any customer wants us to maintain their data. There is a cost associated with storing data and a cost of continuing to develop the software, but we are committed to keeping the cost of the subscription as low as possible.
5. How much is the subscription?
The annual subscription is scaled roughly to role size because this typically relates to the amount of data stored. Currently (November 2024), the maximum school subscription is $500 plus GST, and the minimum is $160 plus GST.
6. New features coming up
We have a long list of new features we want to add, but a couple we hope to introduce in 2025 are,
A defect report. Lots of things get broken at a school, and we've recognised a need for a quick and easy means to report defects to the correct person. So we are looking to add a "report defect" button. So, say a staff member sees something broken - a door latch, a window, a heat pump that's stopped working, etc. - they take out their phone, take a photo, fill in a brief form and click send. An email is sent to a designated inbox, and the defect is added to a table of works to be done.
A list of preferred contractors. Who is the school's electrician? Heat pump servicing agent? Fire protection IQP? etc. Somewhere in the app, we can arrange for the list of the school's preferred contractors to be available to those who need access, and the list can be updated and edited as required.
More detailed Works history and job scheduling. We've been asked if we could include a feature where jobs can be added to a table, their status updated, and even a works order sent to a preferred contractor. At the moment, this upgrade is still in pre-design mode, and we are interested in feedback on whether anyone else thinks this might be useful and what it might look like.
Ends. Last updated JB 27 Nov 2024
If you have any questions and would like to know please contact support@planheaven.co.nz or 0800 109 327
The Plan Heaven team.