One maintenance hub for a large multi-site facilities estate
An international private schools group retired its legacy IT ticketing system and paper-based processes, deploying Airtable to manage maintenance tickets, asset tracking, and campus walk checklists across 12-plus sites.
The challenge
Facilities teams across 12-plus campuses were managing a large multi-site estate through a mix of paper forms, spreadsheets, and email chains. There was no consistent way to log issues, assign vendors, or track resolution progress, making SLA compliance nearly impossible to monitor at a regional level.
Licensing costs for legacy IT ticketing tools were prohibitive for maintenance staff, and existing tools lacked the flexibility to support vendor portal access without incurring full seat fees. The result was fragmented upkeep, reactive crisis management, and no cross-site benchmarking.
What they built
The operations team deployed Airtable as a unified ticketing and asset management layer. Campus managers and facilities staff submit maintenance requests through Airtable interfaces, while external vendors receive portal access to update ticket status and confirm goods receipt without requiring a full Airtable licence.
Weekly campus walk checklists feed directly into the same system, creating a continuous log of site conditions linked to open tickets. Regional facilities managers gain consolidated dashboards for ticket aging, SLA compliance, and cross-site benchmarking, with data segregation protecting each campus view.
The outcome
Facilities teams replaced ad-hoc email and paper requests with a single submission interface, cutting coordination overhead and giving senior operations leadership real-time visibility into the health of the full estate. Vendor interactions moved from phone calls and emails to structured portal updates tied directly to procurement purchase orders.
The managed app template is now being reused as a rollout blueprint for additional campuses, with data segregation patterns already proven across the initial 12-plus sites. Predictable upkeep scheduling and SLA tracking have reduced reactive crises and standardised operational risk management across the estate.
Inside the solution
Facilities Maintenance Ticketing and Asset Tracking
Rapid App Development
Facilities Management
- Ticket submission by campus staff via Airtable interfaces and forms
- Vendor assignment and status tracking with portal access for external updates
- Goods receipt confirmation linked to procurement purchase orders
- Weekly campus walk checklists with action logging
- Regional rollout with data segregation across 12-plus sites
- Dashboards for ticket aging, SLA compliance, and cross-site benchmarking
- Issue resolution tracking and closure confirmation
- Large multi-site facilities estate managed without a unified ticketing system
- Manual, paper-based maintenance requests with no resolution visibility
- High licensing cost for maintenance staff on legacy full-seat tools
- Fragmented spreadsheets and email across facilities teams
- Inconsistent upkeep standards across campuses
- Unified visibility and control across a large multi-site facilities estate
- Reduced email and phone-based coordination with vendors
- Scalable to 100-plus sites via low-cost portal access for external parties
- Predictable upkeep scheduling and fewer reactive operational crises
- Reusable managed app template as a global rollout blueprint
- Consolidated operational risk management
- Reduced administrative burden on campus operations teams
- Facilities Maintenance
- Operations
- Campus Leadership
- Make
- Airtable Portals
Facilities Maintenance Ticketing and Asset Tracking
Run every campus's maintenance operation from one hub: staff submit tickets, vendors update assigned jobs, weekly walk checklists feed straight into the queue, and regional managers watch SLA compliance, ticket aging, and asset condition across all sites. Automations turn walk findings into tickets, restart work the moment parts are received against a purchase order, and email a Monday open-ticket digest, while Airtable AI triages tickets, summarizes walks, and recommends the next service action per asset.
How facilities maintenance ticketing works in Airtable
Submit and assign
Track, walk, and confirm
Report and roll out
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
No. This solution is scoped entirely to facilities operations and internal staff workflows. It covers maintenance ticket submission by staff, vendor dispatch, asset condition tracking, and campus walk checklists. No student records, pupil information, family data, or applicant data of any kind flows through or is stored in this system.
External vendors receive access through Airtable Portals, which allow them to view and update their assigned tickets, confirm goods receipt, and log status changes without requiring a full Airtable seat. This keeps per-user costs low for maintenance and contractor staff.
The deployment uses data segregation patterns built into the base structure, giving each regional facilities manager a filtered view of their own campuses. The managed app template makes it straightforward to onboard additional sites while maintaining consistent governance.
Yes. Walk checklist records are linked directly to open tickets within the same Airtable base. Action items captured during a walk can trigger new ticket creation or be attached to existing records, ensuring conditions identified on-site are tracked through to resolution.
When a vendor completes work requiring parts or materials, the goods receipt confirmation is linked to the relevant procurement purchase order within Airtable. This closes the loop between the facilities ticket and the procurement record without requiring manual re-entry in a separate system.