How the Calgary Winter Club Unified Maintenance and Capital Planning

The Calgary Winter Club is one of Western Canada's premier private athletic clubs - a large, multi-building recreational facility with aquatics, ice, curling, tennis, squash, and fitness all under one roof. Keeping a facility like that running falls to Mark Perkins, the Club's Facility Operations Manager. What follows is his story, in his own words.

A Busy, Complex Place

When I stepped into the role of Facility Operations Manager at the Calgary Winter Club, I came in with a clear mandate - streamline the department, improve efficiency, and bring our operations into the modern age. The CWC is a large, multi-building recreational facility with aquatics, ice, curling, tennis, squash, fitness, and more under one roof. It's a busy, complex place, and keeping it running well requires more than good instincts and a set of keys. It requires good systems.

Two Systems, One Job

At the time, we were running two separate software platforms. One handled our day-to-day maintenance workflows - work orders, staff assignments, that kind of thing. The other helped us track capital expenditures and longer-term planning. Both were useful in their own right, but neither talked to the other. If I needed to think about both the operational and the capital picture at the same time - which, as any facilities manager knows, is basically all the time - I was bouncing between platforms, mentally stitching together information that should have been sitting side by side. It was functional, but it wasn't efficient, and efficiency was exactly what I'd been brought in to improve.

OpEx and CapEx in One Place

That's what first drew me to AssetLab. The idea that both my operational expenses and my capital expenditure planning could live in one centralised place wasn't just a convenience - it was a genuine shift in how I could manage the department. Being able to look at a work order and see it in the context of the broader asset lifecycle, or to plan a capital replacement while already seeing the maintenance history behind it, has made me a sharper and more focused manager. I'm not toggling between systems anymore. I'm working in one place, with the full picture in front of me.

Implementation and Support

I'll be honest - when I first started exploring AssetLab, one of my biggest concerns was pace. I'd seen software transitions at our Club before, and I knew how quickly a promising platform could stall if the support behind it wasn't up to scratch. But Tom and his team quickly put those concerns to rest. They were friendly, responsive, and genuinely invested in making the transition work. More than that, they demonstrated an ability to improve and upgrade the platform in ways that were directly relevant to how we operate.

Compliance Without the Anxiety

One of the features I've found most valuable - and one I didn't fully anticipate loving as much as I do - is the Compliance Module. In a facility like ours, regulatory requirements are never far from mind. Fire suppression systems, sprinkler inspections, equipment certifications - there's a long list, and the consequences of missing something are serious. Previously, keeping track of all of that felt like a constant background hum of anxiety. Now, it's all centralised in one database, with timelines and reminders that keep the right issues front and centre.

PM Scheduling and Team Adoption

The PM Module has had a similar effect on my team. My staff are focused people, but focus requires direction, and direction requires clear and consistent scheduling. AssetLab's preventive maintenance scheduling is flexible enough to reflect the real rhythms of a busy facility, but structured enough that my team always knows what's coming and when. It's reduced the amount of time I spend chasing tasks and increased the amount of time everyone spends actually doing them.

I've also been impressed by how quickly my staff adopted the platform. I'd braced for the usual resistance that comes with any new system, but it didn't really materialise. The layout is intuitive, and the learning curve was genuinely manageable - both for my team on the ground and for me from an organisational and reporting standpoint.

AI in the Daily Workflow

From a managerial perspective, the AI integration has been one of the most practical improvements to my daily workflow. I spend a lot of time walking this facility, and repairs and issues present themselves constantly. Being able to use voice-to-text and upload photos on the spot - and have that translate directly into a structured work order for the right staff member - means I'm not carrying a mental list all morning and trying to remember everything when I get back to my desk.

Long-Term Planning at a Glance

Finally, having visual metrics on asset age and maintenance history in one place has changed how I think about long-term planning. I can see at a glance which assets are aging, what work has been done on them, and how that factors into our capital planning. When an inspector comes through and wants documentation on something like our fire suppression systems, I can pull a report through the Systems view in a few seconds rather than hunting for our old physical log book.

The Results

I came into this role wanting to build a department that runs more efficiently. AssetLab has been a big part of making that happen.

- Mark Perkins, Facility Operations Manager, Calgary Winter Club