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Sevier County Government sits in East Tennessee, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Its facilities department maintains 44 buildings totaling roughly 650,000 square feet, with about seven more under construction, ranging from the courthouse and jails to fire stations and a brand-new courts facility. A crew of about 10 keeps all of it running. The county has been a FlowPath customer since 2021, one of the company's earliest, and runs work orders, inventory, events, and preventive maintenance through the platform.
"We looked at the numbers for almost a year, comparing FlowPath to other competitors, and for the price point there was nothing that could beat it. "
Jason Strickland, Facilities Director
Five years ago, Sevier County's facilities operation ran the way most county maintenance departments run: on paper. Room reservations lived in a notebook in the mayor's office. Someone would call in, request a space, and a staff member would pencil it into a paper calendar. If someone forgot to write it down or the calendar got lost, they were back at square one.
Work orders were no different. Requests came through hallway conversations, phone calls, and notes left behind. There was no shared system, no visibility, and no accountability.
"Our tools were a pen and a notebook held in the mayor's office. Someone would call in and want a room from this time to that time, and it went in a paper calendar. If someone forgot to write it down, or the calendar got lost, we were back at square one."
Jason Strickland
The hard part of bringing FlowPath to the whole county was not the software. It was getting every department to buy in. The facilities team was the one introducing FlowPath to the mayor's office and to the other county departments, and at first those outlying departments did not see the benefit. The turning point came when they started seeing results: a work order would go in, get resolved quickly, and the buildings started looking better.
“Once other departments started seeing those results happening in a timely manner, and they saw our buildings' appearance coming up, they really started buying into it. Now they put everything into FlowPath.”
Jason Strickland
Five years in, FlowPath runs the day-to-day across four areas of the operation:
Work Order Management
Departments submit requests through FlowPath instead of phone calls or notes, and the team works and closes them on tablets and phones in the field, so the data stays accurate and nothing falls through the cracks.
Inventory ManagementStaff scan QR codes on iPads to check stock in and out, down to the roll of toilet paper. Threshold alerts flag low stock early, and a central warehouse logs everything the moment it arrives.
Events and Space ManagementThe new courts building reserves courtrooms through FlowPath's calendar, and departments book meetings and events the same way. Setup needs like chairs, food, and IT automatically generate work orders ahead of each event.
Preventive MaintenanceHVAC and other key equipment run on PM schedules that prompt filter changes, compressor checks, and inspections, and that history feeds the county's year-end equipment and budget planning.
"Every one of our staff has an iPad, and all the inventory has a QR code. It makes it more user-friendly to scan the code and say they used two or five of something, and it automatically updates it in FlowPath."
Jared Maples, Facilities Office Manager
Sevier County didn't deploy FlowPath to hit a single metric. The county deployed it to build an operation that could account for itself. Five years in, the impact shows across every part of the department.
“We're putting our equipment in FlowPath, so it sends work orders reminding the technician about filter changes and condensation points. We're not having floods, we're seeing insurance claims go down, and we're taking care of things before they become a problem."
"When you look good, you make all of us look good out in the field. The mayor will ask for some piece of information and then say, how did you know that? Well, I've got a system that shows me all of that."
Jason Strickland
Departments across the county now submit requests through FlowPath instead of phone calls or hallway drive-bys, and every work order has a visible lifecycle: who submitted it, who is assigned, what is pending, and what is done. Inventory moved from periodic paper counts to real-time tracking, with staff scanning QR codes on iPads to check items in and out and threshold alerts flagging low stock before it runs out.
The county's new courts building reserves courtrooms through FlowPath's calendar, and departments book meetings and events the same way, with setup needs like chairs, food, and IT automatically generating work orders for the team. Equipment such as HVAC runs on preventive maintenance schedules that prompt filter changes and inspections, and the team uses that history at year-end to assess equipment and build the next budget. Jared called the onboarding “flawless,” with a dedicated FlowPath customer success manager available by video and phone and online guides the team could learn from on their own.
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