I'm curious to find out what most people use to track and dispatch maintenance calls. Do you use the facility module of your Property Management system or a stand alone system? Do you use a system with mobile devices?
We use Yardi at Mills. I spent 10 years at EQR and nearly the entire time we did triplicate paper based requests. Most systems, paper or otherwise, are only as good as the end users commitment.
I think Riverstone has it right in using a third party call in service. The only part that is cumbersome is that you could not call or visit the office to turn a request in. They referred you to a 800# instead.