Keeping operations running smoothly is a constant challenge. Maintenance teams are at the heart of this effort, managing everything from production lines to regulatory compliance.
Their responsibilities are vast, encompassing:
- Routine equipment servicing and inspections
- Complex repairs
- Asset management and facilities upkeep
- Administrative tasks like work order management and inventory control
For organizations, especially those in asset-intensive industries, this complexity can be overwhelming. Choosing the right Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) software is crucial for streamlining these processes and empowering maintenance teams to work efficiently.
This guide provides a complete roadmap for selecting the perfect CMMS vendor to meet your organization’s unique challenges.
1. Assemble an experienced CMMS team
You’re more likely to choose the right CMMS software if you consult the right people – those with valuable insights and unique perspectives on your maintenance operations, needs, and current technological capabilities.
Your CMMS task force should, at a minimum, include representatives from the following departments:
- Maintenance: These individuals will be the primary users of the CMMS, responsible for day-to-day operations, work order management, and preventive maintenance. Their insights into current processes and pain points are essential.
- Operations: Operations personnel rely on the equipment and assets being maintained. Their involvement ensures the CMMS supports their operational needs and minimizes disruptions.
- Production: Similar to operations, production teams are concerned with uptime and efficiency. They can provide valuable input on how maintenance impacts production schedules and output.
- IT: The IT department plays a crucial role in CMMS implementation, integration with existing systems, and ongoing technical support. Their expertise is vital for a smooth rollout and long-term functionality.
- Finance: Financial stakeholders are concerned with the ROI of the CMMS investment. Their involvement ensures the selected system aligns with budget constraints and delivers measurable benefits.
- Supply Chain/Inventory Management: Optimizing spare parts inventory is a key benefit of a CMMS. Representatives from this department can provide valuable insights into inventory management processes and requirements.
- Compliance/HR: Depending on your industry, compliance with regulations may be a significant factor. Including compliance/HR representatives ensures the CMMS supports regulatory requirements and safety protocols.
Pro tip: Before your first meeting, create a simple project charter document. This one-page document should formally name the evaluation team members, state the primary goals of the project, and define a clear timeline for your CMMS selection process. This turns an informal discussion into a recognized project, which helps maintain focus and ensures all stakeholders understand their role.
2. Define your needs and establish clear goals
It’s crucial to start with a clear understanding of your business needs. What problems are you trying to solve? What improvements are you aiming for? Defining clear goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is essential for measuring the success of your CMMS implementation. This involves identifying short-term and long-term objectives and the metrics you’ll use to track progress.
When setting goals, ask yourself the following questions:
- Pain points: What are the biggest challenges currently faced by your maintenance team? Are you struggling with excessive downtime, reactive maintenance, or inefficient workflows?
- Big-picture goals: What are the overall objectives for your maintenance department and the company as a whole? Are you aiming to increase asset lifespan, reduce maintenance costs, or improve safety performance?
- Specific KPIs: What specific maintenance KPIs will help you achieve these big-picture goals? Examples include:
- Current metrics: What metrics or insights are currently valuable to your company? What data is missing that would provide a more complete picture of your maintenance operations?
- Scope of operations: What is the scale of your maintenance operations? How many assets do you manage? Do you operate across multiple sites?
- Regulations and safety: What state, local, or industry regulations and safety concerns do you need to comply with?
- Current workload: What does your maintenance team‘s current daily workload look like? Are there specific aspects you’d like to reduce or streamline?
3. Compare the top CMMS providers
After defining your maintenance needs and confirming that a CMMS is the right solution, the next step is to evaluate specific software solutions. This involves comparing features, costs, integration capabilities, and other relevant factors to find the best fit for your business.
You likely have a shortlist of CMMS solutions. These tips and questions will help you make your decision:
- Create your shortlist. Start by creating a shortlist of 3-4 vendors that appear to meet your high-level needs. Use independent software review sites (like G2 and Capterra) and peer recommendations to find platforms with a strong reputation in your industry.
- Prioritize the key features. When you schedule demos, make sure you see these specific capabilities in action:
- Work order management: How easy is it to create, assign, and track a work order from start to finish?
- Preventive maintenance scheduling: Can the system easily handle both time-based and meter-based PMs?
- Asset management: How does the system store and display your complete maintenance history for a specific asset?
- Mobile app: Is the app a full-featured, user-friendly native application for all mobile devices?
- Reporting and dashboards: Can the system easily track your core metrics and KPIs, and are the dashboards clear and intuitive?
- Assess the user experience (UX). If your technicians find the software clunky or difficult to use, they won’t adopt it, and your investment will be wasted. During a demo or free trial, pay close attention to the ease of use of the system, especially the mobile app. Is it fast? Is it intuitive? Can a technician complete their core tasks with just a few taps?
- Understand the total cost. The price of a CMMS is more than just the monthly subscription. Be sure to ask about the total cost, including:
- Initial setup and implementation fees
- Data migration costs
- Team training fees
- Ongoing customer support contracts
- Verify the technical fit. Confirm that the software will work within your existing technology environment. Discuss these points with both the vendor and your IT team:
- IT capabilities: If you’re considering an on-premise solution, does your IT team have the server infrastructure and resources to manage it? For most businesses, a cloud-based CMMS is a more flexible and cost-effective option.
- Integration: Will the CMMS integrate with your other critical systems, like your company ERP or EAM? Ask about the vendor’s API and pre-built connectors.
⚠️Keep in mind: A demo in an office with perfect Wi-Fi is not a real-world test. The true test of a CMMS is its performance on the plant floor. During a free trial, have your technicians specifically test the mobile application in areas with poor connectivity to see how its offline functionality actually performs.
Step 4: Evaluate the CMMS vendor as a long-term partner
Choosing the right CMMS system isn’t just about the software itself; it’s about the company you partner with. A great product can be undermined by poor support. This final evaluation step is about ensuring the vendor will be a reliable partner in your long-term success.
A good CMMS vendor will be transparent and proactive in a few key areas:
- Implementation support: A reputable vendor will have a clear, structured process for helping you get started. They should offer assistance with data migration and system configuration and be upfront about any associated costs for these implementation services.
- Comprehensive training: Look for vendors that offer training in various formats (live sessions, video tutorials, a knowledge base), not just as a one-time event. They should be able to provide a clear training plan for your entire team.
- Ongoing customer support: Questions and challenges will inevitably arise after you go live. A reliable vendor provides readily accessible and responsive support to help you navigate these issues. Ask about their guaranteed response times and ensure that ongoing support is included in your plan.
For in-depth evaluation, explore our top CMMS software comparisons featuring a curated selection of leading vendors. We’ve analyzed key features, gathered real user feedback, and broken down pricing models to help you find the right solution.
💡Pro tip: Ask each vendor about their product roadmap for the next 18 months. A forward-thinking vendor should be able to clearly articulate their vision for new features, upcoming integrations, and how they plan to incorporate new technologies. This gives you insight into whether their long-term strategy aligns with your own.
Why Limble is the trusted choice for modern maintenance teams
Choosing the right CMMS is a critical decision. You’ve done the work to define your goals, identify your requirements, and understand the evaluation process. Now, the final step is to choose a platform that not only checks the boxes but is also a true partner in your success.
Limble CMMS was built by maintenance professionals, for maintenance professionals. We understand the real-world challenges you face, and we designed our software to solve them. Here’s why thousands of maintenance teams choose Limble:
- We’re built for your technicians: Our user-friendly mobile CMMS app is consistently rated for its ease of use, which drives high team adoption.
- We deliver powerful, core functionality: We focus on perfecting the features that have the biggest impact on your operational efficiency, like work orders and preventive maintenance.
- We’re a partner in your success: From a seamless CMMS implementation to ongoing, responsive customer support, we’re here to ensure you get a clear return on your investment.
You’ve done the research. Now, see the solution that was built for you.
Request a personalized demo today to see firsthand how Limble can help you improve your maintenance processes.
FAQs
How can I evaluate a CMMS for scalability during a demo?
Evaluating scalability is crucial. Instead of just asking if the software is scalable, ask the vendor to show you specific functions. For example, ask them: “Can you show me how I would manage assets and run reports for two separate plant locations from a single dashboard?” or “How would I create a custom user role for an inventory manager at one facility?” Seeing these multi-site and permissioning features in action is the best way to test a platform’s true scalability.
What’s the difference between a CMMS that offers preventive vs. predictive maintenance?
During your evaluation, it’s important to understand this distinction. A system with preventive maintenance allows you to schedule maintenance tasks based on fixed time or usage triggers. A system with predictive maintenance capabilities goes a step further; it integrates with sensors to collect real-time maintenance data on asset health, using that information to predict a failure before it happens. A solid preventive maintenance strategy is the foundation for moving towards a more advanced data-driven, predictive model.
What are the key questions to ask about an on-premise CMMS?
If you are required to consider an on-premise CMMS, you need to ask about the total cost of ownership beyond the initial license. Key questions to ask include:
- What are the annual costs for support and software upgrades?
- What specific server hardware and IT resources are required to manage the system?
This will help you compare its true cost to a more straightforward, cloud-based maintenance software.
How do CMMS needs differ for manufacturing versus facility management?
The core needs are similar, but the focus changes. In manufacturing, the primary goal is often uptime, so the CMMS is used to manage maintenance work on production assets. In facility management, the scope is broader, covering everything from HVAC and plumbing to groundskeeping. A good CMMS for facility management must be excellent at managing geographically dispersed assets and handling work requests from tenants or employees.
Can’t we just use Excel for asset tracking and maintenance checklists?
While you can use Excel or Google Sheets for a simple asset list, it fails as a dynamic maintenance tool. Spreadsheets cannot automate work orders, provide real-time updates, or build an accessible maintenance history, which are all core functions of asset tracking in a CMMS. Digital checklists in a CMMS are also interactive and automatically logged to a work order, providing a level of accountability that a static spreadsheet simply can’t match.