Selecting the Best CMMS

What Should You Look For In A CMMS?

When it’s time to select your CMMS, be sure to consider fit with your business, the resources required, and the system’s growth potential.

Company Fit

First, be sure your solution fits the needs of your business. If you are a small organization, you may need a simple software solution without all the bells and whistles. On the other hand, if you expect rapid growth, you’ll want a CMMS solution that can scale quickly and easily. Larger companies with multiple facilities may require a more sophisticated, proven solution that can easily integrate with other business systems.

Resources Required

Second, match the resources required with the resources available. The initial cost of a CMMS is important; however, it’s critical to consider the ongoing costs such as training, upgrades, or subscription costs. Be sure your organization can follow through with not only purchasing and implementation but the ongoing tasks necessary to maximize the features of the chosen CMMS.

Potential for Growth

Finally, evaluate the CMMS for its ability to grow with your organization. Cloud-based technology is the future of this software as well as mobile functionality. Be sure your chosen solution provider is ready to help keep you up-to-date in terms of the technology itself.

Important Features of a CMMS

The most important feature of a CMMS is the effective management of work orders, inventory, vendors, and assets as well as the ability to provide analytics, mobility, and scanning capabilities.

Work Order Process Management

Work orders can be automatically scheduled, accessed, and tracked through a CMMS, providing both technicians and management a comprehensive record of maintenance work completed and scheduled. Similarly, a CMMS can help a facility keep track of expensive tools when they are used by multiple technicians, follow inventory through a work process, and manage contractor agreements and payments effectively.

Reporting

You’ll want to make sure your chosen CMMS provides easy-to-read analytics reports so you can periodically evaluate key performance indicators (KPIs). 

Mobility

In addition, your CMMS should be accessible with mobile technology so your service technicians have the same information when they are out in the field and can easily record their work and findings right back into the centralized system. Integration of barcoding or RFID scanning technology is also an important CMMS feature, allowing you to quickly and accurately tag and scan assets and inventory data.

10 Best CMMS Providers

The 10 best CMMS providers are:

1. UpKeep
2. eMaint
3. Dude Solutions
4. FMX
5. Maintenance Connection
6. Fiix
7. Limble
8. Hippo
9. MaintainX
10. MicroMain

UpKeep

This CMMS solution ranks among the top maintenance packages for its functionality, customer support, and ease of use. As a scalable CMMS that can be easily used on both desktop and mobile applications, UpKeep provides transparency of maintenance information for all team members no matter where they are working. Requesters, however, have limited access to this CMMS.

eMaint

This software’s strength is in its ability to connect data, teams, and systems. eMaint is a web-based, software-as-a-service solution that’s sold by subscription. Assigned a designated manager, customers receive unlimited support, data backups, and software updates for tracking and managing work orders, inventory, scheduling, and regulatory compliance data. Some customers have noted that reports are difficult to use and read.

Dude Solutions

With its suite of cloud-based applications, Dude Solutions centralizes maintenance requests, creates schedules, automates workflows, and generates reports for manufacturers, distributors, and warehouse centers. However, it was designed for specialized niches and doesn’t offer an on-premises solution.

FMX

This configurable CMMS helps companies streamline their work processes and increase the productivity of their assets. By offering ongoing support and training as well as allowing unlimited users, FMX has a high customer satisfaction rating. Because it is a web-based system, some customers have found it difficult to communicate with external partners or those not online.

Maintenance Connection

This cloud-based CMMS offers an on-premise hosting option, giving a wide variety of businesses and industries access to this maintenance management solution. Maintenance Connection allows easy integration with enterprise resource planning and computer-aided facility management systems as well. Certain customizations can be expensive and reports can be hard to interpret.

Fiix

By organizing maintenance data, this web-based CMMS solution can help businesses move from a reactive maintenance mindset to a more preventive one. It integrates with ERP and other related solutions easily. The number of customizations and configurations available, however, can be somewhat overwhelming.

Limble

This CMMS is cloud-based and includes preventive maintenance, work order management, and asset organization features. Information, pictures, documents, and other data can be entered and uploaded easily. Some areas have limited customization options.

Hippo

This intuitive, easy-to-use CMMS solution provides plenty of onboarding and ongoing training so that implementation is relatively fast and simple. This cloud-based solution serves many industries and markets. The solution is somewhat limited in functionality and can be difficult to customize.

MaintainX

As a mobile-based CMMS solution, MaintainX helps technicians know exactly what they need to do to complete their work orders and how to complete their tasks. This includes safety procedures, gauge reports, inspection workflows, and environmental procedures. It is somewhat limited in functionality and ordering capabilities.

MicroMain

This CMMS/EAM solution helps businesses increase the life of their equipment, better manage work orders and generate custom reports. By providing comprehensive maintenance data, MicroMain helps companies focus on preventive maintenance tasks designed to save time and money. Implementation at larger facilities is time-consuming and complex.