Deploying a CMMS is one thing. Choosing the right solution is another one. There are many software packages available on the market, and it’s not always easy to find your way around them. Between free but useless solutions and archaic and expensive software, the risks of making a mistake are multiple, and can have a serious impact on the productivity of your plant.
To help you choose the right CMMS that will be beneficial to your equipment’s maintenance management, here are a few simple but sound advice. Follow the guide!
Pay just the right price for your CMMS
There are CMMS “solutions” for every price. But as often, “free” does not mean “efficient”, and “expensive” does not mean “effective”.
Avoid the “free” CMMS trap
Most of the so-called “free” solutions are either very limited in practice or have hidden costs. For example, the use of Excel, which is common in many companies, does not allow for true maintenance management in the modern sense of the word. Open source software, on the other hand, is in practice reserved for IT experts, because it is very complex to handle. It is therefore unusable in most companies.
Free… and usable versions?
When it comes to professional software dedicated to maintenance management, some publishers offer free versions. While they give the illusion of being able to acquire a real CMMS solution without paying a cent, they are in fact limited trial versions (restricted functionalities, limited number of users, etc.), which do not allow for long-term use. Sometimes, the publisher gives access to the full version of its software, but for a limited period of time. Then, you have to pay. And it is often very expensive.
Indeed, most conventional software is particularly expensive: between 50,000 and 200,000 dollars, with maintenance costs of around 10,000 dollars per year, to which must be added service days for installation and user training. But you are not doomed to make this considerable and uncertain investment in order to have a high-performance CMMS software.
Choosing a CMMS at the right price
There is indeed a new generation of software available at much more attractive prices and not requiring such a massive investment, such as the maintenance management platform Mobility Work, which offers profiles adapted to different maintenance professionals. Thus, only the Technician and Administrator profiles are billed: service providers access the tool free of charge.
Run away from hidden costs
In addition to the initial investment, traditional solutions generally involve, as mentioned above, hidden costs.
Choose free data integration
All maintenance services rely on data, which is often dispersed among different files and software, but must be integrated into the CMMS solution you choose. Most software vendors charge for the integration of this data. The company must then choose between abandoning its old data or paying the price.
Our team imports all your data for free to make sure you can adopt the CMMS within a few days
On the other hand, with a latest-generation CMMS such as Mobility Work, a free history import service is offered as soon as the trial period of the application starts.
Save yourself expensive training
The other major hidden cost of traditional software is the training required to use it. Indeed, these CMMS tools offer outdated and not very intuitive interfaces, and are very complicated to use. Maintenance teams must therefore undergo training courses that can last up to a month before they can use them!
Mobility Work’s mobile CMMS, on the other hand, is designed to offer a very simplified experience, allowing any technician to get to grips with the application in just a few minutes thanks to ergonomics similar to those of everyday applications. In a single day, a company with 20 maintenance technicians can start using this solution.
Mobility Work CMMS is based on a community of users who exchange and follow their plant’s activity thanks to the newsfeed
Don’t forget teams’ motivation
When adopting a new method or a major new tool within a company, it always creates reluctance and can provoke negative reactions within the teams. Conventional CMMS will tend to lead to this type of phenomenon because, while it serves maintenance analysis and management, it often makes the work of maintenance teams more complicated and their tasks heavier.
With an application such as Mobility Work, on the other hand, all of the teams’ work becomes immediately simpler. For example, writing maintenance reports is much easier, since each operator can do it from a smartphone or tablet as soon as the work is completed, including voice input. He or she can also consult the history of interventions on each machine, at any time and from any location.
Mobility Work CMMS allows operators and technicians to be autonomous: task creation, maintenance plans, notifications for every new activity…
Don’t forget customer support!
Most companies that offer maintenance management solutions provide customer support throughout the entire lifecycle of the solution. When it is effective, it saves users time and prevents them from getting “stuck” with a tool that is supposed to make the work of maintenance teams easier.
Before choosing your CMMS solution, make sure it comes with free, efficient and easily reachable customer support.
Choose a scalable CMMS solution
Technologies and business needs are changing very quickly. Any CMMS solution, no matter how powerful it is, is therefore destined to become obsolete if it is not regularly updated. While traditional software is rarely and insufficiently updated, a next-gen application such as Mobility Work is updated every week. Moreover, these updates are enriched, thanks to the community operation of the application, the feedback and the choices of the users, to be as close as possible to their needs. This is one of the advantages of a SAAS application, which updates automatically.
In addition, this feature gives you access to the latest innovations in maintenance management. This will allow you to constantly improve the productivity and therefore the competitiveness of your plant.
Now you’re better equipped to choose the CMMS that best suits your needs and those of your teams. Software vendors often highlight the supposed advantages of their product while hiding their drawbacks, limitations and hidden costs. Determine your selection criteria in advance, and base your choice on them. This is the best way to select the CMMS that will take you forward.
