Steps to Consider When Choosing a CMMS Software Solution

If you’re starting from scratch or moving from your CMMS to a new program, these steps will be helpful in identifying exactly what it is that you need in your CMMS software. MicroMain offers both maintenance management software to manage work orders and preventive maintenance, and facilities management software for space planning and moves. Here are the essential steps you need to consider when choosing a CMMS program for your organization!

Step 1: Define Your Goals

The first and most important step in choosing a CMMS is to define your goals and expectations:

• Are you looking to do preventive maintenance?
• Do you want to be able to track all your work orders?
• Is managing your parts inventory important to you?
• Is being able to do predictive maintenance important?
• Do you manage fleet?
• What kind of reports do you expect out of it?
• What kind of hardware and software requirements do you have?
• Do you have the IT staff infrastructure to support it?

These are all crucial questions to ask yourself before choosing your new CMMS software.

Step 2: Form Your CMMS Team

After you decide what is important to you in a CMMS, the next step is to enlist the help of your team members who are already familiar with maintenance operations. This team should include at least one person from each department that will be using the system. This approach will help you get a better idea of the company’s needs and is required to roll the new system out.

Step 3: Consider Preventive Maintenance Needs

When you’re looking for maintenance software, make sure that it supports Preventive Maintenance (or PMs) in the way you do it. Do you prefer calendar-based PMs? Meter-based? Is it based on hours of run time, or odometer readings? Can you do inspections? Can you take readings and measurements, pass/fail them, and create corrective maintenance work orders from failed inspections?

You want to make sure you can set up all your buildings, rooms, offices, and of course all the equipment, whether it’s facility equipment or production equipment.

Step 4: Think About Your Specific Purchase Order Needs

The right CMMS solution should provide timely creation of purchase orders. You should be able to create purchase orders, replenish your parts, get new services, and order new materials. Think about your current PO processes: If you’re using the CMMS to manage inventory, you’ll need better ways to build parts lists for equipment and specify onhand minimums and reorder amounts so you don’t get caught short.

Again, these are all important things to look for in your next CMMS. In the long term, you also want to be able to generate any type of reports you may need.

Step 5: See the Software in Action

After you’ve narrowed down your search to just a few CMMS providers, be sure to request a demo from each of them to see how they work and if you think they’re a good fit for your organization. To book your demo with MicroMain, simply complete this short form, and we’ll get your demo scheduled right away!