How do I choose the best CMMS software?

Choosing the best CMMS for your business is often a process full of pitfalls. The solutions proposed are numerous and varied, and the challenges are significant, especially for SMEs. To find the best CMMS software, you must first understand the available offer, then study it in light of certain key criteria. Here you will find some tips to guide you.

Understand the latest developments in CMMS to make the right choice

Before choosing software, it is useful to understand the status of the development of computer-aided maintenance management.

Traditional CMMS software

In most businesses, maintenance management on paper documents has been replaced by the use of a spreadsheet such as Excel then, in some cases, the purchase of professional CMMS software. These software have represented a considerable advance in maintenance because they are specifically designed to facilitate and optimize interventions, their follow-up, the maintenance of machines, etc.

However, a CMMS software of this generation presents numerous disadvantages. Very expensive to buy (and trainings), long and complicated to configure, difficult to use by maintenance teams and therefore a source of demotivation, rarely updated, this type of solution has been, and still is, the source of numerous problems in many factories.

The new CMMS solutions

Technological progress and better consideration of users have allowed the emergence, over the past several years, of a new type of CMMS, often referred to as Mobile CMMS.

These new solutions can be used from any mobile device: laptop of course, but also smartphone or tablet. They allow access to all maintenance data at any time and from anywhere. CMMS is thus becoming a real daily tool and makes it possible to provide new and more effective answers to industrial companies.

The Mobility Work CMMS mobile application

A new generation CMMS software is also much more accessible for all its users than the old solutions, which generally required extensive training. More intuitive, it is designed to carrymembership of maintenance teams by making each of their tasks easier rather than complicating them as is often the case with traditional software.

Finally, these new applications work in SaaS mode. Instead of having to make a significant and uncertain investment, industrial companies, and in particular SMES, can now take out a limited-time subscription and don't need to host the software on their own hardware. This characteristic has financial advantages, but also practical ones, since it is no longer necessary to intervene on each terminal in the event of an update, for example. In general, deploying these new solutions is much simpler and faster.

12 criteria for choosing the best CMMS software

To determine which is the best CMMS for your business, here are the main criteria to take into account.

1. Choosing a complete CMMS

Some publishers are looking to present their intervention management solution for a real CMMS. However, these tools are limited and do not allow, for example, to manage maintenance plans, to monitor the life cycle of equipment, to manage spare parts stocks, etc.

Easily create your maintenance plans in Mobility Work CMMS

2. Native mobility

More than 80% of CMMS users are in the field all day. The possibility of accessing the application is such an advantage both for the comfort of the teams and for the productivity of the company that it is no longer possible, nowadays, to deprive yourself of it. Be careful, however, that some old CMMS software offers a mobile option, but an application that has integrated mobility since its design is generally much more efficient.

3. The user experience

THEergonomics of a CMMS software is very important. If it is likely to discourage maintenance operators from using it, this will have significant negative consequences both in terms of management and maintenance management efficiency. It is therefore advisable to favor a solution designed on the model of everyday applications, which everyone will know how to use very quickly, rather than “old-fashioned” software with a dissuasive design and operating mode.

4. Agility

The agility of an application lies in the technologies it uses and in the easy to set it up. These technologies are detailed by all good software publishers on their site or in their presentation brochure. The use of outdated technologies is generally a sign of aging tool design and involves performance, security, and compatibility risks.

5. Easy configuration

The provision to users of easy to use admin and customization pages is important to allow easy and autonomous configuration. Otherwise, you'll have to contact the editor every time you want to change an application setting.

6. Operating in SaaS

As explained above, choose a CMMS that works in SaaS With a few rare exceptions, it has only advantages. The best CMMS for your business can therefore only belong to this category rather than to that of “proprietary” software.

7. Server availability and reliability

This criterion follows from the previous one: the application you choose must be hosted on servers that offer very serious guarantees of reliability, in order to be always available and 100% usable. The most recognized hosts are AWS (Amazon Web Service) and Google.

8. An efficient and responsive support service

Any serious publisher is in a position to give you data on the responsiveness and effectiveness of its support service. Do not hesitate to ask for them to help you choose the best CMMS.

9. Unlimited data and users

A good CMMS solution offers an unlimited volume of data and an unlimited number of users. Any limitation is necessarily a sign that the proposed tool is outdated.

10. A public API

The API, or Application Program Interface, gives the possibility toeasily integrate CMMS into the entire plant information system and to connect it with other applications and software, when it is public.

11. Regular updates according to users

The best CMMS software at any given moment will not remain so for long if it does not adapt to the needs of its users by regularly taking into account their feedback and providing them with updates that take them into account. A good publisher knows how to make improvements to its application according to the requests of its customers.

12. Community operation

Some new generation CMMS allow access to maintenance communities. These include all the personnel of a factory or an industrial group concerned with maintenance, or even all the users of the application. These communities facilitate the exchange of information and the sharing of experiences, and therefore promote the optimization of maintenance management.

Easily find spare parts suppliers in Mobility Work CMMS

You now have (almost) all the cards in hand to choose the best CMMS for your business! The most important thing is to find the solution that best fits your needs, which means that the best CMMS software is often the one that will best adapt to your expectations.