Selecting the right CMMS software for your establishment is not an easy task these days. Earlier, Maintenance management in an organization was not taken as a serious issue and was considered waste of money but as the time changed top management and decision maker of the organization started understanding the need and importance of maintenance and facility department.
Maintenance management basically deal with the maintenance of equipment, effective scheduling, recording, tracking of all the operations and activities that take place in an organization. It also ensures that company does not face any downtime from damaged equipment and facilitate cost control. Before the introduction of maintenance management software this task was performed manually by the maintenance department. However, today various maintenance software are available in market. CMMS is one of the maintenance solutions mostly adopted by various organizations for effective functioning of their business.
CMMS stands for Computerized Maintenance Management Software which provide assistance to the organizations in maintenance management by keeping record and effective scheduling of the all the maintenance activities with cost control.
As today various cloud CMMS software are available in market, it becomes a challenge for organizations to choose the best option among the various alternatives. It is quite challenging to select an ideal CMMS solution that fits the need of organization.
Here are some critical factors or parameters, which you can take into consideration before buying a new CMMS solution for your firm.
- Form a team- Planning is an initial and crucial factor to be consider before making a decision. It is necessary to form a team of people from various departments of the organization to plan on the selection of suitable CMMS software. Opinion and insights of all the team members are valuable and organization must not ignore this fact because ultimately they are the one who are going to get affected by the new CMMS system.
- Define your requirements- It means that you have to decide on the specifications and requirements you want in your new CMMS solution. Maintenance management is of various types’ viz. preventive maintenance, risk- based maintenance, reliability centered maintenance etc and depending on the needs and type of the organization and industry you are in, you have to decide what type of CMMS solution is needed. The selected software must be industry specific as CMMS software varies industry-wise.
Vendor- Selection of vendor must be done after an intense research like- track record, market image, reviews etc. Before making final selection of CMMS system you need to ask as much as questions you can ask regarding the CMMS software you are interested in. It is very important to interview vendor in order to get deep knowledge about the CMMS system.
Following are the questions that must be asked-
About the flexibility and scalability of the CMMS system offered- It means that how adaptive is the system and will it be able to accommodate with organization after expansion.
- About demo- Always ask for a demonstration.
- Ask how user-friendly CMMS system is? CMMS must be user-friendly so that every employee can easily learn it and save time. It must be easily accessible and should not be meant only for tech-savvy people.
- Customer support
- Software Updates
- Ask about the vendor’s policies related to the post sale training support, implementation, account management and consultation.
- Ask about the mobility of the CMMS system
- Ask whether the CMMS system is Cloud based or Hosted Locally?
Price structure- Pricing is one of the crucial factors that can affect the buying decision of a CMMS system. Vendors must be asked about the setup cost, discounts, refund policy or any other additional charges. Organization must prefer those CMMS solution providers whose pricing policies are clear.
After considering all these factors, you can make a final selection of a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) for your business. Maintenance management is an integral part of an organization and it should not be ignored.
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