What do companies look for in a CMMS?

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1 What do companies look for in a CMMS? Over the past number of years, Maintenance Assistant has provided maintenance and asset management software to tens of thousands of small and mid-sized businesses around the world. This has spanned both downloadable on-premises software as well as single- and multi-tenant cloud based CMMS systems. During that time, our product development was largely driven by customer feature requests, which is how we accumulated a considerable amount of knowledge about the way people buy and use maintenance software. Segmenting the maintenance and asset management market At a high level, the market can be broken down into three distinct categories according to the size of the business using the software. Large Tier 1 corporations use largely onpremises Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software which combines both maintenance management and asset lifecycle management functionality. Software addressing this $775m global market is the most complex, often with well over 2,000 features. This market is serviced by a handful of very large vendors like Oracle, IBM, and SAP. Tier 2 mid-size businesses tend to need less functionality than found in an EAM but more than what s typically available in a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). Few vendors specifically position themselves in this market and those who do primarily offer legacy software to vertical markets. In this tier of the market customers have often been oversold on EAM solutions by large vendors moving down market with their complex and often bloated software. Or, customers have been undersold on a CMMS

2 by small vendors trying to move upmarket with inadequate systems that don t perform well or integrate properly with the customer s other business software or facilities and equipment. The Tier 3 small businesses segment is well served by well over 1,000 existing CMMS vendors. This is a busy $380m global market that is highly fragmented with each vendor having relatively few customers. Feature sets range wildly from simple work order systems to more robust preventative maintenance PM systems. When considering the features you need in your maintenance and asset management solution, you ll want to rely on advice that is specific to not only your size but also your market sector. The Tier 3 CMMS Market What problems are maintenance managers trying to solve with their maintenance management system? We polled a random sample of our users to ask the question, What problems are Maintenance Managers trying to solve with their maintenance management system? The results weren t surprising. Improving the productivity of their maintenance department was at the top of the list. Maintenance managers are being asked to do more with less and this means getting their departments organized and moving away from reactive maintenance. And it s no wonder why. Reactive maintenance (also called breakdown maintenance) costs 3 to 9

3 times more than preventive maintenance. Alarmingly, 55% of all maintenance done in North America is still reactive. The ideal scenario for maintenance suggests no more than 20% of maintenance should be reactive, while the other 80% should be pro-active or scheduled. Maintenance managers use their CMMS to better manage their maintenance technicians, suppliers and processes to drive productivity so they can bring down their maintenance backlog and start doing more preventive scheduled maintenance. Our data also showed that larger companies needs also included meeting health, safety, environment and regulatory compliance legislation. In response, CMMS providers are incorporating additional tools in their products to meet this evolving set of needs. One of the most important ones is the ability to create customized reports that are capable of utilizing any of the data in the CMMS. Previously this was left to analyst and consultants. Now, powerful report writer tools, with user-friendly interfaces, allow management to create virtually any report from their CMMS data in minutes and have it sent to anyone at anytime. What features are CMMS users looking for in their maintenance management system? The basic components of any maintenance management system revolve around three fundamental components: the ability to keep asset records, the creation and completion of work orders (tickets, jobs, etc.), and scheduled maintenance. Again, we polled our users about how they use our CMMS software and found these were in fact the three most common uses. The good news is that most CMMS software

4 packages do a pretty good job at these three functions, making it difficult to say which does it best. Mobile ranked in the top 5 features in our survey for the first time. Not surprising, as the mobile work force, enabled by cloud CMMS software and smart phones is poised for massive growth as older workers (now with a median age of 52 in North America) begin to retire and the contracted field maintenance workforce ramps up. Bunched with mobility are productivity tools ideally suited to mobile devices, QR code and bar code reader-enabled CMMS systems allow workers to quickly scan assets and get access to their entire work order or asset history on their smart phone or tablet. Mobile devices can also allow non-cmms users (typically called Guests ) the ability to make requests for maintenance directly from their smart phone. With the advent of connected devices, a malfunctioning device connected to the internet (known as the Internet of Things or IoT) can make its own request for service when something goes wrong, no human intervention required! Five years ago, none of this was on the radar of small and mid-sized companies. Today, cloud technology is the big enabler of these major productivity tools. When choosing a CMMS software brand, what matter to buyers? Out of the over 1,000 CMMS software vendors, there are only a few dozen that do a decent job of providing their customers with the actual functionality they need. That still leaves those making the purchase decision with a lot of choices. This is where brand reputation, services and price make all the difference.

5 When we polled decision makers about what they were most concerned about, they said they looked for how easy the software would be to use, configure and implement. Getting their people trained and properly supported was top of mind as well, as was the price. When considering price, the total cost of ownership was important, not just the initial cost or the monthly subscription cost. They looked at the cost over the lifetime of the software, which included: the cost of the software or if cloud-based the monthly or annual subscription; the cost to get their data into the system and integrate it with their other business systems; the cost of upgrades; and the cost of training and support. Here is where cloud solutions had a clear advantage over older legacy onpremises maintenance software. The Three components of Modern CMMS and EAM Systems I was recently asked by Taylor Short at Software Advice what I felt constituted a modern maintenance an asset management software, and what productivity gains could be expected by upgrading to one. The answer was clear: Cloud, Mobile, and API. Without exception, all modern software is being built to leverage the enormous power of the Cloud. The cloud is a distributed set of computers that are connected to one another via the internet, and are run by some of the most reputable technology companies. They provide inexpensive and massively scalable cloud computing

6 platforms (know as Infrastructure-as-a-Service) that include data hosting, database infrastructure, analytics, computing, security, data redundancy, mobility and a host of web services. The massive scale of these companies drives down computer infrastructure cost and allows software companies like Maintenance Assistant to offer their cloud-based products at prices unheard of only a few years ago and with much better performance and security than legacy solutions. The cloud is the fundamental basis of the next generation of modern software and companies are racing to catch up to those who took a gamble on it 5 years ago. Should I go cloud, hosted, or on-premises? Like all new technologies there are early, mainstream and late adopters of the technology. Front running cloud services included CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software from the likes of Salesforce.com, and Cloud Data Storage services from Dropbox, Box, Apple and Google. Only recently have cloud solutions been built for the CMMS and EAM markets. Market segments that are quick to adopt cloud-based enterprise software solutions include high tech manufacturers, telecom and financial services, with industrial manufacturing gaining momentum as it recovers from the last great recession. But that s not the only story. Cloud adoption has been bubbling from the bottom up, being adopted first by Tier 3 and Tier 2 companies with Tier 1 enterprises still hesitant or slow to adopt. Companies serving the cloud market, like Netsuite for example, have had explosive growth providing cloud-based business software.

7 The promise of cloud was to bring sophisticated software, previously only available to the largest companies and at high price tags, to small and mid-sized businesses at prices they could afford without sacrificing capabilities and with no IT infrastructure requirements. Cloud software has delivered beyond the market s wildest expectations. Cloud solutions have begun to democratize entire industries, giving smaller companies access to powerful business tools and the ability to collaborate with their customers and vendors, helping them compete head-to-head with much larger companies. When assessing cloud offers, the landscape gets fuzzy quickly, especially when sourcing cloud solutions from legacy software vendors. Most of them do not offer true cloud solutions. Their work around is to host their old legacy solutions for you somewhere else (i.e. instead of you running the software on your own corporate server they run it on theirs instead), and give you access to it via a web interface. These hosted solutions ultimately are more expensive and do not leverage the true power of cloud-based systems and do not allow for collaboration across multiple locations, devices, systems, or businesses in a seamless way for that you need a true multi-tenant cloud architecture. True cloud systems are built with data structures that host multiple tenants (or customers) within secure separated areas of a single common database. The code base (that is the actual algorithms and business logic) are the same for all users, although specific features, interface and even language can be customized at the individual user level). The rush to mobile and the next generation of workers Mobile computing and communication has officially become a universal truth, with over 71% of people aged in developed countries having a mobile device.

8 With the majority of workers in the maintenance industry nearing retirement in North America, a new generation of tech savvy workers and decision makers is at their doorstep. Smart phones and the Internet are how they work, live and play. After much resistance, most business owners now allow employees to bring and use their own devices at work, and many encourage them to work from home as needed. Mobile enabled business solutions are no longer a nice add-on, now they are a must-have. But not all mobile CMMS solutions are created equal. Savvy procurement personnel look for Native Mobile Apps (the ones you install off an App store like Google Play or Apple s App Store). A native mobile CMMS App is one that can access a smartphone s hardware, camera, microphone, GPS, accelerometer, compass, etc. Older CMMS software was not designed for today s modern mobile technology and companies rely on a cheap work around to deliver a mobile solution. They typically use an HTML5 web interface that allows (often-limited) access to their software s functionality through the smart phone s web browser. On the other hand, vendors who have created actual native Apps to access the CMMS database on cloud servers are able to create rich experiences for their users, allowing them access to all the same features as the desktop version of their CMMS in a mobile-friendly designs, plus a whole host of advanced features that take advantage of the smart phone s hardware. Here at MA CMMS we built native applications for smart phones and tablets that run on the ios and Android platforms. Using the smart phone s on-board hardware, like the GPS and camera, we built advanced productivity features that save users time and ultimately save their employers money. For example, using our mobile CMMS App, managers can take pictures of facilities and equipment using their smart phone camera and instantly add that photo to their CMMS. Or, users can use the camera to scan bar codes and QR codes to make work requests, check the status or work history of a machine, get meter readings or even check parts inventory levels. They can use their device to watch videos that show them how to do the repair, and then use the phone s

9 voice-to-text function to complete work orders as they do them. They can also take and attach pictures to the work ticket to prove the work s been done! Software that doesn t include a Native Mobile App is clearly not modern. API enabled applications add richness and functionality to modern CMMS systems: An API (application programming interface) gives third party developers the ability to build components that add functionality to the CMMS. Modern software is built with Open APIs, and best-in-class software vendors provide developers with software developer tool kits (SDKs) as well as sandbox environments for testing their add-on applications. An API extends the power of a software application, allowing it to communicate with other computers and software applications as well as smart devices, sensors and equipment. This is made possible through Connectors, which take the data from one system and then transfer it to another application in a format that it can consume. For example, using our API, meter readings can be collected from a piece of equipment and then transferred to our CMMS where it can trigger some further action like an , alarm or request for service. Another connector allows financial and purchasing data collected by our CMMS to be sent to an ERP system and then synchronizes the two databases in real time. We also created an API enabled marketplace where our users can share information, or buy and sell equipment parts and supplies. APIs create the points of connection that allow all aspects of a business to work in perfect sync. Software that does not offer these points of connection is said to be stand alone and is quickly being replaced by seamlessly integrated software powered by APIs. APIs let business owners pick and choose the best software from multiple vendors and then seamlessly integrate them together using APIs. Companies recognize that each software vendor has strengths in specific areas but seldom cover all the bases well. As a result, companies are turning to niche software vendors to provide software in their specific area of expertise (Financial, ERP, CRM, CMMS, EAM, etc.) and then integrate them together via the API. That way they get the most appropriate software at the best prices. Large integrated solutions from a single vendor are in decline, where as cloudbased integrated multi-vendor solutions are growing quickly. Finally, the progressive transition from analog instruments to digital instruments requires a seamless interface with CMMS and EAM solutions. This is made possible by API enabled systems. In the emerging Internet of Things (IoT), where devices are

10 connected to the Internet, APIs play a pivotal role in creating actionable endpoints for the big data being collected by all those devices. Conclusion The best way to determine if CMMS software is built for today s integrated and connected world is to look for these three fundamental components: 1. Multi-tenant cloud-based CMMS 2. Native Mobile App 3. Open API I d definitely consider any company building CMMS software based on these three fundamentals to be Modern. Author Marc Castel CEO & Co-Founder Maintenance Assistant MAINTENANCE ASSISTANT INC CONTACT US 35 Golden Avenue, Suite 201-A Toronto, ON, Canada M6R 2J5 Local+1 (647) l Free: +1 (855) info@maintenanceassistant.com