Vendor Management and SLAs with CMMS Software
I really enjoy talking to maintenance managers who use our CMMS software in the real world. There’s really no better way to learn about the challenges you face, so we understand how we can help make your work lives easier. Such was the case with Andrew, a relatively new MPulse customer. His company buys assets that typically are purchased with extended warranties and service contracts. Those service contracts usually last 3‒5 years and include scheduled vendor maintenance tasks. When I asked Andrew how his MPulse software helps with his workload, his answer was straightforward. “I couldn’t manage our vendor documentation and warranties without it,” he told me. Manage Service Level Agreements (SLAs) Before his company purchased MPulse, Andrew’s maintenance team relied on paper and pencil as well as an Excel spreadsheet for their vendor management information and schedules. Today Andrew manages all his service level agreements (SLA) in MPulse—which documents contact information, personnel, rates, and more. Plus, he connects those records with asset history and warranty information as well as scheduled preventive maintenance (PM) tasks. The result of SLA driven operations is an improved and automated system that links Andrew’s vendors and the work orders generated by his CMMS system. He can assign work to vendors and email work order details quickly and easily. Related Article: Three Ways Your MPulse Account Manager Can Streamline Your Business “Steve, it’s freed up so much time,” Andrew said. “I can run a quick report, and I know who needs to do what and when. I see the reminders, and I can schedule vendor visits in advance. No more vendor PM tasks slipping through the cracks because someone forgot to update an Excel spreadsheet or there was a data entry error. No more warranty problems because we missed a preventative maintenance task.” Track Vendor Information Even if your maintenance operations don’t rely on service level agreements, vendor management helps document which vendors provide specific goods and services for quick reference when you need them. Plus, it’s easy to contact vendors directly as well as view historical information on previous work. Related article: Five Ways MPulse Can Help You Reduce Downtime “With MPulse, everything is at my fingertips,” Andrew continued. “No more searching through filing cabinets or looking up phone numbers and email addresses on the Internet. I can focus on more important things now.” Andrew also uses MPulse’s report generation features to track warranty expiration dates, related costs, response time, and other key performance indicators that measure how effective his vendors are. “My team is a lot happier because they know what to expect and when,” he said. “It’s significantly reduced the stress level around here.” Are you having issues with your vendor management and service level agreements? Leave a comment, or contact us for a free, no-obligations demo!
Timed vs. Metered Preventive Maintenance with CMMS
When a maintenance team establishes and regularly performs PM tasks that contribute to the upkeep of assets, an organization may be able to sidestep serious problems that arise as a result of neglect as well as delay more expensive maintenance. Regular preventive maintenance tracking programs also ensure equipment is properly calibrated and lubricated. Automating preventive maintenance with CMMS software helps maintenance teams schedule PM tasks, making it simpler to follow the manufacturer’s guidelines. Maintenance intervals can be scheduled based on time, operating hours, or part condition—triggering a work order just before the point when system inefficiencies or failures begin to occur. Timed Preventive Maintenance Timed preventive maintenance is simply based on the time between PM tasks—such as days, weeks, months, etc. A good example is inspections, which need to be performed at specific time intervals to help maintenance teams spot issues before they occur. Timed preventive maintenance tasks are easy to set up in CMMS software. Simply choose the correct time interval, and then let CMMS software notify you or automatically create a work order when it’s due. Metered Preventive Maintenance Metered PM scheduling measures usage using a specific meter, which triggers a PM task at the appropriate time. Meter readings track and measure the condition of equipment, machinery, vehicles, and other assets—such as mileage, usage time, production volume, pressure, flow rate, etc. [related-content] Over time these meter readings create historical data for the asset, which maintenance managers can use to determine if repairs were successful or if they should adjust the PM schedule based on performance. While some maintenance teams record meter readings manually, others save time with CMMS features like MPulse DataLink to automate the process. Whether you use timed or metered PM scheduling, your CMMS software can help you reduce emergency maintenance issues and unexpected production stoppages. This, in turn, cuts overtime costs for emergency repairs and reduces production losses. Properly maintained assets perform more efficiently, use less energy, and fail less often—extending their usable life. Preventive maintenance scheduling with CMMS software is cost effective and beneficial for organizations of all sizes—lowering costs, improving reliability, and helping with compliance reporting. Learn more about how MPulse Maintenance Software can help you improve your PM scheduling. Contact us. We’re here to help.
Mistakes that Occur When Buying CMMS
After more than 3,000 customers, MPulse employees have an insider’s viewpoint of what works—and what doesn’t—when it’s the right time for your organization to buy CMMS software. To help new and potential customers, we’ve created a list of the five most common mistakes that occur when buying CMMS software. So, you can learn from other people’s mistakes (and avoid them). Use these five items to ask questions now that will help your CMMS implementation succeed later. Scalability: Scalability means the CMMS software can accommodate changes in size or volume as your needs change. That may mean something as simple as adding user licenses. Or, more complicated like adding advanced features or upgrades to meet new organizational needs. Compatibility: Maintenance managers often need to share maintenance data with their organization’s systems of record. CMMS software’s compatibility with external applications means you don’t need to worry about manually reformatting volumes of data to just to satisfy the requirement of other systems. Customizations & Modifications: It’s important to be able to customize certain things so your CMMS software matches your organization’s needs. Make sure you can adjust layouts, add custom fields, create nested fields, and link custom prompts to fit your needs. Mobile Devices: If you haven’t started using mobile devices in your maintenance operations, you probably will soon. Look for CMMS software with an adaptive interface. As a result, your maintenance team will experience the same easy access no matter what device (desktop computer, tablet, or mobile phone) they use. Data Accessibility: A modern CMMS, properly integrated, can use data from virtually any source to feed its alerts, alarms, and reports. Make sure your CMMS software can track the data that your users need. You’ll also want to run custom reports on the information you and your organization’s managers need to know about. Sometimes failure can give you the tools and information you need to succeed. Take advantage of our experience with maintenance management for a variety of organizations. Contact us to see how we can help.
Common Maintenance Problems You Can Avoid with CMMS
Maintenance requires the right knowledge and the right tools. CMMS software provides your maintenance team with both. But CMMS software doesn’t just help you fix problems. It can also help you avoid problems in the first place. When it’s your job to fix things, it’s always good to have fewer problems on your list. Five Maintenance Problems You Want to Avoid CMMS software can help you with maintenance problems, like… Missed prevent maintenance tasks. With CMMS software, you can schedule maintenance intervals based on time intervals or asset condition, which triggers a work order just before the point when system inefficiencies or failures begin to occur. Regular preventive maintenance also ensures equipment is properly calibrated and lubricated when it needs to be. Unavailable parts. The number one reason for delayed repairs is unavailable parts. CMMS manages your parts inventory, prevents under-stocking and over-stocking, and streamlines reordering. CMMS software also can determine your current inventory levels and automatically generate purchase orders based on need, reducing purchasing overhead. You also can track parts to stock based on availability. For example, if a part has a three-week lead time, you can adjust stocking levels to make sure it is available when your staff needs it. Miscommunication. CMMS software helps you eliminate lost information as well as reduce confusion and errors. With CMMS software, your employees know what their priorities should be as well as when they’ll need to complete maintenance work around other activities. With automated communication tools, CMMS software also lets the right people know the status of their maintenance requests. Historical information and technical resources. CMMS software automatically records work completed on an asset. Plus, you can link to important documents, maintenance manuals, videos, photos, supplier websites, intranets, and more. All the information is stored with the record, so it’s easily accessible the next time around. Repair or replace. CMMS software gives you hard data about the age of the equipment and the miles, hours, life-to-date repair dollars, and other metrics—so it’s easier to decide when it’s time to replace an asset instead of repair it. You’ll have all the information at your fingertips to determine the total cost of ownership, making your decision much easier. How can MPulse CMMS software help your maintenance team avoid problems like these? Leave a comment or contact us. We’re here to help.
Cloud-Based vs. On-Premise CMMS Software
When you’re researching CMMS, you’ll find vendors typically offer two different deployment options: cloud-based or on-premise software. Cloud-based CMMS software (sometimes called web-based CMMS software) is hosted by the vendor and accessible via any device with an Internet connection. On-premise software (sometimes called client-server software) requires you to host the software on your own server and use your own network and hardware. Maximizing your CMMS investment means ensuring you’re getting software that’s going to work for the long term. Here’s what you need to know about cloud-based vs. on-premise CMMS software. Reduced IT spending: Because cloud-based CMMS applications are located elsewhere, maintenance operations no longer need to enlist expensive (and often unavailable) IT support to set up and maintain technology infrastructure. Lower hardware costs: Because a cloud-based CMMS runs on external servers, many organizations have discovered they spend less on hardware in the office, particularly on PCs and internal servers. Always up-to-date: Because cloud-based CMMS software is centrally managed by the provider, you never need to apply software updates. Cloud-based software stays updated to the latest version in real time. Mobilization: Mobile technology is a natural fit for the maintenance industry. Cloud-based CMMS means maintainers can access data anytime and anywhere with Internet-enabled devices, like laptops, smartphones, or tablets. Lower training costs: Improved web-based and app-based user interfaces that mimic popular personal-use applications can minimize the learning curve on hardware and software. Easy scalability: Cloud-based CMMS software makes tasks like adding a new user or expanding reporting capabilities easy, so you can keep up in a fast-changing environment. Data security: No more worrying about hard drive failures or data-loss catastrophes. A cloud-based CMMS system backs up your data and secures it in a professionally managed environment. Plus, you own your data and can access it at any time. While both on-premise and cloud-based CMMS software work, there’s a difference in the long-term costs. On-premise software is a bit like the flip phones of 15-20 years ago. You can still make calls and send texts, but it can’t compete with capabilities of a modern smartphone. Cloud-based CMMS software helps maintenance operations get applications up and running faster while reducing onsite implementation and management costs. Your maintenance team will save time and money getting your CMMS system working—and you’ll be able to get on to the real work of maintaining and repairing critical assets. Contact us for more information.
CMMS Software Security Must-Knows
CMMS data is an organizational asset, and it needs to be protected like any other asset. You don’t hand the keys to your office over to just anyone—and you don’t want unauthorized access to your CMMS software either. As a maintenance professional, your goal should be to prevent unauthorized access, misuse, modification, unintended deletion, or malfunction of your data. Modern CMMS software can help you achieve that goal. Here’s what you should know about CMMS software security. Network Security Security starts with the network. If your CMMS software is hosted internally, your IT team will be responsible for ensuring the security of your network. However, cloud-based CMMS software runs on external servers. If you have cloud-based maintenance software—or you’re thinking about buying it—be sure your CMMS data is backed up and secured in a professionally managed environment. [related-content] MPulse provides a SSAE 16 Type II certified cloud hosting and recovery service. Our goal is to offer solutions that combine certified production deployments with fully tested, disaster recovery services to provide the highest levels of availability, security, responsiveness, and recovery. Single-Sign-On (SSO) / Active Directory Integration for Cloud-Hosted Customers SAML SSO enables cloud-based CMMS software to integrate with security directories that determine who gets access to what computers, networks, applications, and services. SSO offers many advantages for organizations that want to streamline and control access to cloud-based software. For example, with our SSO option, MPulse users can log into their computers once and have immediate access to their hosted CMMS from MPulse. MPulse’s SSO option extends an organization’s internal Microsoft Active Directory to the MPulse cloud environment. This feature supports multiple identity providers (including Microsoft ADFS and Okta) as well as user self-provisioning and custom claims for populating user data. Access Control Within your CMMS database, you’ll want to protect sensitive information by limiting which records your employees see depending on their role in the organization. In other words, you want the right people to have the right access to the right records. MPulse Maintenance Software’s Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) was designed for this purpose—enabling you to reduce errors in data entry, prevent unauthorized users from viewing or editing data, gain tighter control over data access, and eliminate the “data clutter” of unnecessary information. Have questions about CMMS software security? We have answers. Contact us.
CMMS a “Must Have” for Distribution Centers
From automated storage & retrieval systems to conveyors & sorters, modern distribution centers focus on throughput, equipment reliability, and uptime—just like any other production-oriented business. And just like other organizations, more distribution centers are turning to CMMS software for help. “In our environment, maintenance is all about keeping the company assets in like-new condition while minimizing the impact to our operation,” explained Randall, MPulse customer and facility manager for an international online retailer. More Automation, More Assets to Maintain Distribution center employees face more pressure than ever to get orders out the door, thanks in part to a surge in online sales over the past decade and high expectations for quick deliveries. Randall’s company has invested heavily in automated material handling systems to meet the growing demand—but more equipment also means more maintenance work for his team. Most distribution centers need CMMS software like MPulse to manage a wide range of equipment, from modern materials handling systems to more typical facility assets such as HVAC systems, dock doors, lighting, and plumbing. “Maintenance teams in distribution centers require diversity in their skillsets, however, some co-workers are becoming more specialized,” Randall explained. “MPulse allows you to assign a person to an asset, and so once the asset is set up, it automatically gets assigned to the proper individual with the right skill set.” And like any maintenance manager, Randall needs to track costs—particularly labor costs—as well as set benchmarks and KPIs. “It is impossible to cut costs if you don’t know where the money goes,” he said. “Uptime, extended life expectancies, and minimal operational impact is what all maintenance department should be striving for—at the lowest cost to the business.” Data Integration Distribution center maintenance teams also have discovered the benefits of CMMS software coupled with Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology. The combination enables maintenance teams to gather information directly from multiple devices, which can be almost anything with a sensor—including computers, vehicles, smartphones, appliances, building automation systems, and production equipment. Maintenance teams can use that information to proactively perform maintenance and even predict asset failures—saving both time and money. The rapidly changing technology found in distribution centers means that maintenance software is no longer optional. Contact us to learn how MPulse can improve your maintenance team’s productivity and efficiency.
How to Write a Request for Proposals for CMMS Software
Last time, we talked about why you might want to consider writing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for your CMMS software purchase. If you’ve decided that’s the right option for you, we’ve listed some tips on how to get the most out of the process. An RFP outlines your requirements, so you can find the right software for your organization. You’ll send it to potential vendors, who will respond with documentation on how their software meets those needs. Important Details We recommend providing background information about your organization. These details help vendors respond appropriately. For example, your RFP should include… A description of your organization and its market Size of your organization and maintenance team Number of assets Main objectives for CMMS software Timelines Existing software and hardware Available internal resources (i.e., IT personnel, support staff, etc.) IT Infrastructure Describe your existing IT infrastructure. If you know now, specify if you’re looking for local or cloud-based solutions. If you don’t, be sure to mention you’re looking at both options. Specific Requirements The biggest part of your RFP will be your CMMS software requirements. It’s important to be specific in an RFP, but not so specific that you eliminate viable options. We recommend… Identifying requirements that every proposal must meet Identifying the requirements that are optional or “wish list” items Separating your list of requirements by function, such as IT requirements, reporting, software integration, etc. Prioritizing requirements, if necessary Including an area for vendors to respond to these requirements and identify what’s part of their basic package and what requires customization, a feature extension, or an upgrade Including a section for vendors to outline the price—include optional features or additional charges Training, Implementation & Support Options Include information about your training, implementation, and support requirements. Provide an area for vendors to outline exactly what services they offer, and how much they cost. Once you’ve written an RFP, you’ll send it out to vendors. Give them ample time to respond—at least two weeks, preferably three. It takes time and effort to write an RFP, but the payoff is worth it if you save yourself the pain that comes with making the wrong decision. Questions? We have answers. Contact us. We’re here to help.
CMMS Software Checklist
When you’re researching CMMS software, a demo from the vendor is a great way to get direct answers to your questions about how their software works—and how it would work for your maintenance team. Take advantage of this opportunity. Below are five questions you should ask in every CMMS demo. 1. Will the Software Meet Our Needs? Before you’ve made it to the demo process, you’ve probably made a list of your pain points and “must have” features. Here’s your chance to get specific with vendors. Have them walk you through a sample workflow so you can see the steps firsthand. Ask what can be customized to meet your needs, and if the software is scalable as your maintenance operations change. 2. Can Our Users Work with It Comfortably? CMMS software that is never used is wasted money and time. Involve all the stakeholders early in the process and include key users in the demos so they can see it firsthand. Encourage them ask questions that relate to how they’ll use the software. 3. What Are the Specifications? Find out what hardware and system requirements are required. This process will likely involve your IT department or technology support staff. Go through each requirement and make sure it works for you. If you’re moving towards mobile maintenance, don’t forget to include the type of devices—such as desktops, tablets and smartphones. Also, ask questions about how the CMMS software integrates with other organizational software, like accounting or financial software. 4. What Implementation, Support and Training Options Are Available? It takes a lot more than installing software to get your CMMS software up and running. The best way to make your CMMS software a success is investing in the right resources to get you to “Go Live” day. Ask for specifics about a vendor’s services—including implementation, training and support. Determine what you will be responsible for versus the vendor. 5. What Does It Cost? You’ve probably already gotten a ballpark number to determine if the software is in the realm of possibility. Now it’s time to get specific about your needs, so vendors can be accurate with their price quote. You may realize you need to refine some of your requirements… and that’s okay. Use your CMMS demo time wisely, and you’ll be that much farther along in getting the right software for you. More questions? We have answers. Contact us.
Is It Time to Expand Your Maintenance Operations with CMMS?
When you’re using maintenance software on a daily basis, it’s easy to learn to work within the parameters of your current system without realizing what else you might be missing. That’s what happened to Lisa, an MPulse administrator for a utility district. While things were running smoothly with their older version of MPulse, as she started researching an upgrade to the newest release, Lisa realized her organization’s needs had changed over time. “We’re not just looking for the newest release,” she explained. “We need to implement new functionality. We’re looking to capture and track additional data, increase our reporting capabilities, and add more complex features.” Scaling Up CMMS Software In the software business, we call this scalability—which simply means your CMMS software can accommodate changes in size or volume as your needs change. So, Lisa needs not only the newest version of MPulse, but a more robust version. The good news is that MPulse is easy to scale. We designed our software that way on purpose because we know how things change in the maintenance field. It’s not uncommon for organizations like Lisa’s to start with simpler versions of our software, and then once they are up and running, see the benefits of more advanced features or enterprise management capabilities with global settings, global reporting, and enterprise-wide inventory search and transfer. That’s because when your organization grows, maintenance feels the impact. Suddenly you’ve got more equipment to maintain, additional production to support, new staff members to manage, extra inventory to store, and different safety procedures to perform. Scalability is Cost Effective From a customer’s standpoint, software scalability is cost effective because you can buy what you need when you need it. Whether it’s adding user licenses or expanding functionality, it’s more affordable to scale up your CMMS software instead of starting from scratch every time. Scalable CMMS software keeps you on top of the increased workload—whether it’s more equipment, additional production, new staff members, extra inventory, different safety procedures, etc. Things change. You can’t predict these changes, yet CMMS software scalability ensures you are prepared when they happen. Have questions? Leave a comment or contact us. We’re here to help.