When you’re ready to talk to CMMS vendors, you typically start with a “discovery” call. During this conversation, a vendor’s sales rep should spend the bulk of the time listening and asking questions to learn about your specific needs. Expect it to take 20-30 minutes, or more if your requirements are complex.
To make the most of your conversations with CMMS vendors, consider the questions you want to be answered.
How to Prepare for CMMS Vendors
Always start by building a checklist to make sure you know your stakeholders and what they require from a CMMS solution. Use the starter checklist below as a guide.
- What are your company’s stakeholders’ questions, concerns, and needs?
- What do users say is most important to them?
- What are they worried about when faced with learning a new system?
- How can you help your IT Manager commit to supporting a new application?
- What does senior management want to achieve with your purchase?
- Do you know the processes and lead times required by procurement?
- Does finance agree there’s money to fund your purchase?
- How do you get them to release funds and approve payment?
- Have your legal and compliance departments given the ok?
- Do you know how to satisfy the regulations and internal procedures they are accountable for?
Questions about Your Company’s Requirements
Next, make a list of questions based on your preparation above. We recommend using these same questions with each CMMS vendor (as much as possible) to ensure you’re making an accurate comparison between companies.
- How will your software’s features meet my organization’s needs?
- How will our CMMS data be stored?
- How often do you update your software?
- What happens when we add more assets, employees, or advanced features?
- What’s your pricing structure?
- How long has your company been in business?
- Who are your other customers in our industry?
- Can you provide references?
- What does a typical implementation process look like?
- What training and support services do you provide?
Questions about Features and Functionality
Your stakeholders will probably have questions about the software functionality. Include any specific questions about features that they want to learn more about. The following list is a good place to start.
- Asset Records
- Employee Records
- Work Order Management
- Preventive Maintenance Scheduling
- Service Requesting
- Service Request Management
- Inventory Management
- Mobile Usage
- Media Integration
- Dashboards
- Reporting
- Key & Lock Management
- Vendor Management
- Cost Center & Budget Tracking
- Detailed Financial/TCO Tracking
- Customization
- Condition-based Maintenance
- Barcode Scanning
- Purchase Requisitions
Questions about Pricing, Implementation, Support, and Training
Last, but not least, ask questions about pricing, implementation, support, and training options. This information is just as important, if not more, when making your final decision.
- Will you purchase the application outright or subscribe to it as Software-as-aService (SaaS)?
- If purchased, will you host your application in-house or do you need to outsource this?
- Can you describe the implementation assistance you’ll require?
- How many people from your company need to be trained?
- Are different levels of training for in-house application support needed?
- Can the vendor provide the after-purchase support your stakeholders require?
After you’ve spoken to the vendors, schedule a demo to get more detailed information on their company and product, along with a live software demonstration for key stakeholders.
Have questions? Contact us. We’re here to help.
