Change is one of those inevitable facts of life. Things change, people change, everything changes, well, everything except your CMMS. Day after day your valuable system sits there performing the same tasks, pumping out the same preventive maintenance routines, checking out the same parts, creating, tracking, and closing the same work orders. Let's face it, your system is bored. So what can you do to liven up this relationship and get it out of the doldrums? By bringing your system up-to-date with modern technology, or switching to an entirely new system built with this technology in mind, you can give yourself, and your system, a much needed boost that will increase productivity, save time and money, and give you a new set of tools to grow and evolve your maintenance department. Here's three big changes you can make that will bring your system into the present, and prepare you for the future:

1. Get Your Head in the Cloud

There's nothing wrong with nostalgia, for some things that is. Record players, Polaroid cameras and Super Mario Brothers are all classics that we pine for, but a maintenance management software built to run locally, nope, no thanks, we'll pass. Making sure you're using a CMMS that's built for the web has so many advantages it's hard to even pick one, so here's a few:

• Simple billing with no upfront costs 

• No hardware to install or maintain

• No server maintenance

• Instant access to your system

• Software updates and improvements automatically applied

• Immediate ability for support to diagnose and assist with issues

• Built with the newest technology

With all these benefits, plus several more, there has never been a better time to update your maintenance management system and get all the benefits of working with an online CMMS.

2. Get Mobile

Building from the idea of getting online, our next step is to get mobile. Mobile apps have completely altered the way companies are able to operate by streamlining simple tasks and putting the most important pieces of a software into the hands of those that use it the most. In the case of maintenance management, that means your techs and mechanics. With a mobile CMMS, your team has the ability to quickly and easily create, track, and close work orders, check out parts, get asset and equipment information, and ensure their time is accounted for and work is credited to them. With a mobile app for maintenance management, there is nearly zero time wasted in completing these important, every-day tasks. Your team never even has to sit down at a computer if they don't want to. Plus, with your web application's scheduling tools, all the work and information your team members need to see is always at their fingertips, and available in real time. 

3. Give Your Internet It's Things

Why settle for a maintenance management system that you have to constantly enter data into? Readings, preventive routines, spot checks, rounds and inspections are all vital maintenance tasks for operational success; they're also time-consuming. What if there was a way for all of that information, all that data, to be collected for you, and displayed in an insightful way that made perfect sense? What if you could use that information to change your maintenance strategy and make it more efficient? Even better, what if your CMMS could use all of that data to not only show you what was happening in your facility, but could understand what all of it meant, and take steps to help you correct issues before they become costly breakdowns. The possibilities are nearly endless when the Internet of Things is applied to maintenance management and includes:  

• Work orders with step by step tasks built from multiple trigger levels on specific sensors or meters,

• Smart storerooms that your software can check for quantities and source parts from if needed, or look outside for the best steps to take to order parts if there isn't one available,

• Route checks based on personnel movement to determine which mechanic should receive which work orders, straight to their mobile device,

• Work created based on asset and equipment location and condition, whether on site or remote,

• Data tracking and trending for analysis and truly predictive maintenance,

• Pretty much anything else that we can dream up to improve your maintenance management. 

The future of maintenance management software is tied to our ability to intelligently tie it with the Internet of Things to create new products beyond anything previously considered possible.