The advances in mobile technology and web-based software have provided users with on-the-go and round-the-clock access to software programs. These tech trends allow niche B2B systems such as CMMS software to increase in popularity. CMMS features come in flexible platforms, meaning no system is the same. So what are the standard CMMS requirements any buyer should look for?

Get our CMMS Software Requirements Template

Article Roadmap

• Key Requirements
  • Asset Tracking
  • Work Order Management
  • Maintenance Request Management
  • Inventory Management
  • Purchase Order Management
  • Project and People Tracking
  • Preventive Maintenance
  • Platform Capabilities
  • Reporting & Business Intelligence
  • Mobile CMMS
  • Vendor and Customer Management
• Next Steps

Key Requirements

You can help your maintenance team make the most out of the CMMS investment and select the right solution. Consider the following requirements and functions while looking at CMMS vendors:

1. Asset Tracking

Asset tracking involves monitoring an organization’s physical assets using methods such as barcode scanning or GPS and RFID tags to verify their whereabouts.

It’s a crucial component of enterprise asset management. Although the focus of asset tracking is on tangible assets, its benefits can extend to intangible assets within a company too.

On the flip side, asset tracking systems provide a superior alternative to these partially automated asset tracking methods. Implementing an asset tracking system brings numerous advantages to your organization.

Some asset management modules provide a variety of features to efficiently track and monitor your assets. Through the system, you can access all asset-related information using different interfaces, including interactive floor plans for precise asset mapping, a standard grid format or even a calendar interface.

• Asset Hierarchies
• Equipment Check-In/Check-Out
• Depreciation Tracking
• Asset Records
• Warranty Tracking

2. Work Order Management

Work orders are the hub of any maintenance management system. In addition to providing a digital form to replace traditional paper-based work orders, a CMMS work order management module acts as the central component of your maintenance database. All asset and equipment information, including documents, ID tags, equipment images, spare parts information and much more, can be associated with work orders making it an agile communication tool in your maintenance department.

All asset and equipment information, including documents, ID tags, equipment images, spare parts information and much more, can be associated with work orders making it an agile communication tool in your maintenance department.

Get our CMMS Software Requirements Template

3. Maintenance Request Management

Maintenance request management is the process of receiving, documenting, prioritizing and addressing maintenance requests within an organization. It involves managing the entire life cycle of maintenance requests, from initial submission to resolution.

With effective maintenance request management, you can promptly address issues, minimizing downtime, improving asset performance and maintaining a safe working environment.

It helps streamline the maintenance workflow, allocate resources efficiently and track maintenance task progress. By centralizing and automating the request management process, you can enhance productivity, improve communication and optimize maintenance operations.

• Request Approval
• Request Automation
• Request Submission
• Request Forms
• Status Updates and Notifications

4. Inventory Management

Similar to asset and equipment management, inventory management helps you organize and track spare parts. Too often, organizations misplace or run out of parts in the middle of repair on a critical asset, leading to increased equipment downtime and overall productivity decline.

This feature can go above and beyond simply cataloging your inventory. Stockroom management includes custom-made barcodes and QR code scanning capabilities to make the organization process a breeze. Never use a clipboard again! Your CMMS can even set automatic reordering reminders or perform cycle counting in which a certain segment of inventory gets counted each day, reducing or even eliminating the need for physical inventory.

These modules also provide demand forecasting assistance based on your purchase history and other data to help limit over or understocking.

5. Purchase Order Management

Purchase order management is the process of creating, managing and tracking purchase orders within an organization. It involves the entire life cycle of a purchase order, from the initial request for a product or service to the final receipt and payment.

Purchase order management helps organizations maintain control over their purchasing activities, ensures compliance with procurement policies, and enables better visibility and analysis of spending. It helps in improving vendor relationships, reducing costs, minimizing errors and optimizing inventory management.

• Purchase Requisitions
• Automated Purchase Order
• PO Matching
• Purchase Order Automation

Get our CMMS Software Requirements Template

6. Project and People Tracking

Project and people tracking involves monitoring and managing the progress, tasks, resources associated with projects and the individuals involved in those projects. It involves tracking the activities, milestones, timelines and performance of both the project itself and the people working on it.

In project tracking, organizations use various tools and techniques to monitor the progress of projects, ensuring they stay on schedule and within budget. People tracking, on the other hand, focuses on monitoring the performance and availability of individuals involved in a project.

• Certifications Tracking
• Cost Tracking
• Project Reporting
• Time Tracking

7. Preventive Maintenance Management

Preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance involves scheduling tasks to inspect or clean critical equipment properly — and CMMS platforms help you automate this process.

Performing scheduled maintenance on your assets can lead to cost savings by increasing equipment uptime and asset longevity. Without a CMMS, preventive maintenance automation is almost impossible to track.

Preventive maintenance modules often contain information to ensure regulatory compliance, reducing the chances of failure as well as improving the safety and longevity of assets. Users can also create task templates to reduce the need for menial data entry every time you perform a routine or repetitive task.

• Preventive Maintenance
• Predictive Maintenance
• Task Templates
• Maintenance Scheduling
• Regulatory Compliance Management
• Fault Management

8. Platform Capabilities

Platform capabilities are the range of features, functions and services provided by a software platform or system.

CMMS systems use customizations and automations to tailor other features to your unique needs. Also, they provide a centralized database for storing asset documentation making it easily accessible.

CMMS also offers platform capabilities such as user collaboration and support across globalized teams to enhance communication. These customizations and capabilities are specifically designed to help you better manage maintenance tasks and operations within your organization.

• Document and Image Storage
• Customizable Workflows
• Globalization Support
• User Collaboration
• Custom Fields

9. Reporting & Business Intelligence

Business intelligence tools are becoming more ubiquitous even as you read this. You may think you don’t need anything as fancy as BI data, but you might be surprised by its usefulness.

Reporting tools help provide a snapshot into the everyday ongoings of your business and can offer valuable insights. Do you want to know how cost-efficient your assets are? Generate an asset cost utilization report? What about an analysis of the failure rates of assets? Reporting can do that too.

Some CMMS platforms offer industry-specific reporting capabilities, and others leave the ball in your court by offering custom reporting and dashboard features. This allows users to specify the type of report they want to generate based on specific KPIs. If you want to work smarter instead of harder, reporting is the place to start.

• Work Order Summary
• Performance Reporting
• Failure Analysis
• Asset Cost Utilization
• Custom Dashboard
• Financial Reporting
• Report Creation Tool
• KPI Creation

10. Mobile CMMS

Mobile is now a common function of any maintenance system, starting as an innovative new feature of CMMS. Maintenance technicians, in particular, can leverage mobile app benefits by accessing their work orders in the field to check off tasks, enter their total project hours and much more.

A mobile CMMS provides several benefits, as it reduces human error, eliminates the need for paper and decreases the time between jobs as technicians can refer to their mobile job list instead of checking in with superiors.

• Mobile Integration
• Data Import/Export
• Accounting
• Human Capital Management Integrations
• Workflow and Business Process Integrations
• ESRI Integrations

11. Vendor and Customer Management

Vendor and customer management is all about effectively managing relationships with vendors and customers.

Vendor management involves the activities related to selecting, onboarding and maintaining relationships with external suppliers or vendors who provide goods or services to your organization. Customer management focuses on managing and nurturing relationships with customers.

CMMS maintains accurate records on vendor and customer contracts to ensure buyers and suppliers are on the same page. The list views provide easy access to important information right off the bat so all team members are updated.

• Contract Records
• Customer Records
• Vendor Records
• Vendors List View
• Customers List View
• Contracts List View

Get our CMMS Software Requirements Template

Next Steps

Top-notch CMMS platforms continuously evolve, incorporating new features to stay ahead of industry trends.

While work order management, preventive maintenance, and asset and equipment management remain foundational features, advanced functionalities, user-friendly interfaces and web-based delivery methods set modern CMMS products apart.

Although a majority of maintenance managers refer to these features as the most important, this is by no means an exhaustive list. Knowing about the various CMMS benefits will help you develop your own list of CMMS requirements for a tailored and comprehensive software experience, ultimately, leading to an excellent CMMS selection.

If you’re in the market for a new CMMS platform, check out our comparison report for a free, in-depth look at some of the top options that meet these requirements and more!

Did you find this list helpful? What’re the features you didn’t expect to see? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments!