Between putting out fires, managing staff, supply lines, and customers, small business owners have a lot on their plate. Due to this, developing effective, standardized systems for management is a key indicator of success.
CMMS software for small business is a game changer in both efficiency and effectiveness of equipment and facilities. This article will break this down, and offer 6 fantastic CMMS software for small business to explore for 2023.
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Button TextWhat Is a CMMS?
CMMS is an abbreviation of ‘Computerized Maintenance Management System’. This category of technology helps business owners digitize and streamline maintenance and asset management to improve asset performance, data collection, and decision making.
More specifically, typical CMMS software for small business can handle work order management, inspections, preventive maintenance, process standardization, asset management, parts inventory and compliance audits.
There are many CMMS systems to choose from as they differentiate based on cost, functionality and ease of use. It is due to this wide array of choices, that managers should conduct research and choose the right product for their business needs.
What To Look for In a CMMS Software for Small Business?
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Ease of Use & Overall Flexibility
Our recommendation is to look for a tool with a minimum learning curve, so that frontline managers and workers can align with business goals and deliverability aspects without any setbacks. One way to do this is to begin with listing the problems that your business needs to solve, and using that to find the easiest to use solution for that problem set.
Affordable Cost and Pricing Model
In the landscape of CMMS software for small businesses, you will find many payment models and price points. Many offerings charge subscription fees either monthly or annually, with a free trial to get started. Others offer longer term contract based pricing with custom implementation support. We recommend the former, as you have a better opportunity to test the software before buying and cancel if it is not a good fit.
Subscription models are typically per user per month pricing, which is a great pricing model for small businesses with few employees, but can add up when implementing on large teams. Typically CMMS software for small business starts around $40 per user per month, but there are other low cost alternatives that we will cover below.
Core Maintenance Features
General features, such as; work order management, time and cost tracking, analytics and reports, compliance audits, inspections, preventive maintenance, and asset management are essential functions of CMMS software. However, many business owners have no use, or not enough buy in from staff to use every module consistently.
With this, it is important to differentiate the features that drive the most value to your team, and only upgrade to more complex offerings after initial implementation is complete. This will save your team time and money but focussing efforts on the core features that will improve your business.
Accessibility
A CMMS software for small business should support accessibility on both desktop and mobile with intuitive design that connects the two interfaces. This helps to connect teams in the field to the managers in an office or on the go. It is this interconnectivity that drives efficiency and adoption into every maintenance task and ensures proper data documentation every step of the way.
When testing a CMMS software for small business, you should ensure to compare solutions on both desktop and mobile. If you notice that one brand outperforms the other on desktop but not on mobile (or vise versa), we recommend choosing the solution with the best mobile interface. The reason is that if the mobile app is not good, it will not get used, data will not be collected and the desktop program will be useless.
6 Best CMMS Software For Small Businesses In 2023
Now that we know what a CMMS software for small business looks like in terms of solutions and features, let's take a look at the current market landscape and find the right solution for your business.
1. Xenia
For small businesses looking to manage frontline workflow and facilities, Xenia is a one-app solution that brings together operations, maintenance management, and inspection tools on a centralized platform.
Xenia features robust, out-of-the-box, publicly accessible templates for checklists, SOPs, Logs and Inspections to enable unparalleled safety and quality management, operational audits, and work order management without time draining implementation.
These checklists are customizable and can be attached to work orders to be assigned or scheduled for completion by either a team or an individual. When assigned a work order, team members are notified on their mobile devices and can easily access all the tools needed to complete the task according to brand standards. They can even attach images and notes to ensure clear documentation.
As far as communication is concerned, Xenia enables active collaboration among team members and managers through a dedicated chat functionality integrated within any individual work order to facilitate teamwork and accountability.
Xenia makes it easy for managers to keep tabs on all work in their facility, and export reports to uncover bottlenecks and improve operations. Where Xenia lacks the complex data models and internet of things sensors seen in competition, they deliver on a low price tag, making Xenia the perfect fit for the small business community.
Key Features:
- Create templates for SOPs, checklists, logs, inspections, meeting agendas, and surveys with a ready to use library and custom builder module.
- Work Order Management with integrated templates, image attachments, and chats to power teamwork and accountability
- Assign work to individuals, teams, assets, and locations for complete coverage
- Real time progress tracking and detailed data collection on every work order.
- Drag and Drop organization and multiple filters allow for customized report exports in both PDF and CSV
- Employee directory with individual chats, groups, and company wide announcements
- Fast onboarding and ease of use
Pricing:
- Xenia's paid plan starts at $15 per user, per month for monthly subscribers
- Annual plans are discounted 33% to $10 per user, per month
- There's also a free trial available for evaluation purposes
2. MaintainX
Up next on our CMMS software for small business list, we’ve got MaintainX.
MaintainX digitizes safety procedures, maintenance work orders, preventive maintenance activities, checklists, auditing and inspections, and real-time business insights. In short, MaintainX can offer everything that Xenia does and more, including dedicated asset management and parts inventory modules, IoT (Internet of Things) sensors and improved data analysis dashboards. Their platform is easy to use across desktop and mobile with the ability to serve teams of any size.
That being said, in order to leverage these additional features, businesses need to be on the premium ($40 per user per month) pricing plan. Their free and $10 per user per month plans have very low data storage and image attachment limits that are easily hit by any regular business use. The truth is that compared to other CMMS solutions with similar offerings, the $40 price point is reasonable, and the cost savings of the features can easily justify the spend. In addition, for small teams with 3 or 4 users, the cost would still be less than $200 per month for an impressive solution.
Key Features:
- Work order management and Preventive maintenance
- Asset management and Parts inventory
- Inspections and audits
- Internet of things sensors and live meters
- Advanced data models and analytics
- Collaboration tools, such as chat, commenting, notes, etc.
- Maintenance and inspections audit management
- Tooling and gauge reporting module
Pricing:
- Starting at $0, Basic plan is available for evaluation purpose
- $10 ($8.83 Annual) per user per month for Essential Package
- $39 ($32.50 Annual) per user per month for Premium Package
3. Upkeep
As an asset operation and management tool for small, mid-sized, and large-scale businesses, Upkeep enables team-level efficiency at various forefronts. You can manage your daily maintenance lifecycle activities and optimize asset vs. cost utilization as you gain insights into the ongoing performance data reports.
Upkeep is available on desktop and mobile devices, alongside a robust cloud data backup policy where remote access to the app is guaranteed from anywhere in the world.
Also, this tool gives maintenance teams a centralized hub where they can manage their work orders, inventory, and budgets in accordance with the organization’s goals. Reliability teams use this tool for asset performance management, which further enables long-term optimization of the efficiency of assets throughout the assets’ lifecycle.
Upkeep “wrote the book” on asset management and can offer a powerful platform for teams of all sizes.
Key Features:
- Preventive maintenance and Work order management
- Interactive reports and dashboards
- Barcode scanners and automated meter readings
- Equipment breakdown reports
- Location based asset monitoring and tracking feature
- Materials management and cost tracking
Pricing:
- Upkeep Starter available for $45 per user, per month
- Professional Plan is available for $75 per user, per month
4. Snapfix
Taking a break from heavier duty CMMS solutions with per user pricing, Snapfix is a solution built for simplicity with flat monthly or annual pricing, no matter the amount of users.
Snapfix is a camera driven work order management system that allows users to capture both images and videos to document issues and corrections. Users can draw on the images and share with teams or store for future reference.
Snap fix also allows users to create checklists and plan preventive maintenance. Snapfix has a real time progress dashboard and makes downloading reports easy.
Key Features:
- Work orders, preventive maintenance and fire safety
- Photo and videos with drawing functionality
- Location and asset tracking
- Data analytics dashboard and report exports
Pricing:
- Snapfix offers a 7-day trial for evaluation purposes at $0
- Snapfix Basic package at $99 per month ($999 annual)
- Snapfix Pro is $199 monthly ($1999 annual)
5. Limble CMMS
Limble CMMS is competitor to Upkeep and Maintainx with complex features starting at a $40 per user per month price point. Their platform is available on desktop and mobile with features such as asset management, work orders, preventive maintenance, IOT sensors, regulatory compliance modules, work requests, parts inventory, vendor management, reports and dashboards.
Limble is highly reviewed and used by teams across the globe. To some, their user interface is a bit more complex and less modern compared to others on this list, but they offer a free trial to decide for yourself.
Key Features:
- Work orders and preventive maintenance
- Asset management
- Parts inventory
- Vendor management
- IOT sensors and dedicated compliance modules
- Reports and data dashboards
- Multiple language support
Pricing:
- Starter plan kicks off at $40 per user per month
- Professional plan starts at $70 per user per month
- Limble Business Plus introduced at $105 per user per month
6. Fiix
Fiix is a CMMS platform developed by Rockwell Automation to handle asset management, work orders, preventive maintenance, parts and supplies inventory. Their platform makes it easy to analyze each asset and see a complete bill of materials, work orders assigned and completed as well as meter reading logs.
For teams handling many assets with hundreds of data points, Fiix is a great solution. Fiix has an AI driven data model that analyzes maintenance data to find trends and issues quickly to help plan, purchase and manage parts and equipment all in the platform. Fiix has SOC 2 Type 2 data security compliance and guarantees 99.5% equipment uptime. To access these features, businesses need to elect for the $75 per user per month plan.
Key Features:
- Preventive maintenance with nested scheduling
- Multi-asset work orders
- Asset and parts management
- E-signature support (enterprise)
- Pass / Fail Inspections
- AI Driven analytics
- Embedded video training
- Soc 2 Type 2 data security
Pricing:
- Free plan available with limited feature set
- Fiix Basic starts at $45 per user per month
- Fiix Professional starts at $75 per user per month
We hope you liked our recommendation of the best CMMS software for small businesses. If you have any questions about getting started with Xenia, feel free to contact our sales team.
We look forward to hearing from you.
