To get the most out of a CMMS, both training and manufacturer support must come into play. Doing so enables maintenance and engineering teams to thoroughly understand the system they’re using, thus allowing them to see the full benefits of their CMMS.
In this manufacturer roundtable, Facility Maintenance Decisions spoke with CMMS manufacturers about how training and manufacturer support can both help facilities teams realize the full potential of a CMMS.
FMD: What role can training provided by the CMMS developer play in helping departments better use CMMS features and functions?
“Vendor-provided training is crucial in ensuring that maintenance teams fully understand and utilize a CMMS. Ongoing training—whether through webinars, on-site workshops, or on-demand resources—helps users stay informed about new features and best practices. Effective training programs should be role-based, ensuring that administrators, managers, and technicians each receive guidance tailored to their specific functions. Additionally, having accessible documentation and a responsive support team fosters long-term success by allowing users to troubleshoot issues and refine their use of the system as needs evolve.”
— Alex Cummings, chief executive officer and co-founder, FlowPath
“Many features of a CMMS aren’t being used by engineering departments. By showing these users what CAN be done with the CMMS, the department leaders can grow with the system over time. This training is typically after a successful implementation of the basics of the CMMS once the users can consume additional information beyond the initial “getting started” period.”
— Joseph C. Stockman, director of product experience, FSI Services
“A key role CMMS providers can play is offering step-by-step onboarding training tailored to the end users’ maturity level, whether transitioning from legacy CMMS to advanced CMMS or moving from paper to paperless CMMS. Through post implementation practices, CMMS providers can track KPIs such as user engagement rate.
If a decline in engagement is identified, managers can be notified promptly. Additionally, providers can share use cases from other clients demonstrating how they achieved cost savings by utilizing different CMMS features. If CMMS has the capability to integrate with different systems, it will be beneficial to provide further training to manufacturers as well.”
— Ronak Macwan, senior manufacturing industry specialist, Brightly
“Comprehensive training is critical in the adoption of software systems, the time to value, and ongoing effective usage. A CMMS vendor should offer multiple types of training programs such as technician-level training and system administration training. By providing role-specific training adoption of the CMMS and its most impactful features is increased.
In addition, training should not be just a one-time event during onboarding. A good CMMS vendor should provide follow-on training through a customer success team to ensure that ongoing questions and needs are addressed, newly released features are used, and thorough adoption happens across the organization.”
— Dylan Meek, sales engineer, FacilityONE
“Quality developer-led training should feel like a collaboration rather than a punch list of onboarding processes. When a developer takes the time to learn the department's mission and needs, they can provide training that fosters user comfort and confidence by addressing concerns and demonstrating tangible value. By sharing relatable success stories and nonspecific use cases demonstrating how the CMMS can be used, managers and techs can imagine a CMMS streamlining their own workflows and enhancing productivity.
With the help of the developer, administrators learn to customize the CMMS to their needs, ensuring alignment with operational requirements. They also can become proficient in using data analysis and reporting to illustrate the stories of their facilities and, in turn, make informed, data-driven decisions.
Finally, ongoing support and updates from developers are key for sustained success. Continuous training on new features and updates keeps departments current, while troubleshooting skills reduce reliance on tech support.”
— Nic Guedenet, facilities management specialist, AkitaBox
FMD: What other actions can manufacturers take to maximize their investment in a CMMS?
“To maximize the return on investment, organizations should regularly evaluate how well their CMMS aligns with operational goals. This includes conducting periodic audits to assess data accuracy, user engagement, and workflow efficiency. Encouraging feedback from frontline users can reveal usability challenges and areas for improvement.
Furthermore, integrating the CMMS with other business-critical systems, such as procurement, financial management, or building automation, enhances its overall impact. Finally, leadership buy-in is essential—when executives actively support the CMMS and emphasize its value, adoption and effectiveness improve across the organization.”
— Alex Cummings, chief executive officer and co-founder, FlowPath
“Manufacturers need to fully understand each feature within the CMMS and how to leverage the data to track against cost savings (for example, asset efficiency, reduced maintenance cost, better inventory forecasting, labor hours, etc.). By calculating return on investment (ROI) against this KPI, manufacturers can maximize their investment. Integrating CMMS with other advanced technologies such as predictive maintenance analytics (PMA) and facilities conditions assessment (FCA), can further help improve overall asset life expectancy and productivity.
Additionally, manufacturers can leverage the CMMS data to plan for future capital planning processes and optimize asset life span. By effectively interpreting CMMS data, manufacturers can get the most usage and extend the life of the equipment.”
— Ronak Macwan, senior manufacturing industry specialist, Brightly
“There are several ways organizations can maximize their investment in a CMMS:
— Dylan Meek, sales engineer, FacilityONE
“A successful CMMS implementation is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process driven by data-informed decisions and a commitment to continuous improvement. Manufacturers should start with thoughtful planning. This includes establishing measurable objectives that support the business's mission and creating and committing to an implementation plan with the realization that it may take several phases to get to the organization's goal vision.
Manufacturers should take care to select a CMMS that meets specific industry requirements and ideally allows for interconnectivity between CMMS, asset management, capital forecasting, and customizable configurations. Additionally, they should consider how the CMMS will adapt to future capabilities and changing technologies.
By emphasizing a comprehensive facilities plan – from day-to-day operations to major renovation/replacement within the CMMS – companies can have a single source of truth and operations while having ongoing insights into their future needs.”
— Nic Guedenet, facilities management specialist, AkitaBox
Jeff Wardon, Jr., is the assistant editor of the facilities market.
How Facilities Maintenance and Engineering Teams Can Benefit from a CMMS
How to Effectively Use Your CMMS
The Critical Role of Training and Manufacturer Support in CMMS Usage
