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Why it is so important to outsource your CMMS?

Why it is so important to outsource your CMMS?

Tuesday 02 april 2019

Nowadays, maintenance providers face many challenges, among which the full success of their digital transition is one of the most important. It is now definitively accepted that software that adequately meets the specific needs of companies considerably improves its performance. In this context, the players in the sector must quickly opt for a solution if they do not want to run the risk of being outpaced by an already equipped competition. In this article, we will deal with the best approach between internal development or outsourcing via an expert partner in business solutions and mobility.

In-House vs Outsourced CMMS

Campbell 1 argues that maintenance service companies are looking for alternative approaches to get a competitive advantage. Outsourcing their CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) is one of the main ways to achieve this objective. Having the right team, whether internal or external, is essential to ensure that the solution chosen or developed will deliver the expected productivity gains and quality of service. But what exactly is outsourcing? Outsourcing is an agreement whereby a company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity that is or could be carried out internally. Mclovr 2 indicates that when outsourcing is adopted, it brings significant improvements to the entire organization.

Outsourcing allows companies to focus more on their internal resources and gives them the possibility to sharpen their core business. Campbell 1 shows that taking full advantage of outsourcing will lead to better service, lower cost, and customer satisfaction. DiRomauldo & Gurbaxani 3 have demonstrated that this can considerably increase the quality of service provided and, in addition, allow the acquisition of new managerial and technical skills. Outsourced CMMS specialists, who have extensive business experience and are able to recruit the best talent in new technologies, are better able to keep pace with the rapid evolution of new cloud and mobile technologies. Gómez et al. 4 extend that outsourcing your maintenance management information system improves the quality of service in the field.

At first glance, it may seem that the major disadvantage of in-house software development is the extra cost it will inevitably generate. It is indeed obvious that an application used and developed by a single company will be much more expensive than if it is used by a large customer base that can offset the cost. But, beyond the financial problem, several difficulties will arise. Thus Sharma5 highlights three other major problems: finding the right team, providing the right working environment and managing the associated dependency. Indeed, even if the company has significant financial capacity to hire the right resources, a process that itself requires a lot of time and effort, finding and retaining the best talent will quickly get very complicated. Plus, the choice of internal development will require the establishment of an appropriate environment and infrastructure to enable the team to carry out its missions under the best conditions and the necessary management will have to be put in place. Finally, Sharma points out the dependence on the IT team: as soon as the application is put into production, the proper functioning of the solution will depend entirely on the loyalty of the team. As turnover is high in this category of staff currently in shortage, this risk should not be underestimated.

Olive6 indicates that the outsourcing of its CMMS ensures a high degree of budgetary flexibility. Thanks to SaaS (Software as a Service) models, the company only pays for the services when it needs them. The outsourcing agreement can also be constantly adapted to the company's changing needs and scope of use. Another interesting factor is risk reduction. When you develop software in your company, you don't know if it will work. Building, integrating and managing a team of developers to create your own software is not only very expensive but does not ensure the success of the project. On the other hand, when you choose a software publisher, you can check with its existing customer base to ensure the efficiency, performance and availability of the solution.

A large community of users

The users' feedback is at the heart of the development process and the improvement of the software solution. The constant communication with our clients makes our success and the gist of our product. Thanks to the community, the application benefits from upgradings on a permanent basis and adding new functionalities ensuring a more and more precise answer to the needs of our clients which are always in constant evolution. Any innovation can be shared and useful for each and every one of our customers very quickly. However, when an intern solution is developed, it is possible to receive comments and new ideas only from a very small part of users, which will inevitably lead to an environment less conducive to evolution and innovation.

The specificity and complexity of Field Service

Gómez et al.4 show that the management of technicians in the field is complex. In a maintenance service provider company, 80% of the teams are mobile in the field, working over a geographical territory that can be very large. Agnihotri et al. 7 argue that resolution time is a very important parameter. This is the time between the service request and the final resolution provided by the technician. This indicator is a key indicator of the company's effectiveness. Our company can optimize this process by providing software that allows maintenance providers to properly manage their mobile staff. This latest generation CMMS software is the ideal solution to facilitate the day-to-day management process. The application can provide you with specific data that provides you with valuable indicators such as overall workload, location of interventions, work in progress, average time, the total cost of repair and many other KPIs.

Conclusion

With the help of technology, organizations can achieve superior service productivity and customer satisfaction. Going in for in-house development might seem somehow beneficial in the beginning, but when you put things into action, there are more stumbling blocks than you anticipated. Outsourcing your CMMS to a specialist in the sector, will be beneficial to your business in the future. We believe that organizations can move to a new service productivity-customer satisfaction frontier by focusing on creating new service strategies whereby a suitable IT-system will be the key to face this transformation.

By the way, our ambition is to offer an unparalleled user experience. Check it out right away: try CMMS for free. Within 2 minutes, the time it takes to create your account, you'll discover what's newest in this category of software.

You can also benefit from a demonstration led by one of our consultants: book a videoconference

Good discovery and see you soon.

 

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References

  1. Campbell, J. D. (1995). Outsourcing in maintenance management: a valid alternative to self-provision Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 1(3), 18-24.
  2. McIvor, R. (2008). What is the right outsourcing strategy for your process? European management journal, 26(1), 24-34.
  3. DiRomauldo, A., & Gurbaxani, V. (1998). Strategic intent for IT outsourcing
  4. Gómez, J., Crespo, A., Moreu, P., Parra, C., & Díaz, V. G. (2009). Outsourcing maintenance in services providers. Safety, reliability and risk analysis: Theory, methods and applications, 829-837.
  5. Sharma, R. (2018, 10 augustus). In-House Software Development Team V/S Outsourced Software Development Team — Challenges &…. Consulted on 1/04/2019
  6. Olive, B. (2004). The benefits of maintenance outsourcing
  7. Agnihothri, S., Sivasubramaniam, N., & Simmons, D. (2002). Leveraging technology to improve field service International Journal of Service Industry Management, 13(1), 47-68.
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