Benefits of using Maintenance Connection

We are using the desktop version to plan and analyse our PM strategy and work orders. The trades staff on the floor use the mobile version which will run on most tablets via a standard browser at all our plants to record all breakdowns of assets which is then analysed each month to identify reoccuring faults or assets that are regularly failing. A strategy is then put in place to eliminate the root cause of the issue. The trades staff can also access asset information via the tablet (such as manuals, procedures) that are directly linked to the asset or the work order. We are now seeing huge gains in efficiencies in the inventory section of our business due to the automatic reorder functionality for inventory as the trades staff directly book out parts used. once a work order is entered on the tablet, the trades staff can look up parts that are used on that asset and see how many of those parts are in stock and the location of the bin in the store .

Pros

The ease of use in the configuration of MC is far better than what I experienced with different vendor.
Most user options are a setting that the local administrator can change via a tick box option.
The in built reporting and dashboard suite are very easy to pick up and customise reports and dashboards to your companies individual needs

Cons

The only problem I have found with the software is now that we are starting to use more features of the program at a higher level we are finding small bugs. These bugs don't affect the basic functionality and the support staff are brilliant in identifying the issues and passing the issues on to the developers to develop a fix.

Maintenance Connection used by local government

The County of Santa Barbara has been using the software for approximately 5 years. We use it for all our work orders. The navigation is good. We use it for preventive maintenance. The software can do a lot more than we need. The reporting is just "OK". This is the area they can improve on. A great feature is, we store all our building blue prints in the software and we are starting to put in service manuals. This way the maintenance staff can see the prints and the manuals when he gets a work order on his smart phone. The initial installation of the software was the fastest I have ever seen just a few hours for the webservers and sql server. Putting the data in the software takes years and we will be inputting more data every year. The navigation tree is great,,,, like windows explorer,,, easy to move around in the software, things are easy to find. Good software product.

Pros

Ease of navigations , ability to upload prints, manuals and pictures.

Cons

Reporting is not easy

MC Review by EOG Resources

I will recommend MC to anyone. There's so much that you can do with this program, it amazes me that I find something new each week. We track: Asset Moves, Calculate Usage Fees for Equipment, Track Run Hours, PM Schedule, Labor Records, plus many more. We have spent more money than expected in custom work, but support has worked well with getting everything needed, minimized the cost and/or came up with better solutions. The support team, especially who I deal with on a regular basis, throwing new ideas at (Arlene, Randy and Dan), are all extremely helpful. MC tracks more than what we originally planned for, maintains a good schedule, and will soon be company wide here at EOG. Different divisions all over the US with EOG have heard so much about how it's helped the South, that I've been getting phone calls and emails asking, How does it work? What do we need to do? Do you think it will help? etc... Definitely has been well worth the money spent and has saved us a lot of money in return.

Pros

Maintenance Connection (MC), has definitely helped us keep track of our equipment in the field. Our maintenance records are much easier to get to and review. We are able to diagnose and stop prevent future crashes based off the history reports. We have minimzed our spreadsheet use. I myself have stop using over 15 spreadsheets. We've been able to export our reports and link to a small access database to run numbers for accounting. This normally took everyone 1-2 weeks and now MC has allowed us to cut our time back to 1 day. Our company has to deal with State Regulations for Emissions/Greenhouse Gas. We've been able to implement so many flags to make sure we stay on top of our testing, run hours and our facility emissions. MC has been very flexible on what we can add, change and customize to fit our needs.

Cons

Based on how MC was initially set up, we've had to make quit a few customizations to the program to fit our needs. We have several more projects in works now. The program is set up to do what we want, but the way our company is set up, we have to take different steps to get to that end result. In the end, it cost a little more for each customization. I would definitely like to see, in the future, an easier way to keep the overall history in an upgrade would be nice, to fit our needs better when we have Assets and Parent Locations they change often.

MC is robust if you know it & have the time, else it is a basic tool for your shop to manage itself.

Pros

The potential behind this software is impressive. One of our facilities have been using M/C for years and the manager uses this as his one stop shop for everything he works on... from the largest capital projects (complete project management) to the simplest PO order. Managing our inventory, parts, equipment and labor - so much information is available via reporting and historically; it truly makes a difference when evaluating products, requests, resources or incidents. Bottom line, the success of this software, it is about how much time, energy and effort you want to put forth and how much support you have from your up line.

Cons

Support. Routing calls to support or relying on support response can be frustrating. They have some amazing and brilliant people within the support group, please realize that - but getting to them or navigating through the phone system to leave a message is aggravating. More, it is irksome that if I do talk with someone they ask me if I looked on their help page first. Sometimes, that is not enough and I should not be shamed because they are being called.

Maintenance Connection is by far the top of line in support, functionality, ease of use, and overall facilities management.

As the software analyst for Facilities and Services, my first task was to upgrade the current system to a web version. The upgrade went fairly well until we moved to paperless, which included ipads for technicians. We found many limitations that were put on the software and I was forced to make work arounds in order to operate. After a year of frustration and complaints not only by our department but, by users putting in requests, I was given the task of researching other software vendors. We looked at many of the top ten facilities management software packages. Some vendors even came on campus to demo their product. The minute we looked at maintenance connection, we were sold. Here are some of the key points that we found different about maintenance connection. First thing that caught my attention was the fact that there are demo's and how to's on you tube. They are out there for everyone to see. It's not a secret. This told me they are open and not one of those companies that wants you to pay them just to show you functionality. The next selling point was the fact that the requestor can put in a request from any device. They can log into the requestor on their cell phone, ipad, chrome book.... There is not extra module to buy for that. Once I found these items, I set up a demo with them. The person that did the demo was amazing. He wasn't just a salesman, he knew the software and could answer questions about it. This is something I had never seen before. When he demo'd the calendar function (you can assign techs on a calendar), the maintenance manager got very excited. When he showed how easy it was to change a field name just by right clicking on it. I shed a tear. I couldn't help it. I was in front of all my coworkers and didn't want to show emotion but, I was overwhelmed by just how easy everything is. This software is a system admin dream. Six of us went to the user conference this week and all six of us came back with very happy faces and so much excitement. I could go on and on about how wonderful this software is. If you have struggled with your facilities management software, just look up maintenance connection on you tube. If that doesn't convince you, let them demo the software for you. You will be truly amazed!!!!!

MC better than Maximo? I think so!

Pros

I was first introduced to Maintenance Connection in 2007. In the world of software development, that was a lifetime ago. It was a solid package back then, but I have since watched it bloom into the most highly rated CMMS software on Gartner's Magic Quadrant. What happened?

In my opinion, the key to that success was rapid deployment of a mobile solution as well as well-executed integrations with other systems (especially ERPs). The power of Maintenance Connection (MC) is only effective if you can take it on the road with you and incorporate it with your other software solutions. TCO is also a huge factor with software implementation/ongoing maintenance and I believe MC is a decent value.

Cons

We often had issues with using different browsers as well as browser updates. I have moved onto another company and no longer use MC, so I'm not sure if they have put additional resources on that to ensure those bugs are kept to a minimum. Be sure to ask about that if you are considering this software.

CMMS Software You Can Use

We have been able to implement MTBF tracking and starting to analyze the data we've been collecting to help put the top issues to rest. Their customer service team is top-notch, they are there to answer any questions or issues you might have. Kudos to them and all of their quick responses!!

Pros

The simplicity of initial setup and the ease of daily use is one of the best things about Maintenance Connection. The software is very intuitive and is designed with the end-user in mind. Their community area (MC User Connect) is a great part of the package - there's a Product Suggestion area, on-demand learning videos, and a library that holds a great amount of instruction if needed.

Cons

If you are using Maintenance Connection to connect multiple locations or facilities under one system, there are some areas of the software that need to be location specific, such as Failures - all 8 of my facilities do not share the same failure codes - we each have different equipment and machinery.

CMMS Software

Overall I think it's a wonderful CMMS Software package. The offer cloud service and have great customer service that will remote in with you and walk you through any problem you may have. I haven't worked with the back-end, but as far as creating assets, work orders and reports it doesn't get much easier.

Pros

The reports module is a beast! If you have ever had to create a report using Crystal Reports before you understand how complex reporting can get. Maintenance Connection makes creating reports simple to do. You do not have to be a wiz at SQL to create very sophisticated reports. I also like that I can copy or clone just about anything in the database. This makes asset creation and pm schedule creation very easy.

Cons

We are not using the most current version, so the issues we experience are likely resolved. That being said, trying to export reports to pdf was buggy at first but seems to have cleared up. I also wish there was a way to create a bulletin (and there may be) that would alert you to whenever a new rule was created, changed etc... because sometimes new rules can cause work order generation issues and it's often the last thing looked at.

Great way to track asset maintenance

I have used this software for 10 years as both a maintenance supervisor and as a preventative maintenance coordinator. Customer service is fantastic.

Pros

The available features: work order system, preventative maintenance scheduling/tracking, purchase order processing, and asset management. Many features are available for a wide variety of applications. Their customer service is second to none in similar kinds of software.

Cons

Some of the ways that specific features of the program don't interact with each other very well or something that seems easier to execute takes additional steps or mouse clicks to complete. Since the last update, I have noticed more problems - I am not a huge fan of the update. I also don't like being forced to track the majority of work orders by target dates.

Great. It's been a Godsend for me.

It helps the maintenance department and me stay organized.

Pros

I'm audited quite frequently by our customers and each one I've shown the maintenance Connection Program to has liked it.
I can virtually run our maintenance department without physically being there which really helps me keep tabs when I'm on vacation.
The inventory module forces us to be organized which helps with the 6S program.

Cons

We are a cloud user and I think it's mainly because of our company securities, I have to store my documents on a Google drive and link it in.
The only one-on-one training I've had was when the bus traveled to MPLS. They don't seem to get close to the upper Midwest.