It's 8:15 on a Tuesday morning.
Before you've finished your coffee, your phone has already buzzed six times.
One restaurant has an HVAC issue.
A fitness club needs a plumber.
A regional manager is asking why a work order from last week is still open.
Accounting wants to know if an invoice has been approved.
Meanwhile, someone just reminded you that the quarterly fire inspection is due next week.
If that sounds familiar, you're not alone.
For many growing businesses, facilities management works just fine—until it doesn't.
Managing maintenance across three locations is one thing. Managing it across fifteen, twenty, or fifty locations is something entirely different. What once lived in a spreadsheet quickly turns into hundreds of work orders, dozens of vendors, recurring inspections, equipment warranties, preventive maintenance schedules, and a constant stream of phone calls and emails.
That's usually the moment companies begin looking for a Computerized Maintenance Management System or CMMS.
But with dozens of options on the market, how do you know which one is actually right for your business?
Let's walk through it.
What Is a CMMS?
A Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is software that helps organizations organize, track, and manage maintenance activities.
Instead of juggling spreadsheets, emails, sticky notes, and text messages, everything lives in one place.
A modern CMMS typically helps you:
- Create and assign work orders
- Schedule preventive maintenance
- Track equipment and assets
- Manage maintenance vendors
- Store inspection records
- Monitor maintenance costs
- View reports across multiple locations
Think of it as the operating system for your facilities team.
How Do You Know It's Time for a CMMS?
Many businesses wait too long.
They assume their current process is "good enough" because nothing has completely fallen apart.
But there are usually warning signs.
You should start evaluating a CMMS if:
- You're managing maintenance in spreadsheets.
- Work orders arrive through texts, calls, and emails.
- You don't know which vendors are performing well.
- Equipment failures are becoming more frequent.
- Preventive maintenance gets postponed because emergencies always come first.
- You manage multiple locations but can't quickly see what's happening at each one.
- Leadership asks for reports that take hours—or days—to create.
If you're checking off several of these boxes, you've likely outgrown manual processes.
Don't Buy Features. Buy Simplicity.
One of the biggest mistakes buyers make is comparing feature lists.
One platform has 200 features.
Another has 300.
Another says it uses artificial intelligence.
Another talks about IoT, digital twins, and predictive analytics.
None of that matters if your team won't actually use the software.
The best CMMS isn't the one with the longest feature list.
It's the one your maintenance technicians, operations managers, and regional leaders will actually log into every day.
When evaluating software, ask yourself:
- Can someone learn this in one afternoon?
- Will technicians actually use the mobile app?
- Can managers quickly find the information they need?
- Does the software simplify work or create more of it?
Simple software gets adopted.
Complicated software gets abandoned.
Preventive Maintenance Should Be Automatic
Every facilities team believes in preventive maintenance.
Very few consistently keep up with it.
Not because they don't care.
Because emergencies always seem more urgent.
A strong CMMS should make preventive maintenance almost invisible.
Recurring maintenance schedules should automatically generate work orders.
Technicians should receive reminders.
Managers should know what's overdue without chasing people down.
The goal isn't just to fix equipment.
It's to prevent expensive failures before they happen.
Look Beyond Work Orders
Work order management is important but it's only one piece of facilities operations.
The right CMMS should also help you manage:
Assets
Know what equipment you own, where it's located, when it was installed, and how much it's costing you over time.
Vendors
Track preferred vendors, response times, invoices, and service history.
Inspections
Digitize inspections and keep records organized for audits and compliance.
Reporting
Give leadership visibility into maintenance activity without spending hours building spreadsheets.
Choose Software That Grows With You
Many businesses buy software that solves today's problems but creates tomorrow's.
If you're managing five locations today and expect to manage twenty within a few years, your software should grow with you.
Ask vendors questions like:
- Can I easily add locations?
- How does reporting change as we grow?
- Can different teams have different permissions?
- Will pricing scale reasonably?
Growth should feel exciting not stressful.
AI Should Reduce Work,Not Add Buzzwords
Artificial intelligence has become a popular talking point in facilities management.
But AI only matters if it makes someone's job easier.
Good AI can:
- Prioritize work orders
- Recommend preventive maintenance schedules
- Summarize maintenance history
- Help technicians find information faster
- Automate repetitive administrative tasks
If the AI doesn't save your team time, it's just another feature on a marketing page.
Questions Every Buyer Should Ask During a Demo
Before making a decision, ask every vendor:
- How long does implementation take?
- How quickly can our team start using it?
- Is training included?
- What support do we receive after launch?
- How does the mobile app work?
- Can we manage vendors from the same platform?
- What reporting comes out of the box?
- How do you handle preventive maintenance?
- How do customers typically grow with your software?
The answers often reveal far more than a feature checklist ever will.
A Simple CMMS Evaluation Checklist
Before making your final decision, make sure your software can:
✅ Manage work orders
✅ Automate preventive maintenance
✅ Track assets
✅ Coordinate vendors
✅ Support mobile technicians
✅ Provide executive reporting
✅ Scale with additional locations
✅ Be implemented quickly
✅ Be easy enough that your team actually enjoys using it
The Bottom Line
The best CMMS isn't the one with the most features.
It's the one that helps your team spend less time managing maintenance and more time preventing problems.
For growing multi-location businesses, that means choosing software that's intuitive, scalable, and built around the way facilities teams actually work.
Technology should remove complexity—not create it.
Whether you're managing a regional restaurant group, a self-storage portfolio, a chain of fitness centers, or multiple healthcare clinics, the right CMMS should give you one place to see what's happening, coordinate your team, and keep every location running smoothly.
Because at the end of the day, facilities management isn't about software.
It's about creating safer buildings, happier teams, and better experiences for everyone who walks through your doors.
