Asset Management
Best Asset Maintenance Management Software Tools in 2024
Managing assets across multiple sites is no easy task, especially when you're juggling spreadsheets, emails, and outdated systems. It's a never-ending cycle of reactive maintenance and hidden costs, and unfortunately, many facility managers (FMs) are stuck in it.
A recent poll that inquired about the tech stack tools used by over 300 FM professionals pointed out that 26% of voters still used only Excel sheets and emails for facility maintenance.
Understandably, integrated facility management service providers (IFMSPs) might stick to familiar patterns and systems. High-pressure environments demand smooth operations, and change is hard—especially when faced with the comfort of traditional methods.
However, this habitual reliance on manual or reactive maintenance can lead to a host of hidden costs and operational disruptions. IFM service providers might not realize that their approach, while seemingly efficient in the short term, is fraught with inefficiencies.
Prabhu Ramachandran, CEO of Facilio Inc, said:
As companies these days are required to do more with less, staff face increased workloads without additional headcount. However, FM managers are stuck with legacy computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS)that do not prioritize automation.
This leaves many operations and maintenance (O&M) activities outside the CMMS to more manual and labor-intensive work.
According to a Facilio survey conducted during the ‘Rethinking CMMS’ webinar, 62% of respondents claim that most of their O&M work is done without their existing CMMS.
Legacy asset management tools often turn item location into a cumbersome task with phone calls, paperwork, and spreadsheets. Scattered records force managers to guess their needs while budgets shrink.
McKinsey’s 2021 Global Asset Management Survey reveals that many asset managers still grapple with costly legacy systems. It further suggests shifting from on-premises technology to cloud-based solutions to build resilience and support strategic growth.
Modern cloud-based CMMS solutions are key for analyzing asset data and improving operations. Cloud computing simplifies technology, offering streamlined business services.
Leaders must evaluate technology’s impact on all business areas, from front to back office. BNY Mellon’s research finds that digital technology evolution is the top trend in asset management. 54% of asset managers prioritize tech-based trends for the next few years.
In this article, we’ll learn how asset management software can help optimize your assets and enhance their operational efficiency.
What is asset maintenance management software, and why is it important?
It primarily serves as a transactional workflow tool, facilitating the management and execution of capital asset maintenance.
It provides detailed maintenance history, supports hierarchical or linear asset registers, and enables the creation of maintenance schedules based on historical records, vendor recommendations/performance, equipment manuals or predictive artificial intelligence (AI) models.
Throughout an asset's life cycle, the data generated by this software is vital for facilities to:
- Enhance operational efficiency
- Monitor asset performance
- Make informed decisions on decommissioning and new asset investments
Why asset management software is important
Here’s why asset management software is crucial and how a connected (CMMS) helps:
1. Better compliance reporting for regulatory requirements: Asset management software is essential for regulatory compliance, as it helps you maintain accurate records required by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
These include purchase prices, depreciation deductions, asset usage, cancelled checks, and real estate closing statements.
Manually handling this data is risky and time-consuming, increasing the risk of fines due to errors or incomplete information.
A common concern as an IFMSP is that despite your best intentions, you might inadvertently “misreport” an issue by reporting incompletely or providing inaccurate information when trying to manage multiple sites for your clients.
Imagine, a week after you’ve briefed your clients on a compliance infraction, new data surfaces that contradicts your earlier findings. Even worse, someone discovers overlooked data buried in an email inbox—data that should have been part of your analysis but wasn’t.
Modern CMMS software automates data processing, ensuring accurate and timely reports for auditors, managers, and other stakeholders. This reduces the burden of manual documentation and helps maintain reliable records, even under tight deadlines.
2. Effective asset life cycle management: You can gain a portfolio-wide visualization of your 360° asset lifecycle that would allow your O&M team plan for maintenance, upgrades, and eventual replacement, thereby maximizing the return on investment (ROI) on each asset.
This growth is driven by several factors, most notably the retirement of seasoned, highly skilled workers whose invaluable knowledge is not being effectively retained.
As a result, many organizations have begun upgrading their systems, while others are exploring next-generation asset lifecycle management software to address these challenges.
Modern CMMS solutions offer comprehensive coverage of both static and dynamic asset parameters.
With these tools, you can generate asset reports from a central hub to track critical metrics like mean time to repair and replace, extra costs, lifecycle costs, and more, ensuring efficient asset management across the board.
3. Enhance operational efficiency: Every hour an asset sits idle represents lost potential and a missed opportunity for productivity.
Asset management software simplifies the process of tracking and analyzing asset usage data. This data allows you to identify underutilized assets and determine the extent of their inactivity.
By maximizing asset utilization, you can directly enhance productivity—a key indicator of operational efficiency.
For example, the software can help you monitor asset conditions and assess productivity levels. So, if you notice an increase in maintenance issues and a decrease in output while work hours remain constant, it could signal the need for downtime to avoid costly breakdowns.
Modern CMMS solutions simplify asset tracking and give you the tools to access and analyze asset productivity and utilization data.
This information is critical for creating a realistic roadmap to greater operational efficiency, ensuring your business maximizes its resources without pushing them to the breaking point.
4. Preserving asset integrity: Asset management software ensures that assets are maintained in a fit-for-service condition, performing reliably and safely throughout their lifecycle.
Asset management software ensures that assets meet safety and operational standards, minimizing major accidental health and environmental hazards.
Consider an IFMSP tasked with maintaining critical infrastructure in the oil and gas sector. Here, ensuring asset integrity is vital to avoid catastrophic failures resulting in environmental damage, safety incidents, and substantial financial losses.
Without a robust asset management system, risks like undetected corrosion or equipment wear can jeopardize safety and lead to expensive shutdowns or accidents.
Modern CMMS software specifies the requirements for an asset to operate effectively and efficiently while safeguarding health, safety, and the environment.
It also maintains records of the measures to ensure that people, systems, processes, and resources necessary for asset integrity are actively utilized and will perform as needed throughout the asset's entire lifecycle.
Manaswini Rao
Who needs asset maintenance management software?
The different industries that benefit from asset maintenance management software are:
Business leaders gearing up for Industry 4.0
The shift towards Industry 4.0 centers around transforming industrial processes using technologies like the industrial internet of things (IIoT), cloud computing, machine learning, and data analytics.
Asset management software consolidates all your assets, systems, and data into a single platform while seamlessly integrating with emerging technologies.
This future-proofs your operations and ensures that your assets remain in peak condition, giving your facility a competitive edge in a rapidly changing market.
IFMSPs handling multi-site enterprise portfolios
Managing multi-site facilities for multiple clients is a serious responsibility. As an IFMSP, you're tasked with maintaining service quality, keeping promises, and ensuring a positive ROI for your clients.
Asset maintenance software helps you deliver on these commitments by centralizing asset data and operations, providing a real-time view of all your assets, allowing you to see the big picture needed to meet and exceed expectations.
The software's value goes beyond simple maintenance—it becomes a strategic tool. It enables the tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs) related to asset performance, workflow automation, and integrated data analysis.
Additionally, it also integrates essential functions like work order management, inventory control, maintenance activities, reporting, and team collaboration into a single, streamlined system.
In a competitive market, especially when bidding for high-net-worth clients, using advanced technology like asset maintenance software can make your proposal stand out.
It shows your commitment to optimizing asset performance and delivering top-tier service, positioning you as the go-to provider for clients who demand the best.
Field-based maintenance managers and technicians
Out in the field, speed and accuracy are everything. Imagine you’re a maintenance manager dealing with a sudden equipment breakdown at a remote site.
With asset maintenance software, you can instantly pull up the asset’s history, diagnose the issue, and assign the right technician—all from your mobile device. The technician gets real-time instructions, updates the work order on the go, and even checks inventory for replacement parts.
This kind of streamlined communication and instant access to data cuts down response times and reduces downtime accumulation.
Government agencies and public sectors
The order required:
- The establishment of a Senior Real Property Officer in each agency
- The creation of the Federal Real Property Council (FRPC)
- Each agency under the EO is to develop an Asset Management Plan incorporating performance measurements
- The maintenance of a single, comprehensive database for all real property under the control of Executive Branch agencies
Federal agencies manage billions of dollars in assets, including real property, personal property, and financial assets. Efficient management of these assets is crucial for ensuring that taxpayer funds are used effectively.
This involves maintaining comprehensive inventories, accurate asset valuations, and aligning acquisition and disposal plans with agency missions.
Asset management software offers a unified tool for planning maintenance management for public assets, minimizing waste, and tracking critical document deadlines, such as contract expiration dates and renewal timelines.
By keeping documents up-to-date and ensuring that deadlines are not missed, these systems help maintain legal compliance and operational efficiency.
Notable first-tier industries
Industries such as information technology (IT), healthcare, education, and retail greatly benefit from asset management software.
In IT, asset management solutions alleviate server congestion by storing images in the cloud, reducing the time spent on fixing broken links and managing folder access.
Healthcare providers rely on asset management for securely managing and sharing digital medical records, X-rays, and other patient files.
Similarly, in education, asset management helps track and manage student records, transcripts, and digital resources. For retail and eCommerce, physical asset management ensures operational efficiency by organizing and managing tangible assets across teams and locations.
Top 4 asset maintenance management software in 2024
- Facilio
- FiiX CMMS
- Limble CMMS
- Maintenance Care
Facilio
While traditional CMMS systems focus on record-keeping, Facilio’s asset cloud-based connected CMMS takes it a step further with an action-oriented approach.
This platform goes beyond typical CMMS capabilities, offering a unified solution that connects systems, people, and processes through an IoT-driven, no-code SaaS platform with robust workflow management.
With Facilio, you move beyond mere asset data management to achieve true process optimization and connected efficiency.
As a cloud-based CMMS software, Facilio's connected operations platform allows customers to easily fill gaps in their tech stack, delivering immediate value and transitioning from isolated point solutions to cohesive, interoperable modules.
The platform provides a real-time, 360° view of your assets’ health, eliminating the need to rely on siloed data.
Facilio seamlessly integrates all maintenance operations, covering everything for asset maintenance from corrective, reactive, and breakdown tasks to scheduled inspections, routine preventive maintenance, and audits.
Facilio benefits
Facilio asset management software works to positively impact operational efficiency by:
Facilio features
Real-time data updates
Facilio provides instant IoT insights and detailed reports, allowing you to optimize energy use, asset performance, and occupant comfort across all sites.
With asset-wise sub-metering, you can dive deep into real-time data, track consumption at any level of detail, and project month-on-month usage for better proactive management planning and enhanced operational efficiency.
Performance metrics monitoring
Facilio’s platform aggregates dispersed performance data from across your portfolio into a single global system using advanced analytics, visualization, and AI/ML models.
By analyzing performance metric data like mean time between failures (MTBF) in real time, the platform can predict potential equipment failures before they occur.
For example, IoT sensors might detect subtle temperature fluctuations in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, prompting a maintenance alert that prevents a costly breakdown.
This allows FM managers to maintain continuous improvement in maintenance practices.
Unified system for asset information
Managing multi-site portfolios demands clear visibility and quick action on critical issues.
Facilio provides a single platform for managing all asset-related data. Its centralized dashboard offers a clutter-free, intuitive interface that allows you to prioritize what matters most.
You can monitor live efficiency across teams and technicians, identify groups with the most pending work orders, track asset downtime, and assess the total cost of operations for specific departments—all from one platform.
This portfolio-wide visibility lets you focus on critical metrics directly impacting your maintenance operations.
Integration with existing systems
Facilio’s hardware-agnostic platform seamlessly integrates with your current infrastructure, allowing you to leverage actionable insights for asset maintenance without overhauling your setup.
For example, it can aggregate data from powerful data visualization tools like Tableau, DOMO, and Power BI to visualize property performance trends, reason out anomalies, and anticipate asset behavior.
Automation of work orders
Managing a large portfolio of multi-site facilities can quickly become chaotic, especially when dealing with a mountain of work orders and approvals.
Facilio’s automated work order management adapts to your specific needs without forcing you into rigid templates.
Whether it's work orders, alarms, or even leasing processes, you can configure workflows with simple if-else conditions or detailed scripts. Automate everything from work order approvals to complex workflows, ensuring smooth operations across all sites.
Suitable for
Facilio is ideal for large enterprises, facility management companies, and organizations looking for a scalable and flexible asset management solution.
Facilio key highlights
- Enterprise-ready SaaS: Facilio’s platform is built to handle the demands of large-scale operations, giving you the flexibility and scalability needed to manage complex asset portfolios with ease.
- Multi-site FM management: Keep everything in sync across multiple locations with centralized control, ensuring consistent maintenance practices and easy performance tracking.
- Quick deployment: Rapid setup allows you to integrate Facilio with your existing systems and begin managing assets without lengthy delays or disruptions.
- Automation-centric: Automates routine maintenance tasks and workflows to reduce manual intervention, minimizing errors and freeing up your team for higher-value activities.
- Self-service portals for escalations: Self-service portals streamline issue reporting and resolution, speeding up asset-related escalations.
- Engage stakeholders at every level: Bring everyone on board, from occupants and technicians to executives,ensuring that all levels are aligned and working towards your asset management goals.
- Site-specific budgeting: Manage and allocate budgets more effectively by tracking asset costs and performance site-by-site, optimizing financial planning.
What users are saying
- Sangeetha B. GM, Al Fajer.
Facilio reduces Investa's asset downtime by 40% with its connected CMMS solution
Investa is one of Australia's leading commercial real estate firms, specializing in developing, owning, and managing high-performance office buildings.
Challenges
- Manual workflows led to redundant tasks and inefficiencies in asset maintenance
- Data owned and shared by vendors resulted in unreliable and inconsistent performance metrics
- The lack of a consolidated view hindered effective tracking of key metrics related to asset performance and vendor compliance
- The existing system was inflexible, making it difficult to add or remove properties from the portfolio efficiently
Facilio’s solution and impact
Facilio’s connected CMMS transformed how Investa managed its assets. Unifying operations across their entire portfolio helped them seamlessly track everything from work orders to vendor compliance—no more sifting through spreadsheets or manual records.
The real-time visibility into asset performance enabled Investa to take a proactive approach, cutting asset downtime by 40%.
Automation also played a key role, reducing manual effort and boosting overall efficiency. With this holistic view, Investa’s leadership could make more intelligent, cost-effective decisions, leading to a smoother and more reliable operation.
For an in-depth look at how Facilio helped Investa, review the full case study here.
Fiix CMMS
Fiix by Rockwell Automation offers a contemporary maintenance solution renowned for its user-friendliness, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.
Established in 2008 and headquartered in Toronto, Fiix provides a cloud-based CMMS that helps businesses organize, manage, and monitor asset maintenance activities.
Fiix CMMS supports mobile access, allowing maintenance teams to manage tasks from anywhere. Plans range from a free basic version to an enterprise solution with advanced analytics, custom integrations, and AI-powered insights.
Fiix CMMS benefits
- With Fiix, you can add safety tasks to asset work orders, complete with e-signatures, ensuring compliance with safety regulations and standards
- The integrated AI platform Fiix Foresight continuously analyzes asset maintenance data to identify areas for improvement
- You can store technician profiles with their certifications and set renewal reminders, ensuring that your team maintains up-to-date qualifications and skills for asset maintenance
Fiix CMMS features
Suitable for
Fiix CMMS is best suited for manufacturing industries, utilities, and enterprises with complex asset management needs.
Fiix CMMS key highlights
- Multi-site management: Ideal for larger organizations, Fiix allows users to manage maintenance activities across multiple sites from a single platform
- Easy-to-use interface: Designed for simplicity, Fiix offers a user-friendly interface that makes managing maintenance tasks straightforward
Limble CMMS
Limble CMMS is a modern, mobile-first asset management software designed to help teams organize work, automate tasks, and make data-driven decisions.
Known for its user-friendly interface and structured approach, Limble emphasizes predictive maintenance and condition monitoring, allowing technicians to manage assets efficiently, even in the field.
Limble CMMS benefits
- Application programming interface (API) access for custom integrations (100+ pre-built integrations) and extending the functionality to suit business requirements
- Advanced features like AI-powered duplicate checks to maintain data accuracy and streamline operations
- Premium and enterprise plans include a dedicated success manager to assist with implementation, customization, and ongoing support
Limble CMMS features
Suitable for
Limble is suitable for small to medium-sized businesses in various industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, and facilities management.
Limble CMMS key highlights
- Advanced enterprise tools: Manage maintenance operations across multiple locations with advanced controls and single sign-on (SSO)
- User-friendly and comprehensive: Limble’s ease of use and robust features make it an actionable tool for businesses
Maintenance Care
Maintenance Care benefits
- Prevents duplicate requests by automatically providing details of existing requests, including building, room, and issue information, to minimize redundancy
- Integrate and embed Tableau directly into the system for improved data analysis
- Connects with Amazon Alexa, Zapier, and API access to build custom integrations, streamlining workflows with hundreds of other business platforms
Maintenance Care features
Suitable for
Maintenance Care is ideal for educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and property management companies.
Maintenance Care key highlights
- Ease and functionality: Maintenance Care's focus on simplicity and usability offers an effective solution for the organization’s O&M teams
Conclusion
Assets are the backbone of any organization, yet too many companies fail to recognize their true value in daily operations.
Instead of seeing assets as strategic investments, they often reduce asset management to a basic checklist—just enough to satisfy external audits. This narrow approach completely misses the point.
The good news is that more and more organizations are waking up to the usefulness of a comprehensive asset management system. They’re realizing that it doesn’t just give them a clear view of what they own; it also provides the insights they need to plan for the future more effectively.
The best time to adopt this strategy? The answer is simple: now. The earlier you start, the better you can integrate it into your existing processes, avoiding conflicts down the road.
For enterprise businesses, SaaS-based asset management systems offer a perfect fit—service-oriented, flexible, and easy to integrate.
It’s time to get organized, cut the waste, and start making your assets work harder for you. Implementing an asset management system isn’t just a good idea; it’s a strategic necessity.
Facilio is the tool that makes this happen. Imagine reducing downtime and slashing maintenance costs thanks to real-time updates and proactive maintenance. Your team can finally break free from the drudgery of administrative tasks, focusing instead on strategic initiatives that drive real results.
The outcome? Longer-lasting assets, smoother operations across your portfolio, happier customers, and a competitive edge that sets you apart.
