Excel to CMMS software – Making the Transition

Great facilities have always contributed to an organisation’s positive reputation and enhanced the customer experience.

The maintenance manager’s role is now changing to become one that helps businesses achieve important competitive advantage. As maintenance increasingly becomes a strategic activity, there is a greater demand for immediate, accurate, real-time data. (Read More) 

However, some maintenance managers still work within the limitations of spreadsheets, inputting data into Excel, to manage valuable plant and equipment.

In start-up businesses and small organisations, where there are low numbers of service issues, no risk of financial penalties for underperformance, and no demand for complex reporting, Excel spreadsheets can offer a low cost and easily accessible solution. As a business develops, relying on spreadsheets as a primary source of information for reactive and planned maintenance and for asset and performance management has severe limitations.

When the organisation expands; the volume of service requests grows significantly; PPM regimes become more complex; there is an increase in staff; or there is the need to bring in external contractors and spreadsheets become unwieldy and unreliable. There is also a risk of the maintenance department, or even the company, falling into disrepute should an inadequate information management system cause a serious breach of service terms, a compliance failure or a health and safety error.

If the organisation’s offices and sites are scattered geographically, it is even harder, with data spread across different folders, workstations and locations, to use spreadsheets to keep track of information. Fragmentation makes the risk of duplication and lack of data integrity considerably higher.

Using spreadsheets to manage maintenance work leaves organisations vulnerable to:

• fraud – the inherent lack of controls, and difficulty in detection, allows the easy alteration of formulas, values, or dependencies

susceptibility of human error – this can damage confidence, result in losses, and increase compliance and health and safety risk through the entry of inaccurate data, duplication of data, or data redundancy.
Spreadsheets lack scalability and are a stand-alone solution with restricted functionality; without the capability to assign, prioritise and escalate tasks; to automate asset inspections and audits; to provide a watch-list with real time visibility of service calls from logging to completion; or to enable self-service.

The support of a quality CMMS system is increasingly recognised as a key enabler in the smooth day-to-day running of service delivery, boosting efficiency, cost effectiveness and productivity, and as an indispensable management tool. Using technology, maintenance managers can drive out unnecessary costs, streamline PPM scheduling and maximise quality data, creating effective workplace regimes and practices that support better business performance. CMMS software, with flexible, intuitive, and enabling technology, has become the maintenance manager’s greatest ally in the implementation, delivery and management of a new era of business-critical services.

As the use of spreadsheets for capturing maintenance information continues to lose relevance in today’s business world, a new white paper from Service Works Group (SWG) provides guidance for maintenance managers. The document ‘Excel to CMMS Software – Making the Transition’ examines:

• the pros and cons of using spreadsheets alongside the business benefits of investing in CMMS software
• what to consider before making the change to CMMS software
• making the business case for CMMS software
• how to make the change.

To receive your complimentary copy of the new white paper ‘Excel to CMMS Software – Making the Transition’ or for further information, please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
or call +44 (0)20 8877 4080.