Frequently Asked Questions about CMMS for Self-Storage Management
Here are the most common questions asked about CMMS software for self-storage management.
What is a CMMS?
A CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) is a digital software platform that helps companies organize, execute and analyze all of their maintenance operations. A CMMS is used to submit and dispatch work orders, schedule preventative maintenance, track assets and inventory, ensure regulatory compliance, organize contracts and paperwork, optimize financials, and create compelling forecasts and reports.
A CMMS makes maintenance management more efficient and effective, which allows for major cost and time savings, increased visibility, and enhanced customer satisfaction.
What does a CMMS do?
A CMMS helps businesses monitor their properties and equipment in real-time, and it allows for the execution and tracking of maintenance tasks through dashboards, workflows, notifications and reports. Further, it allows you to submit, dispatch and monitor work orders and communicate with employees, customers and vendors.
This ensures that all sites and equipment are regularly inspected and kept in healthy condition. It allows for any incidents or damage to be immediately reported and fixed. The reporting and analytical features of a CMMS help identify areas within the maintenance operations that need improvement – which leads to increases in efficiency, expanded asset lifespan, greater cost savings, and reductions in equipment downtime.
Why would a self-storage company need a CMMS?
A CMMS can prove to be a lifesaver for companies that are asset-heavy and require routine maintenance for their properties and equipment. Given that the product self-storage companies offer customers is a physical piece of property that in turn stores other people’s property, it is essential that self-storage companies have incredibly efficient and effective maintenance operations.
Customer success for a self-storage business depends on clean, safe, functioning storage units along with presentable curb appeal. This means managing the safety, cleanliness, and functionality of many different assets, including: driveways, gates, fencing, roll-up doors, flooring, roofing, gutters, HVAC systems, lighting, security cameras and much more.
In order to make sure that all physical assets and procedures involved in a self-storage company are properly maintained, it is imperative to have a digital solution that streamlines, automates, and analyzes its operations.
What specific services does a CMMS offer for self-storage companies?
With the help of a CMMS software solution, self-storage companies can store the entirety of their maintenance, financial and operational information on one integrated platform. This includes contact information for employees, vendors and self-storage unit tenants; lease contracts with tenants; information on all assets, and more. They can also communicate with all involved parties directly through the platform.
On the operational side, whenever any asset is broken or requires maintenance (i.e. a broken storage unit door), a CMMS allows you to submit, dispatch, and track work orders and service requests, as well as monitor the progress of contractors, from anywhere at any time.
Preventative maintenance can be scheduled ahead of time to keep all units in optimal shape, and inventory can be managed so that everything stays in stock. A CMMS offers powerful reporting capabilities in order to check in on the operational and financial heartbeat of the business.
What benefits does a CMMS offer for self-storage businesses?
Research shows that employing a CMMS extends the lifespan of a company’s assets and equipment by 20%. This means self-storage companies get more use out of each storage unit before needing to replace them. Using a CMMS can also lead to a 20% reduction in rental space downtime, which means more storage-units can be up and ready for rent.
A CMMS can also lead to a 30% increase in maintenance productivity, an 18% decrease in MRO inventory, and a 20% decrease in material costs.
How can a CMMS help a self-storage company with inventory and asset management?
While a self-storage company may not be a factory filled with heavy-duty machinery, it still has many valuable assets that need to be maintained. These assets include storage units and storage unit doors, gates, fences, and HVAC systems. Self-storage companies also have a lot of inventory to manage such as light bulbs, pest repellant, cleaning materials and extra parts for storage units.
With a CMMS, self-storage facilities can maintain updated records of their assets, which include service history, repair costs and warranties. Storing and updating this information reduces risks and costs, helps with compliance, and increases lifespan of assets. Further, it allows facilities managers to easily monitor levels of their inventory and restock proactively.
How can a CMMS help a self-storage company with safety and security?
A CMMS can be integrated with smart security devices so that security data is synced with maintenance operations and accessible 24/7. For example, a CMMS system can interact with the existing security system to generate an alert when unusual activity is occurring on the premises or within a specific storage unit.
As for safety, a CMMS can help an injury-free environment by automating key areas of safety management so that high-risk assets are kept in safe conditions that reduce risk for tenants and employees. A CMMS can also help self-storage adhere to COVID-19 safety regulations and implement thorough disinfecting routines.
How can a CMMS help a self-storage company with vendor management?
A self-storage facility will interact with many different vendors throughout each day, whether that be for fixing a storage unit door or restoring the roof. In order to ensure the efficiency and safety of the interactions with these vendors, facility managers need to be able to easily select and dispatch a vendor, while being informed of their history and monitoring their work.
A CMMS can keep track of vendors as well as their qualifications and insurance coverage. Facilities managers can then easily contact the company and assign a work order that is detailed with specific instructions and guidelines.
From there, contractors can check-in and check-out via their mobile devices, and the CMMS will keep a record of their visit, total hours worked and total costs. The system will then create the vendor’s invoice and initiate the payment process.
How can a CMMS help with financials and invoicing?
A CMMS offers accounting and financial management services that can handle multiple General Ledgers and is completed integrated within maintenance, property and contract workflows in the system. This means that facilities managers can integrate their invoicing and work-order management processes into one streamlined workflow.
To be able to move seamlessly from service request to invoice on a single platform reduces inefficiencies, speeds up processes and saves costs. The financial offerings on a CMMS are many, of which include: invoicing (AP & AR), P&L, balance sheets, purchase orders, budgets & approvals, cost centers, payment batches, collection batches, payment processing, bank reconciliations, and taxes & multiple currencies.
How can a CMMS help a self-storage company with reporting and analytics?
A CMMS has the ability to employ powerful business analytics and create reports. For example, self-storage companies can use a CMMS to create a report of the history of their maintenance and service expenses, and then use this information to help plan for future budgeting.
A CMMS comes with hundreds of report templates already built into the system, and any custom report type can be created as well. addition to template reports you can also add custom report types. Reports can be exported to PDF and, CSV, HTML and Excel formats for future analysis.
How can a CMMS help a self-storage company with customer satisfaction?
The self-storage market is a very competitive field. This means that customer service is of utmost importance. Given that a CMMS helps optimize a self-storage company’s maintenance operations, it means that customers are getting the clean, well-kept storage units they expect.
Further, a CMMS allows for quick communicate between tenants and employees so that quick fixes can always be made. Quick response rates and service turnaround goes very far in the eyes of a customer.
