Separate requests from maintenance records
Facilities teams may receive a mix of comfort complaints, damaged fixtures, routine inspections and equipment failures. Decide how people report a problem and what they should see after submitting it.
Use a CMMS evaluation to check the maintenance workflow. Tenant accounting, lease administration, room booking and space planning can belong to different software categories. Do not assume that a product labelled facilities management covers all of them.
Walk through a building scenario
- A requester identifies a building, floor and issue.
- A coordinator checks urgency and assigns responsibility.
- A technician finds the relevant equipment and history.
- A contractor receives only the information needed for their job.
- The team records the result and any follow-up work.
- The requester sees an appropriate completion update.
Keep location and permissions clear
For multiple buildings, test how staff switch sites and which records they can see. A contractor might need a particular job while a regional manager needs an overview. Confirm that the proposed licence includes the required permissions and reporting.
Check what happens when equipment moves, a building changes name, or a contractor stops working with you. Preserve history while removing access that is no longer needed.
Compare the complete operating cost
Count paid technicians, coordinators and other users according to each vendor’s licence definitions. Confirm requester access, additional facilities, implementation and support. Unlimited users and per-user pricing should be compared against your actual workload and contract.
Test recurring inspections and request volume during a pilot. Include the person who receives complaints and the person who closes work; adoption depends on both sides of the handoff.