Web-Based Maintenance Management: Pros and Cons

This paper explains the pros and cons of web-based maintenance management (as compared to the “server-based” approach of MainBoss).

Basic Definitions

One key question is what “web-based” means. There are several different approaches to CMMS that might be called “web-based” and it’s important to distinguish between them. For clarity, we’ll use the following terminology:

• An external web service (also called an ASP service) is a facility run by an outside company, called the service provider. In order to work with the CMMS, you connect with a web site maintained by the provider. All your data and software reside on the provider’s computers.
• An in-house web product makes use of a web site that your own company runs. The web site interacts with software and data stored on computers at your company.
• A server-based CMMS is a product that doesn’t use the web. Instead, the software operates on its own, or in connection with your own LAN (local area network). To perform maintenance management operations, you start up a special program, as opposed to connecting with a web site.

MainBoss is a server-based CMMS. While it’s possible to use web pages in a limited way (to submit work requests via @Requests), MainBoss doesn’t need the Internet and has only limited capabilities for making use of the web.

Hardware and Software Requirements

Since an external web service keeps all data and software on the provider’s computers, you don’t need any special hardware or software to use it. Any computer that can connect with the web can access the service. (You might run into problems if your company only has a low-speed Internet connection. Extensive use of the web for maintenance activities may necessitate a faster line.)

With an in-house web product, you must purchase a computer with sufficient processing power, disk space, and support software to run an internal web site and the related maintenance management system. Running your own web site requires substantial technical expertise! Even if a company already has IT personnel skilled in running a web site, the demands on their time must be taken into account when calculating the cost of the system.

A server-based product is the most self-contained maintenance solution. The specific hardware requirements depend on the package being used, but in general, you need a computer with sufficient processing power and disk space to run the CMMS software and hold the related software.

Date Management and Security

With in-house web products and server-based products, all your data resides on your own computers. This means that it’s up to you to make sure your data is safe and secure. In particular, you have to perform your own back-ups on a regular basis to make sure your data is safe in the event of hardware problems. With web products, you also have to worry about Internet security unless you make your web site “invisible” to outside connections. (Setting up the web site to be “internal only” prevents intrusions from outside, but it also negates one of the advantages of web products: being able to obtain maintenance information when you aren’t at your usual computer.)

With external web services, all your data resides on the provider’s computers. This saves you the trouble of doing back-ups (the provider does them for you), but it raises several questions:

• Are your communications secure? There are ways to ensure the security of data sent to and from the service provider, but you have to make sure those precautions are taken. What if the service provider has computer difficulties and you can’t access the web site? Would that be a serious problem or simply an inconvenience?
• Who owns the data? You want to be sure you have ownership and control of your data, and that you can get it in some useful form any time you want. Otherwise, what happens if you want to switch to a different CMMS? Even worse, what happens if the service provider goes out of business? You have to make sure that the terms of your contract allow you to get your full data back conveniently.

Costs

It can be extremely difficult to compare the costs of different types of CMMS systems. Many have hidden or indeterminate costs. This is especially true of external web systems. Such systems usually charge some combination of a monthly subscription fee and per-transaction costs. For example, you might pay a fixed monthly fee that allows you up to a certain number of transactions per month; if you do more than that limit, you have to pay an extra amount per transaction. Alternatively, some web services have no fixed fees; they’re entirely paid per transaction. Both these methods of payment avoid the up-front purchase of software found in server-based systems, so they have lower start-up costs.

However, you keep shelling out, month after month, transaction by transaction. The costs just keep accumulating. When you first begin using the service, it’s difficult to predict what your actual costs will be, since you probably don’t have a good idea how many transactions you’ll be making. (What exactly counts as a transaction? That varies from system to system, and may result in nasty surprises.)

Server-based systems and in-house web products usually have greater up-front costs that external web services, since you have to factor in the purchase price of the software. On the other hand, the purchase price is clearly laid out, so you won’t be surprised later on.

In-house web products also have the price of maintaining the web site. As noted previously, this requires the time of someone with technical expertise. The amount of time needed depends on the product, but it’s hard to predict in advance exactly how much work web-site maintenance will take.

In additional, every type of CMMS requires some degree of training, and of course, the cost of the time that personnel will spend using the software. These costs vary from product to product.