Off-the-Shelf vs. Custom CMMS Software: The Great Debate

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software centralizes maintenance data across equipment, locations and teams within a single, digital platform. It simplifies an organization’s ability to maintain and oversee all of its core assets with consistent asset management, parts inventory management and digital work orders for effective maintenance scheduling. 

As maintenance data is collected from both automated sensors and data entry from maintenance technicians, comprehensive maintenance reporting provides data-backed insights for both macro-level (i.e., facility-wide and production process-wide) and micro-level (i.e., status and performance of individual assets) decision-making.  

Choosing a custom CMMS software like Coast opens opportunities to build fully adaptable maintenance management processes to abide by industry compliance standards and prevent asset failure that can result in costly repairs and unexpected downtime. Let’s discuss how a customizable software solution compares to an off-the-shelf one to help you better understand which one is best for your business.

How a Custom CMMS Software Works

A custom CMMS grants businesses full flexibility to alter their system to meet the maintenance team’s unique maintenance workflows, preferences and regulatory requirements. Unlike more rigid maintenance software, customizable platforms allow your team to change fields names, alter forms and create work processes in tandem with the ways your business operates. 

Preventive maintenance scheduling, assigning and tracking work orders, and real-time asset monitoring all take place in one intuitive platform, complete with a customizable analytics dashboard built around your daily workflows. With such simplified personalization, adoption across teams is simple, and integration across teams ensures transparency and accountability to ensure all tasks are completed on time, every time. 

For example, a maintenance supervisor can structure workflows based on urgency levels, building approval hierarchies and localizing task assignments to fit your company’s needs across worksites, all without the need for IT support. You can even build out your own workflows — equipment rentals, facility check-in/checkout systems and whatever else you might dream up. Since a custom CMMS software is designed to reflect how your team actually works, technicians can get started quickly with limited training and instead focus on what matters: fixing issues fast, extending asset lifespans and keeping production rolling. 

Pros of a Custom CMMS Software

A custom CMMS software is critical if your business has unique processes, varying asset types and specific reporting needs. A custom-built platform is developed to match your exact day-to-day workflows, maximizing your maintenance team’s efficiency and granting organizational leadership access to swaths of critical data for making informed decisions. Here are some key advantages of going custom:

Tailored to Your Specific Workflow

Personalized platforms are crafted around how your team works, not the other way around. Design unique task flows, asset structures and dashboards that reflect your industry and operational needs for less friction and fewer workarounds in your daily procedures.

Scalable

As your business experiences growth or change, a custom CMMS can be adjusted to support new facilities, users and workflows without requiring a full system replacement. 

For example, The McCluskey Group, a Tim Hortons franchisee, switched from managing maintenance with manual spreadsheets to using Coast when it had just 10 restaurants under management. Today, it has expanded to over 33 locations. “Tracking maintenance for 10 restaurants was painful using spreadsheets, so I can’t even imagine doing 33 restaurants with that process,” says Tara Lee-Hendrycks, The McCluskey Group’s director of operations.

A custom CMMS takes time off your plate and grants access to unparalleled data so you can focus on growing your business and increasing revenue. 

Quick Team Adoption

Fast training along with the elimination of manual errors and simplified maintenance task implementation means your team can get more done with less time and catch small issues with equipment quickly before they lead to costly failures.

Cons of a Custom CMMS Software

While a customized CMMS offers many advantages, it may not be right for every business. Keep these potential drawbacks in mind as you’re choosing your maintenance management software:

Some Solutions Cost More

Some custom CMMS software cost more due to the fact that they can require more upfront planning, design and implementation, which can increase both initial and ongoing costs compared to non-customized platforms. Of course, Coast provides this for the same price of more traditional CMMS software, so it completely depends on the one you choose.

Requires Good Customer Success Teams

Making updates, integrations or performing troubleshooting can be timely if your software doesn’t provide a readily available and responsive Customer Success team. Luckily, most CMMS solutions do offer quality support, but it’s something you definitely want to confirm before choosing one.

How an Off-the-Shelf CMMS Works

An off-the-shelf CMMS grants maintenance teams immediate access to critical features like work order tracking, preventive maintenance scheduling and asset monitoring that are pre-packaged in a ready-to-use format. These platforms are designed for quick deployment with pre-configured templates, workflows and dashboards that support teams in getting going quickly without a lengthy setup or custom development needs.

Off-the-shelf platforms offer core functions like task assignment, technician tracking and equipment history housed in one user-friendly platform to effectively streamline day-to-day operations without the need for customization. For instance, a facilities manager can start managing incoming requests, assign tasks by location and monitor job progress within minutes of signing up. And since the system is designed for simplicity and speed, tech support needs are minimal, team onboarding is fast and productivity gains can be seen almost immediately.

The major trade-off, however, is that you’re stuck with a rigid software that’s difficult to scale or change with industry needs. L

Pros of an Off-the-Shelf CMMS

Teams that want a reliable maintenance system without long development cycles can depend on an off-the-shelf platform. Here are a few benefits of an off-the-shelf CMMS:

Faster, Depending on the Customization Level

Off-the-shelf tools can be deployed immediately with most critical functionals ready to go from launch and the ability to make small custom tweaks like setting priorities or creating user roles in just minutes.

Cheaper, Depending on the Customization Level

High costs of development and ongoing support are unnecessary if you don’t require heavy customization. This makes it significantly more cost-effective for small and mid-sized teams.

Cons of an Off-the-Shelf CMMS

Off-the-shelf systems may fall short for teams with complex or evolving needs that come after quick deployment. Consider the following limitations before committing:

Lack of Customization

Most platforms come with predefined workflows and limited personalization. If your team needs specific features or data structures, it can be challenging to make the system fit. Lots of CMMS users report prioritizing customization, especially if they’re in an industry with rules and regulations that are constantly changing.

Harder to Scale

As your operations grow more complex and your needs change, you may run into problems with what an off-the-shelf CMMS can offer without expensive workarounds or switching platforms altogether.

Can Face Compatibility Issues

Off-the-shelf tools aren’t always built to integrate with your other systems, which often results in data silos, duplicate entries and gaps in communication between teams.

How Coast Offers Both Options

Coast bridges the gap between custom and off-the-shelf CMMS platforms by offering the speed and simplicity of an off-the-shelf system with the ability to easily customize for your team’s needs. While many platforms force you to choose between fast setup or deep customization, Coast gives you both by allowing you to personalize workflows, set role-based permissions and create location-specific task structures in a few quick steps without dependence on its Customer Success team or a long wait to launch.

Coast is built to scale with your organization and support growing teams and multi-site operations, while remaining intuitive enough for your entire staff to learn quickly. You can get up and running in minutes and still adjust the system to reflect how your team works. And because Coast handles updates, maintenance and support behind the scenes, you avoid the developer dependencies that often come with custom solutions. It’s flexibility without the complexity.