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Buying a CMMS program can be a tedious and costly affair. After doing extensive research, choosing the most suitable package and then seeing how the price tag will affect the year’s budget, many companies are tempted to cut costs and forego the ‘bells and whistles’ of the product. This may include additional features, customizations, or the ‘gold support package’ as opposed to the ‘silver support package’.

It may make sense for your company to keep the costs of purchasing a CMMS program to a minimum. However, one expense you should never eliminate is the training. As we will discuss in this article, training is not a fancy frill that is nice but not necessary. Training is a key component to the successful implementation of your new CMMS program.

No matter how simple the salesperson tells you the CMMS program is to learn and use, and no matter how many CMMS programs you have worked with previously, you do not know how to use this particular program. Even if you can navigate through the various menus after having spent several hours attending sales demos and playing with the trial version, you are not an expert when it comes to that CMMS.

There are professionals available who have years of training experience under their belt. They have worked with countless companies on the implementation of CMMS packages. They have also encountered just about any technical support problem you will ever encounter. These trainers can tell you exactly where to start, what to implement first, what resources you need and what you should expect to accomplish over a given timeframe. They can help you organize your data and make sure that you enter the information in a way that will allow you to use the CMMS to its fullest potential.

Few people have ever read a user’s manual front to back. Even fewer actually learn best by reading something in a book. Most of us do not have the time to sit down and read a manual or teach ourselves how to use the CMMS in front of us. For the majority of the population, reading is just not the best style of learning.

As any course on Teaching will tell you, there are three distinct learning styles: auditory (learn by hearing), visual (learn by seeing) and kinesthetic (learn by doing). A good training session combines all three of these learning styles so that everyone gains the maximum benefit from the session. The trainer gives an in-depth presentation of the material so you are hearing how to work with the software. The trainer will also demonstrate how to use the software, so you learn by seeing. Finally, the trainer will allow you to do hands-on exercises, so you learn by doing. Experience has shown that learning by doing is the most effective way to retain information because you program both your mind and body with the new knowledge.

When you try to teach yourself the material, you are never quite sure if you are actually doing it correctly. No one is there to offer advice or point out a better way of doing something. However, when you attend a formal training session held by a professional and knowledgeable trainer, you gain several advantages:

1) You get dedicated learning time for mastering the CMMS. You do not have to find your own time, nor do you have to worry about interruptions.

2) The trainer makes sure that you cover all necessary aspects of the software in a logical order. For example, you might learn which tables need to be populated before you can begin working with the preventive maintenance module. Not only will you learn how to use the software, the trainer can also verify that the software is properly installed and that you are aware of all the resources required to make the implementation a success.

3) The trainer is right there as you work through exercises to learn the CMMS. If you have any questions, you can ask immediately. That way, you will not go down the wrong path and have to spend twice as much time later relearning the correct way.

4) If you are attending the training session along with fellow employees, the trainer will facilitate discussions to make sure that everyone has the same expectations and goals. You may have one idea on how to code your equipment, yet your co-worker may have a totally different idea. During the training, you can establish some ‘ground rules’ or at least become aware of things you need to discuss later.

5) By holding a formal training session, several employees usually have the chance to learn the software together. That way, if the main user becomes sick or leaves the company, other employees are familiar with the CMMS and can take over the work. This will reduce the time in which the CMMS sits idle and as a result, you will not fall behind in your preventive or corrective work orders.

Companies that purchase training along with their CMMS package are better informed, prepared and confident in their abilities to work with their new system. Most importantly, they have a much greater chance of a successful implementation.

There are too many examples of companies who struggle with their CMMS for years, without seeing any results and gaining no benefits. Why? Because they chose not to receive formal training! After a certain time period, often years, they finally realize that their way is not working and ask for professional implementation assistance and training. At this point, not only have they wasted significant amounts of their time and resources, they will now have to spend even more time unlearning their mistakes and correcting the contents of their database. Often, companies simply discard their existing data and start again from scratch, thus being no further ahead than when they first bought their CMMS.

Therefore, when it comes time to purchase a new CMMS package, do not ask yourself “Can we afford to purchase formal training?” Instead, you should ask “Can we afford not to?”

Daniela DeBruyn is the Manager of Customer Service & Training for Thinkage Ltd., manufacturer of MainBoss Maintenance Software. She can be reached at daniela@main-boss.com or you can phone her at 800.563.0894 extension 214.

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