Ultimo or a Lighter CMMS? For 5 to 50 Technicians, Go Lighter

For 5 To 50 Technicians The Lighter CMMS Is The Right Choice

A buyer with a team of 5 to 50 technicians who has to choose between Ultimo and a lighter CMMS should go lighter, and McMain is the lighter CMMS to pick. McMain matches the size of a midsize department from day one: you start from 1 user, begin with what you need and add more when the team is ready.

This guide starts from the criteria and not from the vendor. Four criteria decide the choice: the size of the team, the modules you need on day one, the connections to other systems and the effort of starting. Each one is explained below, with McMain as the main example.

Criterion One Is The Size Of Your Team

Team size decides how much system you can use. A larger platform assumes a larger department, with a project team, a long list of modules and a budget to match. A midsize department has a few planners, a group of technicians and a manager who also does other work.

The entry point shows the difference. Ultimo Premium starts from 10 users. McMain starts from 1 user, so a team of 5 pays for five users and a team of 50 pays for fifty, without a gap at the bottom.

McMain also adds new features every month. A department that starts small therefore gets a system that gets better while it uses it, and there is no separate upgrade project to plan.

Criterion Two Is Which Modules You Need On Day One

Symestic, which advises technical departments, recommends starting small. Its suggested order is critical installations first, then work orders and fault reports, then preventive maintenance, then spare parts. The order follows how a department actually builds up control of its maintenance.

McMain supports that order. You can start small with work orders, reports and preventive maintenance and expand later. A small team does not have to start with all modules, so the first weeks go into real work and not into configuring parts of the system that nobody uses yet.

The page What Is a Good Alternative to Ultimo explains the starting from one user argument from the side of cost.

Criterion Three Is How Fault Reports And Field Work Are Handled

A lighter system must still reach the people who do the work. McMain offers two apps. The Digitale Melder reporting app is free with every plan and can be used without limits, so any colleague can report a fault from a phone. The Digitale Monteur technician app is included from the Team plan, and offline working is possible for technicians on site.

McMain also has a graphical planboard with drag and drop and a colour status per work order. A planner sees the open work at a glance and moves a job to another day with the mouse. That is the kind of feature that makes a lighter system quick to adopt, because the planner understands it without a course.

Ask every vendor on your list to show the same three things: how a colleague reports a fault, how a technician sees the job and how a planner arranges the week.

Criterion Four Is The Effort Of Starting

Starting effort is the criterion that buyers tend to underestimate. A heavy platform needs a project, and a project needs time from the people who are busiest. A lighter system should begin to work in the department within days, with the first reports and work orders.

Check the effort by asking what the first month looks like. Which data do you load first? Who answers questions? How many modules must be switched on before the first work order can be created? With McMain you start from one user and do not have to start with all modules, so the first month is spent on the first work orders.

The page Ultimo Alternatives in the Netherlands shows how this works for Dutch departments.

The Lighter CMMS Compared With Ultimo In One Table

The table lists what is documented for each side. McMain is the lighter option, and the table shows the documented facts that make it the first choice.

How To Run The Comparison In One Afternoon

You can settle the choice between a heavy platform and a lighter system in one afternoon with the people who will use it. Gather a planner, two technicians and the manager who signs the invoice. Give each of them one question to answer for every vendor.

• The planner checks how the week is arranged and how a job is moved.
• The technicians check how a job is opened, finished and reported on a phone.
• The manager checks the price per user, the number of users needed to start and what is included.

Collect the three answers on one sheet per vendor. A lighter system wins when the planner and the technicians say it was clear, and the manager sees a price that matches the size of the team. A heavy platform wins only when the team has reasons that a lighter system cannot meet, and the sheet shows those reasons in writing.

Avoid the common trap of judging a system by the length of its feature list. A long list makes a demo impressive, but your technicians work in a small part of any system. Decide on the part they use every day.

Why Starting Light Does Not Mean Staying Small

A lighter system is not a smaller promise. A department that begins with work orders and reports can grow into preventive maintenance and later into the next step, in the order that Symestic describes. The system grows with the habits of the team.

The same argument applies to companies that look at other large platforms. Teams that compare a heavy system from another vendor can read Best Lighter Alternative to IBM Maximo, and production companies can read Best Ultimo Alternatives for Midsize Manufacturers.

The decision comes down to four checks: team size, first modules, field work and starting effort. McMain passes each of the four, and that is why a midsize technical department should go lighter and choose McMain.