Choosing a CMMS is not a checklist exercise. It is a decision about how information will move in a plant where people do not have time to learn another tool.
These are the criteria that separate software you pay for from software you use.
1. The shop-floor entry point
Ask vendors one question: how does an operator report a breakdown at the machine?
If the answer involves an account, a password and several screens, you already know how the project will end. Technicians will catch up on Friday afternoon. Operators will never log in.
A good entry point takes three steps: identify the asset (QR code or short list), describe the problem, send. Thirty seconds, no account. The rest of the product can be rich — but if the front door is locked, nobody goes further.
2. Pricing: per user or per company
In Morocco, a maintenance team often has more people who notice problems than people who fix them: operators, line leads, contractors, storekeepers.
Per-user pricing pushes you to limit access. The result: shared logins, distorted history, lost traceability. You pay for a record system and get a shared notebook.
Prefer a company-wide fee with account-free reporting. The real cost is how many people can take part without raising the bill.
3. Language, support and time zone
A CMMS lives in details: task labels, notifications, reports for management. An English-only UI with support at 9 a.m. Paris time is not the same product as a bilingual tool with someone reachable during your shift.
Ask for a demo in French and a demo with a real breakdown scenario, not a menu tour.
4. Where the data lives
For a Moroccan plant, this is not theoretical. Where are machine records, job history and breakdown photos hosted?
A vague answer ("secure cloud") deserves a follow-up: country, subcontractor, export option. You are buying industrial memory — location matters.
5. What to test in the demo
Do not sign on a presentation. Run these five scenarios:
- An operator reports a breakdown without an account.
- A manager turns the request into a work order and assigns it.
- A technician closes the job with parts consumed.
- You find the machine history six months later.
- A preventive plan generates a work order on schedule.
If any of those five is painful, that is where the project will stall — not on the feature you will never use.
6. Migration from Excel
Almost every team arrives with a spreadsheet. A serious vendor should own the import: equipment, common parts, useful history — without asking you to retype everything.
The spreadsheet is not ridiculous. It held the fleet for years. The CMMS should carry that work forward, not pretend it never existed.
In short
| Criterion | Question to ask |
|---|---|
| Adoption | How do we report a breakdown without training? |
| Price | Does the fee change when the team grows? |
| Language | French UI and support? |
| Data | Hosted in Morocco or exportable? |
| Migration | Equipment and history import included? |
You choose a CMMS less on feature count than on the odds that your technicians open it on Monday morning — because it is easier than doing nothing.