Questions to ask a CMMS vendor (before the demo theater)

Pricing and contract questions

Price the growth path, not just the first invoice.

1. Is pricing per user or per facility?
2. What do we pay when technician headcount doubles — including contractors and seasonal coverage?
3. Are operators who only report issues billed as full seats?
4. What is included in the base plan vs add-ons (mobile, inventory, multi-plant)?
5. Are there annual lock-ins, overage fees, or minimum seat counts?
6. How does multi-plant pricing work when facility three comes online?
7. What triggers paid professional services that are not in the quote?

Write the answers into a three-year sketch. Seat taxes that look cheap at ten users often explode when the whole maintenance crew is invited.

Implementation and timeline questions

Most mid-sized plant CMMS rollouts take roughly 2–6 weeks when services, data cleanup, and training are in scope. Ask vendors to own that number — or explain why they are faster.

1. How long until a first facility can open real work orders on critical assets?
2. Who does the import and configuration — your team, their services team, or both?
3. What is included in guided setup vs a paid implementation package?
4. Can we go live without a perfect asset register?
5. What is deferred by design (ERP integrations, full PM library) until after day one?
6. What training format do technicians actually finish — floor walkthrough or slide deck?

Compare claims against your own capacity. A six-week plan that needs three full-time internal owners is not “fast” for a lean plant.

Data, export, and soft-delete questions

Assume you may leave. Buy like it.

1. Can we export assets, work orders, PM history, and parts to CSV or API on demand?
2. Who owns the data during and after the contract?
3. Are deletes soft-deletes with recovery, or permanent?
4. How long is audit history retained?
5. What happens to attachments and photos on export?
6. Are there fees for a full data takeaway at cancellation?

If the answer to export is “support ticket and wait,” score that as a risk.

Floor adoption and mobile questions

Adoption is the product. Ask for mechanics, not screenshots.

1. Can technicians claim, start, and complete work from a phone on the floor?
2. Do photos and notes attach to the asset and the work order?
3. Does the workflow work with gloves, poor Wi-Fi, or shared devices?
4. How long does it take a new technician to complete their first job without classroom training?
5. Can supervisors see overdue PM and open work without exporting to Excel?
6. What do plants that look like ours measure after 30 days — completion rate, time-to-claim, PM compliance?

Request a live walkthrough with a technician account, not an admin demo login.

Manufacturing-specific proof questions

Generic facility-management demos miss plant constraints.

1. How does PM respect production windows (changeover, sanitation, weekends)?
2. How do due PM items become owned work orders with duration and owner?
3. Can we link spare parts to assets and kit them before a job?
4. How do we capture micro-stops and repeat failure modes on the same asset?
5. Can operators report issues without becoming full maintenance planners?
6. How do multi-shift plants hand off incomplete work without losing context?
7. Show an example plant similar to ours — not a campus or property portfolio.

Push for a recorded or live example of the work-order loop on a production asset.

Pilot and exit questions

1. Can we run a time-boxed pilot on one production line with our crew?
2. What does “success” look like in the pilot agreement — completion metrics or feature checkmarks?
3. What data do we take with us if we do not buy?
4. What is the cancellation notice period and data retention window?
5. Are pilot configurations reusable if we convert to paid, or do we rebuild?

A vendor that only offers a polished webinar is selling certainty they have not earned on your floor.

Scorecard template

Copy this into a sheet and weight what matters for your plant (example weights in parentheses). Score each vendor 1–5.

• Pricing clarity at 2× headcount and multi-facility growth (20)
• First-facility go-live realism (15)
• Work orders + asset history on mobile (20)
• PM → owned work inside production windows (15)
• Parts linkage on assets and jobs (10)
• Data export and recoverable deletes (10)
• Pilot willingness with your technicians (10)

Total the weighted score after the pilot — not after the first demo. Pair this list with the [how to choose a CMMS](/guides/how-to-choose-a-cmms) decision checklist so questions and criteria stay aligned.