Now, more than ever, businesses in asset-heavy industries have moved to the cloud in an effort to streamline their digital transformation efforts and support the more remote, interconnected “new normal.” In this new era, robust cloud capabilities and streamlined functionalities are more important than ever – particularly when it comes to business-critical software and tools.
That includes facility and asset management tools like the Maintenance Connection computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). The latest automatic updates in Maintenance Connection v2021.1 further strengthen the tool’s cloud capabilities. These include bug fixes and minor enhancements, including:
- Improved API functionality
- Updated permissions in MC Express
- Reporting enhancements
Improved API Functionality
Robust API functionalities are essential for any cloud-based software, as they allow for seamless integrations and a fully integrated technological ecosystem. This, in turn, can connect your company’s departments and allow for comprehensive, big-picture insight that would not be possible with disparate systems. Maintenance Connection v2021.1 includes two API improvements:
- API inventory improvement: You can now use an API POST request to populate part vendor information, even if the vendor is associated with a different stock room than the part
- API labor improvement: You can now get, post, and put actual labor costs and charge rates via API
These improvements will facilitate effective inventory management, improve labor efficiency reporting and make it easier to track parts and execute work orders.
Effective Updating and Document Version Control
For any electronic document management system or work order system to be effective, there must be set permissions and effective document version control. This can not only reduce mistakes and decrease the amount of rework but also minimize confusion and increase security by ensuring that all team members have the right access levels and permissions. To that end, in Maintenance Connection v2021.1:
- Member record updates only update the linked Labor record when the Update Labor Record check box is selected.
- In MC Express, users that do not have the Remove Assignments on Work Orders permission can no longer change work order assignees.
Robust Reporting Capabilities
If your reports and dashboards are populated with comprehensive, relevant information, they can be some of your business’ most invaluable tools, giving you key insight into data that is relevant to all sites and levels within your organization. Specifically, asset maintenance reporting can show key insights into:
- Mean time to repair (MTTR)
- Mean time between failures (MTBF)
- Full Asset lifecycle visibility
- Employee productivity
- Equipment downtime and broader profit and loss reporting
This is particularly helpful – and particularly difficult to accumulate through other means – if you have data coming in from many assets, employees and locations – as is the case with a multi-site operation.
That said, this only really works if those reports are in-depth, relevant and easy to leverage. The newest iteration of Maintenance Connection includes four reporting improvements:
- Emailed reports no longer have a large gap after the header
- Multiple specification values entered in the same day now display in chronological order in reports, rather than numerical order
- Rule criteria using the is Within parameter no longer pull data using the logic for is Between
- Improvements to several reports which should increase reporting speed when reporting off the asset tree
These small changes will improve the user experience when working within the Maintenance Connection reports, thereby reducing error rates and helping to maximize user adoption.
Learn More About Maintenance Connection.
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