Topic: Which maintenance software to use

I am a maintenance person in charge of about 230 apartment/townhouses and 40 condo. The company I work for has really never tracked an maintenance issues before viewing their selves as a very small organization. This may or may not be true but most of their properties are long lived and maintenance is becoming an on going issue and they have taken a reactive stance in the past. I would like to bring them into the 21st century using CMMS I just don't have a lot of knowledge in this area and have looked at programing excel spreadsheets to do this but I spent most of my time resolving maintenance issues and would have to create the whole thing on my own time and just would rather use a system already ready to go.

One that I could track work order and maintain records of what has been done to a unit as well as track the inventory of parts I keep at multiple locations. I know I have my work cut out for me especially since this has never been done before they have as I said mainly just did a reactive approach and having a stock items on had was just something that happened and no one has really ever tracked anything. That is why I need some type of CMMS to help with this. The pricing is a major factor though as they do not really see the true need of anything once again the approach of if its not broke then don't fix it.
So please any suggestions would be greatly appreciated thanks.

There are actually several technologies out there that offer in part, but none that offer all of what you are looking for, it just depends on what aspect of maintenance and tracking is most important to you.

I would like some software idea as the first post. I have looked at a bunch and honestly they are really expensive in my opinion. What I am looking for is inventory management since there are just to many parts to remember and I want to have a same day service call resolution if possible. The only way to do this is with inventory after all parts fail so why not keep a couple of the things on hand that can cause a real problem for the tenants if they go out. but as I said remembering what you have is just to big a job so some form of inventory software would be nice. The real problem with most that I have looked at is they are either for retail or resale and since I am neither there format is just to much to mold to my needs. I have looked at excel and creating one for myself but time is the main problem. I had taken an early look at MACMMS Maintenance Assistant CMMS which seemed fine and had a really good monthly price but was a lot to have to create to get it up and running though now I am revisiting the idea of this software. Is there anyone who uses this one for apartment maintenance out there in the community. I have under 300 units I am in charge of so the size of organization we are I guess is mid to small I guess any ideas would be helpful

Does your company have a website that they've developed themselves? If so, I strongly suggest having your web department develop an online system. It's great because you can easily meld it to your actual company needs. We have a mobile-ready version so that tenants can input work orders. It immediately sends an update to staff during office hours, and our maintenance director can assign them to maintenance techs. Employees get updates as the work order is completed and are able to give feedback on the maintenance tech and the job that they did.

Good luck!

What is the name of the software you use and do you know how much it is?