Top 7 Preventive Maintenance Software Programs

Preventive maintenance software is essential for home and field service businesses providing periodic, preventive, and corrective maintenance to residential and commercial customers, regardless of the industry. This type of software improves efficiency, eliminates human error, guarantees real-time availability of maintenance logs, equipment history, past interventions and other crucial data for techs in the field, and streamlines invoicing and billing processes. All of this adds up to greater productivity and a better bottom line.

The foundation of preventive maintenance software is the automation of processes and creating a centralized repository for equipment information, a log of interventions, and a programmable schedule of events for upcoming maintenance work. Giving techs access to all this information by means of a mobile device means that your back office can focus on other admninstrative tasks and your customer or production department can also breathe easy knowing that their maintenance needs are under control.

What is preventive maintenance software?

Preventive maintenance software is a platform or group of programs that are specially designed to organize, manage, and record all interactions with a piece of equipment under maintenance: everything from warranty information, serial numbers, maintenance manuals and documentation, a full service history, a schedule of upcoming maintenance, and full visibility throughout all of these processes.

Key features for preventive maintenance software

Sometimes referred to as CMMS (computerized maintenance management software) preventive maintenance software is designed and built to help service businesses plan, organize, and deploy resources for ongoing equipment maintenance at a client’s location. The goal is to avoid downtime by performing essential maintenance prior to breakdowns, which results in more productive assets and more satisfied customers.

This type of IT solution provides service and maintenance businesses with detailed information on the equipment under maintenance and greatly facilitates monitoring and follow-up of scheduled maintenance, including SLAs and other maintenance agreements. It will frequently include tools like checklists for periodic inspections, the ability to schedule recurring events and sending automatic reminders and notifications to both techs and customers, among many other functions.

Key features of preventive maintenance software

A centralized platform to manage equipment maintenance is crucial to gaining a competitive advantage for businesses operating in an increasingly competitive landscape, where the slightest differences can have a huge impact on your bottom line. Some of the most important features preventive maintenance software should have are:

• Scheduled maintenance: Create defined maintenance schedules and set up separate calendars for each piece of equipment that include all pertinent details, a full service history, pics, supporting documentation and checklists or other documented prcedures.
• Optimize tasks: These software solutions should include functions to facilitate creating, assigning, and following up on preventive maintenance tasks for the different members of your team, including the ability to set and send alerts, notifications and deadlines.
• Inventory tracking: Track all your inventory and inbound/outbound movements as well as your equipment with details like purchase date, estimated shelf life, cost, etc.
• Maintenance logs: The heart and soul of preventive maintenance software is the ability to create, record, track, update, and access information related to every intervention performed on a piece of equipment. This includes everything from details on the repairs or work completed, dates, times, costs, parts used, pictures and any other relevant information.
• Integration with other systems: This type of software typically allows you to easily integrate with other business management software and 3rd party applications like inventory management systems, invoicing programs, and ERPs, among others.
• Follow-up and analysis: Create reports and dashboards to evaluate the efficiency of your maintenance programs, identify areas for improvement, and optimize the decision-making process for maintenance based on real data.
• Accessible and versatile: The best preventive maintenance software is cloud-based, allowing remote access from any mobile device while at the office or in the field.

Preventive maintenance software programs

Choosing the right preventive maintenance software solution for your business is not a straightforward task. With the growth of this market and new entrants appearing every day, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Don’t fret, we have done all the heavy lifting and compiled a list of the 7 top preventive maintenance software programs in the market in 2024.

STEL Order

For business owners looking to increase productivity and get an edge on the competition, STEL Order’s preventive maintenance software is likely the best option. It was purpose-designed for field service and maintenance businesses to streamline processes, increase efficiency, reduce equipment downtime and eliminate unnecessary errors.

STEL Order’s suite of tools will help you to track and monitor machinery, equipment, assets, and devices for any type of business. Record and access detailed information from different stages of the maintenance cycle like scheduled maintenance tasks, checklists, a log of interventions, spare parts used, and more.

Leverage the integrated CRM module to ensure techs and back office are on the same page, and streamline dispatching, billing, and invoicing processes with end-to-end traceability for job requests, estimates, work orders, invoices and more.

Maintenance service management 

Dealing with SLAs and other maintenance contracts is a key operations challenge for many professional installation and field service businesses given the need to separately track and document warranty information for every piece of equipment. Use STEL Order to:

• Create a registry of customer assets under management (or those that may be subject to maintenance in the future)
• Define and schedule preventive maintenance using recurring events and the integrated calendar function. 
• Automatically create events in the calendars of the techs assigned to each maintenance task.
• Attach warranty documentation, installation and service manuals, pictures, and audio or video recordings.
• Fully document all interventions on site from a mobile device, even with limited or no internet access, including the ability to collect customer signature upon completion.
• Consolidate multiple work notes from different maintenance tasks on a single invoice or batch create multiple invoices with end-to-end document traceability.

Integrated work order management

STEL Order’s integrated work order management is the backbone of its preventive maintenance software platform providing robust tools for maintenance work orders:

• Automatically receive and assign work orders to the corresponding technician using the Inbox function. The technician will receive a push notification on their device with all the details needed to perform the task: client contact and job site info, details provided by the client, and info related to the piece of equipment in question.
• Configure and assign personalized event statuses and assign priorities to each work order.
• Maintain end-to-end document traceability: whether you need to create an estimate for the repair work or issue an invoice for the work completed, know which work order it comes from. 
• Invoice 3rd parties: for maintenance or repairs covered under warranty or for corporate or clients with multiple cost centers.

CRM functions

STEL Order’s CRM tools optimize maintenance service delivery by providing your techs full and instant access to client information, resulting in a more positive customer experience:

• Detailed customer files: From basic contact information to payment methods and terms, special discounts and price lists. 
• Asset management: Set up warranty info, schedule events, record equipment model and serial numbers, maintenance schedules and view and monitor upcoming maintenance tasks. 
• STEL Shop. Create and set up a fully customizable ecommerce platform that is fully integrated into your management system in a matter of minutes.
• Client Hub: Customizable Client Hub to follow up on the status of work orders, approve estimates and pay invoices.

Manage estimates and invoices

Manage your product and service catalog online, create estimates and invoices, and collect customer signatures right on your mobile device from anywhere, even when you are offline. Here are some of the key features:

• Create estimates and pro forma invoices in seconds
• Monitor client account balances and transactions quickly
• Send quotes and invoices with read receipts
• Get a snapshot of your business with advanced reporting functions
• Collect customer signatures right on your cell phone or tablet
• Analyze profit margins for your estimates and invoices in real time
• Collect payment online through Stripe and PayPal
• Streamline product management and pricing strategies with our bundled products function

Mobile applications

One of the key benefits to implementing preventive maintenance software like STEL Order is the ability to connect to the system using native iOS and Android mobile apps. Among other things you can:

• Perform all the same tasks as you can on the web app.
• Track techs in the field in real time with GPS and assign work orders to the closest one to the job site.
• Techs receive push notifications on their mobile devices when they are assigned a work order or job request.
• Real-time updates on the status of work orders and other documents techs create on their mobile devices.
• Create shared calendars and organize teams, and assign tasks to individual calendars for each tech.

Pricing for STEL Order

STEL Order starts as low as $48/month, and pricing varies based on the length of the subscription and the add-ons chosen.

Advantages of STEL Order:

• Top-rated solution with over 1700 real reviews on Google Play and the App Store. 
• Regardless of the industry, STEL Order can be adapted to fit your operational needs.
• All-in-one platform to track and manage maintenance tasks from start to finish.
• Extremely user-friendly with a clean design and attracitive interface that is easy to learn to use.
• Cloud-based design allowing for fully mobile access.
• Secure environment with an automated system of backups to ensure data security and continuity.
• A fully functional 15-day free trial, no credit card required for proof of concept testing.

IBM Maximo Application Suite

IBM’s preventive maintenance software suite is focused on managing, tracking, and recording preventive maintenance for a company’s assets. It includes specially designed features to facilitate planning all maintenance tasks, including features like traceability, 3rd party integrations and interconnectivity with machinery, equipment and devices.

IBM emphasizes AI (artificial intelligence) as key strategy in their asset management platform to help businesses to monitor IT resources efficiently.

Pricing for IBM Maximo Application Suite

Maximo offers both a client managed option as well as a SaaS option and three tiers of pricing: Essential, Standard, and Premium, with an estimator to help gauge the total cost based on the functions and applications you need. For instance, you can select additional users or a non-production environment, among others.

As an established hardware and cloud-computing provider IBM’s preventive maintenance software platform has received many positive reviews from its client base.

Advantages of Maximo

• IBM offers a 14-day free trial to help evaluate the viability of the system for your operation.
• Access to artificial intelligence tools to create predictive models for monitoring, inspection, and maintenance.
• Cloud-based platform to ensure full mobile access.
• Ease of use based on a drag and drop system.

Fleetio

A business’s fleet is often its most important asset, so a fleet tracking tool like Fleetio represents an efficient way to manage and maximize this resource.

Fleetio is a specialty solution focused on fleet tracking, and it provides multiple tools to ensure all your vehicles are in tip-top shape. Track fuel costs, repair status, routine maintenance and emergency repair tasks as well as all the scheduling for your preventive maintenance system, ensuring the longest service life for every vehicle.

Two other attractive features are advanced reporting and an efficient spare and replacement parts management module.

Client reviews of Fleetio point to its ease of use with a simple and clean interface and the ability to help cut costs. 

Pricing for Fleetio

Pricing for Fleetio varies from $4/month for its Essential tier pricing, to $7/month for Professional and to $10/month for its Premium tier.

Advantages of Fleetio

• Fleetio offers a 14-day free trial, no credit card required, that provides limited access to most key features.
• Its cloud-based design ensures access in the field from cell phones and tablets.
• Special features to promote collaboration and communication on and between different teams.

AkitaBox

This solution is focused on facilities management, and offers specialized tools to optimize management of everything from production facilities and office space to administrative areas.

AkitaBox Pulse is a suite of maintenance and asset management tools to help automate the key preventive and corrective maintanence processes for any business, regardless of the industry.

Other beneficial features include industry-specific tools (education, healthcare, government, etc.) and access to a significant volume of interesting and self-help content about AkitaBox (webinars and e-books).

Customers praise the improvements to their workflows after implementing AkitaBox and how easy it is to integrate into third party software applications and environments.

Pricing for AkitaBox

AkitaBox does not list their pricing publicly on their website, so you have to call or write them to request a quote.

Advantages of AkitaBox

• Eliminate paper documents and move to a fully digital solution.
• Quickly and easily access and consult detailed information about any facility, equipment or device.
• Real-time monitoring on the status of equipment and facilities improves decision making.
• Helps to reduce breakdowns and downtime in general which improves profitability and ensures operational excellence.

UpKeep

UpKeep is a CMMS solution that gives every maintenance and reliability team the tools and information they need to run operations efficiently and effectively.

With this cloud-based platform you can create, manage, and complete work orders and work requests. Combine the ease of pen and paper with the benefits of modern technology.

Pricing for UpKeep

UpKeeps pricing starts at $20/month for its Lite plan, $45 for its Starter plan, and $75 for its Professional plan. If you need the top level Business + plan, you must contact them directly for a quote.

Advantages of UpKeep

• This system is mobile-first and easy to use with an intuitive interface.
• Increase team efficiency and equipment reliability.
• Access comprehensive reporting and analytics.
• UpKeep pledge: 14-day free trial, including access to 24/7 support.

Fiix

This software solution from Rockwell Automation will improve efficiency and automate workflows for preventive and corrective maintenance. Its web and mobile apps provide techs with the tools and information they need to simplify work orders and reduce administrative burden.

Fiix allows you to attach SOPs, task lists, photos, and a list of suggested parts to work orders, so technicians can quickly access everything they need to get through their to-do list.

One very useful feature is the ability to attach and store files pertaining to each asset, like warranty information or installation and service manuals. Fiix allows you to easily create, find, and assign mobile work orders, and techs get push notifications on their mobile devices.

Many big name companies have implmented and given positive reviews of Fiix, such as Siemens, Toyota, Magna, and Oldcastle.

Pricing for Fiix

Fiix offers a limited free plan, a Basic plan starting at $45/month, and a Professional plan at $75/month. To get a price for the Enterprise level package you must contact Fiix directly.

Advantages of Fiix

• Attach photos to a work order
• Connect to the mobile apps with or without internet.
• View asset histories for easier troubleshooting
• Schedule maintenance using date, time, meter, event or condition-based triggers.

Limble CMMS

Limble CMMS is a simple to use, mobile-first software solution that helps you manage maintenance work, automate work scheduling, monitor work history, generate reports, and organize assets.

With Limble CMMS you can streamline workflows and manage maintenance priorities, so the right tasks get completed first. Quickly communicate with team members and record a full log of interactions and communications.

You can easily organize all your work orders in a single place, and ensure techs get notified when they are assigned a task. This system will give you complete control of your processes and centralize all your maintenance workflows, so you can optimize resource allocation and eliminate bottlenecks.

Pricing for Limble CMMS

Limble CMMS offers a limited version of their software for free, the Basic plan starts at $28/month, and the Premium+ plan starts at $69/month. To get pricing for the top level Enterprise plan you must contact Limble CMMS directly.

Advantages of Limble CMMS

• View detailed asset maintenance logs in real-time
• Report KPIs on maintenance operations such as completed work, time spent, planned vs. unplanned tasks, and more
• Login to the system from a desktop, tablet or cell phone.

This article has reviewed the top 7 preventive maintenance software programs in the market in 2024 like STEL Order, IBM Maximo Application Suite, and Fleetio. This comprehensive review should provide you the information you need to make an informed decision and choose the right platform for your business’s needs. With a preventive maintanence software program, you will be able to get costs under control and take your business to the next level.