Managing municipal assets like roads, facilities, and green spaces comes with unique challenges. Many municipalities still rely on spreadsheets, paper, or disconnected systems to track work orders, service requests, and maintenance schedules — creating inefficiencies, lost data, and frustrated staff. A Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) for municipalities centralizes all this information, helping teams perform the right work at the right time, reduce costs, and deliver safer, more reliable services to their communities.
Common Maintenance Management Challenges for Municipalities
Municipal maintenance teams often face obstacles that slow down service delivery and increase costs:
1. Data Lost Across Systems
Daily operating data often gets scattered across multiple software platforms, spreadsheets, or paper records, making it difficult to track or analyze.
2. Key Personnel Lack Access
When critical staff cannot access the right information, work orders take longer to complete, and preventive maintenance can be missed.
3. Manual Reporting Burdens
Generating reports for council, management, or stakeholders is often time-consuming and prone to errors.
4. Complex Software Reduces Participation
Overly complicated or non-intuitive software can result in low staff adoption, limiting its effectiveness.
An enterprise CMMS solves these challenges by centralizing maintenance records, streamlining workflows, and providing accurate data for long-term asset planning.
Features to Look for in Municipal Maintenance Management Software
1. Convenience and Ease of Use
- Cross-system integration
- Mobile capabilities
- Attach supporting materials to work orders
2. Workflow Management
- Work order and service request ticketing
- Personnel timesheets and assignments
- Asset inspections
- Preventive maintenance scheduling
3. Organization and Resource Planning
- Vendor and supplier management
- Resource and inventory management
- Fleet and facilities management
4. Reporting and Data Management
- Easy access to data for staff
- Bulk data upload
- Efficiency assessment and cost reduction
- Visual and customizable reports
5. Additional Features
- Road maintenance and route patrol capabilities
- Customer service management
- GIS mapping of assets and work orders
Citywide Maintenance is a unique CMMS system, offering all of the above listed features and customizable options and designed specifically for municipalities and other public sector organizations.
Additional Considerations When Choosing a Municipal CMMS
With any decision that affects your community, we understand that there are a lot of other factors at play. Whether it’s getting council approval, staff buy-in, or budget, every organization has different considerations depending on size, location, environment, municipality tier, etc.
Here are a couple of things to consider when discussing with your staff and council:
1. Grant Funding for CMMS
Over the past several years, there have been grants available for modernization initiatives. One example is Ontario’s Municipal Modernization Program that came to a close in 2021. This grant was geared towards smaller and rural communities to update and improve service delivery to the community, which included the implementation of new technology.
New funding is always coming out, so be sure to subscribe to news alerts from your province and the federal government, if available. You can also sign up for PSD Citywide’s Municipal Grant Service, where you can receive upcoming grant opportunities directly to your email inbox.
2. Legislative Requirements and Liability Protection
Legislative requirements differ in each province. However, some provinces may not have any specific legislation for road maintenance, but are mandated at the municipal or regional level instead.
Some examples of provincial road maintenance standards include:
- O.Reg 366/18 – Minimum Maintenance Standards for Municipal Highways – Ontario
- Highway Maintenance Specifications – British Columbia
- Highway Maintenance Specifications – Alberta
- Municipalities Act – Saskatchewan
- Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal – Nova Scotia
Having a Computerized Maintenance Management Software tool to track compliance with these requirements can protect your municipality from liability as well as the added benefit of reducing insurance costs. For example, say there is an accident on a main street during the winter and the victims cite unsanded roads as the cause. With a tool like our Citywide Route Patrol add-on for Citywide Maintenance, you can pull records of when that road was last plowed and sanded — including condition data recorded by your field staff — to present in defense of the municipality in liability claims.
As with road maintenance logs, having detailed records of maintenance activities such as playground or sidewalk repairs can be a strong defense in any liability claim.
3. Staff Capacity and Skills
One thing commonly cited by PSD Citywide clients is the importance of having the right staff and skill sets in place before the purchase and implementation of new software. Having the tools is great, but a lot of the benefits can be missed if there aren’t enough people to use it effectively.
When considering a software tool, identify who would be managing the software, who would be using it daily, and which departments need to be involved to see success from the program. Usually at this step, a champion is identified in your organization to lead the project and be the point of contact for the vendor.
Part of these initial conversations and plans include building a business case for new hires if more human resources are needed. Next would be to identify any gaps in skills to be addressed through internal training or training from the software provider.
Finally, securing buy-in from key stakeholders such as council, management, administrative staff, and field staff is a necessity for ongoing success. Therefore, it is critical to demonstrate value for all impacted parties. This involves having thorough discussions on what outcome each party is looking for. For example, council likes improved services for citizens, management likes cost and time savings, and operations staff like streamlined processes and ease of use.
Once all of these factors have been thoroughly analyzed, your team can make an informed decision on which software is best suited to the size and complexity of your organization.
4. Change Management for Municipal CMMS Implementation
As with any large project, being realistic about timelines and change is something to plan for. The term “biting off more than you can chew” applies to software implementations as well, meaning if your organization takes on too much too quickly, it can make it even more challenging and stressful.
Using a phased approach to Computerized Maintenance Management Software implementation is a great way to avoid overwhelming your team. If too much is thrown at your staff all at once, they’re more likely to disengage from the project and cause you to lose ground on the buy-in you’ve worked hard for. Small, incremental changes are ideal and any good vendor will be by your side to assist with planning and change management.
Find the Best CMMS Fit for Your Organization
We recognize that municipalities and other public sector organizations have unique needs. A one-size-fits-all approach is unrealistic, so a flexible Computerized Maintenance Management Software is crucial. Finding a tool that allows you and your team to address all of your identified needs is challenging. However, the right software vendor will work with you throughout the implementation and beyond to ensure you get the most out of your investment.
Why Municipalities Choose PSD Citywide
With Citywide Maintenance, PSD Citywide helps municipalities simplify maintenance, stay compliant, and reduce costs. Built specifically for public sector organizations, the software centralizes work orders, tracks assets, and improves service delivery. Our team also provides advisory support, staff training, and guidance on funding opportunities, ensuring municipalities get the most value from their CMMS investment. Learn more.
