Dean Stanberry speaks with Melissa Kaan about how CMMS platforms can move beyond recordkeeping to become strategic decision-making tools for facility teams. They discuss data quality, preventative maintenance, capital planning and how people, processes and technology must work together to unlock real value from CMMS systems.
In this episode of Connected FM, host Dean Stanberry sits down with Melissa Kaan, Founder & CEO of NOVA IFM, to explore how facility teams can use CMMS platforms to drive smarter operational and capital decisions.
They discuss the importance of quality data, why CMMS systems should function as decision engines rather than digital filing cabinets and how proactive maintenance strategies can improve response times, compliance and long-term asset performance. Melissa also shares practical insights on asset management, technician engagement, data governance and translating operational trends into meaningful capital planning conversations.
The conversation highlights how facility leaders can improve CMMS adoption, strengthen reporting practices and use data more effectively to support both daily operations and long-term portfolio planning.
This episode is sponsored by SiteMap®, powered by GPRS. Learn more at sitemap.com/ifma
Timestamps:
Melissa Kaan: [00:00:00] leaders become leaders because they guide people. Leaders don't become leaders because they pass the buck onto somebody else. So I think that it needs to be remembered that s- a CMMS system is only a piece of the pie. It's so important because it's a reservoir of super valuable information, but it comes down to who you're implementing to use that CMMS system and how you're working together to take that data and bring it to a real-life situation.
Host: Welcome to Connected FM, a podcast connecting you to the latest insights, tools, and resources to help you succeed in facility management. This podcast is brought to you by IFMA, the leading professional association for facility managers. If you are ready to grow your network and advance in your career, go to ifma.org to get started.
Today, host Dean Stanberry, the former chair [00:01:00] of IFMA's Global Board of Directors, speaks with Melissa Cohn, the founder and CEO of Nova IFM, about how CMMS platforms can move beyond record keeping to become strategic decision-making tools for facility teams. They discuss data quality, preventative maintenance, capital planning, and how people, processes, and technology must work together to unlock real value from CMMS systems and more.
Now, let's get into it.
Dean Stanberry: I'm Dean Stanberry. I'm a former chair of IFMA's global board of directors, and and also I have a passion for CMMS systems as well. It's been one of my longtime bone of contention with many of the roles that I've had. So today, we're gonna spend a little time talking about how CMMS adds real value when data changes to decisions.[00:02:00]
So that's our basic theme. I wanna introduce my guest, who's gonna be talking about that, Melissa Kaan. So, Melissa. Hello.
Melissa Kaan: Hi, everyone. My name is Melissa Kaan. I am one of the principal owners of Summit Facility Solutions. I have been in the facility management space for a little over 13 years. very passionate about CMMS systems and how they drive solutions forward for my partners both in the field and at the corporate office, and I'm excited to talk today.
Dean Stanberry: Very good. Well, let's just jump right into it ' first thing we wanna talk about, I think, is one of the challenges we have is what's the minimum viable data to put in a CMMS system to make reliable insights?
So the angle on that is you know, right-sizing the scope to get data in, but also accelerate that time to value. So the question is, if a team is early in its CMMS journey, what is that minimum viable data set, you know, the assets, the PMs, the parts, the failure codes, required to [00:03:00] produce trustworthy insights without overcomplicating that build-out?
Melissa Kaan: It's a
really good question.
Personally, I think that the, the crux of a CMMS system that makes it so dynamic is really the people behind the, the product. So when you are recording any sort of data sets or information in a CMMS system, you really wanna focus on telling the story because you want someone else who is interacting with that software and that data and those analytics to be able to understand very clearly where the work is, where it began, what has been vetted, what, what assets are you dealing with.
And ultimately, you wanna be able to communicate to your subcontractors, to your technicians what exactly it is that you are doing. If you can command the scope of work to a technician- and to a location then you're gonna be able to drive home solutions much faster.
You're [00:04:00] going to be able to extract that data much more efficiently. And ultimately, the story that you're gonna tell is gonna be one of success. It comes down to being really simple in terms of fact-finding and then recording. And to me, that starts with the people that you're putting in the seats to be able to record that data, to be able to interact with the field, to be able to interact with the spaces.
You know, buildings are, are dynamic. They are living, breathing things. And if you're extrapolating information to be able to drive home success in your space it starts with asking the who, what, where, when, and why, and then, you know, imposing that into your system so that when you go back and you look at the story, it's cohesive.
Dean Stanberry: Well, just to follow up on that question 'cause you work in this space. Mm. So which data fields do you insist on being structured from day one, and why?
Melissa Kaan: I think it's always nice to be able to [00:05:00] drop an as-built in a CMMS system, although, you know, when you're working in real time your assets, make, model, serial number, unit information PM program scheduling, dates, facts, warranty information.
You want to be able to look at a building and understand that, you know, your HVAC system was inherited, and that it's 11 years old. And if you're in Florida, you know you're dealing with saltwater in the air, so you're dealing with a, a degrading of the unit. You wanna be able to look at at a system as a whole in terms of your building and then parse the data.
So any sort of spec information, your floor types, your painting the, the types of windows that you installed. And a lot of that is captured during site walks. And a lot of that you can really drive home by working together with your vendor partner to provide asset capturing surveys that you can then input into a CMMS to be able to go back and look in, [00:06:00] in the moment what you did 10 years ago.
So I think that if you start off with what is in the building and what is existing current state, you can take that into making your building work better for you and for the people that are in there.
Dean Stanberry: Great. So moving on a little bit many organizations use CMMS systems as just for record keeping and not for a decision engine.
It's effectively an expensive spreadsheet. So when you look at real value creation, what, what is it you're kinda conveying to your clients and your teams- to say we wanna create value creation, not just software usage. So in your experience, what turns a CMMS from a digital filing cabinet into a decision engine for facilities?
What specific practices move the needle from data entry to measurable results?
Melissa Kaan: You know, everybody loves technology, right? Everybody loves data analytics. Everybody loves to be able to pull a report [00:07:00] and look at it. But if you wanna really measure success through the CMMS, you, you need to understand that you have to be rolling with that data consistently.
So you want to be able to take a piece of information that might be historical and pre-plan. For example, if you have a, a backflow device that, you know, the city came knocking on your store's location and said, "We're shutting off the water if you don't get that thing inspected," be proactive in terms of your asset management and u- use a CMMS to be able to set up a targeted date of when that inspection is up, and use your CMMS to monitor and manage when something will become a deficiency.
I think that in terms of existing products, to be able to implement preventative or predictive maintenance programs with the CMMS by, you know, exporting the data or reviewing the data within the system focusing location by location or focusing by scope, is gonna really help you to [00:08:00] enact real-time decisions for your portfolio.
And now you're going from managing one issue reactively in a building to being prepared throughout your whole portfolio on what you need to do to stay within compliance in your local ordinances, and also to keep your, human experience within the space at the, the top level of your priority.
And you can turn around and focus what you're doing to interact with either your, your guest experience or your employee experience or your person experience utilizing, you know, being a lot more proactive in the response times to things that could go wrong.
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Dean Stanberry: So if you're deploying a new CMMS for an organization within the first 90 days, what are those early wins that signal the system is on the right track?
Melissa Kaan: Well, it's, I think that implementing existing data within the first 90 days is, is the most important thing that you can do. Focusing on building an infrastructure within your CMMS that you can then use as a proactive or reactive tool for your spaces would probably set you up for the most success.
But in terms of utilizing your CMMS to see where your wins are, Look at your aging. Look at how long a ticket stays open. Look at your wrench time, how long a technician is on [00:10:00] site. Use the people who are working within your CMMS system to, you know, drive technicians or drive inspections or drive location responsibilities a little bit more aggressively.
And, you know, when I think of the term aggressive, it always seems like it has a negative connotation, but when you're trying to solve a problem before the problem even happens, that's exactly the attitude that you wanna have. And if you're looking at your data within the first 90 days and you're seeing that the, the first time completion KPI is being driven up, the response times are being driven up, and the time to completion is being driven down, all of those measurable key items are ultimately gonna provide an ROI pretty immediately and in the long term because you're being much more, I feel like I've used proactive so many times, but it's just the truth. Much more proactive, and you're gonna see the ROI a lot faster than you would if you were just responding to issues as they happen. Yeah. [00:11:00]
Dean Stanberry: Okay. That kind of leads into the, the next topic, which is going from operations data to capital decisions.
So connecting that daily work to long-range value and risk kind of a personal pet peeve of mine is that many maintenance technicians would, might say, "Well, this isn't a good use of my time." And I'm going, "Yeah, it is." We need that data. You know, if you're updating information in a CMMS either updating or creating new records, you're a data custodian whether you know it or not, and that is a huge problem.
So how do we translate CMMS data into clear repair versus replacement calls and create credible capital plans? What signals or failure modes, cost trends, downtime risks, or parts availability carry the most weight in your recommendations?
Melissa Kaan: I think that looking at historical data within the last 18 months against the [00:12:00] implementation of the equipment initially is really, really important because you may have you know, a, a sprinkler system that is 20 or 30 years old and you're starting to see more work repairs on the, the piping.
If you are establishing and identifying a cadence of reactive issues, you're gonna stop if you look at that data and you're going to think, "This is really more of a capital expense. I need to prepare this site to shut down that water, get those old pipes out, and, and really focus on what's going to set me up for the next 10 years versus the next 10 months."
So I think that staying on top of the data to see how an asset transitions into a capital expense repair Or replacement i- it's really just tracking the data, and that comes down to just empowering your technicians and empowering your people to lead technicians into getting the information that you need.
It's a lot of continuing education in CMMS. It's a [00:13:00] lot of extrapolating the value of the CMMS and what it can do for you. You wanna find the right software that's going to fit the need of the space and that could mean a lot of different things for everybody. It's a... It can be used as a really individualized software if you understand what the needs of your sites are, and it changes, you know, i- within many verticals.
The same thing that a restaurant would need and that would consider a capital expense is not gonna be the same as a healthcare site or a retail site.
Dean Stanberry: . You know, the communication to leadership regarding this is, is often a problem. Many organizations only communicate to their senior leaders when something's broken, and they're asking for a lot of money in a very short decision window.
So what review rhythm, you know, monthly, quarterly, whatever, makes these insights stick with leadership?
Melissa Kaan: I feel like people are gonna maybe hate this answer, but I think daily. I think that if you have a CMMS that works for you, pull your information and to put the onus on leadership to [00:14:00] engage with you to review that data together.
You know, if you're going on a journey in your career and you're working directly in the CMMS, you're responding to reactive tickets, and leadership has the expectation of you to provide why something should be a capital repair or replacement, invite people that you work with to engage with you and educate you and educate themselves.
You know,
leaders become leaders because they guide people. Leaders don't become leaders because they pass the buck onto somebody else. So I think that it needs to be remembered that s- a CMMS system is only a piece of the pie. It's so important because it's, it's a reservoir of super valuable information, but it comes down to who you're implementing to use that CMMS system and how you're working together to take that data and bring it to a real-life situation. i, I mean, I think the answer's always gonna be people.
Dean Stanberry: Yeah. [00:15:00] And y- you know you're doing well if you're doing that with your leaders and they finally say, "TMI, too much information. I trust you. Just tell me when you need to talk to me again." One last thing what's one actionable step that a mid-sized FM team can take this week to advance their CMMS value?
Melissa Kaan: I would invite everybody to do two things. Number one go back to the, the providers of your CMMS and have meetings with them. Engage with them and figure out, am I using this software to the best of its capability? I feel like most of the time people are looking at a piece of software and they're saying, "Okay, I need to know, you know, what the last communication was to a client, what the last communication was to a vendor, what the current status of this ticket is in, and when are we gonna follow up on it next?"
And those are really key pieces of information to drive home a reactive ticket. But we're probably only using 20% of what that CMMS is actually capable of doing. Get involved with the people that you are [00:16:00] paying to provide this software to you and invite them to teach you and educate you on different things that you can do within your system, and extrapolate the value out of that as much as possible.
Additionally continuing education and support for the people who have to do the data entry every day. I mean, let's face it, data entry isn't fun by any means. You're not typing joyfully. But what you can do is you can use that as teaching people that every time that you have a fix or a finish, that is a victory.
That's a triumph for your, your staff, for your site, and ultimately for your entire portfolio as a company, because you're putting out a product that you can be proud of, and you started with writing it down. You know, I think that ultimately a CMMS is the most important tool to help a person do their job really well.
Dean Stanberry: Thank you. I'll just say this succinctly: it's a digital tin can where you store data. They all work, [00:17:00] but if that data quality is not there, they don't deliver that value.
Having done this for many years and worked in many organizations and fixed their maintenance management system that had degraded due to neglect a- and it takes, you know, about a minimum of two years to fix those things. So, think about that. But focus on that data quality, the data governance, and teach people why it's important, even down to that maintenance technician or that administrative person.
What they do really does matter and they need to know that, and they need to understand what value it actually adds to the tool. So with that, thank you very much Thank you ... and we'll close out the the podcast. Thank you.
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