How work comes in and goes out today
Where requests arrive from, who decides, who executes and where information gets lost. The real map, not the org chart.
Kit Consulting
This program doesn’t pay for software. It pays for thinking
It’s the most common confusion, and it’s worth clearing up first: Kit Consulting funds specialized advisory services, not a tool’s license. For that, there’s Kit Digital.
Who it’s for
For small and medium businesses that want a diagnosis before deciding. It makes sense when the problem still isn’t clear: you know maintenance management isn’t working, but not whether what’s missing is a tool, a process change, training, or all three. If you already know exactly what you want to implement, you’re probably looking for the other program.
Why a diagnosis first makes sense
Buying software for a poorly defined problem is the most expensive way to find out what the problem was.
- A tool gets bought to solve something that was actually a process problem.
- A broken workflow gets digitized, and now it’s not any faster — it’s just broken and digital.
- Nobody has decided who’s responsible for what, so the system doesn’t fix anything.
- An inventory gets built without ever agreeing on what it’s for.
- And when it doesn’t work out, the conclusion is that "the software wasn’t any good".
What a diagnosis can look at
Questions worth answering before choosing a tool.
What you know about your assets
Whether an inventory exists, what state it’s in and what it would take to make it useful. Usually the biggest blocker.
What questions you can’t answer
Cost per asset, preventive maintenance compliance, profitability per contract. That tells you what needs to be recorded.
Who’s going to use it, and with what
Adoption by the technical team decides the outcome, and it’s planned before buying anything.
Kit Consulting and Kit Digital aren’t the same thing
It’s the distinction most worth understanding early. Kit Digital is designed for adopting a digital solution: you pick a category, contract with a provider and implement it. Kit Consulting funds specialized advisory services provided by advisors registered with the program, with the goal of helping the company decide better. One pays for the tool, the other pays for the judgment to choose it and to organize the process around it. In many companies the logical order is the second one first and the first one after, even though urgency pushes people to do it backwards.
Shall we look at it with your way of working?
Leave your details and we will get in touch to see whether we fit. No commitment, no lock-in period.
What role we play here
It’s worth being transparent: we’re a software provider, not independent advisors, and that shapes what we can contribute to a diagnosis without conflict. What we can do without conflict is the technical part: explain what a CMMS solves and what it doesn’t, what you need to have in place before implementing one, and what questions to ask any provider, us included. For an independent diagnosis under the program, the right move is a registered advisor, and the program’s official section has the list. We’d rather say that plainly than present ourselves as something we’re not.
What you should walk away with from a diagnosis
A diagnosis that ends in a document with general recommendations isn’t worth much, because whoever runs maintenance already knows those recommendations. What’s actually worth it is walking away with four specific, debatable things. A prioritized inventory of what’s being maintained, showing which equipment concentrates the risk. A map of where work enters today and where information gets lost along the way. A list of the questions you currently can’t answer, which is the best way to define what the system needs to do. And an estimate of your own team’s effort, not just tool cost, because that’s the line item that gets forgotten and the one that sinks projects. With that on the table, the decision of what to buy becomes almost obvious; without it, you buy based on a sales demo.
Diagnosis and tool, better kept separate
There’s an obvious tension in the same party doing the diagnosis and then selling the software afterward, and it’s worth naming it instead of dodging it. An honest diagnosis has to be able to conclude that you don’t need to change tools, that the process is what’s failing, or that the problem is staffing and not the system. If that conclusion isn’t on the table, the exercise isn’t a diagnosis. In practice, what works best is agreeing upfront that the result is yours whether or not it leads to any purchase, and that any recommendation can be carried out with a different provider. A diagnosis that’s only good for justifying a purchase already decided is a sales pitch with another name.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to have already chosen the software before the diagnosis?
No, and it would be counterproductive: the whole point of the diagnosis is finding out what’s needed. Showing up with the product already chosen turns the exercise into a justification, which is exactly not what you want when someone is paying for thinking.
Is the diagnosis still useful if we don’t end up changing tools?
Yes, and that’s a perfectly valid outcome. Often what turns up isn’t that the software was poorly chosen but that it’s poorly configured, that baseline data is missing, or that nobody has been tasked with sustaining it. Those three conclusions save a purchase and fix the real problem, which is more than switching products without having understood what was actually failing.
How long does a diagnosis like this take?
It mostly involves talking to the people doing the work and looking at how information flows in and out today, not analyzing systems. So the factor that determines duration is the number of sites and people involved, not the size of the installation or its technical complexity.
Does Kit Consulting pay for the software license?
No. It funds specialized advisory services provided by advisors registered with the program. For adopting a digital solution, the program that applies is Kit Digital.
Are you registered advisors under the program?
We’re a software provider, not independent advisors, and we’d rather say so. For the program’s diagnosis, the right move is to go to a registered advisor; the list is in the official program information.
So how can you help, then?
On the technical side, without conflict of interest: explaining what a CMMS solves and what it doesn’t, what you need in place before implementing one, and what questions to ask any provider. Us included.
Is the diagnosis worth it before buying?
When the problem isn’t clear, almost always. Buying a tool for a poorly defined problem is the most expensive way to find out what the problem actually was.
Still not sure what you need?
Tell us in a short demo. Sometimes half an hour is enough to see whether the problem is the tool or something else.