It was a hot afternoon in Singapore, over 33 degrees and no air-con. We were talking about MCST record keeping, and how Basementgrid helps an estate manage its asset records. The vendor manager and vendor technician do the reporting and upload the proof of work themselves in the app, which keeps things simple for the building manager.
The person across from me said, “That’s impossible. We can’t do that.”
I hear this a lot, and I think it’s how most people react. If something isn’t done the way it’s always been done, it’s assumed it won’t work. That’s just the social norm.
Here’s how I think about it. Say someone is looking for a sharper knife because he wants to cut meat and cook a meal for his guests. You tell him he doesn’t need a sharper knife, you can get the meal to his guests without one. He says no. He’s fixed on the knife, and the cooking, and the producing of the meal. The goal was never the knife. The goal was a good meal on the table.
If he stopped and asked a few more questions, he might realise what he really wants is a home-cooked meal for his guests. Then fine, ordering in won’t work, and that’s a legitimate answer. But if he only holds onto the tool he’s hunting for, he’ll keep saying “it can’t be done.”
The questions that get you out of this are simple ones. What are you actually trying to end up with? What happens today between the job being done and the record being filed? Who touches it along the way, and does each person add something, or just pass it on? When you answer those honestly, “impossible” often turns into “we’ve just never tried it that way.”
“But What About Audit?”
Basementgrid does break a few norms. Vendor managers and technicians take part in your record keeping. Council members can update records and make payments, instead of waiting for an accountant to create them. The best objection I hear is audit. But when you actually walk through it, most of those extra steps aren’t needed. A technician uploading proof of work from the job site is closer to the source than someone retyping it into a spreadsheet a week later. The same goes for having your in-house technician or building manager key the job into a CMMS after receiving the vendor’s report. That’s extra work for sure. It starts out well, then dies off a few months later when people get busy and stop keeping up. The extra process was only ever there because that’s how it was done before.
Think about what an auditor wants to see. Who did the work, when and where it was done, who approved it, and how it was paid. Those are the things Basementgrid records as they happen: GPS-verified photos from the technician, the council’s approval, and the payment. Nobody has to reconstruct the story at year-end, because the record was made by the people who were there.
We’ve seen the same reaction to the idea that a small estate can run without a managing agent. I wrote about why a 20-unit condo doesn’t need one, and for many councils the first response is the same: “that can’t work.” The numbers say otherwise.
Sometimes “It Can’t Be Done” Is Right
So what are we really solving for? Traditional CMMS software was built for internal teams with a facilities department, trained staff, and someone whose job is to maintain the system. That isn’t an MCST. An MCST is run by volunteer council members, with work done by an uncle-led contractor who runs his business off a phone, and managed by an MA company where most of the staff are retirees. Hand any of them a heavy system and they’ll say it can’t be done, and they’d be right. It can’t be done with that system.
So the next time someone tells you it’s impossible, ask what they’re trying to achieve before you argue about the tool. Sometimes the answer is that they need a different tool. Often the goal was reachable all along and the norm was in the way.
Want to see how it works in practice? Book a 15-minute demo or visit the help center.
Leave a Reply