Elevator maintenance software
GoDoWorks is a Field Service Management platform for companies that install and service elevators, lifts and escalators: it routes each crew, tracks SLA compliance, captures every job from the technician’s phone and keeps spare parts traceable.
We have worked with vertical transportation companies for more than five years across more than ten Latin American countries. What follows are the four problems that show up in every one of these businesses, and what the platform does about each.
The four problems in this business
The units are scattered across the whole city
Elevators live in homes, office buildings, factories and shopping centres: service points are spread across the territory and every trip is paid for in hours and fuel. The platform builds each crew’s route from distance, time and the skills of the people on it. It cuts idle time by up to 30 % and reduces travel costs and vehicle wear.
SLAs are missed for lack of time or lack of parts
A stopped elevator is a critical point for the customer, and contracts usually penalise breaches financially. The two usual causes are always the same: not arriving in time, or arriving without the part. With scheduling, routing and stock in one system, meeting the SLA stops being a matter of luck and becomes the output of an orderly process.
Paper delays invoicing by four weeks
When each job is recorded on a paper ticket, tickets arrive late, get misread or go missing. That delays invoicing by around four weeks after the work was done and costs about 1 % of billing, with an 8 % to 10 % impact on annual cash flow. Capturing on the phone, the data reaches invoicing immediately and payment comes in three to four weeks sooner.
Spare parts are expensive and they disappear
In this trade, parts weigh heavily on final margin. The platform makes every part traceable to whoever holds it, so losses become less frequent, and uses predictive models to estimate the flow of parts needed to cover the work without tying up capital in stock that will never be used.
What an elevator company actually uses
Scheduled preventive maintenance
Every unit with its own plan and frequency. The system raises the work orders on its own and warns before they come due, so preventive work is not postponed until it turns into a breakdown.
Emergency response
A stopped elevator — or one with people inside — comes in as an emergency, goes to the nearest technician with the right skills, and starts its clock against the contracted SLA.
Proof of every visit
Photos, the building manager’s signature, parts used and actual times, all captured on the phone. This is what backs the invoice and what you show when a customer disputes whether the work was done.
History per unit
Every elevator has its own record: what was done, when, by whom and with which parts. It is the basis for deciding whether a unit is worth repairing again or whether it is time to modernise it.
Stock traceability
Which part left the warehouse, who is holding it and which unit it ended up in, with an estimate of future consumption so you buy in time without overstocking.
ERP integration
A job closed in the field travels to the billing system without anyone retyping it — which is exactly where those four weeks of delay come from.
Standards and audits
Vertical transportation maintenance is audited against standards that change often, and it is the servicing company that has to prove compliance. With the history and the evidence of every intervention recorded per unit, the file an audit asks for is assembled from what is already in the system, with nothing rebuilt by hand. The ones that usually apply in the region:
- EN 81-20 and EN 81-50 — safety requirements for the construction and installation of lifts.
- ISO 25745 — energy efficiency of lifts and escalators.
- ASME A17.1 / CSA B44 — safety in design, operation, inspection, testing and maintenance.
How to choose elevator maintenance software
Every option in this category shows a similar feature list. These are the six points that decide whether a tool holds up in a vertical transportation operation, and they are worth asking about in any demo — ours included.
Scheduling and dispatch built around the route
Ask whether the system builds the route from distance, time and each technician’s skills, and what happens when an emergency comes in with the day already under way. Elevator work is not a fixed daily list: a stopped unit reorders the day, and a tool that cannot re-dispatch without redoing the whole schedule ends up being run over the phone.
Work orders that leave evidence behind
Every visit should close with photos, the building manager’s signature, the parts used and the actual times on site. That is what backs the invoice when a customer disputes whether the work was done, and what an audit asks for. If the proof lives in a message thread, it does not exist.
Spare parts inventory, not just a stock count
Parts weigh heavily on margin in this trade. What matters is not the total in the warehouse but which part left it, who is holding it and which unit it ended up in, plus an estimate of what will be consumed, so you buy in time without tying up capital.
Service contracts and SLA per customer
Contracts penalise breaches and each one has its own terms. The system should keep the clock for every contract separately and show which ones are at risk before the penalty lands, rather than report it at the end of the month.
A mobile app that works without a signal
Machine rooms and basements have no signal. If the technician has to walk out to the street to record the job, the job gets recorded at night from memory, or not at all. Check that the app captures offline and syncs when the signal comes back.
Integration with the billing system
This is where the four weeks of delay come from. If a job closed in the field has to be retyped into the ERP, the delay and the transcription errors come back no matter how good the rest of the system is.
Frequently asked questions
- Does it work for a company that only does maintenance, not installation?
- Yes. Scheduled preventive work, emergency response and SLA control are precisely the core of a maintenance operation. Installation projects run on the same system when they exist, but you do not need to have them.
- How many units do you need for this to make sense?
- There is no minimum. The problem it solves — scattered crews, missed SLAs and delayed invoicing — shows up as soon as there are more technicians in the field than you can follow closely.
- Does the technician need a signal to work?
- No. The mobile app works offline and syncs when the signal comes back, which is what usually happens in a machine room or a basement.
- Can it connect to the billing system we already use?
- Yes. The platform integrates with your ERP so that a job closed in the field reaches invoicing without manual re-entry.
- What is elevator FSM software?
- FSM stands for Field Service Management: software for work that happens away from the office. Applied to elevators, it plans preventive visits, dispatches emergencies to the nearest technician with the right skills, records every intervention from the phone and keeps the history of each unit. Vendors label the same category elevator maintenance software, elevator service software, elevator service management software, lift maintenance software or elevator field service software — the difference is usually in the name rather than in what the tools do.
- Does it include spare parts inventory?
- Yes. Every part is traceable to whoever is holding it and to the unit it ended up in, and predictive models estimate the flow of parts needed to cover scheduled work. That way you buy in time without leaving capital sitting in the warehouse.
- How do scheduling and dispatch work?
- Preventive work is scheduled per unit with its own frequency, and the system raises the work orders on its own before they come due. Emergencies enter the same queue and go to the nearest technician with the right skills, with the route rebuilt from distance, time and availability.
- Does it track SLA compliance per contract?
- Yes. An emergency starts its clock against the contracted SLA the moment it comes in, so response and resolution times are measured against what each contract commits to rather than reconstructed at the end of the month.
Where to go next
This page describes the industry. The product behind it is GDW Services, the GoDoWorks solution for technical services and installations, where elevators are the first of its trades.