Our CTO Đorđe Milić won the Best Maximo MRO Spare Part Management award at MaximoWorld 2024, showcasing our commitment to excellence and innovation in AI-driven asset management.
We interviewed Tamara Mihić, our Human Resources Manager, to get an insider’s view of our hiring process. Tamara shared her insights on the interview process, offered valuable tips for prospective employees, and discussed the challenges she encounters in her daily work.
We spoke with Nataša, a Business Analyst, and Branislav, a Software Developer who work together on the project across a number of departments of our long-time client, an oil company. We were eager to learn about the projects they are working on and the status of their collaboration.
Running a huge enterprise often means accomplishing the seemingly impossible. Harmonizing every single workflow, optimizing workflows, finances, different processes, and operations is no easy task, especially in the case of asset-driven enterprises where the entire structural ecosystem needs to be up-to-date and under constant supervision to meet every demand and remain cost-effective.
To ensure all this, several large organizations (and smaller businesses too) have turned to technology and digital solutions to help them keep everything in check. These pieces of software can help them with everything from overall project management, to monitoring duties, and can even help them automate mundane everyday processes.
In that regard, Enterprise Asset Management solutions or EAM software managed to raise the bar in the enterprise landscape. These smart solutions help decision-makers organize their asset-driven and financial processes, helping them to make wiser business steps.
And in the EAM landscape, IBM Maximo has been regarded as one of the best options enterprises can use to help businesses optimize their operations. This robust system addresses several different work processes within an enterprise, offering asset management, analytics, predictive maintenance, reporting, and even remote monitoring.
Still, the question begs to be answered: What makes IBM Maximo the go-to option for most large companies? In this article, we’ll discuss all the features and functionalities that make this solution overtower the rest.
In short, this asset management software aims to optimize company assets, helping improve productivity, reduce costs, and increase efficiency across the board.
For the most part, experts agree that IBM Maximo is the ideal choice for companies that use heavy machinery, have multiple facilities, and have several vehicle fleets. In short, the solution is designed chiefly for enterprise-sized companies with numerous assets that are pivotal for the company’s work processes.
Being a robust and comprehensive solution, Maximo can be an excellent option for international companies as well, regardless of industry and niche.
As already mentioned above, IBM Maximo is an ideal choice for asset-driven companies, and here’s why:
• Outstanding Machinery and Equipment Management: Either individual or within a specific work process, this equipment view is one of the hallmarks of the solution. Tracking several machinery parameters, Maximo generates instant reliability and status reports of the entire equipment within a company and quickly points out any process anomalies.
• Predictive Maintenance: Reliable data analytics and machine learning can predict possible future failures using asset data patterns and comparing them to previously reported issues. Also, Maximo can utilize data to find ways to reduce downtime, potential risks, and maintenance costs while increasing asset life and improving production output and asset utilization.
• Work Orders: The solution also enables the creation of specific work orders with detailed inspection documents, instructions, and other relevant forms.
• Contract Management: With IBM Maximo, users can also create prices, manage payment schedules, different service level agreements, work conditions, and terms, define rates, and create invoices in accordance with pre-defined contract rules.
• Remote Monitoring: This AI-powered solution also comes with remote asset monitoring with configurable dashboards, analytics, alerts, auto-generated work orders, data filtering and management tools, and much much more.
As we’ve already stated, IBM Maximo is among the most popular EAM solutions across the globe and is more or less treated as a “standard” when it comes to digital asset management tools.
As a matter of fact, there are several ways that IBM Maximo can overcome the competition in the EAM arena.
Maximo is a purpose-built solution that enables the user to focus on the business processes related to operational control and assets. When comparing it to other solutions like SAP, you can get more out of its features (as SAP is more of a financial app).
Also, thanks to the solution’s agility, features like predictive analytics, asset management, and other features are flexible and agile, meaning that all functional enhancements can be delivered quickly, ensuring that the interface and the entire solution are always up to date. This agility can also enable firms to scale their operations faster because there’s little to no delay when it comes to harmonizing the increased asset proportions and work processes with the solution’s capacity.
Agile deployment options allow enterprises to use all built-in Maximo features to support incremental and controlled deployments across the board.
The integration framework of the solution makes the connection to older, legacy systems more manageable and makes interface development faster.
Above all, using Maximo won’t require any additional training, and adapting it to the already existing workflow isn’t tricky. The agility and customization of configurations make IBM Maximo a better choice than, for example, the SAP PM solution, which, while great, won’t be entirely appropriate for every business model and maintenance process.
Because Maximo focuses on enterprise asset management, the toolset it comes with aims at fast implementation and deployment. Apart from covering standard requirements, the solution also offers highly customizable and configurable features that can meet the needs of most large companies.
For the most part, Maximo can be a superb out-of-the-box option for those who are using EAM solutions for the first time but will be even more appreciated by those who need a more focused interface to manage their complex organizational needs.
Maximo also allows standardization which breaks the dependence on proprietary systems and gives an integrated option for managing overall business objectives. Such a model can be great for both long- and short-term business goals.
Interoperability through standardization is something that will only work if solution tools are genuinely functional. Maximo aims to use rapid and handy functionalities that immediately respond to user input.
Lastly, the system’s agility also means that it will fit into any core business model more seamlessly. This means that Maximo will adapt to the needs of the enterprise, not the other way around.
A great system won’t only be able to adapt to the current requirements of an enterprise but will also be able to meet new demands as your business grows even further.
Even after deployment, the solution can be updated simply without needing additional ERP implementation. Maximo presents a flexible workflow model with a myriad of configurations, enabling enterprises to meet any new customer or regulatory requirements.
Maximo supports advanced maintenance approaches focusing on enhancing RCM or reliability-centered maintenance and predictive maintenance without the need for additional software from third-party vendors.
Nowadays, almost every industry is dependent on both software and hardware. In the case of operative equipment in large enterprises, no matter whether the machinery is on the plant floor or any other level, chances are, the equipment is increasingly dependent on software.
Apart from this, assets are also becoming increasingly connected to remote monitoring, administration, and computer networks.
Maximo comes with built-in configurable replication capability features, enabling it to connect with all these systems integrating them into its own system.
These can either be:
• Plant floor devices;
• Fleet systems like GPS and onboard monitors;
• Environmental control, infrastructure, and security systems.
Every enterprise strives for a better system and asset security. Also, they want a streamlined security system that won’t be cumbersome for people to do their jobs on a daily basis.
Maximo offers a way to have both by bringing granular security features to the table with role-based protocols, restricting data and record viewing from unwanted eyes.
Naturally, the role-based protocols can also be configured to create roles that can only view all or particular fields/records/files or whether they can even modify them.
Additionally, the security roles and privileges can also control specific tolerances. For example, purchase order limits can be implemented with ease.
Having a robust ecosystem means that enterprises can access an entire system of smaller sub-systems.
With Maximo, users can leverage a large IoT ecosystem that enables them to:
• Configure the entire asset hierarchy to decrease operational risks;
• Access asset locations and their configs for leveraging even more information;
• Access maintenance history and filter data. The real-life monitoring info combined with an extensive maintenance history can improve predictive analytics and can dramatically increase efficiency while reducing operational costs;
• The ability to leverage two-way messaging to notify field personnel and to update equipment operation.
In the era of big data, having as much insight as possible is pivotal for better operational efficiency, financial optimization, and overall business success.
With this in mind, Maximo aims to provide asset-intensive enterprises to leverage the advantages of all connected devices by merging critical asset information with real-time operational data.
Distilling insights from IoT sources, Maximo can help with:
• Reducing unplanned downtime;
• Focusing maintenance resources;
• Improving operational efficiency;
• Extending the lifespan of existing equipment;
• Improving return on assets;
• Improving asset usage monitoring;
• Unifying the work processes and asset management functions across several plant sites.
IBM understands the specific needs that niche asset-intensive enterprises have when it comes to EAM software. Maximo, in that regard, aims to provide a tailored yet highly customizable solution that can fit the need of any sizeable asset-intensive company.
The powerful configuration capabilities and customization options that come by default with Maximo enable users to fine-tune the solution’s features, making it an excellent choice for any large company.
As a matter of fact, Maximo can be an ideal solution for companies in niches such as:
• Aviation;
• Service providers;
• Nuclear;
• Oil and gas;
• Life sciences;
• Manufacturing;
• Transportation.
Besides the custom configurations to meet specific industry needs, Maximo also allows the users to alter the system as business processes evolve.
IBM Maximo clearly pushes the boundaries when it comes to asset management on the enterprise level. In the era of big data and IoT connectivity, there are only a few digital solutions that enable users to keep track of every meaningful indicator and metric to increase productivity, decrease downtime, and optimize financial performance. Maximo does it all with an easy-to-operate interface in a platform that can be altered to adapt to the rising demands of a growing and changing enterprise.
