SaaS-based Asset Management for Greater Tracking, Digitalizing, and Operational Efficiency

In 2023, enterprises will thrive with the right tools to solve critical asset performance challenges. These tools must offer a cloud-native foundation, robust asset data structure to device-independent work orders with rich with barcoding, and Geographic Information System (GIS) or Building Information Modeling (BIM) capabilities.

This may seem like a tall order, but with emerging technology, constant innovation, and software development in line with shifting needs, these solutions do exist. “With the right Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) tools in hand, businesses truly have access to the information they need, when they need it, where they need it. This effectively empowers more strategic decisions that extend asset life, ensure safety, and optimise profitability,” confirms Paul Bouchier, Sales Director at iOCO, within iOCO Software Distribution, an Infor Gold Partner.  

In a recent market shift, Infor sold its EAM business to Hexagon. Now, HxGN EAM (formerly known as Infor EAM) offers best-in-class, SaaS-based asset management solution for tracking assets, digitalizing maintenance operations, and enabling customers in nearly any industry to reach optimum operational efficiency. “The result is the ability to modernise equipment maintenance strategies for utilities (among other sectors),” adds Bouchier.

The first step in this modernisation process is building a comprehensive asset strategy. To achieve this, a full understanding of the maturity of the assets must be developed. According to Bouchier, there are five stages to a utility company’s asset management maturity.

These include the operational phase, when the business is reactive on all of its maintenance, fixing something when it’s broken; the consolidation phase when the company recognises maintenance could be improved, but can’t properly fund a major overhaul in practices; the integration phase, where the financial aspects of maintenance are emphasised, and the company communicates expected ROI to secure extra funding for additional preventive measures; the optimisation phase, which comes to the fore as enterprise participation increases, predictive maintenance begins, more data is collected and analysed, and the business begins to understand when failure is likely to occur and what business impact it will have; and, lastly, the innovation stage where maintenance becomes part of a total company system, and the company combines prior techniques with operator involvement.

“As these stages follow the evolution of EAM systems, we can now gain total understanding of when to repair assets and set the flow for issuing and tracking work orders. This not only empowers the organisation to achieve greater visibility into assets for better capital spending decisions, but also offers a solution that is wholly flexible and configurable to enterprise needs,” concludes Bouchier.

Issued by Perfect Word Consulting (Pty) Ltd

For more information, contact perfectword@trinitas.co.za

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About iOCO

Established to simplify ICT, iOCO, a proudly EOH company, is Africa’s leading integrated technology services company, with the largest concentration of skills on the continent. As a Level 1 B-BBEE end-to-end ICT managed service provider and Cloud systems integrator, iOCO operates with over 20 years’ experience.  Its team of more than 4 500 specialists delivers custom development and integration, open source, enterprise applications, data and analytics, compute and platforms, digital industries and manage and operate solutions to over 1 000 top tier clients.

Inspired by digitally native internet organisations (iO) and creative organisations (CO) of the future, iOCO helps customers navigate the path to an exponential future. To achieve this vision, iOCO holds strategic OEM partnership agreements with more than 50 global leaders. For more information, please visit: ioco.tech          

About Infor
 

Infor is a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry. We develop complete solutions for our focus industries. Infor’s mission-critical enterprise applications and services are designed to deliver sustainable operational advantages with security and faster time to value. Over 60,000 organizations in more than 175 countries rely on Infor’s 17,000 employees to help achieve their business goals. As a Koch company, our financial strength, ownership structure, and long-term view empower us to foster enduring, mutually beneficial relationships with our customers. Visit www.infor.com.

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