IBM Maximo Software

Pros

The Software is the most advanced you can get out of a CMMS, it features more than you could ever ask for and should be on the higher rating of things, but there are still some things that hold it back

Cons

Maximo has some of the most advanced features, too many features. Doubtful that companies will ever use every feature offered. The price is extraordinarily high, probably due to being so feature packed, but with cheaper software doing everything you would need Maximo is over the top, somewhat unnecessarily

Pros

Good customization capabilities using application designer and data base configuration
Easy to integrate with other systems with MIF.
Very intuitive user interface

Cons

Deployment can be complex
Good consulting skills are key to success.
Licensing model could be complicated.

This is a great preventative maintenance program. The functionality is one of the best on the market, but the cost is not in line with any small company.

Pros

The most versatile program on the market

Cons

Cost

Advice to Others

If you have the money this is a great product to use

Very pleased with Maximo. Especially as we head into Asset Management. We've been on Maximo since 1997. Currently on 7.5. Upgrading to 7.6 in 2017/2018.

Pros

Ability to capture data on Work Orders. Notes, labor, materials, purchasing, invoicing and attachments. We also utilize routes, condition monitoring, and meters.

Would like to know more about Asset Heath.

Advice to Others

Good implementation team. Support from upper management down. I encourage users to implement all of Maximo. That is where the true benefits come from.

Maximo provides So many benefits when running a large maintenance team. It has many features others miss when trying to be the best CMMS software on the market.

Pros

Utilizes a planners role in the flow of design.

Cons

Not as accounting friendly as we would like to see. Cost point slightly high.

Advice to Others

Look at MP3 very strong competitor.

The software is fairly complex out of the gate, so self training for meaning full use is hard and slow going. Add-on modules with additional licensing costs and some level of customization are more than likely required to get meaningful functionality which drive up costs and the need to have experienced developers involved in start up.

Pros

This software is widely used throughout the client base that we serve. The software is fairly robust, and can accommodate most facility management program needs.

Cons

The software is not very user friendly, partly because of the complexity and depth of possibilities when trouble shooting issues.

Advice to Others

Research many software systems, and be sure about the functionality that you need, want, and expect from the system you hope to design before committing to one.

Multiple implantation across several industries. Maximo experience in utilities, energy, manufacturing, transport, and municipalities.

Pros

Highly configurable. Extensive out of box functionality. Constant updates and upgrades.

Cons

High complexity. Expert advice required for successful implementation.

Advice to Others

Approach using and implementing maximo as a journey. Proper asset management and Maintenance is a continual process. Trying to do it all at once can add too much complexity and hamper end user acceptance. The smartest developers and advanced technology aren't worth anything if end users don't buy into and embrace the use of the system.

Likes Best

The good and bad is the flexibility of the product. Each company implements and utilizes the software differently. But, companies who have similar issues can share solutions through the numerous User groups, like MUWG and GOMaximo.
In addition to being a great asset / maintenance management package, it is also a developmental platform so it can be configured to solve many problems and replace in-house systems.

Likes Least

Being so flexible, there are times, especially when upgrading to a newer version, that it is difficult for IBM to duplicate issues we are having.

Recommendations

Focus on your company's requirements and what you really want the software to do for you. A very small percentage of customers utilize all of the modules / capabilities of Maximo. Initially, you want to focus on what is important for your business.

Likes Best

Controls for change management and P to P. Integration to other systems to support full business processes. Ability to make config changes.

Likes Least

Not user friendly for end users who are not very IT literate.
Upgrades are horrible
Licensing is expensive

Recommendations

A mobile solution is an essential for end users working out on the field, it solves the user interface issue

Likes Best

Architecture is very Modern and make use of latest technologies
Most of the Industry Based solution available
IBM Support for Product issues
Very Flexible in Customisation as per Needs
Excellent Integration Framework

Likes Least

Licencing needs to be made more flexible as it is now.

Recommendations

Please look on the long term return on investment and also remember perform excellent data entry to get excellent returns.

Likes Best

It's simply the best! IBM seeks to have the best CMMS product available and they have that and they continue to make it better all the time!

Likes Least

I think the licensing scheme is confusing and hard to understand. I think it's a road block to asset owner's looking for the best CMMS.
I think the cost is prohibitive. I realize it's an expensive product to produce and maintain but I also believe it's severely overpriced.

Requires asset owners to lean heavily on implementation partners who do not fully understand the product (as an end user) and as a result they are not able to help match the customer needs with the product ability.

Recommendations

Know all of your business practice's, process's, and workflows. Work out exactly what you want the product to do and how you want it to be done, before working with an implementation partner to accomplish it.

Waiting until the implementation partner is onside is a recipe for disaster and getting a product that won't seem to meet your needs.

Go to several Maximo User Group Meetings over a couple year period and see how others use and view the product.
Spend time a lot of time developing how you want to use the CMMS and work out ahead of time what you want out of the CMMS.

Haste with a CMMS implementation is waste and you will regret it!!!
MAKE SURE TO ENGAGE ALL ALL ALL ALL ALL ALL STAKEHOLDERS FROM TOP MANAGEMENT TO THE LOWLIEST OF END USERS AND ENGAGE THEM EARLY IN THE PROCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Likes Best

Configuration from front end. Ease of use. The envirosphere associated with the product.

Likes Least

Just so much to learn for any individual, and both training and documentation are difficult to manage just because of sheer volume.

Recommendations

Look at ease of use and modification, to minimise IT burden.

Likes Best

Maximo can be used across domains. It also come with variety of addons and industry solutions provide options to choose best fit solution. IBM keep Maximo up to date with Market trends. Maximo is very easy to configure and tweak as per business need.

Likes Least

Maximo Licence Cost is on higher side compare to other EAM product.

Recommendations

Solid EAM provide which provide solution to all your maintenace need and can adapt easily to any business requirement. Other than Maximo's look and feel, it also have very strong knowledge base available over internet.

Likes Best

SOA frame work,applications supports maintenance domain

Likes Least

Need focus more FMEA analysis and enhance product to handle important Reliability concepts,the way SAP is coming as a single platform for enterprise giving customers to re think on having separate infrastructure for Maximo.

Recommendations

I would recommend to have add ons maintenance master data modules,RBI along with condition monitoring.
On technical front the way MIF is transforming is great but still it needs to be amended to handle mass data transfers effectively

Likes Best

Capable and has amazing industry verticals which set Maximo apart from all competitors. The addition of HSE manager was a great value and the recent Supply Chain functionalities enhancement were spot on. Overall, when it comes to having an out of the box product with deep industry understanding, Maximo is the way to go.

Likes Least

##Product 1: The product lacks standards business processes, just like SAP, Maximo must ship with standard business process. Stressing on the same point, I'd rather spend time and money understanding the standard business process and using it as a starting point than having the absolute freedom to create whatever because this is where "replicating legacy systems" starts.

##Product 2: It is difficult to justify Maximo investment compared to Oracle EBS or SAP! unless you really need a specific industry vertical, Maximo is one system which require million integrations. Hence, Maximo must ship with, not only the excellent MIF capability, but also with free integration adapters to major systems from Oracle and SAP. The cost of maintaining a custom integration between Maximo and those systems is just to high compared to integrations between Maximo and less demanding systems.

##Vendor 1: If IBM is not able to provide a fully integrated ERP system, then they have to make the product more appealing by reducing the cost of getting up and integrated with the existing ERP system. Not only by offering a generic way to integrate but also to provide a set configurable integration adapters with business cases.

##Vendor 2: The licensing scheme has to be revised to become more flexibly, every product has weaknesses compared to competitors and if IBM cannot offer a full ERP then they must take it easy and compensate somewhere else.

Recommendations

1- Excellent industry verticals
2- Great flexibility but over-use it and it bytes back
3- Be ready to build and maintain a lot of integrations
4- Its not an ERP system, but do you really need an ERP system?
5- Make sure to contract a capable IBM business partner or hire experienced professional
6- Acquire deep understanding of the out of the box functionalities, it will greatly reduce the customization work that you may think you will need.

Likes Best

At the time of purchase we bought Maximo from PSDI. The product at the time allowed us to standardize on a distributed platform while saving costs at an enterprise level. As some of the main players from PSDI moved to IBM after the purchase, the support model stayed the same. IBM did bring a bit more scalability to the tool while leveraging various partners for bolt ons and integration.

Likes Least

As Maximo changed hands the licensing model changed along with it. With all of the good IBM brought to the table, per user costs did rise.

Recommendations

Our goal early on was to remove some atiquated software that was being used on an old platform. We made a decision to segregate the various business units and buy multiple copies. Given the chance to do this again, I would influence the decision makers to consider consolidation in order to leverage more of the power of the product. Integration at a later point is time consuming and expensive, hence, we should have looked further ahead.

Likes Best

The flexibility of the product, that can interface with anything with a .txt file generation and the possibility to easy adapt any new system, also the web services and the programming script languange

Likes Least

Price is too high. It really is an excellent product, but the price does not allow the SMB market to use it

Recommendations

Look for the integration and the asset care, with meters and the xml changes made easy

Likes Best

The ability to configure the application, particularly in the recent versions. We're currently on 6.2 which has limited configurability, but version 7.x and greater seem to have an extensive amount of configurability without the need for customization.

Likes Least

The overall user interface of the application. I'd like to see it modernized.

Recommendations

Look for ways to minimize the need for training. For instance, Maximo can be configured to hide tabs/sections of a screen based on conditions. This helps drive the user to the information they need to see/populate which improves the user experience.

Likes Best

It can be configured just in any way that meets the customer's requirements, well built product that can integrate with the other enterprise systems easily.

Likes Least

Product is very expensive and getting the right talent to implement and support is always a challenge to many companies.

Recommendations

Consider the integration requirements, reporting, cost, flexibility, usability, security and support

Likes Best

The software is user friendly and is very flexible to meet our demands.

Likes Least

The product licensing structure is expensive. At our company, we are currently competing with an Oracle product. With Oracle, when you have the license to one module, you have access to all of the other modules.

Recommendations

Make sure you know where your integration points are. Most of the issues that we have experienced is primarily around our supply chain integration (our supply chain resides in Oracle). Because of our integration, native functionality has been compromised (disabled in some cases).