Item: IBM Maximo Application Suite
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a utility, we use IBM Maximo Application Suite for a plethora of areas: Work Orders for our field services, Purchasing Requisitions/Orders, Receiving Confirmation, Inventory for storerooms and usage, and Purchase Contracts for labor/lease/warranties. Essentially, IBM Maximo Application Suite addresses the needs of our procurement and supply chain for larger, capitalized purchases. In order to track the requisition, shipment/receiving, procurement, inventory, accounting, and contract side of larger purchases that are not immediately expensed, we acquired IBM Maximo Application Suite. In order to properly account against funds allotted for multi-million dollar projects, IBM Maximo Application Suite allows work done in the field, including the actual labor and material cost for specific work orders tied to the larger contract, to be tracked and reconciled. In addition, the actual contract and purchase orders can also be tracked in IBM Maximo Application Suite, with approvals and workflow provided in-product. Basically, the entire logistical supply chain process can be tracked through IBM Maximo Application Suite. At our organization, we have also set up IBM Maximo Application Suite to interface with our ledger in accounting. Thus, when a purchase is made, or an invoice created via a completed work order, actual journal entries are created in our GL. This automated function removed layers of paperwork related to past processes.

Pros and Cons

Tracking the beginning-to-end flow of procurement
Categorizing work orders (time, labor, material)
Interfacing with other applications via base configuration
Relatively easy to customize

May need to customize database-elements that should be out-of-the-box
Workflow setup not intuitive

Most Important Features

Requisition Tracking and Approval
Inventory tracking
Invoice creation based on provided input from approved work orders
seamless work order and purchase order creation
ease of use for creating endpoints for other applications

Return on Investment

Automated workflows in IBM Maximo Application Suite have allowed modernization of outdated processes relying on paper tracking and approval
Consolidating applications used for purchasing, receiving, and requisition, and removing the technological overhead of maintaining interfacing for those applications, has saved a considerable amount of money

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Utilities Work and Asset Management

IBM Maximo Application Suite, for the options we selected, was less expensive and offered more "in-product customization". This allowed us to modify to our needs and also continue to implement regular patches without special testing or a "blessing" by the application provider of changes made. Although IBM Maximo Application Suite offered somewhat less analysis options out-of-the-box, the configurability to integrate multiple, various applications more than makes up for this gap. By being able to integrate with multiple applications, analysis needs to be more tailored anyhow, so a less robust, out-of-the-box analysis was acceptable for us.

Key Insights

Do you think IBM Maximo Application Suite delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with IBM Maximo Application Suite's feature set?

Yes

Did IBM Maximo Application Suite live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of IBM Maximo Application Suite go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy IBM Maximo Application Suite again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Cherwell Service Management, Control-M Managed File Transfer, Mycelium, Paymentus, Azure DevOps Services, WorkForce Suite

Likelihood to Recommend

IBM Maximo Application Suite is well suited for organizations looking for an application to track their end-to-end procurement and supply chain process. It can also be used for billing services, but that would mainly be for services provided as part of a work order, not voluminous customer billing. IBM Maximo Application Suite allows us to have one application where someone from procurement can input contracts and details, someone from any various department can create a requisition and superiors can use automated workflow to approve a purchase order, and someone at an operations location can receive and store materials. Subsequently, someone in the field can submit their hours and material used and it be approved via automated workflow for an invoice to be created. Payment functionality is possible, but we did not implement this aspect of IBM Maximo Application Suite. To note, throughout the process, interfacing can be set up to send transactions to your general ledger.
As far as interfacing, IBM Maximo Application Suite also offers tools and configuration to set up endpoints. We have been able to set up REST APIs and request/responses without heavy involvement from developers. This is a nice bonus if integrating with multiple applications.

Users and Roles

The various users of IBM Maximo Application Suite span the functionality that IBM Maximo Application Suite serves: Procurement, Operations, Accounting, and whichever department is entering a work or purchase order. Indirectly, there are many more users of IBM Maximo Application Suite's functions, as the application is integrated with many various teams' applications via API. Most frequent users of IBM Maximo Application Suite, however, are Procurement and Operations.

Support Headcount Required

8 - Application-support expertise (interpreting problems and analyzing) and general knowledge of IT concepts surrounding relational databases and application interfacing. At our company, the initial deployment perhaps required more interpersonal expertise and problem interpretation. After a few months, support shifted to more everyday troubleshooting and analysis of integration issues or for analysis of user issues.

Business Processes Supported

automated creation of work orders
automated workflow approval/progression
purchase order and contract approval
integration with other applications

Innovative Uses

integrating with our general ledger
integrating with our Operational workforce time management system

Future Planned Uses

creating endpoints for additional REST APIs to feed into or be provided information by

Likelihood to Renew

IBM Maximo Application Suite has provided a solution to our desire to consolidate the multiple applications serving the layers of the Procurement process we has been accustomed to using. By consolidating applications, licensing and software costs are reduced, and the overall headcount to support the various applications was able to be minimized.

Usability

The gui screens in IBM Maximo Application Suite are not overly cluttered with options to click and navigate to new areas. That is, the display is more of a layout of fields that the user can either input data or just interpret what is on the screen. For those in IT, there is even a feature (press Alt+F1) that will show you the exact table and column of any field selected.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using	None

Easy Tasks

Workflow approval
work order creation
endpoint creation for APIs

Difficult Tasks

may feel overwhelming at first with multiple fields, but will later seem consolidated
may not be intuitive without training

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes, but I don't use it

IBM Maximo Application Suite: Logistics from Beginning-to-End

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Maximo Application Suite