Maximo Consultant's Blog

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Getting Started with Maximo’s Custom Control (Part I)

5 February 2018 / / 1 Comment
Application Designer is a powerful tool to customise Maxmo’s GUI. However, in certain situations, it couldn’t do what we want to meet the requirements of our clients. In that case, we can look at customising Web UI module.

In this series, I will provide step-by-step instructions on how to customise controls in Maximo. The aim is to help beginners get familiar with the framework by going from the most basic modification then building up from there. 

 
Part I –  Create a simple Label control: 
 
Let’s get started by displaying a ‘Hello World!’ label on the main screen of the Asset application. We can do that by creating our own custom control.
A sample of a standard Maximo control is a Textbox, a Label, or a Section, which you can drag/drop in Application Designer. In Maximo, a control can have one or multiple components. For example, the simple “textbox” control is actually a combination of 3 components: the ‘*’ sign which is displayed to indicate required field, the input textbox for entering data, and a lookup icon on the right side if the field is associated with a domain. Each component is simply a JSP file that will return HTML code to be merged into the main HTML page. However, in order to use the JSP file, we have to register it as a component in the “component registry”. And in order to include our custom control in Application Designer’s XML file, we have to define our custom control in the “control registry”.
 
Ok, that’s enough talking. Let’s build our first control:
 
1: Create a JSP file with a “Hello World” text:
  •  Go to folder: maximo/ applications/ maximo/ maximouiweb/ webmodule/ webclient/ components /
  • Create a new “mylabel.jsp” file with the following code:
 

2: Now let’s register this file as a component:

  • Go to folder: maximoapplicationsmaximoproperties
  • Edit the component-registry.xml file, and add the following piece of code just under the root <component-registry ….> tag
  • As you can see here, we simply declare a component called “mylabelcomponent”, and point it to our mylabel.jsp file 

3: Now let’s define our new control:

  • In the same maximoproperties folder, edit the control-registry.xml file, and add the following piece of code under the root <control-registry….> tag :

4: Deploy:

  • Build maximo.ear file
  • Deploy ear to Websphere
  • Start Maximo server. 
  • After Maximo started, open Application Designer, export the Asset application to edit XML file and add the following tag to the Main page, just above the Asset field. 
  • Import the XML file back to Maximo. Then open the Asset application, and open any asset to go to the Main tab, you should see your “Hello World” message on top of the tab:

5: Make it a bit more interesting with embedded Youtube Video:

  • Open any Youtube video, click on Share, and click on Embed, then copy embedded HTML code snippet it provides
  •  Open our mylabel.jsp file, replace the <div>Hello World!</div> code with the embedded HTML code snippet provided by youtube. Below is an example of the mylabel.jsp file content:

After making this modification, open Asset application again, and you will see the video is now embedded in your application:

6 – Make it dynamic:

  • To this point, you have done exactly what Richard Gebhardt taught us in his blog post. If you do read the JSP code he provided, you will notice he left us with some hints. For example, this line:  MboRemote mbo = control.getPage().getDataBean().getMbo();
  • Let’s capitalise on this and modify our JSP again to add a few lines:
  • Store a Youtube video’s ID into an Asset’s description field. Re-open the application, and open the asset record. It will now load the video ID you entered instead of a hard-coded link. 

(Youtube Video ID is the code string after the youtube.com/watch?v=. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1dyA8Lfemc )

At this stage, we can see a lot of real-world applications can be done with this capability to embed content from other websites into Maximo. For example, we can embed a real-time streaming surveillance video of certain locations or assets, and allow maintenance personnel to view directly when opening the location or asset record in Maximo.

In the next post, I will show you how to add more modifications to handle real-world requirements.

 *TIPS*: 

  • If you couldn’t start Maximo and receive something like InitializationError, it’s probably because your XML code in the control-registry or component-registry is not correct, review your code, and try again. Most likely that you forgot to close a tag, which makes it unable to parse the whole registry XML file. 
  • You can directly edit the files in the Websphere’s installedApps folder to avoid the build process every time you make a small change.
  • You can also unzip the “properties.jar” file to a “properties.jar” folder, and then remove the jar file. In this case, it doesn’t require you to stop Maximo to edit the registry XML files.
  • With the above tricks, your changes to the control’s and component’s properties, JSP, and CSS file will take effect instantly. But please note that you still have to restart Maximo if you define a new control or component.
  • Also note that with changes to CSS and Javascript files (which I will mention in follow-up posts), you will be better off by always disabling caching on the browser. Otherwise, you will not see the change as the browser still uses older files. On Chrome, you can open the Developer windows, move to Network Tab, and check on the “Disable Cache”. As long as you leave this Developer window open, Chrome will always download the latest CSS and Javascript files.

Maximo’s ABC Analysis and Physical Count

26 January 2018 / / 7 Comments
A friend recently asked me on LinkedIn about Inventory ABC analysis on Maximo and how to setup physical cycle count. After responding to him, I thought it could be posted on this blog to share with other Maximo users who like to know more about this function.
 
First page of the ABC Analysis Report
 
 
ABC Analysis is the method of categorizing inventory items into three groups: fast-moving, average, and low moving. This method is commonly used in ERP systems like SAP or Oracle. However, it is less frequently used in Maximo Inventory.
 
The concept of fast-moving or slow-moving refers to the total financial movement of inventory. For example, if the inventory has 3 items:
  • Toilet paper: $2 per Roll, company uses 10 roles/day or $20/day, movement of this item is $7300 per year
  • Printer toner: $100 per Each, company replaces them every 2 months, thus movement is $600 per year
  • Computer laptop: $2000 per Each, company issues only two items a year, thus $4000 movement a year

Total movement is $13.900

If A, B, C is defined as the items that accounted for the top 30% of the movement, middle 40%, and bottom 30%, Toilet paper is a fast-moving item and belongs to Category A, and Toner is a slow-moving item.

In Maximo, there’s a standard out-of-the-box report for ABC Analysis. After the report calculated the consumption value and produced A,B,C values associated with each item, we can update the ABC values back to the inventory by clicking on the link at the bottom of the list.

Link to update ABC values back to Maximo Inventory Screen
 
 
For physical count, we can set in organization settings to define the physical cycle duration for each ABC category so that Maximo will automatically set a due date to do physical count for each item depending on its category. Some companies only carry out physical count as part of inventory/accounting audits, thus they only do it once per year, for the whole inventory, usually before fiscal year-end. Other companies with more mature processes have different cycle counts duration for each category, such as 3 months for fast-moving item, and 1 year for slow-moving items, this varies a lot depending on each industry.
 
 
ABC break point and Cycle Count Settings
With the Anywhere Physical Count mobile app or other 3rd party mobile solution, the app will download the items that are due to count so that warehouse staff can go out after a specific list of items do a physical check then update the actual count. This value is synchronized to Maximo, and if there is a difference in Maximo’s current balance vs actual count (usually actual count is less than the real balance due to theft, loss, or temporary issues that are forgotten and or issues that aren’t entered into the software), we can run Reconciliation process to update new balance and record the “loss” to shrinkage account. 
 
ABC Type value of an item in the Inventory app
 
 
In practice, many companies prefer to record this “loss” as a standard “Issue” transaction against shrinkage accounts because it is simpler to do so. Besides, if there’s integration with ERP/Finance system, this makes things simpler as the transactions will be posted to the ledger without having to build another interface (Issue transactions and Reconciliation transactions are stored in two different tables). We can also create a logical “Shrinkage” location with the right GL account so the user only has to issue against this location and thus doesn’t have to remember the GL account combination.
Some companies also combine the ABC category with the criticality of items (High, Medium, Low), so in their Maximo system, you will see strange values such as CH, AM, or BL. The idea is for process or safety-critical items, in many cases, even if they are slow moving, it is still important to do frequent physical checks to ensure they are always available to use in case needed.

Maximo with Oracle’s InMemory (Part 2) – Huge Performance Gain

19 January 2018 / / 4 Comments

Last week, I played around with Oracle’s new toy: the InMemory feature available in Enterprise Edition. Although it made Maximo runs 1.25x faster, but it didn’t meet my expectation which was from 2x to 5x. This has bothered me for the whole week and I kept thinking about it.

If you’ve read my previous blog post, the one thing I pointed out which could lead to no performance improvement is that I ran the test on a tiny demo version. It has only a few hundred assets and less than a thousand work orders. So, any heavy processes or poorly written queries couldn’t make the database 1 second slower. This week, I set out to do a more elaborate test with a setting that looks more similar to a real production environment.
At first, I setup my system as follows:

  • For Maximo: v7.5 with several industry solutions and add-ons. The data includes 4M work order records, 200k Assets & Locations, 200k Issue Transactions, and 1M Labor Transactions. Total size of the DB is more than 50GB.
  • For DB Server: 
    • HP EliteBook 840: Core i7-6600U 2.7 Ghz, 16GB RAM, SSD 512. 
    • Oracle 12c Enterprise: 3GB allocated to PGA, 11 GB allocated to SGA (which includes 6GB allocated to InMemory data store)
  • For App Server: Virtual Box running on Mac OS host: Core i5 2.3 GHz, 16GB RAM, SSD 512GB
    • VBox configuration: Windows 2012 x64, 12GB RAM
    • Websphere: Cluster with 3 JVMs x 3GB each.

I got one problem though. The two machines connected wirelessly to each other via a home wifi router which gave a latency of between 5ms to 20ms, sometimes it went up to 100ms or even timeout. This resulted in the system ran with unpredictable performance. In practice, network connection between Application Server and DB Server usually have a latency of  < 1 ms. So I abandoned the idea of having the system runs on two separate boxes, and returned to a configuration with everything runs on one laptop as follows:

  • Database: PGA – 3G, SGA – 8G (5G of which is InMemory)
  • Only one MXServer JVM with 3 GB

I intended to test and compare following operations:

  • Run a Saved Query on Work Order Tracking app
  • Generate 7 PM Work orders at once
  • Change status of 27 Work orders at once
  • Run a simple Report created by “Create Report function” which joins two tables: Work Order and Asset
  • Run a more complex report which joins a few tables including Work Order and Actual Labor and Actual Material

For each of the operations above, I ran test three times to get the average execution time (I ignored the first run as it is usually longer since data hasn’t been populated and cached to memory yet). Below is the result:

For the running saved query, I don’t understand why it took longer to load (result was consistent, not random)

For other expensive operations, Maximo ran 2-3 times faster.

For the more complex report, it never finishes. I tried several times and with the longest one I waited for 50 minutes before killing the process (I checked and Oracle was still processing, not hang). Even after turning on InMemory, it took more than 20 minutes, then I killed it as I was too tired to wait.

For the simple report, it is 5 times faster. If we pay close attention here, the BIRT report window took more than a second to open already, which means DB query returned result almost instantly. This made me believe that we could get a 10-15x performance gain for reports that take several minutes to run.

Since I had to abandon my original setting with two laptops, and also, because I was too lazy to build a new report which will take around 5-20 minutes to run on this environment, I couldn’t test a heavier load scenario with several expensive read/write operations like PM Gen, WO Change Status, and  running several slow reports at once. This kind of load is what we normally see in production and usually slow down the system significantly because operations and queries have to wait for each other to release resource lock. But this situation is exactly where InMemory will make a huge difference.

Anyway, even with this result, I am happy, and from now on, I will be all out selling “memory upgrade” to whomever Maximo users I meet.


An afterthought note: I used to consider DB2 a second choice for Maximo due to the difficulty of finding a good DB2 DBA, and thus, usually only suggested it to small clients with low budget. But now considering the significant cost of Enterprise version of Oracle or SQL if users want to implement this feature, the free bundled DB2 license offered with Maximo is an attractive option. For large enterprise client, I guess I will now present DB2 as an option for them to consider too.

Test Oracle InMemory Database with Maximo

14 January 2018 / / 0 Comments
For the last few years, SAP has been pushing hard on its HANA
InMemory data platform and everybody talks about it. For me it makes sense
because SAP’s ERP is such a huge system usually used by super large enterprises
and is both a data intensive and mission critical system.
 
 
Maximo on the other hand is usually much less data intensive
and for most clients I work with in Vietnam, they have small systems with
databases of less than 10-20GB. Thus, I believe InMemory database is not a big
deal for Maximo users. As I recently moved to Australia and got a chance to
work with a much bigger client. Their Maximo runs on a cluster of more than two
dozen JVMs yet somehow is still a bit slow considering the number of active
users that they have. I suspect (since I don’t have visibility to their DB server)
the bottle neck is the database in this case. Besides from the standard
suggestions of looking at disk storage/SAN, network, memory allocation etc., I
also mentioned they can consider implementing InMemory. Then I realized I never
seen it implemented with Maximo, it would be a huge embarrassment if they look
at it and find out that it doesn’t work.
 
This week I have some free time, so I decided to play around
with InMemory database for Maximo to (1) confirm if it is possible and (2) see
if it gives any real performance gain for Maximo.
 
Here is my system configuration:
 
  • Host laptop: Processor Core i7-6600U – 2 cores x
    2.6 Ghz, 16GB RAM, SSD 500GB. Windows 7
  • VMWare: I gave it 10G Ram, 4 cores, Windows 7
  • Database: Oracle 12c R2 x64 Enterprise Edition.
    I gave it 1G for PGA, 4G for SGA (of which, 2G is given to INMEMORY store)
  • Maximo 7.6.0.0 – Demo database. I setup only one
    MXServer and gave it 2G heap size
 
 
 
As you can see, this is very different to a real production
environment and thus the result found in this test may not reflect what you will
find if implemented in production. Some key elements that I can think of that
could lead to differences in results of this setup and real-world production
system include:
 
  • Standard Maximo’s demo database is super small,
    less than 500MB. Thus, InMemory may not lead to any improvement at all
  • Maximo App and Database deployed on the same box.
    Thus, there’s no network latency between App and DB server as usually seen in production
    environment where DB server and App server are placed in two different subnets,
    and can have a firewall in between. This makes resource retrieval process much more
    expensive.
  • This has only one session instead of hundreds if
    not thousands of concurrent sessions as can be seen in production.
  • DB servers on production usually use superfast storage
    systems through SAN/RAID configuration, thus InMemory may not improve
    processing time in that case.
 
 
 
As mentioned, Maximo demo system is very small and most
operations will complete almost instantly (less than .5 second). Thus, I
decided to test two operations:
 
  • Generating Work Order from PM
  • Changing Work Order status
 
The data I chose is the Job Plan: “PMBULKTR – Bulk Trailer PM
Servicing”, which applies to 5 trailers with Assetnum “44416x” (belong to ‘FLEET’
site). The reason I chose this job is because it has 70 tasks. It is a common
problem for Maximo users when changing status of a Work Package with large
number of child WO or tasks is that this operation is very resource intensive
and can take a lot of time to complete. I have seen in many cases, such as in
plant turn-around, changing WO status took so much time that the browser’s
session timed out. So I decided to carry out a test following these steps: Select
the 5 PMs, generate WO at once. Do it three times to measure the time it takes
to complete. After I got 15 new WOs, I move to the Work Order Tracking app, and
select all 15 of them, then try to change status to WAPPR, then to APPR, then
WAPPR again to measure the time it takes each time.
 
After I finished timing the above steps, I will turn on
INMEMORY for the whole ‘MAXIMO’ tablespace by issuing a command: ‘ALTER
TABLESPACE maximo DEFAULT INMEMORY;’ Restart the system, then do the same test again
to measure execution time with INMEMORY enabled.
 
Anyway, my expectation for this configuration would be a 2x
to 5x in term of improved processing speed. The reason is when we built an
add-on for inventory cataloguing, there was a process to compare technical specification
of one item with the spec of thousands of other items to find similarity. This
process took a lot of time to execute. The developer then cached the data in
memory and run the operation with cached data only. This resulted in a boost of
more than 100x in performance. So instead of hours, it takes only a few seconds
to complete. Thus, I think an expectation of 2x to 5x performance gain in this case
is reasonable.
 
Below is the result I got from the test:
 
 
For each operation, I got only about 20% reduction in
execution time. I tried a few other quick tests with other processes while
switching on/off the INMEMORY feature and the result is consistent. Obviously
with this result, my expectation of 2x – 5x improvement is proven to be
unrealistic.
 
Thinking of putting this into practice, if your organization
already have Oracle Enterprise Edition, setting up would be really simple.
Throw in some extra bars of memory, select a few key tables that got queried
the most such as the Work Order – related tables to populate them into INMEMORY
area. If it can give you 20% reduction in execution time, I believe it is still
very attractive to consider.
 
For Microsoft SQL Server, what I found on the web, we need
SQL Server 2016 or 2017 Enterprise Edition which works with Maximo. (I tested
installing Maximo 7.6.0.9 on SQL 2017 and it works well). The free Developer or
Evaluation edition can also be used to test at home. However, I found the configuration
steps seem to be more complex for Maximo as you have to review data structure
to modify/exclude columns with specific datatypes such as XML, BLOB etc. Thus,
if my company is using Maximo with SQL Server, I would think twice about implementing
INMEMORY feature.
 
(Note: I don’t provide detailed steps to configure INMEMORY
feature in Oracle 12c here because it is super simple, all you have to do is
set INMEMORY_SIZE parameter to something other than 0 such as 2G or 4G. Make
sure your SGA is larger than this, e.g. if INMEMORY_SIZE is 2G, SGA should be 3G
or more. Otherwise, you will not be able to start the database service. Once
INMEMORY_SIZE is allocated, issue the ALTER TABLESPACE or ALTER TABLE command
to enable/populate the tablespace or table into INMEMORY area. Also make sure that
you have Oracle 12c Enterprise Edition)
 

Barcode/RFID Scanning for Maximo Everyplace

11 January 2018 / / 7 Comments

I’m in love with Maximo Everyplace. It is so simple and easy to use. And guess what, it is totally free now with Maximo 7.6.

Recently I worked with a client and while the team still discussing various options for mobility solutions, I quickly duplicated and produced an Everyplace mobile app on Test environment and demonstrate a smooth workflow with barcode scanning on my iPhone, all done within 15 minutes. I understand there are certain reasons for choosing a more complex online/offline, even native app solutions. However, since everyplace is so easy and cheap to implement, so why not have it as a backup solution just in case the more complex one doesn’t work. If you have experienced the use of such offline, installed app solution, you will know what I’m talking about. Things like app crashes or hang are quite common. Those things are usually quite difficult to support as the programmers, who for 99% of the time are present not onsite and do not have access to log files to see what happened to investigate and provide timely bug fix. In this case, for the end-users it is extremely frustrating as they cannot proceed with their work.

One of the most common requirements with mobile app is ability to scan barcode to quickly search for asset, location, inventory item code, or work order number. Since Everyplace runs on browser, it doesn’t have a way to work directly with smart phone or tablet’s camera to read barcode. One solution is to use barcode scanner custom keyboard. This has been mentioned earlier in other blog posts such as by Bruno Portaluri (link) on how to use Barcode scanner keyboard app or IBM Android app for Everyplace. These are all Android solution.

With iOS, for many years, the only option is to use external barcode scanners because Apple restricted its custom keyboard API from accessing the camera. However, I recently found out about this app: ScanditWedge which does exactly the same thing, but now on iOS. The license for the use of their app is quite expensive though. But at least, now we know something like this is possible on iOS. I tried their trial license which allows the use of the keyboard on 20 devices for 2 weeks and it works like charm on my iPhone. So, this is definitely something you can consider.

For RFID, with built-in NFC reader on many Android devices and NFC scanner keyboard, it is possible to work with Everyplace. I have built native app and utilize the internal NFC reader of the ECOM Tab-EX (designed based on the Samsung Tab Active) and the ECOM Smart-Ex 01, and 02. All of those have been implemented and proven to work well under industrial settings. However, currently I do not have access to such device to test the newer NFC scanner keyboard apps. But I believe they would work the same with barcode scanner keyboard (You may need a separate field to store RFID tag’s ID string for this purpose).

On iOS, it’s been a long story. Apple introduced NFC support since iPhone 6, but the hardware acts as a passive RFID tag, used for ApplePay only. They restricted API access to 3rd party developers. Only in the latest iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and iPhone X, the hardware can actually act as a scanner, and with recent release of iOS 11, Apple have opened API access to 3rd party developer to read stored information in RFID tag (not tag ID). The demo video below by Serialio clearly demonstrated this capability.

I’ve personally tested this capability on iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 7 plus using GoToTags and can confirm it works with iPhone 7. So this is another great news because we now know that it is technically possible to use iPhone to scan RFID and identify Asset/Check Point/Labor etc. (although not very convenient to setup).

RFID/Barcode and Integrated Mobile Solutions for Maximo

11 January 2018 / / 6 Comments

      I had to look at RFID/Barcode options for Maximo mobility solution recently. Although these technologies have been around for decades and have become a commodity, when integrating with other systems like Maximo Anywhere or Everyplace, there are certain problems that we have to deal with. In this post, I’ll discuss a few concerns related to this topic, hopefully it helps Maximo consultants to save some time when considering the solution. These are just a brain dump of different things related to the topic that I have in mind. Thus, you can read them at any order or only look that the part that you are most interested in.

  • Barcode vs QR code: When it comes to barcode reading, many people think that they can simply use the built-in camera of the phone or tablet to read barcode, as seen in many product comparing apps. However, in industrial setting, one should consider various extreme conditions that field workers have to work in. For example, in construction or in oil & gas, working at night is common. In such case, the camera doesn’t do well in reading barcode. In some of our tests, under pretty good ambient light, reading barcode takes up to 3-5 seconds while QR code reads almost instantly. In poorer conditions though, the camera simply couldn’t focus and can’t read anything. Thus, if the requirement is to work in environment where lighting condition is always ideal, Barcode or QR codes doesn’t matter, I’m a bit lean toward QR code as it read faster and enable higher workflow efficiency. Otherwise, we should consider other options such as RFID or using laser barcode reader.

  • Barcode vs RFID: When it comes to barcode (QR code is included in this category) versus RFID, they have very different attributes that one should really think carefully before deciding on which one suits their requirements the most. Many of the better features of RFID do not apply in certain asset management application. For example, RFID tags don’t need line of sight to be read or RFID can be read in bulk simultaneously. However, in asset identification, these are usually not required. However, one feature of RFID that is a clear advantage when compare to Barcode is that RFID tags can be a lot more durable under extreme conditions such as in processing plants where conditions usually involve high temperature, high moisture, and can be tampered with chemical/oil, even the some of best weather-resistant barcode label brands can wear out/fade out pretty quick (in few months). In this case, RFID tag is a clear winner. On the other hand, if working under extreme conditions is not a requirement, I would generally suggest using barcode as it is much cheaper and simpler to use. For example, we can encode Asset Number or Inventory Item Number directly to print out barcode labels, and on Maximo apps, we will just scan and lookup barcode using the standard “assetnum” and “itemnum” fields. If RFID is to be used, we generally need a separate custom field to store the tag’s ID string. Then we have to customize the app to lookup asset/item using this field instead of the standard asset/item number. We also need an extra step of reading and updating the tag’s ID string into the record in Maximo before it can be used.

  • Built-in camera/NFC reader vs specialized reader: Here I’m discussing about the pros and cons of using built-in camera or NFC reader (NFC is one form of RFID) versus using a specialized, external Barcode/RFID device. Built-in reader is obviously simple and more compact, thus it is suitable for occasional use. However, if your application requires frequent reading of barcode/RFID, you should go for a specialized laser barcode reader or RFID reader. These tools are designed specifically for the job, as such, it is a lot more efficient and easier to use. As mentioned above, using the camera to read barcode under poor ambient light can be problematic, but if a laser reader is utilized, poor ambient light is not a problem as the device has its own laser light source, and thus can read under any lighting condition. When it comes to industrial use, invest in specialized tool can be a bit more costly but almost always give a much better return in term of improved productivity and user acceptance. One thing to consider with external reader is that, field workers usually has to wear/carry many accessories such as PPE equipment, walkie-talkie, safety-belt, and other work-related tools. The idea of having to carry an extra phone/tablet and an external reader doesn’t sound convenient. As such, one should consider higher level of resistance from field workers if external reader is introduced. Another drawback if you consider external bluetooth scanner is that the pairing-up process between bluetooth devices and smart phones sometimes aren’t straightforward, these kind of glitches can sometimes create additional reasons for the workers who resisted to change to pushback and refuse to use the solution. As such, if possible, choose devices with built-in or connected laser barcode/RFID reader over wireless devices

  • iOS vs Android: Almost everyone prefers using an iPhone or iPad over Android devices. However, iPhone and iPad is designed for consumer market. When it comes to industrial use, iOS devices have many shortcomings such as they are not designed to work under extreme conditions such as under rain, hash sunlight, or sensible to touches when worker wearing thick gloves. Apple is also more restrictive in term of providing API for 3rd party developers, as such, there are less options provided by 3rd party vendor when it comes to industrial application. In the Energy and Mining industries, the use of intrinsically-safe/non-explosive (EX) electronic equipment is mandatory. This make Android platform the only option as currently, there is no iOS device on the market that can meet this safety requirement. Over the last few years, many companies introduce various computing devices such as smart phones, tablet, and even laptop meeting this standard. Some of those companies includes ECOM, Honeywell, Motorola etc. Therefore, if you design a solution for use in Hazardous areas that requires intrinsically-safe equipment, forget about iOS.

  • Online only vs Offline support: Here I’m only talking about Maximo Everyplace versus Maximo Anywhere. From Maximo version 7.6, Everyplace become a built-in feature. As such, it doesn’t cost anything to use. The process to produce a simplified app by duplicating an existing Maximo application then modify it to fit into small mobile  screen and to do a specific task generally takes only a few hours to a few days maximum. The users who are already familiar with Maximo will virtually don’t need any training at all. As such, if working environment has available wireless LAN or 3G/4G internet connection (which is pervasive and very cheap now), you should go for this solution, it’s a no-brainer. However, in certain conditions, stable connection is not always available, such as inside deep tunnel for infrastructure company or inside confined-space/basement of a large building. In this case, we need to use Anywhere to support offline/online working mode. However, let’s be realistic here. Do your field workers really need to use Maximo app when going in a confined space? In a client who I had chance to work with recently, they said they need offline solution because Everyplace won’t work inside underground tunnels. I went around to check and found out that in most areas inside underground tunnels, 4G network is fast and stable. Some areas may have poor signal. But with standard work order process, we generally only need access to the app to check-in when starting the work, and to check-out after the work is done. In this case, identify and designate several safe areas where network connection is available to check-in and check-out would do the job. With the widespread of 3G/4G repeaters installed by network companies,
    you might not realize that 3G/4G network is now available in many areas
    where it was not possible before like inside tunnels, underground train
    stations, or parking basements of big buildings.

          For other applications such as asset audit/inspection, where users need to use the app to scan the equipment or check-point, if network connection is unstable, offline solution will be required. 

    Maximo Anywhere is a great offline solution because it provides very smooth experience when transition between online/offline working mode. However, it comes with a price. It is very expensive in term of license fee. It is also a complex platform that requires MobileFirst development skills to configure/customize. Keep in mind that this is still a relatively new solution and not widely proven in the industry, especially when it comes to integration with other 3rd party hardware/software. However, IBM team have been moving really fast with the development of this solution. In the past few year, the solution has seen considerable improvement and level of adoption by the asset management community. So kudos for IBM R&D team for this progress.
    Considering the significant cost of Anywhere product, we should carefully survey the work environment and take these aspects into account when considering the two solutions.

  • IBM Mobility vs 3rd Party Solutions: When it comes to mobility solutions for Maximo, most people immediately think of IBM’s mobility solutions which includes Maximo Mobile Suites (gone), Maximo Everyplace, and Maximo Anywhere. However, to make objective evaluation, one must go further than that to evaluate 3rd party mobility solutions such as EzMaxMobile, Datasplice, Syclo Work Manager (now SAP), and many other lesser known custom-built systems. (eLogBook mobile is one of such solutions which I and my team built when working for Avenue Business Solutions). The advantage of IBM mobile solutions is that they are open platform. Therefore, any Maximo consultant with the right skill can customize the apps without IBM’s restriction as long as the users have the right license (which can be very expensive). The problem with IBM solutions is that they don’t always work in practice (e.g. the notorious Maximo Mobile Suites), too complex (Anywhere/MobileFirst solutions), having limited support from IBM (tickets generally take months to resolve or not resolved at all), or having limited material available for developers to customize/integrate. Gartner over the last several years have been putting IBM mobility solution under the “Cautions” section. Only in the recent 2017 report they say something a bit more positive about it which reflects recent development in IBM Mobile First strategy and the Anywhere solution . Third-party vendors on the other hand usually have consultants available to come in and guide clients to design process and implement their product properly and with much lower cost. They are usually smaller companies with dedicated people working in mobility space, as such they can provide a much better integrated solution with proven integration modules, software, hardware options and best practice recommendation for processes. Mobile apps provided by 3rd party companies can be less customizable than IBM’s product, and client usually have to rely directly to the vendor to provide 3rd level support, but they are usually very well designed to achieve high efficiency and smooth user experience. Overall, implementing these solutions are usually much more cost effective, provide better ROI, and client usually see much higher success rate.
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