The IBM Middleware User Community is a thriving global network of IBM users. As User Group Leaders, we tend to focus on our geographic regions, often missing the great content that is published by user groups around the world. In that spirit, we've asked a user group member to share her experience at a recent user group meeting.
Publishing blogs that recap user group meetings is a great way to draw in new members to your group or encourage existing members to attend a meeting. If you'd like more info on blogging, check out some of these 'How To' articles: Blogging 101: The Basics and How to use IMWUC’s blog feature.
Guest Blogger: Helen Fisher
On November 15, the Maximo UK-Ireland user group held their annual fall meeting. Helen Fisher, a member of the group, wrote a live blog showcasing the event. Thanks Helen for sharing this inside look at a user group on the other side of the world (for many of us!). Fun fact, Helen is also the leader of the ASEAN Maximo User Group!
You can follow Helen by visiting her "My Page'. Then, click the add icon, which looks like this: 
You can also follow her on LinkedIn.
Maximo UK & Ireland User Group - 15th November 2017, Manchester
By Helen Fisher, BDP Zenith Ltd
Congratulations to the new committee for putting on a great first Maximo UK&I User Group in Manchester (Sam, I hope you kicked back for once!).
The venue and lunch were great, so a big thanks to all the sponsors. The turnout was good too, with over 50 Maximo users braving the north (even our hotel had a wellies and umbrella theme), plus the usual mix of Business Partners, IBMers and vendors.
Richard Barber, Committee Chair, kicked the morning off with a reminder of the power of the Maximo user community – both as a vehicle for change and as a forum to learn. We are all on the same journey after all, so let’s ride it out together!
*** A reminder that the group is looking for a new committee member to join, as well as presentations for the next meeting which will head back to London. The next meeting will probably be held in May.
Kim Woodbury, IBM, flew all the way from the States to deliver the latest Maximo roadmap for the new year ahead. Rest assured, Maximo is still all about managing your assets, reducing downtime, preventing equipment failures, utilising labour and materials efficiently, and supporting industry standards.
There is also a lot of investment into new areas such as Asset Performance Management, Health & Safety, and Field Service Management. These innovations address the total cost of ownership and asset health.
IoT and BI use cases are also a reality now. An example was given for using Watson Analytics for Failure Code Analysis. Based on your work order history, Watson can suggest probable causes based on experience. Whilst Watson is supposed to highlight trends in your data, you can also use it to highlight areas of your data which require some TLC (blank fields, duplicate entries etc.).
“History always repeats itself…”
IBM continue to invest in the new UI and are working on creating a more seamless experience between traditional Maximo and work centres. Plus, there are many new integrations to leverage other parts of your organisation such as BIM, IoT, ERP and SCADA data streams.
There were other exciting bits such as a Blockchain Maximo repository coming early next year, drone inspections, wearables, and augmented reality.
IBM spends a lot of time developing the product to meet stringent industry standards and support new regulations such as GDPR which comes into play in May 2018. IBM will develop new reports, labels and screens to provide the tools you need to help you achieve GDPR compliance.
*** A reminder that Maximo version 7.5 end of service is set for April 2018 having been released back in 2011 (times flies). Maximo version 7.6 is following a slightly different model of continuous delivery, with new features packs being released twice a year. Maximo 7.6.0.9 is scheduled for release at the start of December with a focus on work centres, multi-tenancy, and Cognos 11.
A new release of Maximo 7.6.1 will come next year, rolling up all the 7.6 feature packs released so far. This will include key enhancements such as applications for budgets and inspections, license audit capabilities, work centres, and technical improvements.
Finally, Kim reinforced the power of the user group, so get submitting your RFEs!
“Groups have larger voices than individuals!”
Next, Richard was back up to present Drax Group’s Maximo journey (tongue in cheek "DRAXIMO") from 2006 to present day. Their Maximo story is still relatively new having used PRISM for many years.
Drax are just about to go live next week with a new out of the box 7.6 system to support their move from coal to biomass, leaving their bespoke 7.5 system behind.
Next up, Salisbury Group spoke candidly of their CAFM challenges. Having used Concept FM for many years, they struggled with poor data and processes. Maximo was chosen to improve performance management and meet the service levels demanded by government clients.
Some good lessons learned: hire a really good PM; keep engaging the business; work with your supplier; allocate internal resources; and communicate, communicate, communicate!
Infuse, a 3rd party vendor, presented on their “modern software testing” approach for one of the largest retailers during the busiest period of the year. A reminder that Christmas is just around the corner!
** Lunch break was good! **
After lunch, Infinis Renewables presented on collecting real time engine data from embedded sensors and machine learning. They shared a pretty cool dashboard, but aren't yet using the data to inform any changes to their PM schedule. Predictive Maintenance can’t be far off though!
Finally, and last but not least, we were joined by Brian Downey, IBM, who again had flown in for the user group!
Brian is the Scheduler product expert and gave us all a taste of the latest Scheduler and Scheduler Plus V7.6.7 which are released this week. Key highlights include SMS alerts, a Scheduler dashboard, configurable tool tips, new reports, highlighted related assignments, and improved usability.
Note that Scheduler Plus includes all the functionality of Scheduler. Regular Scheduler users can upgrade their licenses to unlock additional features for large projects, appointment booking, dynamic dispatching and weather integration.
On the one hand, IBM looks to be moving into the long-term asset management planning and total cost of ownership. They also continue to simply the functionality via work centres.
Brian also stressed the importance of submitting your RFEs via the Developerworkssite. This community tool is monitored constantly and IBM are listening!
Lots of Q&As during the sessions and fun had in the networking breaks. It was especially good to catch up with Graham Drinkwater at DataSplice who is opening a new UK office in Bristol.
And finally, a little in joke for those of you who were there... :)
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