Imagine a world where you don’t need to operate, maintain, or update server hardware to deliver the most basic functionality to your enterprise asset management team. A world where the status of a project can be updated in the palm of your hand. A world where flexible workflows, full audit trails, and powerful reporting are available to everyone from field workers to project managers. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) project management platforms are all of those things and more.
Enterprise asset management (EAM) involves the management and maintenance of physical assets throughout the entire asset lifecycle — including planning, deploying, and maintaining the asset. Physical asset management in itself is complex, but on an enterprise scale, it’s a whole new ballgame. EAM has many moving pieces, such as timelines, complicated projects, many budgets, different stakeholders, and a variety of field workers all across hundreds, possibly thousands, of sites.
Choosing the right enterprise asset management (EAM) software
In order to keep track of each project, enterprise asset project managers must determine which tools and processes work for them. Choosing new enterprise asset management software can be difficult and even daunting, but if you ask the right questions, the process is a breeze. Of course, you must choose the right software for your unique business needs, so when you are looking for the right partner to help grow your business, ask your self these five questions:
1. Is your enterprise asset management software Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)?
Is time of the essence? Is innovation important to you? If yes, then you should consider using a SaaS asset management platform. Traditional software products are outdated and clunky. They require installation onto your server and are difficult to update. SaaS options are constantly updated, flexible, and available on both mobile and desktop. If you want to successfully deploy and manage critical infrastructure assets, consider using a SaaS platform.
2. Does your enterprise asset management software grant complete project visibility?
Can you see where any or all projects are at a glance? Most EAM companies like yours have hundreds of projects underway at any point in time. All of them have a significant number of interdependencies across multiple internal and external stakeholders. Unfortunately, traditional project management tools and processes lack the ability to present all relevant project information in one view.
With SaaS project management software, you can quickly and easily see the latest updates at any level from individual project milestones to entire asset and project portfolios. For example, project managers can view a dashboard, click on a tile with summary information to view the report, click on individual projects, and then even see the status of tasks in that project. This drill-down capability connects strategic objectives with individual tasks, ensuring alignment and enabling data-driven decision-making.
3. Is it capable of real-time reporting?
Are you able to make decisions based on live data or do you need to wait to act? Without real-time reporting, project managers lose valuable time and money waiting around for project updates.
With real-time reporting, EAM project managers can make decisions on the spot in order to meet their project goals on time. Stakeholders need easy access and frequent updates on everything from budgets to timelines, as well as team and vendor performance results. SaaS asset management software makes it possible to report on real-time information no matter how large or small your business.
4. Will it help consolidate disparate tools and improve workflows?
Legacy and on-premise tools are difficult to integrate with each other and lack the workflow automation needed to manage large numbers of projects. With SaaS, you benefit from dramatically improved workflows and operational efficiencies that make it easier to manage an enterprise asset management team.
Modern SaaS solutions bring together previously separated tools, creating a full-stack, full-lifecycle set of services that empower your whole company (and vendors) to collaborate seamlessly. A great example of this is how Sitetracker helps companies across all aspects of the project lifecycle, from planning to deployment, asset management, time tracking, maintenance, and marketing, to name a few aspects of the platform.
5. Is the software accessible for a field worker?
Enterprise asset management teams are decentralized and mobile. As EAM team members travel between sites, customer locations, or remote offices, they need to be able to gain insights into project performance from their phones and other mobile devices. This becomes especially important when vendors are performing closeout reports and are required to upload photos on location. From social collaboration to document management, SaaS project management software gives team members the ability to easily perform all of these essential tasks on-the-go.
Making the decision
After you consider these questions, consider where you want your company to be in the future. Do you want your enterprise asset management company to scale? To improve metrics? To increase communication? To make data-driven decisions? If you are interested in your company’s future, learn more about Sitetracker, the leading SaaS project and asset management solution for EAM.