Mobile enterprise asset management

Mobile enterprise asset management (or Mobile EAM) entails extending work processes for maintaining, operating, and repairing corporate or public-entity physical assets, equipment, buildings, and grounds through mobile technology. It involves managing work orders, such as service requests, by facilitating communication between a mobilized workforce and computer systems to upkeep an organization's facilities, structures, and assets.

The essence of implementing mobile EAM as a business practice lies in providing remote workers with access to data from the organization's computer application software for enterprise asset management (commonly known as an enterprise system, EAM system, or backend system) via handheld devices or other mobile computers. This is distinct from mobile asset management, which broadly refers to the tools, instruments, and containers organizations utilize to track and secure portable or moving equipment and assets.

In the mobile EAM process, organizations eliminate the need for paper forms or other manual data reporting and communication methods, such as push-to-talk and radio, to transmit work order information to and from the location where the work is conducted.

While enterprise asset management involves overseeing an organization's entire asset portfolio, including processes like equipment addition/reduction, replacement, overhauling, redundancy setup, and maintenance budgets, mobile enterprise asset management is narrowly focused on the wireless automation of asset management data for these processes.

Mobile EAM technology
When accessed and utilized on a handheld device, mobile work order applications furnish detailed information such as location, step-by-step job plans, safety alerts, lock-outs, and prior work history on the asset. This provides maintenance technicians or other remote workers with comprehensive asset insights and the capability to transmit work data to the organization's enterprise system upon completion, either through a wireless network, docking station, or another synchronization method.

By employing computer software to implement standard mobile EAM practices, organizations frequently observe an enhancement in the timely and accurate flow of data between their remote workers and central management, including planners and schedulers. Consequently, this improves decision-making processes related to capital and labor allocation, including the ability to schedule more planned/preventive maintenance work.

With the widespread adoption of smartphones and other mobile computing technologies, asset managers can anticipate a workforce increasingly proficient in technology, reduced costs in mobile devices, and a greater inclination towards feature-rich, workflow-specific mobile applications.

Challenges
Nearly all challenges in mobile EAM practices can be attributed to two key factors: time and labor resources (including IT or information technology management) and investment costs.

Developing and implementing a mobile application architecture on an enterprise scale is no small feat. Mobile applications encounter various device operating systems, output media (voice and data), and connectivity methods, unlike the PC (personal computer) environment where software typically requires fewer updates and entails lower upfront costs. Organizations aiming to deploy mobile EAM applications frequently enlist the assistance of technology consulting firms and dedicate months to researching, planning, and selecting an implementation strategy.

Industries using mobile EAM
The use of mobile enterprise application platforms (MEAPs), designed around service-oriented architecture principles for multiple systems integration and custom modification, and other forms of wireless computing technology for mobile EAM solutions is growing rapidly, particularly in industries where physical assets form a significant cost proportion of organizations’ total assets. These industries can include:
 * Facilities management
 * Utilities
 * Life sciences
 * Government organizations
 * Manufacturing
 * Oil and gas industry
 * Transportation industry

In such high-value asset scenarios, the asset lifecycle improvements introduced by the increase in the enterprise data flow of mobile EAM processes can bring significant savings, particularly when part of an enterprise-wide capital and labor management strategy that integrates multiple systems in an enterprise architecture (EAM system, mobile EAM application, labor dispatch/scheduling software, GIS, etc.).

Market growth
In a 2009 study, market analyst Gartner, Inc. forecasted, “For the MEAP and packaged mobile application market…we now expect market growth annually of 15 to 20% through 2013.” Gartner attributes this anticipated growth to enterprises’ increasing willingness (and ability) to extend decision-relevant information to employees, who are themselves increasingly mobile.

For EAM practices as a whole, this means that an increasing proportion of organizations in capital-intensive industry sectors (such as those above) are adopting mobile technology as an integral part of their enterprise asset management strategy – corresponding with an enterprise-wide emphasis on whole-life planning, life cycle costing, planned and proactive maintenance, and other industry best practices.