Companies with diverse employee technology backgrouds and with multiple locations face the challenge of managing the users’ access to their service ticket system.  There are a few contradictory issues and requirements to consider.

Introduction Acquiring software for running a business is one of the greatest challenges for a company. There are many vendors, with many different products, with a wide variety of capabilities. Choosing the application that fits your company is difficult not in the least because there is no 100% fit. An organization is often required to reorganize to fit the software they bought.  

The alternative is to have the software adapted to the buyer. But this can turn out to be an expensive undertaking as well. First you have to acquire the software, and then you need to hire people specialized in the product to customize it to your requirements. They set to work and after some time, they deliver a product that is more or less to your specifications. In the meantime, you’ve been left in the dark as to the feasibility and progress. And more often than not, you are disappointed by the end. You could also have the software completely custom made, but this is only slightly different from adapting a standard product....

Pricing models for SaaS are dependent on the usage and operating costs.  SaaS usage and operating costs depend on a number of different factors.  Some pricing models try to incorporate many different elements of such costs leading to complex pricing models which are hard to apply and unpredictable for the long term planning.  In this blog, we review different cost factors and recommend a simple and predictable pricing model.

By Maarten van Emmerik and Mehdi Khalvati

Flexibility in Handling Service Requests for Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)

(CMMS)When introducing Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) software (alternatively known as Maintenance Management Software) into a company which has depended on the email-based service requests, it is important for the CMMS to allow approaches which would make it easy for such users to move to CMMS as smoothly as possible and without a lengthy and expensive learning curve. 

 

In this blog post, a couple of Axxerion CMMS approaches for smooth transition from an email-based system is reviewed.

In a SaaS environment such as Axxerion, the backup and safekeeping of the client data is of utmost importance.  In this article, the different possible backup strategies and their pros and cons are reviewed.

By Maarten van Emmerik and Mehdi Khalvati

Development and offering of an integrated software for facilities management has many interesting aspects.  One such thing is dealing with Acronyms in multiple languages.  This blog has a partial list of Acronyms in the US market.

Construction, manufacturing and research and development companies manage their projects using different tools and project management software with the goal of handling the multi-faceted nature of a typical project. A key element of a good project management software system is the management of the tasks, timelines and time reporting (timesheets). Time reporting is important for invoicing the clients appropriately, getting the project employees paid as well as ensuring compliance with the prevailing wage laws.

 Companies need to maintain their assets and prevent them from getting worn-out.  Computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) assist in creating what is commonly known as “preventive maintenance” or sometimes called “scheduled maintenance”. However, many of such programs only offer a narrow definition of what preventive maintenance should be and how such scheduled maintenance programs should function. Companies need the flexibility to define very detailed maintenance plans in some cases and in some other cases deploy simple maintenance plans as appropriate for different assets. Also, the definition of “assets” should be very general itself to accommodate the needs of the different companies. In this note, I am expanding on the definition of such broader perspective for preventive maintenance and assets.

It is important to properly track consultants' contracts. Companies need to have checks and balances to detect when a consultant's work and therefore his or her contract are completed or terminated.  At the termination of the contract, any assets assigned to a consultant needs to be accounted for ,  also project information and company information which are with the consultant and would need to be either returned or discarded.  There also needs to be a review and compliance with the terms of the contract including any outstanding payments.  There are often issues in properly executing these steps which can be overcome with the help of a contracts management solution.