PlantServices.com has improved its CMMS Software Review with customizable functions allowing users to rank up to 25 attributes and receive scores and rankings identifying the packages that best fit their application. The tool is powered by the research of noted CMMS/EAM expert David Berger, P.Eng.

Real-world pressures are driving computerized maintenance management/enterprise asset management (CMMS/EAM) software vendors to rethink and revise not only their products, but how they can help users actually achieve a larger portion of the potential they shrink-wrap in every package.

From AMR Research, Inc.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Alison Smith

Is it something in the air? The ink hadn’t dried on our “And then there was one” piece about the dramatically shrinking short list of large pure-play EAM vendors when Vista Equity Partners announced its imminent plans to acquire and merge veteran enterprise asset and service delivery management (EAM/SDM) vendor Indus International with mobile workforce management application provider MDSI (another Vista-owned property). 

Indus International, Inc. (Nasdaq: IINT), a Service Delivery Management solution provider, announced today that it has entered into a merger agreement with Vista Equity Partners under which an affiliate of Vista will acquire Indus at US $3.85 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately US $240 million.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Vista will combine Indus with its portfolio company, MDSI Mobile Data Solutions Incorporated, a developer of enterprise mobile workforce management software.

Vista Equity Partners acquired MDSI for approximately US $70 million in September 2005. 

VALENCIA, Calif., Oct. 23—Link It Software Corporation announced today that its web-based maintenance tracking software, EZ Maintenance Web (http://www.ezm-web.com), now offers six account types designed to provide access to economical, online maintenance software to companies of any size or requirement. EZ Maintenance Web enables users to track and schedule preventative maintenance and control inventory for any type of equipment or vehicles in unlimited numbers from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection.

VUEWorks version 2.5 combines the strength of browser-based asset management with the power of the Geodatabase integrated with a Computerized Maintenance Management System(CMMS).

Concord, NH October 18, 2006 – VUEWorks, Inc. today announced the release of Version 2.5 of their Infrastructure Asset Management and Computerized Maintenance Management suite of products.  VUEWorks is the only full featured Infrastructure Asset Management application that runs 100% in a browser making it the easiest solution to share maps and data across the organization. With release 2.5, VUEWorks’ powerful asset management features are now complemented by enhancements to the VUEWorks Work Order module and full support of the ESRI’s Geodatabase through ArcSDE.

Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN) today announced that Guilford County, N.C., licensed its Lawson M3 Maintenance Management application. Guilford County is the first of the company’s traditional service sector - or S3 - customers to license a Lawson M3 product since Lawson acquired the former Intentia International AB in April 2006. The county will use the application to streamline management of its fleet of more than 150 non-public safety vehicles as well as track work orders and maintenance for county buildings. The contract was signed in Lawson’s first quarter of fiscal 2007, which ended Aug. 31, 2006.

Spescom Software, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise content and configuration management solutions, announced today the partnership with Total Resource Management, Inc. (TRM). TRM is a technology and consulting firm that provides integrated asset management solutions focused on driving the most return on investment for all enterprise assets and asset management systems.

Source: Datamation

IBM has always – meaning in the last six years or so – eschewed a direct role as a competitor in the enterprise applications market, following some disastrous acquisitions and other painful learning experiences. But, as the market matures and competition for IT dollars heats up, what IBM will and won’t do to compete with SAP, Oracle, Infor, and others has been the source of much speculation.

And here comes some more. IBM’s recent acquisition of MRO Software is moving IBM more closely than ever into a directly competitive role in the applications space. While there may be some nuanced way that IBM can still claim not to be directly competing for applications revenues, it’s hard to see the MRO deal for what is it and still buy IBM’s hands-off stance.

Here’s the deal in a nutshell: MRO does asset management, meaning it can help manage any asset – a shop floor robot, a HVAC system in a warehouse, a fleet of service vehicles, and even a nuclear power plant. IBM’s Tivoli division is all about IT asset management. But if you look at what MRO manages, by definition these are a collection of “smart” assets that have some sort of internal intelligence and some way of sharing that intelligence with the outside world. So it makes sense that MRO plus Tivoli equals asset management squared – IT management of non-traditional IT assets – and that’s exactly what IBM had in mind when it bought MRO.

Today Eagle Technology, Inc announced the Milwaukee Art Museum selected Eagle Technology of Mequon, Wisconsin to supply its ProTeus V Professional Edition with Eagle’s Proteus Data Interface to the Johnson Controls Metasys Building Automation System for the museums maintenance work management needs.

The Milwaukee Art Museum selected ProTeus V for its ease of use and to document standards for environmental and safety conditions set by the Museum Association are in place. Eagle’s interface to Metasys will insure the proper work is scheduled and completed without reliance on management intervention, freeing up more time for strategic issues. 

One of the largest utilities in the United Kingdom will leverage mNOW! as enterprise-wide mobile infrastructure platform to mobilize all lines of business

Glasgow, Scotland - ScottishPower, the UK’s leading supplier of energy products to more than 5.1 million domestic and business customers, have selected Blue Dot’s mNOW! Mobile Framework as their enterprise wide mobile infrastructure platform.  mNOW! will initially target the extension of ScottishPower’s existing inspection based asset management system, with full integration to GIS spatial data for field users.