The success rate of mobile app implementation for Maximo is far lower than that of Maximo implementations. It's because mobile app implementations are still relatively new, haven't evolved as much as web apps, and there are many misconceptions about them. Let's go over the top ten myths, the truth, and how to reduce the risk of myths affecting the success of mobile app implementations for Maximo.
Myth # 1 : Plug & Play
The mobile app is just the front end with all business rules and logic in Maximo, so we can use it as plug & play software.
In reality, enterprise mobile apps cannot be downloaded and used without any configuration. The organization needs to spend a considerable amount of time and effort to implement a mobile app for Maximo due to the following reasons:
- Most of the mobile products in the market today take care of Maximo's business rules/ validations. However, additional configurations/developments are required to handle the offline working.
- Unlike web applications, the mobile app interacts with your Maximo system using APIs or other data transfer mechanisms. Therefore, the mobile app should be configured to take care of data download/upload based on your data volume, application usage & network speed to have seamless data synchronization.
- The implementation team should understand your organization's authentication type and security restrictions and configure the mobile app accordingly.
- The implementation team should consider opportunities to redefine the existing processes to leverage the smart features of the mobile app such as Beacon/NFC/Bar code scans, OCR capabilities, Audio/video logs, Speech to text, Maps, and navigations, Safety alerts & notifications.
- The implementation team should take care of the Mobile API's impact with other interfaces. It is required when Mobile app artifacts in Maximo are used for other interfaces or the data updated from the mobile app are sent to an external system.
- The implementation team should extend the post-go-live support to take care of the changes in business requirements, usability improvement specific to your use cases, and issues related to data, app, network & devices. This continual support is important to derive the benefits and ensure the adaptability of the app.
The organization can perform due diligence before proceeding with the mobile app implementation. The best approach is to discuss with the team that recently implemented the mobile application to get the insights, challenges, and learnings. Also, get the prerequisites and key learnings of previous implementations from the chosen mobile vendor
Myth # 2: App with a familiar Maximo navigation
The mobile app should be similar to Maximo so that we can reduce the training time and adaptability.
The mobile app that follows Maximo navigation cannot be user-friendly. Unlike a web application, the mobile app should follow Mobile UI guidelines, Gestures, and navigations. A native mobile app with familiar and known gestures/navigations as per Apples' Human Interface guideline and Google's Material Design guideline makes the app intuitive and increases adaptability than an app that mimics Maximo navigation.
The organization can perform a hands-on evaluation of the mobile apps for ease and navigation during the selection/ evaluation process. Please consider an app with intuitive, contextual & native navigations, unlike Maximo, for a better investment return.
Myth # 3: Features are more important than technology
The mobile app should be feature-rich. The users don't care about the underlying technology; it's about the features and functionalities.
While it's good to have all the required features to meet the organization's processes, the choice of technology is equally important for the mobile app. The underlying technology of the mobile app should be -
- Future proof, i.e., the mobile app development platform should not be a bottleneck in leveraging the ever-growing smartphone features. Many Cross-platform / Hybrid apps have limitations in using the newer features of Android / iOS operating systems.
- Easy to integrate with any 3rd party systems such as Maps (ESRI ArcMap, Google Map, Apple Map), Content management systems ( Sharepoint, Open Text), GPS devices ( Trimble(, IoT devices (beacons, printers, vibration/temperature sensors)
- Adaptable to operating system ( Android / ioS) upgrades; for example, it's not easy for some of the cross-platform/hybrid mobile apps to support the new OS upgrades. The underlying platforms, such as ReactNative, Flutter, Ionic, etc., should first adapt to the OS upgrades before the mobile app can adapt.
The organization should evaluate the mobile app architecture & underlying technology for impacts such as OS upgrades and future IoT and 3rd party system integration needs. Please request your mobile vendor to submit the Technical architecture for the evaluation.
Myth # 4: Highly Configurable with the utmost ease of use
The mobile app should be highly intuitive following the UI and UX guidelines, and also, it should be highly configurable.
In reality, a mobile app cannot have the best of both worlds. The configuration capabilities should compromise the ease of use, while the most ease of use Mobile app should compromise configuration capability.
The Organization can choose a mobile app that does not compromise on ease of use (non-negotiable) while providing reasonable configuration capabilities.
Myth # 5: Need all records
The mobile app should display all available transactions from Maximo.
The field users can have better tracking & control and ease of use if they need to deal with a limited set of data presented contextually. The mobile app should have a sub-set of transactions with a facility to download other transactions on demand.
The Organizations should revisit their planning strategy as part of the Maximo mobile implementations. It's better to redesign the short-term planning strategy & opportunity maintenance strategy with mobile app implementation in mind.
Myth # 6: Choice of Mobile Device
The mobile app supports multiple operating systems and multi-vendor devices, and we don't need to worry about the device strategy.
Managing and supporting the app used in multiple operating systems ( Android, IoS) and multi-brand ( Samsung, Pixel, Apple) devices requires more time and effort. The issues that happen in one brand's device may not be replicable in another brand. Also, testing should be planned in multi-brand and multi-OS devices for the mobile app releases separately to ensure test coverage.
The organizations should decide on the device strategy ahead of the mobile app implementation. It's better to opt for single OS and single-brand devices to reduce the support, testing, and upgrade efforts. If not, try to restrict the variations.
Myth # 7: App Distribution
The mobile app distribution can be done through Apple's App Store or Google's Android store. Apple's App Store or Google's Play store cannot effectively distribute and control mobile devices. These stores are not meant to distribute the app to the end-users or enforce policies for your enterprise.
The organization can decide on a Mobile Device Management (MDM) software for the Mobile application distribution and management. The MDM software is important to easily distribute app releases/fixes to all users and ensure better control of the devices.
Myth # 8: Performance
The mobile app is an add-on to Maximo, and no performance optimization is required. Mobile app performance depends on several factors of your infrastructure landscape and your Maximo configuration, and therefore performance tuning/ optimization activities are required to ensure optimal performance. For example, if the mobile users are directed to the UI JVMs, it will impact Maximo's performance. If video uploads are not restricted, it will impact the app performance due to the longer time required to synchronize large files.
The organization should plan for performance tuning activities as part of the mobile app implementation. The infrastructure strategy should be in place during the implementation to maintain the optimal performance of the mobile app. Also, database tuning of your Maximo instance shall be considered.
Myth # 9: Network Security
The mobile app implementation does not require any changes in the organization's network security policies.
Any mobile app in the market should leverage 3rd party cloud service providers such as Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging services to send push notifications. These notifications are required to automatically send alerts for the new records and update the records already downloaded in the app. The mobile app can work without the notification, but the users will not get automatic alerts or updates.
The organization should get the requirements related to notification services from the mobile vendor to plan for the changes in their network security policies, such as opening up the ports & sending non-sensitive data such as work order ids to 3rd Party cloud messaging services.
Myth # 10: Synchronization errors
The IT team / Support team should take care of synchronization errors of the mobile app.
Data synchronization errors are common for a mobile app as it interacts with Maximo using APIs. The errors can be business errors due to Maximo data validations, Maximo business rules, etc., or Technical errors due to network issues, Authentication issues, etc. The IT team/ support team alone can not resolve all such errors.
The organization should have a well-defined error handling process that involves business and IT users to investigate and resolve such errors.
Author:
Arul Varadarajan
Principal Consultant & Managing Partner - Enterprise Asset Management
