User Buy-In: An Often Overlooked Critical Sucess Factor

My experience as a Maximo implementer and trainer taught me that it is critical that you get the buy-in of the end users. After all, they will be the ones working in the system day in and day out. If the end users find it difficult to navigate, retrieve or input information, things can get ugly!

Maximo should be an enabler for the end users, not a roadblock. Oftentimes, I witnessed established Maximo installations where data quality was poor and not really believable. I was brought in to do training or implement a new application and was hit with the grumblings of the end users who were frustrated and discouraged by what they perceived to be an unfriendly program which they were being “forced” to use.

“Garbage in; Garbage out” (GIGO) was a fitting idiom to describe what many of these customers were experiencing. What was the cause? I believe it was mainly due to the oversight of the consideration of the needs of the day to day end users when Maximo was implemented.

If you are facing a new implementation project, now is the best time to include your end users. Don’t leave them out! End users have a lot of knowledge about the business and their job responsibilities within the business. Allow them the opportunity to provide their input before and during the implementation project.

Find champions within the affected end user groups. A good champion is knowledgeable of their groups’ job functions and capabilities. A good champion will work well with others on the project team and make concessions when it is in the best interest of the overall business.

Groups are typically broken out by job roles. Each role will have specific needs for data input and the kind of information they need to execute their jobs efficiently. Find out what those needs are and include them in your gap analysis and design plans.

Once you have the requirements of the end users, use that information to design the system for ease of data entry, relevant information retrieval and decision-making analytics. Maximo provides many native features to build user-friendly User Experiences.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Tailor the interface so only the relevant data fields are visible and data input flows logically.

2. Design Start Centers to be the tool it was meant to be! Put job specific, relevant data in front of the user as soon as they sign in. No need to drill down into several screens. Provide shortcuts to frequently used applications and push actionable records to them using native automation utilities.

3. Implement the right Maximo Mobile solutions for Field Technicians.

4. Provide adequate training for all end users and tailor training to be job workflow-specific whenever possible!

A best practice for a successful Maximo (or any EAM) solution will begin with the end in mind. Ultimately, the company executives have laid out the strategic goals of the organization. Whether it’s increasing asset reliability, increasing efficiencies in the workforce, managing inventory, compliance, safety, etc., Maximo will support the achievement of those goals. However, in order to achieve said goals, you need accurate data up front (input) to provide the analytics to support the end goals (output). Remember GIGO!

I am interested in hearing other suggestions and best practices regarding end user buy-in!