By Don Omura, TRM Chief Operations Officer

It wasn’t too long ago that the only real options for Maximo SaaS at larger, asset-intensive organizations was to go to a third party SaaS provider, such as our company, TRM. The third party SaaS providers offered the flexibility that IBM Maximo SaaS did not have, such as Maximo industry solutions and add-ons, mobile solutions, third party solutions, custom java classes, and complex integrations.

Today, the situation is vastly different. The full portfolio of Maximo industry solutions and add-ons are available in IBM Maximo SaaS. Third party-solutions, including mobile solutions, are allowed; same with custom Java classes. Custom SLAs can be negotiated and client control over application updates and planned outages is possible. Staying at lower patch levels until you are ready to move up is also possible. Site-to-Site VPNs and complex integrations to on-premise and other cloud systems is available. Even LDAP and Single-Sign On is an option. Customers can choose to add one or more non-production instances of Maximo to meet their configuration management needs.

All of the aforementioned options are available through standard IBM Maximo SaaS and/or IBM Maximo SaaS Flex. The “Flex” version of Maximo SaaS, as the name suggests, provides the greatest flexibility.

So, has IBM leveled the Maximo SaaS playing field? NO. In fact, IBM has tilted the playing in their favor. Besides what I have already mentioned, IBM Maximo SaaS also provides these key discriminators:

1. The Concurrent user type. Only offered in IBM Maximo SaaS and not through third party providers, the Concurrent user type allows the vast majority of enterprises to achieve significant cost savings. The concurrent user subscriptions can be used to cover large pools of less than full-time users and shift workers while allowing full access to Maximo, unlike Limited or Express user types. The Concurrent user type is also available for all industry solutions, add-ons, and Maximo Anywhere. As an example, we recently completed an on-premise to SaaS migration analysis for a client where the annual SaaS subscriptions fees came to more than $100K less than what the customer pays today in annual Subscription and Support (S&S) fees alone!
2. SaaS First. Like most major technology companies, IBM has adopted a “SaaS first” strategy across all software product lines. This means that all new Maximo features and functions, as well as patches, are released first on their SaaS platforms. This means you wait less for productivity enhancing capabilities and bugs go away faster.
3. IBM delivered service. You cannot beat IBM for SaaS delivery of their own product, Maximo. They have competitive advantages across the board: Operations, security, disaster recovery, scalability, resilience, and stability.

Expect IBM to continue to widen the gap between their Maximo SaaS offerings and what is available through third party providers. IBM knows that SaaS is here to stay and will soon be the primary delivery mechanism for Maximo. Today, we see the 80/20 rule is already in effect. That is, over 80% of all of our net new Maximo opportunities are SaaS, using IBM Maximo SaaS as the delivery vehicle. Big, small, or in between, it doesn’t matter.

One word of caution: The decisions that come with the flexibility and completeness IBM SaaS offerings can be confusing. Make sure you are working with someone who understands the offerings inside and out and can guide you to what is best for you and your company.

To learn more, download TRM’s recent webinar about SaaS Options here.