IBM has expanded its enterprise mobile computing offerings with new software that puts critical information about buildings and equipment into the hands of maintenance staff in the field.  The new software replaces paper reports while helping organizations better manage and maintain their campuses, cities, water systems, rail lines, roadways and other infrastructure.

IBM software already helps more than 6,000 organizations around the world track, monitor and manage millions of physical assets as diverse as cell towers, buildings, fleets of vehicles, clinical equipment, water mains, railway cars and manufacturing parts.   Through new enhancements to its Maximo Web-based software, IBM's enterprise asset management software is available to run natively on the browsers of the Apple iPhone and iPad, and Android-based phones.

While maintenance staff in the field have traditionally worked from paper copies of work orders, the new software provides real-time information at their fingertips across the expansive territory they need to maintain -- miles of track, hundreds of buildings on acres of campuses or thousands of devices spread throughout a facility.  IBM Maximo Everyplace software displays job plans, location of assets, maintenance history, work-order tracking, and service requests, which can help companies deliver better preventative maintenance, speed repairs quickly before impacting operations and optimize the usage of parts to ensure greater efficiency.

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, an academic medical center located in Galveston, Texas, uses IBM Maximo software to maintain its 84-acre campus of more than 160 buildings to quickly identify assets in need of maintenance, saving time, addressing maintenance issues -- often before there's an issue -- and expediting and streamlining reporting.

"Improving patient care is our top priority. Working with IBM enables us to gain insight to ensure our medical equipment is optimized and that all of our assets are accounted for," said David Reynolds, director, Fixed Assets and Reliability Systems, University of Texas Medical Branch. "This service enables us to log and respond to requests throughout the campus and provides us more visibility into the lifecycle of our most important assets, in turn improving the work environment and quality of care at our facilities."

All the benefits enterprises currently gain from using IBM Maximo software – reduced lag time on work orders, reduced manual paperwork and errors, and increased reporting capabilities – are enhanced through use of Maximo Everyplace on mobile devices.

"By instrumenting and managing assets more intelligently, companies can gain operational efficiency and reduce reoccurring costs," said Bill Cheng, vice president, Asset Management, IBM Software. "Adding mobile capabilities helps empower staff with critical information in real-time when they need it most -- while they are on the road or in the field -- to deliver overall better service."

The new software provides mobile access through WiFi, cellular or satellite, so there is no need to carry a separate mobile device. Since it is Web-based, no additional software needs to be downloaded to the device, and administrators have the flexibility to choose which capabilities are displayed on screen to fit individual preferences. Through Maximo Application Designer, the administrator has the ability to quickly customize the mobile view of Maximo screens for each iPhone or Android depending on the type of functions the end user requires.

Every day more than one billion mobile phone subscribers are touched by IBM software. Smart devices help people gather and share knowledge and insight faster and more accurately. The rapid proliferation of mobile devices serving as mini-computers has spawned an increasingly mobile workforce that needs to be as interconnected, intelligent and instrumented as the digital and physical systems upon which they depend.