Botswana Meat Commission upgrades its asset management solution

Working with P-IST Data, a Premier IBM Business Partner, Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) decided to upgrade its current IBM Maximo Asset Management application for maintenance management from Maximo 4.02 to the latest release Maximo 7.1, and also interface with its current financial system. The solution will cover both current BMC operations in Lobatse and Francistown, as well as a new installation in Maun.

IBM Maximo is a Strategic Asset and Service Management solution that will enable BMC to improve its business operations by unifying not only the business processes, but also the fragmented systems used for tracking and management. IBM Maximo will also enable BMC to manage the increasing number of service providers whose performance must be understood and managed to support asset accountability and mission readiness requirements.

“We believe because of the superior IBM Maximo product and the collective capability and experience of our professional services team, we will be able to provide the BMC with the optimal solution at the lowest risk with huge areas of future expansion and service enhancement, says Gavin Barbier, Powertech IST Data Consultant for the BMC Upgrade.

P-IST Data uses a “closed-loop” system development and implementation methodology that ensures timely, cost-effective, consistent, and successful results. This methodology is based on the concept that each customer's requirements are unique and important. P-IST Data's approach and methodology is both flexible and scalable, and provides the most favourable solution.”

The move to upgrade Maximo emanated from shortcomings associated with the current processes at BMC, which included:

* Failing to access the financial system for activity costing (integration).
* Failing to access spares stock at stores.
* Failing to track order/requisition status.
* Manual system prone to falling most times, resulting in unacceptable levels of downtime.

“Reconciliation of physical assets against what the book records has become a nightmare for accountants and almost impossible. With Maximo 7, we will embark on a best practices approach regarding asset management, whereby all assets including IT assets can be managed in a single solution following the ITIL principles,” says Billy Mauco, IT Manager at BMC.