Pretoria, 05 Jul 2006
Illovo Sugar has contracted IST Data to upgrade its current version of the MAXIMO Enterprise System for Strategic Asset and Maintenance Management (SAM) to MAXIMO release 6 (MXES).
Improved management information for decision-making and management reporting have been one of the major benefits realised from the original MAXIMO implementation at Illovo Sugar`s mill operations in South Africa and Africa since the first commissioning of MAXIMO at the Sezela Mill in 1998.
Illovo Sugar is currently running on MAXIMO version 4.0.3 with Crystal Report Writer. The group is Africa`s biggest sugar producer, employing 14 598 employees, with a turnover of R5 143 000 000 for last financial year, and has extensive agricultural and manufacturing operations in six African countries. Implementation is targeted at 10 mills, seven being situated in KwaZulu-Natal, two in Malawi and one in Swaziland.
Angela Oosthuizen, Illovo Sugar System Development Manager, says the decision to upgrade to MXES means that Illovo users will continue to reap the benefits of their existing knowledge and experience in the product while ensuring the software product remains current in terms of technology.
"The overall project goal is to upgrade both the SA and African operations to MXES, to migrate all transactional historical data, re-apply all current software modifications and to implement a standard scheduling tool," says Oosthuizen.
Dirk Labuschagne, SAM Delivery Manager at IST Data, says the focus of the project is to standardise the implementation of the maintenance and scheduling tool throughout the entire Illovo Sugar Group, establishing a baseline for the corporate roll-out envisaged for 2006 and 2007.
"Extensive user acceptance testing and stress testing has been carried out with the implementation at the pilot site, with the Noodsberg sugar mill being targeted for mid-June 2006."
Oosthuizen adds that Illovo hopes through full utilisation of the software product to achieve efficiency improvements with regard to the planning of the mills` off-crop shutdown - this benefit should be achieved through the use of MAXIMO`s scheduling, works order management and integration with MS project. During upgrading, MAXIMO will be integrated with Illovo`s materials management, purchasing, and financial software, providing seamless information exchange of data between systems.
The business solution as proposed by IST Data supports Illovo`s business and maintenance processes, ISO accreditation while ensuring implementation of a standardised maintenance and scheduling tool thereby facilitating ongoing maintenance/support and future software upgrades.
IST Data will also be responsible for the training of all users on MXES, the Scheduling Tool and the Actuate Report Writer.
Danie Rossouw, IST Data Project Manager for the MAXIMO Upgrade project, comments: "The upgrade project has posed the IST Data Project Team with unique challenges as the Illovo Sugar IT team is running other software upgrade projects simultaneously with the MAXIMO Upgrade Project. This has forced IST Data and Illovo to develop a sound and focused project implementation methodology to ensure continuity of current business solutions operational at Illovo. Our in-depth experience and expertise in projects of similar nature has once again proven to realise business benefits at the client."
Maximo Enterprise Suite is a comprehensive suite of products built on a single, common platform, where each product can be implemented as a stand-alone solution or seamlessly deployed together. It combines enhanced Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) functionality with advanced IT Service Management (ITSM) capabilities that include advanced IT asset management (ITAM), and a full-featured service desk, based on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) guidelines.
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