Tapping into the data that comes from connected assets, and building new processes around that information, can be a major benefit in industries such as utilities, oil and gas, transportation, and more.
However, the sort of Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) transformation that is needed to take advantage of intelligent assets doesn’t happen overnight—there’s a level of readiness on multiple fronts that is required of organizations.
How does a utility—or any other organization with large asset—know if it is ready for transformation?
Both Rizing and SAP have tools to identify if an organization has the skills and technology to transform. Rizing offers an EAM Digital Readiness Assessment that evaluates a company from organizational, process, data, and system landscape points-of-view.
SAP Transformation Navigator looks to the future, identifying what an organization needs on executive alignment, what sort of value it can garner from transformation, and what it needs to do to achieve that value.
So, what do organizations need to be ready for EAM transformation? There are two key areas that a company can improve on before embarking on an upgrade journey.
Data Maturity
Date is one of the most important assets for any company. To be digital-ready, a consistent data integration approach with a data governance model, a stewardship layer, and an ownership layer are established. Make sure to communicate with stakeholders and ensure that data rules are clearly defined.
Tools like SAP Information Steward do quality checks on data, and make sure it is in the right place. It’s imperative for data to be set up correctly, as data is the driver behind many digital initiatives.
A truly mature data program is not only IT-led, but has cross-enterprise buy-in, with participation from all parts of the business. It has top-down vision that puts data at the center, and an integrating infrastructure that gives a consistent set of capabilities.
Enabled Employees
There are skillsets and knowledge that will help ensure EAM transformation success. In a transformation cycle, the process includes ideation and vision, rapid prototyping, an integration blue print, and business case development before the implementation and run stages even kick in.
That means your staff needs to ramp up skills on the latest technological innovations—at the very release have an awareness of what they are. They also need to be able to prototype ideas—that’s where SAP BUILD comes in handy. It allows business users to build wireframes for screens and workflows that they can plug into WEB IDE for developers to move into production.
As for the project staff outside of business users—a UX designer can ensure adoption and create operational efficiencies. There are also a number of architect-type roles that will need to be adept in employing a bi-modal strategy.
Key Roles
Finally, there are key roles that you may have to add or seek outside help for, particularly in the data science and machine learning realm. A Data Scientist that understands machine learning and predictive algorithms is ideal.
It’s important to remember that consultants can help fill some of these roles, if it is difficult to do so in-house.
These elements are just the beginning for any EAM transformation project—getting the right data and the right people will set the foundation for a more successful result and can really help a company start making its assets intelligent.