With the latest MaximoWorld in the books, it is worthwhile to take some time to reflect on the event. I recently described Maximo World as the industry’s best Pot Luck dinner. A Pot Luck dinner is where each person brings forth their best dish – whether that might be the “Big Green Egg” smoked pork, the special mac and cheese or the mythical Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies. And of course, someone is always called upon to bring the veggie tray or to be the cup and plate guy. It is also the time where you connect with those you have not seen in a while, swap family stories and catch up on the latest successes and failures.
Maximo World 2018 had some amazing dishes to be sure – from the appetizers shared in the User Group Round tables or the tasty main courses served up by the Keynotes from Natasha Ravinand (during the WIRAM) or Author Ben Pring who provided the best quote of the show, “Things sucking is the Real Mother of Invention”. Or how bout all those casseroles – nearly 100 of them covering so many different takes on how companies have best implemented, improved, enhanced, etc.… Maximo to make a difference in their organization. Don’t forget about the availability of the basics, like Nikolaus Despain’s “Using the Where Clause and the Power of Embedded Queries” for the newbies or IBM’s presentation on the Maximo roadmap that provided the carbs that we crave. And hopefully you took part of the deserts chock full of IoT, Augmented Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, Spatial, mobile, etc… offered up during the sessions and in the Expo Hall.
The question is… did you bring your Tupperware to Maximo World 2018? There are two things that I have learned when ever my sisters throw a potluck dinner. One, my sisters are fantastic cooks and two, there will be leftovers! With that in mind, I make sure to equip myself with a few Tupperware containers to be sure I can easily squirrel away some of their fantastical fare for later.
So back to my question – did you bring your Tupperware to the event? In working with Pam Denny at IBM, we loaded all the attendees and events into Watson which then analyzed the data to determine that there were approximately 3, 681 unique actionable ideas that were generated from the conference. Of the idea buffet table, Watson then calculated each individual attendee on average, could absorb roughly 84 worthwhile ideas over the three days. 84 different unique ideas that then could be put in your Tupperware and consumed at a later date. How many ideas did you take back to your office to apply?
Terry O’Hanlon, Maura Abad and team not only put together an awesome menu – it takes a lot to coordinate that there are a variety of dishes available- they even were handing out Tupperware at the end of the third day. The “Maximo in Action Panel” that included myself, esteemed colleagues and customers, provided a number of containers that were there to help you take home those 84 ideas and put them into action. The theme of most of the messages was – “Take Action”. Choose an idea and go for it. I particularly liked Paul Crocker, from Kansas City Board of Public Utilities, discussing “stepping up and becoming a vocal leader” – just after sharing that he never pictured himself ever getting up in front of hundreds of people to share what he learned. That is a Maximo evangelist in action!
So, what are the things I took away from the event?
- IBM is not only fully backing MaximoWorld to make it the cornerstone event for all Maximo users, they are fully vested in Maximo! Hopefully, you had a chance to catch the roadmap sessions or go by the IBM booth or listen to IBM’s keynote session. If you did, you can tell that IBM sees Maximo as a critical piece to their overall Watson strategy. This is good news for all of in the ecosystem to keep IBM invested and improving on the solution.
- The Internet of Things is not on the fringe any longer for Maximo users. Judging by the number of sessions on Connecting Assets to Maximo or Using Analytics to better understand/predict failure and IBM’s product roadmap, this capability is here now at a price point that is totally doable. There are customers exploring this capability now – more importantly, these are not just the customers with huge IT or support staffs, the Fortune 100, they are the midsized companies looking for innovative ways to gain control of their operations. They are thinking big, starting small and acting fast!
- The ability to get connected into the ecosystem is huge benefit to a Maximo user. It is rare in the software industry that you see so many willing people offer to share, help, assist, etc. Walking through the halls, at lunch, after sessions or at the booths you could hear people sharing both their challenges and solutions. Take some time to reflect on a few of the contacts that you met and then make an effort to reach out to them. Be willing to take a call or two from customers looking for help. The more you “connect” the more likely you will be able to improve upon your current implementation. Our industry is changing more rapidly than ever – don’t hesitate to reach out to a peer to get their insight.
A final comment is that there was so much “food” that it was a challenge to taste everything. Again, I want to give a shout out to Reliability Web and the presenters. All of these presentations have been recorded and will soon be made available in their neatly labeled Tupperware containers. Don’t miss the chance to go back and listen to ones that you feel are most applicable or maybe even one or two that you have no idea if it is applicable. Listen to one a week – a lunch and learn approach – and my bet is that you come away with another potential idea to implement.
-Ray Miciek | Partner, Strategic Alliances
