IBM Maximo allows licensees an unlimited number of requestors – but what does this mean for your organization? It means that you can empower anyone visiting your facility, from staff to visitors, to provide valuable feedback on their customer experience for free.
When users can submit requests quickly and easily from their own smartphones, your team can prioritize, track, and resolve issues faster, leading to a better customer experience and improved public perception of your facility.
To unlock this potential, you need to find the right request tool to pair with your Maximo EAM system to capitalize on this functionality. First, you need to understand the difference between the types of work request tools that integrate with Maximo – native apps and web-based tools.
Native Apps vs. Web-Based Tools: What’s the Difference?
According to UX Magazine, “A native app is one that is built for a specific platform, such as iPhone or Android, using their code libraries and accessing their available hardware features (camera, GPS, etc.). A web-based app, on the other hand, is one that is hosted on the web and accessed from a browser on the mobile device.”
Features & Benefits of Web-Based tools
1. Instant Updates and Zero IT Overhead: Web-based tools don’t require users to download or update apps. Software improvements and bug fixes happen automatically, eliminating maintenance burdens for your IT team.
2. Open Access for All Users: Many request apps only allow authorized Maximo users to submit Requests – a web-based tool can be configured to allow public users who do not have the app to provide the feedback you need to maintain your facility more efficiently.
3. QR Code Integration for Faster Reporting: Leading web-based request tools use QR codes tied to specific assets or locations. This allows anyone to simply scan a QR code, fill out a quick form, and submit the issue directly to Maximo, complete with asset data and location context which improves data accuracy and speeds up resolution times.
Features & Benefits of Native Mobile Apps
1. Performance and Hardware Access: Users can download an app for their smart device from their app store, and the app can then access their available hardware features. The downside being that the process of going to the app store to find the app, downloading it, and then subsequently figuring out how to use said app may be a deterrent for some customers. In Enterprise situations, these apps are usually pushed to users by the IT department.
2. Offline Functionality: Thanks to the fact that the code that runs the app is stored locally on the smart device, native apps tend to be faster and more responsive than their counterparts. The negative being that users are then responsible for managing updates pushed out via the app store for their phone’s particular platform.
This becomes especially cumbersome for the organization relying on the app-based Request tool for data, because their IT team needs to continually monitor for those releases and remind their users and the general public to update their apps.
3. Controlled User Environment: App-based tools are ideal when feedback should only come from internal users. Native apps can run asynchronously, meaning dynamic information can be stored locally on the phone temporarily and synchronized with the central web-based server later. While recent technologies and features (such as those in HTML5) will allow for this to also be done in a web-based environment, native apps are still ahead of web-based ones on this front.
Is a Web-Based or App-based Request Tool Best for your Organization?
This answer depends on whose feedback you are looking for. If your organization wants to limit requestors to only those people inside your organization, an app may be best. If you select an app-based request tool you will have to work with your IT department to set up your users, configure to specific platforms, and remind requestors to download updates from their respective app store.
If, on the other hand, you are looking for a work request tool that capitalizes on your ability to allow anyone to submit a Maximo work request free of charge, a web-based tool may be best for your organization. If your goal is to simplify the work request process for everyone involved, from your IT department, to your Maximo users, to the general public using your facility, you will want to seek out a web-based Request tool that allows anyone with a smart device to scan a QR code which is linked to Maximo asset data to quickly provide your technicians with the data they need to locate and resolve issues.
