The wave of new technology that is sweeping through the IT industry is already making a difference for many organizations, but in the trenches, the disruption happening upstream does not overshadow the fundamental need to keep business operations running smoothly. Facilities and equipment lifecycle governance is a big part of that, and the larger the company the more items there are to track and maintain.

The technological answer to this momentous challenge emerged in the form of enterprise asset management (EAM) software, which happens to be the core area of focus for ARC Advisory Group research director Ralph Rio. He hopped into theCUBE at IBM Pulse to discuss the changing dynamics of this fast-growing segment and how Big Blue fits in with hosts John Furrier and Dave Vellante.

ARC is a self-fashioned boutique analyst firm that employs over 70 consultants worldwide and specializes in providing advice on core IT infrastructure to manufacturing companies. Rio says that the cloud show is of particular interest to clients because it provides an insider’s glimpse into the development roadmaps for Tivoli Maximo Asset Management and IBM TRIRIGA, two of the most widely-used EAM suites on the market.

This year, Pulse attracted a record 11,000 attendees and saw the launch of Maximo on SoftLayer as a software-as-a-service offering. The solution appeals primarily to small- and medium-sized customers that don’t have the resources to support the platform, according to Rio, since enterprises can achieve greater economies of scale by deploying the software in their private data centers. Running Maximo in-house also allows for greater security and compliance while, arguably just as crucially, sidestepping the usual cultural barriers to cloud adoption.

Despite relatively sluggish adoption in the Fortune 500, Rio points at SaaS as one of the two most important trends in the EAM market, with the other being mobility. He sees the proliferation of smartphones and tablets driving new efficiencies on the plant floor.

“A mobile device in the hands of a technician, where they can manage a work order while they’re on the site doing the work, provides some improvement in efficiency – but the big benefit is the data integrity. So when you got good data going into your EAM system and it’s real time and accurate, then people have more confidence in it and they use it,” Rio details.

Mobile devices fall under the umbrella of the Internet of Things, a term that encompasses all connected devices from smart TVs to embedded sensors that transmit usage and maintenance data in real-time. From an asset management standpoint, it presents an unprecedented opportunity for automation.

“Focusing on the uptime metric, what does the Internet of Things do? It allows you to remotely monitor an asset and predict when it’s going to fail, so that you can take corrective action before it fails,” Rio remarks. The ability to proactively identify and resolve issues holds obvious benefits for manufacturers.

“Being able to anticipate [problems] has, number one, huge ramifications in terms of the cost of a repair, and number two, now you can plan the downtime rather than having ugly unplanned downtime. And when you plan the downtime then it’s less likely to be a big repair, and you can schedule it so it doesn’t impact revenue,” he elaborates.

IBM is well positioned to take advantage of Internet of Things thanks to its dominant position in the EAM space, but there is no lack of competitors. Rio says that a company called ABB is making big gains with an aggressive acquisition strategy, while Oracle and SAP are bundling inventory management capabilities into their ERP suites. Meanwhile, more than 150 smaller vendors – a third of which entered the scene in the last five years – are battling for market share in the background.

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