Transforming EAM and Business Outcomes Through Cloud

Some advantages of choosing cloud EAM versus an on-premise EAM system include faster initial setup and implementation, greater convenience, lower hardware costs, and automatic updates.

Research clearly indicates how cloud EAM will capture 50 percent of the current EAM market by 2020. Most of the businesses are moving towards cloud and software product companies are making EAM more compatible for cloud using Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model.

Additionally, EAM provides a platform for business intelligence applications focused on asset management decision support and applications that minimize the cost of support and risk of failure.

Advantages of having good cloud based EAM

The perks of having a cloud based EAM are numerous—keeping the organization’s assets and operations at optimum efficiency, accurately tracking the position and location of assets on a real time basis, auditing the assets at any point of time using the wireless handhelds. Moreover, this also includes achieving higher service levels, enabling the management to monitor all their assets through any networked PC, anytime anywhere. These results in the system to be highly scalable (tracking can be extended to staff, visitors, and stores).

Understanding your perfect EAM requirement

Diving into a new software implementation without the right mix of capabilities and delivery can spell disaster, so it’s smart to be patient. The complexity of capabilities and level of customization necessary for your cloud EAM implementation can be a hindrance.

However, there are five specific variables to evaluate when seeking a cloud-based EAM. Your approach may vary depending on whether you’re implementing a brand new EAM or replacing or upgrading from an existing one.

First is the price. Cloud-based software doesn’t carry many of the upfront costs for on-premise software, but that doesn’t mean it should be seen as “cheaper.” Depending on your budgetary constraints, your organization may favour capital expenditures over the annual operating expense common to many cloud-based systems. The second is in the support system. Small and midsize companies have fewer internal support resources, which can help explain why they’ve been quicker to adopt cloud EAM systems. Thirdly, one must take care of the challenges. One should compare the functionality between on-premise and cloud versions, as the latter are likely to have some functional limitations. This could be a deal-breaker for some companies, and it would be best to wait until a version with your required feature set is available. Next one must lay attention on the flexibility of the system. Separate from complexity, the degree of customization in a cloud-based EAM may be limited as well. If your organization simply needs the core capabilities of an out-of-the-box EAM, a cloud option should work. To conclude is the integration capacity. Most often, EAMs are integrated with financial, human resources, and procurement applications. If these integrations are required, it could prevent a multi-tenant SaaS approach, whereby the software is running in a single instance, but serves multiple people.