Software solutions

Competition in the global asset management software sector is strong, with a number of firms vying for business.

UME Focus: The end-user
In the 1990s, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned desalination authority, Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), developed its own in-house computerised asset management system. However, as the sector evolved and the need for better understanding of assets and the integration of existing sites became paramount, the agency understood that an upgrade of its systems was crucial.

“We had a lot of problems with our own system – both functional and technical – which is unsurprising given that it was more than 20 years old, and the cost of support had become too high,” says Engineer Adel Alsubhi, SWCC’s EAM project manager.

“There was no effective equipment history for our assets, and estimating accuracy was poor. Furthermore, we had no way of integrating budget management into the system, and no way of carrying out predictive or preventive maintenance.”

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In addition, SWCC’s old system was unable to integrate with newer software products and lacked archives. “So we sat down with our maintenance managers from the various plants [Khobar, Jeddah and Shuqaiq] to work out what they needed from the new system,” adds Alsubhi.

“We knew we needed automated procedures, real-time evaluation, management decision support and self-improvement – i.e., a maintenance system that allows access from anywhere at any time, at a low cost of total ownership.”

SWCC selected Infor EAM for a number of reasons, after studying and analysing a number of solutions provided by the various global software giants.

“Infor was simply the best choice for us; it was the right fit in terms of size and experience in the utilities sector, the cost of implementation was low, and crucially, the availability of local support was on hand as well,” says Alsubhi.

The Infor EAM solution was initially implemented at the Khobar plant in 2003, and was integrated with 135,000 pieces of equipment and more than 300 users.

The process took three months, during which SWCC staff worked exceptionally long hours to complete what Infor has since certified as the earliest, fastest and largest implementation of its kind in the Middle East. The product was added to SWCC’s plants at Jeddah and Shuqaiq shortly afterwards.

“I think our biggest problem was with data; if the data is not ready to emigrate to the new system, then the system won’t work,” explains Alsubhi. “In this case, we spent a lot of time revising and uploading the data, and then Infor provided us with reports that helped us correct any errors that might have been made.

“Another issue we had was convincing some of our engineers and foremen – who founnd it difficult to accept change – of the benefits of using such a technical system. Nowadays, however, if the system is interrupted for any reason, you will find that they are the first to complain.”

All in all, SWCC’s experience with the Infor EAM solution has been an altogether positive one. And, as Alsubhi adds, with the company in the middle of a privatisation programme, the product is a strong and flexible asset to have on board.

“With Infor EAM, we can now manage the long-term maintenance of all of our assets – including turbines, our huge boilers and other large pieces of equipment,” the SWCC executive concludes. “In the future, we are planning to integrate the product with our other solutions – such as the Oracle finance product – which will provide the end-user with powerful and relevant information at the touch of a button.”