Workflow without Workflow®

Project successes by implementing simple workflows in Maximo with

minimal effort and resources

Sean Watson

Business Systems Analyst, ICT

November 6th, 2012

City of Coquitlam

• 6th largest population in BC

– 126,456 (2011 Census)

• 130 km2

• 750 full-time staff, 750 auxiliary

• 3 campuses, 17 main facilities

City of Coquitlam

• Major Utilities – 1,665 km of mains

– 86 pump stations

– 14,300 catch basins

• Roads – 1,200 lane kms

– 505 kms of sidewalk

• Parks & Facilities – 130 facility locations and sites

– 412 park grounds locations & 2,100 parks assets

• IT – 3,400 hardware and software assets

Maximo History in Coquitlam

• Too long

• Maximo customer since 1998

• Versions 3.x, 4.x, 5.2, 7.1

• 285 users across all departments

Maximo Usage in Coquitlam

• Just about everything, except safety

• All municipal assets in Maximo – Major utilities, parks & recreation, facilities, IT …

• Multiple integrations – PeopleSoft (HR, Time & Labour)

– Oracle Financials (AP, GL & PO)

– Document Management

– Fuel System

• Up coming enhancements: – TSRM for IT (Live this month)

– Maximo Spatial (2012/13)

– Mobile Solution (2012/13)

Workflow without Workflow®

• Achieve a lot with very little

• Enhance workflows with OOTB tools

• Improve and automate communications

• Simplify the user experience

Workflow without Workflow®

• Maximo 7 OOTB tools

– Conditional Expressions

– Domains and Synonyms

– Escalations

– Communication Templates

– Actions

– Roles

Why not Workflow®?

• Before someone asks …

• Workflow® could possibly be used in every

use case

Why not Workflow®?

• However …

– We’re simple, simple is good, simple is quick, simple

is flexible, we like simple

– Lack of resources to define, implement and support

– Process diversity

– Flexibility over structure and controls

– Inconsistent approval hierarchy

– No additional security setup required

– Acting users and delegation pose significant

challenges

Workflow Use Cases

• Purchasing

– Approval requests and multiple approvals

– Subscription based approval notifications

– Integrity checking for approvers & PR limits

– Contract renewals and reminders

• Inventory and Materials Management

– Integrity checking to prevent future errors

Workflow Use Cases

• Employee Qualifications – Expiration or renewal reminders for staff and

management

• Work Orders – Data entry audits

– Multiple reviews and approvals

– Automated data management

• Assets – Automated data management

– Data entry audits

– Downtime notices

Qualifications Use Case - Challenges

• Aquatics track 5 or 6 individual certifications for

200+ staff

• Managed via paper records and spreadsheets

across multiple facilities

• No simple means to track expiration

• Lack tools to ensure that staff are fully certified

when scheduled

• Never used Maximo

Qualifications Use Case - Solution

• Employee records were already in Maximo

• Recreation staff consolidated data into Excel

• Maximo integration used to load

• 30 minute training session for record keepers

• 2 staff now manage 1100+ qualification records

• Maximo issues all reminders to staff and

management for expiring qualifications

Qualifications Use Case Details

• 2 Person Groups

– One group for management and supervisors

– One group for record keepers

• 2 Roles

– One for employee work email address

– One for employee person email address, if

provided

Qualifications Use Case Details

• 4 Communication Templates

– 60 day reminder for employee

– 30 day reminder for employee

– 7 day warning for employee and record

keepers

– 2 day notice for shift replacement to

employee, record keepers and management

Qualifications Use Case Details

• Sample 7 day warning notice

Qualifications Use Case Details

• 1 Escalation

– Retrieves expiring qualifications

– Notifies staff based on time interval

Qualifications Use Case Summary

• Less than one day of effort to setup and

load data into Maximo

• Minimal training required for record

keepers

• Haven’t had one non-certified employee

work a shift since implementing

qualifications in Maximo

Qualifications Next Steps

• Engineering and Public Works – Currently consolidating training and certification

records for use in Maximo

– Will assist with retraining and scheduling efforts

– Anticipate automated communications for all levels of staff

• HR – Reviewing requirements and Maximo capabilities

– May use Maximo to cover all training and qualification records for the City

– Ease of use and simplicity of notifications have been attractive elements

Purchasing Overview

• PRs, POs and Receiving in Maximo

– Migrated purchasing to Maximo during 7.1.X

upgrade

• Integrated with Oracle Financials R12

– AP, GL and PO

• POs and Receiving sent to Financials to

support AP processes

Purchasing Challenges

• 25/75 mix of electronic and paper PRs

when purchasing migrated into Maximo

• Redundancy in data entry and approvals

• Mix of Maximo and non-Maximo users

• Many casual approvers, they don’t know

Maximo, don’t want to know Maximo

• Too many manual processes, emails,

phone calls etc…

Purchasing Use Case

• Purchasing trained and mentored staff through transition over 12 months

• Eliminated paper PRs and generated many new users in Maximo

• Built numerous purchase contracts to enhance data entry, consistency and controls

• Prompted need for better workflow and automated communications

Purchasing Approvals Use Case

WAPPR APPR

CAN

DRAFT WAPPR APPR

CAN

Maximo Default PR Status Lifecycle

Coquitlam PR Status Lifecycle

CLOSE

CLOSE

START

START

FINISH

FINISH

FINISH

FINISH

•One new synonym status for PRs, DRAFT

Purchasing Approvals Use Case

• 2 Conditional Expressions

– Ensure that defined lifecycle is followed

– DRAFT to WAPPR, WAPPR to APPR etc…

Purchasing Approvals Use Case

• 2 Roles

– PR Supervisor / Approver

– PR Requester

Purchasing Approvals Use Case

• 2 Communication Templates

– PR Approval Request for Supervisor

– PR Approval Notification for Requester

Purchasing Approvals Use Case

• 1 Escalation

– Find new WAPPR, APPR PRs and notify users

Purchasing Approvals Use Case

• Purchasing Start Centre

– Use generic saved queries

– Applicable to all e.g. :USERID instead of “WILSON”

Purchasing Approvals Use Case

• End User Start Centre

– Again, use generic saved queries

– Present users with only the data they need

Purchasing Use Case Summary

• Almost 100% usage of Maximo PRs now

• Users receive notice with direct link to PR

– Don’t need to know how to use Maximo

– If only they’d remember their passwords

• Standardized entry with increased contract

usage

• Improved data integrity and consistency

• Minimal setup and administration

Purchasing Approvals Next Steps

• Expand multiple reviews and approvals

process for a single PR

• Integrate capital approval process into PR

and PO approvals

Purchase Contracts Use Case

• Automate communications for expiring

contracts

– 1 Role

• Contract buyer or purchase agent

– 1 Communication Template

• Notify buyer of upcoming contract expiration

– 1 Escalation

• Find expiring contracts and notify buyer

Work Order Use Cases

• Automate notifications

– Some groups are new to work requests

• Rarely login to Maximo

• Require a prompt when action is required

• Communications are issued for certain staff to

inform of new requests

• Upon approval, additional communications are

sent to the applicable maintenance division(s)

• 1 Person Group, 2 Comm Templates & 1

Escalation

Work Order Use Cases

• Audit data entry

– Most prevalent complaint in Maximo

– Do not want to slow down data entry

– Escalation audits newly created work orders

– Communications are sent to users after a

reasonable amount of time

– Inform users that standards have not been

met

Asset Use Cases

• Audit data entry

– Escalations used to search for

• Incorrect or missing GL accounts

• Incorrect or missing failure codes

• Duplicate asset tags

• Duplicate serial numbers

• Etc …

• Can correct most mistakes using actions

or notify user via email

Asset Use Cases

• Mass updates

– Use escalations and actions to perform bulk

updates to specific assets or asset classes

• Automate notifications

– Asset up/down status (e.g. water hydrant out

of service)

– Expiring warranties for fleet of vehicles

Inventory Use Cases

• Automate integrity checks

– Use escalations to search for problems in

storerooms

• Average cost variances

• Duplicate bin numbers

• Null bin numbers

• Missing inventory balances for stock items

– Use communications to notify users

Workflow without Workflow® Summary

• Automate communications

• Improve user experience

• Flexible solutions

• Minimal setup

• Minimal training

• Achieve a lot with very little

Questions?

Sean Watson

swatson@coquitlam.ca