Your unique path to maturity
Enterprise asset management (EAM) has a wide-reaching impact across the organization. It plays a critical role in everything from quality assurance and production output to on-time shipments, customer satisfaction, revenue, and safety. And it’s these outcomes that often determine a company’s long-term success. That’s why reaching the right level of asset management maturity isn’t just operational best practice, it’s a competitive advantage.
A “tween” is not better than a “toddler.” But it is crucial to recognize where your organization is today and where it needs to be tomorrow –– and which strategy will get you there. Different organizations have different starting points and goals. Some may need to move from reactive to be more in control, while others aim for predictive maintenance. Many companies that we speak with are ready to drive and reach new heights.
Where value is built
Each stage in the EAM Maturity Model represents a step toward better performance, greater control, and higher return on investment (ROI).
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Stage 2
The first step toward asset management maturity is regaining control. At Stage 2, you begin shifting away from reactive break/fixes to planned maintenance. Your EAM solution gives you a clearer view of which assets are failing, when exactly they are likely to fail, and why — this means you’re no longer “fighting fires” of surprise breakdowns. Your team knows what type of maintenance is needed and when it’s scheduled, which helps you better communicate with operations about how long the asset will be down. The shop floor feels less chaotic and more in control.
Stages 3 and 4 put you in the driver’s seat
Data is the fuel that powers your asset management strategy. When you are managing assets at the Proactive and Smart levels, it means you are forecasting costs, building budgets for labor and spare parts, and justifying upgrades or replacements with hard numbers. You are looking beyond maintenance –– to identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) and integrations that support smarter decisions across operations and health, safety, and environment (HSE).
Stage 5 is the ultimate performance level
Asset performance reaches new heights when it is aligned with your organization’s strategic goals. You’re planning with precision, controlling costs, meeting regulatory compliance with confidence, and putting resources toward continuous improvement. Your EAM strategy is now a competitive lever for long-term value.
From signing to refining your EAM implementation
Signing a contract for an EAM system is the starting point of your asset management maturity journey. Long-term value comes not from the software alone, but from how well it’s implemented, adopted, and refined over time. A mature asset management program rests on four building blocks: people, processes, systems and tools, and data. Together, they shape an ecosystem that supports adoption, aligns operations, and prevents your EAM journey from stalling after go-live.
People are at the heart of your business. Building a culture where maintenance is seen not as an interruption but as a business priority requires buy-in from all corners: management, operations, and engineering. It means clearly defined roles, better communication, and removing roadblocks like decision bottlenecks. The same goes for processes: if they’re undocumented, unclear, or inconsistent across sites, they’ll create more friction than flow.
This is where your EAM system comes in. A good system adapts to your maturity level, helping your teams do the right work at the right time, reducing administrative overhead, and making asset data easy to find and act on. True maturity means bringing data together from across departments and systems so everyone’s working from a single source of truth. Before leaping to Internet of Things (IoT) or artificial intelligence (AI), ensure your core systems are integrated, and your high-quality data is clean, complete, and connected.
Customer stories: From implementation to impact
IFS Ultimo and MaxGrip have over 60 years of combined EAM experience. We support organizations in not just implementing but continuously refining their EAM strategies. Drawing on MaxGrip’s proven roadmap, we help organizations navigate their unique paths to asset management maturity and realize sustained EAM improvement beyond go-live.
For example, we teamed up to deploy Ultimo at three Indian BP Castrol sites. How did we deploy three sites at once and get internal adoption for the new way of working? By focusing on people and processes, we first established an unbiased project leader not connected to one site. We held cross-site workshops to focus on the same way of working. We created a uniform process that works for large and small teams. And we kept central the idea that business deployment is about more than implementation; it’s about getting the people to work with the system. The results have been a rapidly deployed system, happy users with cross-site collaboration (sharing best practices and learnings), and all three sites deployed on one platform.
In another case, MaxGrip helped Victrex with the implementation of Ultimo, as part of their maintenance and engineering excellence program. For the supplier of high-performance polymer solutions, our roadmap included user acceptance testing (UAT) of all requirements. The final Stabilize phase focused on end-user training for adoption, and dedicated aftercare for sustained performance. All five Victrex sites in the UK are now working with Ultimo as their EAM system. A site in China will follow soon.
Asset management maturity: bringing complexity under control
Reaching new heights starts with understanding where your organization is today. With that basis you can better identify where you need to go and how your EAM strategy can help you get there. Each maturity stage is a gateway to stronger performance, tighter operational control, and a higher return on your asset investments.
Learn more about your asset management maturity?
Discover more details about the Ultimo EAM Maturity model, or book a demo directly!
More information about MaxGrip, who were awarded with the Ultimo Implementation Partner of the Year 2024 award, can be found here.
