Agile software
November 1st 2005

Ian Clay met David Hipkin of the Soft Sols Group to hear about Agility, the company's newly launched browser based maintenance management solution

'It is the best kept secret in the CMMS market' says David Hipkin, group managing director of the SoftSols Group about the company's flagship client / server product IMPACTxp.

"A really good product, but no one knows about it". This is one of the reasons that David is so keen to shout about the company's latest development Agility, a browser based maintenance management solution that he believes will have the effect on the CMMS market that easyJet had on the aviation market "It will change the way that business works" he predicts.

Agility claims to address the traditional problems associated with maintenance software, i.e. Companies invest in a software solution and either the implementation is never fully completed and the system is not used to its fullest extent or, as David subtly puts it "The software is rubbish".

So why not just re-launch the IMPACTxp product? According to David "Technology wise, the time was right to develop a new system. Agility has been developed using the Microsoft.NET framework and the latest mobile computing technologies." The Microsoft.NET framework provides an infrastructure and scalability that the company believes is not available in other products.

Value for money

SoftSols belief is that traditional maintenance systems are complex, costly to integrate and difficult to use. It believes that Agility addresses all of these concerns, particularly the one of cost. Licensing costs for Agility are £595 per user, and the system is designed to be easily scalable so that users can go from a small system upwards. "Agility is not cheap and cheerful" maintains David Hipkin, "but it can be easily built upon".

The system is also simple to use and importantly, designed very much to the requirements of engineers.

One of the downfalls of many implementations is the natural fear that we all have to change. This fear is very evident when changing from one way of managing equipment and assets to another. Engineers cling on to old habits and old ways of viewing/storing information and Agility recognises this need while slowly evolving their use of the new software. As Paul Ford, Implementation Engineer says "With Agility, engineers can still see their old data in legacy systems, it is left parked up.

However, that is where it remains to make sure that we do not squeeze old rubbish into a squeaky clean system". Another advantage of Agility is that the implementation period is extremely fast.

The company maintains that a basic installation can be completed in less than one day followed by an optional two day's training.

Features

Agility aims to make managing equipment and assets easy with datadriven templates, powerful search and drill down capabilities and customised data.

Agility's browser technology provides instant remote access for those in the field who need to gain an overview of enterprise assets, and the web can be used to fully research and link associated information. A full range of media can also be used to attach reference data to records.

One of the most innovative features of Agility is that screens can be easily configured based on the type of equipment data that needs to be stored. Rather than paying huge fees to consultants to change the look of the system, Agility provides a user-defined design system (albeit access protected so not everyone can change every screen). The ability to customise every screen in real time is delivered by Soft Sol’s patent pending FastNET ASP technology, which has passed the Microsoft platform tests for Windows Server and .NET managed code.

As you would expect Agility, offers all of the features associated with a CMMS: equipment and asset management; work orders and preventive maintenance; inventory and spare parts. Some features, such as the employee allocation and resourcing feature, and the scheduling feature, offer the chance to really optimise the use of the workforce. Agility provides a sophisticated employee database to record information about staff availability, and offers an up-to-date view of ongoing maintenance resourcing. Even complex shift patterns can be tracked effectively.

Allied to this, Agility provides a graphical web-based employee scheduling tool to quickly identify employees with the right skills and availability. Agility means you can allocate lesser qualified staff for lower priority work. This scheduling feature is part of the core Agility system, not an extra cost plug-in. It can be particularly used with a mobile workforce as this information can be integrated with Agility’s PDA system.

Reporting

With Agility, detailed histories can be maintained for all completed work orders, right down to task level. Users can build up a detailed history of all time and costs. All employee time is allocated, allowing for both call out and overtime. Agility gives users a web based reporting tool that supports Microsoft reporting services so that reports can be exported into Excel, Word or Adobe Acrobat.

Another innovative feature is the reporting subscription capability. A user can decide what reports he/she needs to see and then decide when these reports should be delivered. These reports are then delivered straight to the desktop as often as required. This is an important tool for engineers to keep senior management informed of the engineering status of the facility. The regular delivery of KPI’s will smooth communication between the financial side of a business and the engineering side.

Agility is the culmination of the 20 years experience that David Hipkin and SoftSols have in dealing with big customers. Its powerful functionality, simple implementation procedure and affordable pricing make it a highly attractive proposition for those looking to venture down the CMMS path, or those who are currently unhappy with the information they are currently producing for the cost. The big challenge for Agility and SoftSols will be if it can win customers away from the big vendors. However, David Hipkin is confident as he believes the system is for engineers, "What they really need".

More articles from Soft Sols Group (EMEA) Limited: