This platform has the ability to help businesses boost their productivity, prevent downtime, and make workers’ lives more efficient. However, there is a caveat here. Hexagon EAM can do all of these things, but on one condition: The information input by a user must be accurate and the person who is handling the software must know what they are doing. At the end of the day, if the user isn’t trained—or if they are negligent—then the EAM software can’t do its job correctly.

A Tool is Only as Good as Its User

Here’s the truth. The moment that a user doesn’t understand what they are doing or starts being “willy nilly” about the information they are entering is the moment that the software will not work for your company. Inaccurate, incomplete, even untimely information is a deal breaker for the Hexagon EAM platform. And don’t get us started on user laziness related to skipping key steps in information set up or entry—either because they don’t know what they are doing or don’t understand the importance.

In this regard, we have seen a variety of scenarios about how EAM software was driven off the rails. Users realize that no one is guarding the EAM castle, so work orders inadvertently get created against the wrong assets. Or maybe spare parts get issued to the wrong assets and events, and suddenly costs have no solid foundation and work orders don’t get completed.

And the longer this goes on, eventually the information in an EAM platform is utterly and completely useless—it’s a work of fiction and there is no way it can be used for any meaningful analysis. Ultimately, the EAM software that was purchased, invested in, and meant to be the company’s salvation in the maintenance of assets is viewed with disdain and frustration. “It didn’t work correctly for us! What a waste of time and money!” management and users cry in agreement, blaming the software.

But is it the software’s fault?

Absolutely not.

Why? Because while an investment of money might have been made in the EAM platform, what wasn’t invested in was time—time in training, time in learning, time in ensuring that users know what they are doing when they are handling the EAM software.

Knowledge + Software + Strategy = Success

Here at DigitalThinker, we seek to work as coaches and help businesses understand that tools alone do not drive results—rather knowledge combined with strategy and the right tools do. When that equation is present, then the game can be changed.

Yes, implementing training and ensuring your team knows how to handle your new software takes time and effort, it costs your business money. Moreover, it also takes buy in from business leaders and managers directly at the top. And frankly, there is no way around this. EAM tools cannot supercharge your company’s efforts unless the user handling the platform is educated, confident, and interested. That is the only way to truly harness the software’s potential and features—and make it benefit your business.

Luckily, that is something we specialize in. The DigitalThinker team is an Hexagon Channel and Alliance Partner, and we not only know all of the capabilities, features, and benefits of the Hexagon EAM software, but we also possess the ability to ensure you and your team understand how to work it—and embrace doing so consistently, efficiently, and confidently. We want you to succeed while your EAM product is still shiny and new as well as in the long-term when some of the initial excitement and wonder might have worn off.

We want to help you become experts, so you get the most out of Hexagon EAM. What’s more is that even in today’s volatile business environment, we can help you keep learning and growing. While we are proud of our ability to offer on-site training services to our clients—at our facility and yours—we are also adaptable enough to deal with an ambiguous work environment when virtual training is needed.

So, let’s get started. Stop blaming your software and start helping your people get better and more knowledgeable. Reach out to our team today to discuss our training services and begin making Hexagon EAM work for your team.