SAP xApp Mobile Asset Management, utilities is a full offline mobile application that supports service and field maintenance technicians working in the utilities industry to perform their daily activities at customer sites and within plants with all the needed data synchronized onto their handheld devices. Most of this could be used to describe xMAM as well - the ",utilities" makes a major difference though. SAP xApp Mobile Asset Management, utilities includes features of SAP xApp Mobile Asset Management as well as functionalities specific to the Utilities industry. All functions that are available in standard Mobile Asset Management remain, but a number of them have been enhanced by specific functions for utilities. Therefore Mobile Asset Management, utilities has been more or less built on top of xMAM.



SAP xMAM, utilities provides field technicians and service workers with easy and fast access to timely information anywhere and anytime. This enables them to resolve problems faster and better. In addition to that travel time is reduced and the costs per work order are lowered. The need for paper based orders is decreased and access to latest stock information based on actual usage is possible.

The Mobile Asset Management, utilities scenario is comprised of the following key processes:

• Periodic and a periodic meter reading
• Device installation / removal / replacement
• Disconnection / reconnection of utility installation
• Customer-specific utility processes

Technicians can enter data directly on site, resulting in:

• Improved data entry accuracy (e.g. meter replacement or meter reading data)
• Reduction of clerical time spent in the back office re-entering field information
• Loss of data caused by paper based provess is prevented
• Reduction of total cycle time from job completion to invoice submission with associated cash flow benefits

In addition to the advantages listed the application helps in meeting legal requirements of regular and on time assets inspection.




To understand how xMAM, utilities helps to streamline processes let's have a quick look at a traditional order handling process. It's not hard to see the complexity of this process.




And let's now compare it to a xMAM, utilities optimized order handling process. As you can see there are less steps required to get the same - or an even better - result.


xMAM, utilities is available both for PDAs and laptops and runs on SAP Mobile Infrastructure and NetWeaver Mobile 7.0.


As for the technical prerequisites, these are as follows for xMAM, utilities 3.0 (which is currently in Ramp-Up):

Front End:

Windows Pocket PC 2003, Windows Mobile 5.0 and Win32 based devices

Mobile Infrastructure Client:

MI 2.5 or NetWeaver Mobile 7.0

Middleware:

WebAS 6.40 (MI 2.5)
WebAS 7.0 (MI 7.0)

Backend:

IS-U with ERP 2005
IS-U 4.64, 4.71 or 4.72 + defined SP level of PI 2004.1




You can easily adjust xMAM, utilities 3.0 to your needs since it follows the mCAF enhancement concept. mCAF is a Java based enhancement concept that is used by a number of SAP mobile applications like xMTT 2.0 and xMAM 3.0. It allows for easy enhancement of applications following the Model-View-Controller paradigm. Please check my blog on mCAF for details.

Ending this blog just a quick word on the currently available versions: the version in General Availability is xMAM, utilities 1.0. The version currently in Ramp-Up is xMAM, utilities 3.0. Version 3.0 has been built on top of xMAM 3.0, that's why the version number has been adjusted to indicate this.