6 Ways XRM Helps You Manage Distributed Assets

When you're dealing with distributed assets, especially large machinery like the pumps in an oil field, being proactive instead of reactive often reduces downtime, resulting in enormous savings in time and money.

But with complex equipment, you're often trying to manage assets within assets, such as specific components within a larger tool. To avoid being overwhelmed, you need powerful tools in place to monitor and analyze asset data.

XRM technology is designed to manage relationships, broadly defined. That makes it ideal for managing relationships between service providers and assets, as well as between internal assets and customer assets. XRM gathers all data that's relevant to such a relationship into one place, making it easier to monitor data points, identify standard procedures and automate routine tasks.

Here are six ways to improve how you manage distributed assets with XRM:

1)  Asset inventory: With XRM, you're able to define key data points around an asset and automate the data collection so that it's always available and up-to-date. Since you're working with a single, centralized data repository, there's less risk of errors due to duplicate data or competing versions of the truth.

2)  Spatial information: If you use data points to track the locations of your distributed assets, it helps provide good answers to customer questions. If a customer wants to know if a certain piece of equipment is available, XRM automatically collects this data, so you always know where that machine is located. This allows you to provide better service to your customers. Heat maps and other visualization tools give you a bird's eye view of where asset issues are currently concentrated.

3)  Scheduling: Creating data points in XRM gives you detailed insights into distributed assets, from machines to components to the individual part level. This allows you to use trend analysis to identify faulty parts, for example, and be proactive about managing your inventory and preventative maintenance.

4)  Technology: When you use XRM to constantly gather data from technical assets, you don't have to wait for a customer to call with a problem. XRM data monitoring allows you to quickly see if an asset is having issues. This approach helps decrease downtime and replace repairs with a proactive managed service model.

5)  Safety: When it comes to safety issues around distributed assets, you can't afford to just react to problems as they arise. XRM helps you identify data points that have indicated safety issues in the past and use preventative maintenance to get ahead of the problem.

6)  Compliance: In many industries, the regulatory environment is constantly shifting. When a new regulation affects a specific part or piece of a part, it's helpful to be able to update the information one time in one place, instead of contacting customers one by one. XRM's ability to track and manage specific assets across your customer base make it ideal for ensuring compliance.

When you're managing complex, distributed assets, XRM helps you be proactive instead of constantly putting out fires. This approach helps reduce equipment downtime, saving time and money for both you and your customers.