From the Maximo Support Desk - Introducing The IBM Knowledge Center!

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"I just have a quick, basic functionality question, can you help me?"

Yes we can, and here's where we keep the answers...

IBM Knowledge Center
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/?lang=en

Sometimes you might have a question that you think is pertaining to basic product functionality, but you don't want to go through the process of entering a PMR and then waiting to ask one of our support engineers directly, through that channel.  There is a faster way to get many of the answers to these types of questions.  I would like to make you aware of a valuable source of information for Maximo Asset Management products.  Introducing... The IBM Knowledge Center!

With your IBM ID you can sign in to the Knowledge Center, and then create a default set of products that are applicable to your environment, or that you frequently search for information about. (this is the same login ID that you may currently be using for DeveloperWorks)

To Select Products:
-Click Add Products | Cloud & Smarter Infrastructure | Maximo Asset Manager | Apply
-the default selection is 7.5.0 (7.5.0.5, 7.5.0.3, and 7.1.0 can be selected)
-Click Save Search and then give it a name, ex. "Maximo EAM"

Usage examples:

The customer wanted to know what the difference between PENDOBS and OBSOLETE status is for Inventory items.
Search for "pending obsolete status"

In my role as a Maximo Support Engineer at IBM, I have the pleasure of speaking with many of our clients personally, and many of you are starting to use this website for self-help and quick support.  For example, one client was expanding his organization's use of Maximo purchasing to include Invoicing, in an effort to reduce the dependency on a third-party, integrated financial system.  He wanted to gain basic, and concise information about whether or not the Maximo Invoices application could provide the functionality that he requires.  The IBM Knowledge Center was the perfect source for this information.

Another client that I recently worked with encountered some issues surrounding Maximo Inventory applications.  The source of the issues were that the User base did not understand the nature of item reservations, and were peforming the process incorrectly and causing downstream inconsistencies.  I introduced him to the applicable section in the Knowledge Center, and he found that he could answer his User's questions and educate them on the processes that were causing issues and delay in their Maximo environment.  Additionally, he could also send his users the URL from the Knowledge Center topic, and this could then be used as an educational tool that concisely explains the functionality and usage of the applications.

I can also reveal that, as a support engineer, I use and value this tool.

For example, there are many, many details surrounding the various financial transactions that occur in Maximo, and I often get questions about these.  I'm not an accountant, but I can help clients by gaining an understanding of how accounting processes function in Maximo by referencing the available information in the Knowledge Center.  Check out the kind of information that you can get from the Knowledge Center if you're trying to troubleshoot something for your accounting Users...

If you search for, "financial processes reference", there is a lot of very valuable and useful information here...

You can then drill down to the individual process, grouped by application.  You can then see detailed explanations, as well as the pertinent calculation and accounting information:

Tom Richardson is an IBM Maximo Support Engineer and frequent contributor to the Asset Management Blog community.  For a complete index of links to his articles, visit
Index of articles by Tom Richardson, Support Engineer