i AM OMNI: An Ally of People and Legacy Systems

At the 15th National Local Government Infrastructure and Asset Management Conference in Melbourne, Australia, a representative of Western District Council of New South Wales was looking for a plausible asset management software solution. There were increasing and sophisticated regulatory accountabilities being imposed on the legacy systems and Western District Council’s representative was asked to come and investigate the technologies that can satisfy what was required and what the local government of New South Wales could be posing from.

In that conference, a particular exhibitor was generating much attention with their still-nascent product, and the representative seemed to like what the exhibitor was offering. In the coming months, commercials and proposals were shared with the Western District Council, but the project went to an international service provider. This was in 2018.

Some months later, the exhibitor - Eugene Hansen - was on vacation in New South Wales when he met the representative again. The representative invited Eugene for a cup of coffee, and their talks led to a discussion on Eugene’s company and their product. Eugene explained about the advancements they had made, offered a demo, and what the representative saw surprised him. He immediately called in his other colleagues, and they were equally ‘blown away’ with the product in front of them.

“One of them said this is exactly what we need,” says Eugene, Founder, iAM OMNI.

Best-of-breed technology

Eugene founded iAM OMNI with a vision to furnish best-of-breed asset management technology that is an intelligent ally of the legacy system and people who use it. Instead of replacing the existing legacy systems in place, iAM OMNI seamlessly integrates with them to generate valuable insights such as the actual value of the assets, demonstrate compliance of the assets, maintenance-related intellectual property and more.

“iAM OMNI is a visually represented asset management software that is built using the existing resource,” explains Eugene. It provides a simple and easy to use interface that makes the job of field officers easier. The technology employed by iAM OMNI is reverse engineered; instead of following a top-down approach, the software was designed bottom-up, making the software user friendly and requiring minimum and only necessary input from the end-user. The subject matter experts (SMEs) of the clients of iAM OMNI can quickly build asset registers and databases. The software also enables them to accelerate reactive incident resolution time with accurate asset location intelligence.

By virtue of being a supplement to the existing system, iAM OMNI continuously extracts information and grows organically. “Due to the organic growth of the information, we were able to remove bottlenecks and roadblocks to speed up the process of information discovery,” says Eugene.

Our cloud-based Geospatial Asset Mapping Software displays fixed and geospatial assets 24/7 on any internet-accessible device

Every business layer can generate reports based on their needs and requirements. On-field employees can respond faster to the work requests, and compliance managers can maintain compliance and regulatory obligations.

True Value and Compliance of Assets

The visually generated digital asset register, known as the ‘Database of Truth’, will help government agencies realise the true value of the assets. This database will comprehensively support Asset Lifecycle and Strategic Asset Management planning.

It takes less than 90 seconds for the SMEs to enter the Asset Attribute and Metadata into iAM OMNI for each individual asset. This information then serves as the input to the financial legacy systems, enabling better utilisation of existing government resources. Thus, iAM OMNI helps in building a life cycle of understanding via which the information such as remaining useful life, replacement costs, services frequency and next service dates are available in just a click. Anyone can immediately track asset performance and maintenance regimes.

Using iAM OMNI’s inbuilt functionality, Asset Managers can add a legislative, regulative, compliance or best practice maintenance script or defective work request to individual assets to understand how assets are performing comprehensively. Once iAM OMNI is introduced in the system, a granular asset and maintenance history starts getting created. “Imagine how valuable an asset performance and history will be to you at your fingertips,” exclaims Eugene.

An exciting feature of iAM OMNI is its Traffic Light System which empowers users to manage risk outcomes by displaying precise asset risk and compliance profiles. The visual representation of Asset Risk Profile and Risk Mitigation Management tool gives a simple visual overview to instantly and delineate between compliant, scheduled, or non-compliant. The improved regulatory compliance, better budget forecasts and funding submissions can be gathered easily from iAM OMNI, thereby improving financial outcomes for the organisation. Instant funding opportunities will exist only when there is a real understanding of the asset value and condition supported by fact-based evidence. This enables better Asset Management decisions from a greater asset knowledge base.

In a large Australian regional municipality, iAM OMNI was given the task to reconcile against a traditionally prepared asset register.

This reconciliation revealed hundreds of thousands of dollars of duplication in this asset register, and also highlighted an even higher value of assets missed due to not being captured, or not recording new installations or replacements.

Intellectual Property of your Assets

Often, knowledge of the intellectual property of the asset is lost when the person in charge leaves the organisation or when the service provider’s contract is transferred. Since iAM OMNI is a cloud-based software solution, this loss of information is easily avoided. The entire proprietary asset knowledge such as location, performance, condition, service history, compliance status, lifecycle stages and defective work requests, for each individual asset, is stored in the cloud. This enables a genuinely competitive opportunity without the fear of knowledge gaps, which often restrains business activities. And this information will be readily available and transferable to the next user without loss or distortion.

“iAM OMNI gives a visually represented asset management software that is built using the existing resource”

“Our cloud based Geospatial Asset Mapping Software displays fixed and geospatial assets 24/7 on any internet accessible device,” explains Eugene. The knowledge, in turn, provides immediate benefits to asset owners, employees and service providers by simplifying asset management and issue rectification of faults while continuously reducing maintenance resolution times.

Organisations will also experience a significant reduction in lost productivity from attempting to locate a faulty asset location, isolation point, connection or below ground services in spatial properties and geographically difficult terrains. Once an asset is created in ‘iAM OMNI’ it can be updated, serviced, maintained, or replaced creating a history for easy access and audit purposes.

When the representative of New South Wales and his colleagues saw these features and the fact that it was easy to use, they spoke to their Director of Infrastructure and Assets to replace the solution provided by the international service provider with iAM OMNI. This proved cost-effective as well, as iAM OMNI is available at a lower price than any of its competitors.

The cloud-based software is designed to support people who use it, and the company is aiming to get into IoT to ease asset management and compliance further. The company is also making strategic partnerships in Western Australia and across the APAC region for development and utilisation of their product. Eugene is confident of the entrepreneurial ability of his team and is banking on the stability and capability to grow steadily. A collaboration with like-minded companies is on the cards where they can expand their reach to the US market as well. iAM OMNI have cornered a niche in the asset management market, and look forward to an accomplished and prosperous future for the company.