Invensys Operations Management's new Avantis.PRO 5.0 is on display for the first time at the company's North America Client Conference this week in Houston. Control editor-in-chief Walt Boyes and Paul Studebaker, editor-in-chief of Plant Services, got a sneak peek at the how the new enterprise asset management (EAM) software improves asset reliability and lowers operating costs while simultaneously making those benefits easier for users to realize. Walt and Paul talked with Kim Custeau, director of product marketing.
Listen to this podcast interview.
"Our Avantis.PRO 5.0 software is a comprehensive EAM solution that allows our clients to organize, track and understand asset utilization, performance and availability, as well as to manage maintenance activity and costs over time," said Custeau. "The updated solution enables role-based, online collaboration and features Microsoft Click-Once Technology and other enhancements that will help clients manage the complexities of their business, improve their asset reliability and reduce their overall operating costs."Driven by customer feedback, the new version of the Avantis EAM software solution contributes to ease of use and productivity improvement and includes tailorable screen views. The updated software also includes innovations in data-type awareness and reference controls, multi-column list controls and maintenance entity value optimization.
The Avantis.PRO 5.0 solution augments the deep EAM functionality of its predecessor, but includes the architecture and infrastructure necessary for next-generation enterprise operations management. Built with Microsoft's .NET framework and Windows Forms and compliant with Microsoft User Interface standards, the software allows decision makers across the enterprise to personalize views and pages and create real-time interfaces to the data they need. A new Maintenance Map, for example, displays in real time the maintenance health status of the entire organization. Another new feature, a Contractor Management module, manages contractor expenses, prices and pricing rules, and approval and reconciliation of invoices for both current and past projects to facilitate collaboration in tracking, estimating and negotiating contractor costs.
"The Avantis.PRO 5.0 solution has the architecture and infrastructure to be our next-generation enterprise operations management tool," said Scott Lampe, chief financial officer, Hendrick Motorsports, who participated in the Avantis 5.0 early adopter process. "In addition to leveraging the new functionality in this release, our executives, team leaders, purchasing agents and other staff will also take advantage of the ability to customize page views that will help them execute our business strategy. We look forward to quickly upgrading to the Avantis.PRO 5.0 solution to be ready for the 2010 race season."
