2021 marks my forth year of receiving an IBM Champion award – something which I am very proud about and especially given the challenges 2020 brought.

3 IBM Champions for 2021 at BPD Zenith

I am delighted to say that I am also joined by my talented and dedicated colleagues from around the globe –  Stephen Hume (North America) and Graeme Sharp (Asia Pac). A huge congratulations to my colleagues for their contributions. I look forward to another year of being connected to this community and exchanging ideas about technology trends.

What is an IBM Champion?

As IBM Champions, we contribute to a group of thought leaders around the world who influence and mentor others to get the most out of IBM solutions, software and services. In this instance, we champion IBM’s Maximo Enterprise Asset Management suite.

As IBM Champions for Maximo, our team contributes and gives back to the active user community – organising and leading user group events (many of which still went ahead digitally last year), posting tips or solutions in forums, writing blog posts, sharing videos, and some!

Being an IBM Champion during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 was a very different year for our user community who is used to getting together frequently to learn, network and socialise on both a regional and global level. All travel and face-to-face meetings were cancelled. BPD Head offices were shut, and many of us are still working from home. Most of the events and user groups we had intended to sponsor, attend, exhibit at, run, were cancelled. This didn’t stop us though! We simply moved online.

Honda of the UK Manufacturing gave a great presentation on our implementation project at the virtual UK & Ireland User Group, we received a MaximoWorld Award virtually, we hosted our own MaxiCloud user forums, moved MaxTECH online and shared tea break teasers.

2020 Trends

I wrote this time last year that I was looking forward to seeing IoT and Asset Performance Management take centre stage. Indeed, BPD invested heavily in this innovative area and we launched a new offering called LoveYourAsset which brings all your data sources under one roof giving you an overview of the health and status of your most critical assets before failure strikes. It is solutions like this that keep us excited about the product and we were excited to see how the user community responded.

For 2021, I see us looking a lot to the new Maximo Application Suite and its latest generation capabilities.

Thank You

Thank you again to Libby for her great IBM Champion programme and for bringing this community of technology enthusiasts together!