By Sharon A.M. MacLean

You know the pain of having your server collapse overnight or the nightmare that comes with a network that goes down? Me, too.

In fact, my IT business collaborator who runs 40 enterprise servers for clients has lost years of sleep because of glitches that lead to such rough episodes. Competition is fierce and he doesn’t need to lose any business.

It can be the same drama for industry professionals managing chemical plants, power generators, manufacturing operations, and forestry facilities. Superintendents on tight production schedules to meet customer demands don’t need the extra anxiety. Think of oil and gas with critical assets such as compressors, pumps and turbines.

Systems failure can have catastrophic effects on revenue, regulatory compliance, and customer service levels.  I’m familiar with the levels of anxiety from the world of printing with crews running 24-hour shifts. Nobody wants downtime.

Yet, Blaine McGillivray of Technology Concepts Group tells me there’s a new solution that protects against plant downtime. They call it Predictive Insights + Maximo for asset management—IBM lingo for customer orders that get fulfilled and delivered on time. Of course, everyone wants to see customer satisfaction that brings market share.

It’s all about the early warning of an asset problem. The alert gives operators time to evaluate and research the history of the problem. They can determine the best advice and strategy to remedy the situation in the shortest amount of time and least disruption to the business; minor equipment issues get discovered before they become catastrophic failures. Millions get saved in lost plant time, production and revenue.

I’m all for that. And people like my friend get better rest at night.

Blaine will be at IBM’s InterConnect conference at Las Vegas this month talking about Predictive Insights for IT and asset management. His session #5993 is titled “Take Action Today for the Challenges of Tomorrow—Take Your Asset from Zero to Predictive in 90 Days”. It’s in the Cloud Infrastructure & IT Optimization Stream, on Tuesday at 9:30 am, February 24, 2015.

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Need help with modern marketing? Contact me through LinkedIn or by email: sharon@worldgatemedia.com. You can also pick up more ideas from my website: http://www.worldgatemedia.com

Life-long communications strategist Sharon MacLean owned and published a traditional print magazine over 21 years for business people. She now applies her enhanced knowledge in digital marketing to the needs of her clients and believes in the value of combining the best of both worlds.