Selecting the right CMMS/EAM system for your business is crucial. But how do you choose? Comparing industry leaders can help, so we’re comparing Oracle vs. HxGN vs. IFS, three top solutions in the EAM/CMMS space. Our analysts found IFS to outperform the other contenders in most aspects. Let’s take a detailed look at how each fared.

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What this article covers:

• Advantages & Disadvantages
• Features Comparison
  • Asset Management
  • Work Order Management
  • Inventory Management
  • Maintenance Management
  • Materials Management
  • Reporting/BI
• Who Won?

Advantages and Disadvantages

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each — HxGN, IFS and Oracle.

IFS EAM

The makers of IFS EAM promote this product as a comprehensive enterprise asset management model with a “provable life cycle approach.” It tracks assets through all stages of use and applies vital evaluations to help with predictive and preventative maintenance.

IFS EAM makes project management easier, with many available metrics to measure asset integrity and the performance and maintenance status of fleet systems, components and heavy equipment. The IFS EAM application suite includes a mobile platform for better field use. Managers or anyone with access can check reports or evaluate systems from wherever they happen to be.

HxGN EAM

HxGN EAM, formerly known as Infor EAM, software also focuses on preventative maintenance and maximizing uptime for business assets. To this end, HxGN provides many tracking tools and information portals on an industry-specific basis.

HxGN’s strategic planning functionality works on a Predict — Prevent — Profit model.

HxGN enterprise asset management users can pinpoint maintenance requirements by predicting equipment failures. The company can save money on repairs and drive other operational efficiencies by pursuing preventative maintenance.

HxGN also cites specific types of uses for its EAM platform: customers can identify facilities, assets or production line assemblies that are likely to underperform. They can evaluate scheduling or operational changes to see their impact on downstream processes.

HxGN EAM can help administrators look at the availability of assets and what that means for the business while “aligning assets to achieve strategic goals.” By increasing visibility with scorecards, dashboards and other analytics presentations, companies can improve in-house processes.

The HxGN EAM system can contribute to radical changes in business models: HxGN claims customers can see up to a 50% reduction in maintenance, labor and contractor costs and a 20% reduction in downtime.

Oracle EAM

Oracle asset management software serves many different industries with an asset life cycle outlook. Self-serve portals streamline the process of getting maintenance information into the right hands.

Oracle EAM offers fixed-plan, mobile, infrastructure and linear evaluations while also highlighting MRO models for financial planning. Real-time analytics get funneled into preventative maintenance schedules, and intelligent asset analytics contribute to long-term best results. It extends asset life, improves productivity and reduces equipment downtime. equipment downtime.

Oracle is another EAM/CMMS system that offers a comprehensive way to manage a business’s long-term maintenance needs by combining a variety of focus points. It pinpoints the correct preventative maintenance to help optimize asset use.

Oracle EAM combines database-centered activities with other data tracking and analysis types from a top brand in ERP and overall data handling software. In case you’re confused about the differences between EAM and CMMS, then this guide might be useful.

Compare Infor, IFS and Oracle Against Your Needs

Features Comparison

We’ve picked out a few essential features that most popular CMMS systems have. It’s time to see how each of our three contenders fair in these aspects.

Asset Management

Asset life cycle management is at the core of EAM software and assists with tasks like asset tracking, equipment check-in/out, barcode scanning, compliance audits and warranty management. All three of these systems perform excellently in this category.

The IFS maintenance system offers a range of asset management features for physical, fixed and mobile assets. The centralized database lets users track asset information like costs, warranties, work orders, documents and more. It integrates well with backend processes and follows service level agreements to ensure compliance.

HxGN lets companies track, locate, monitor and analyze physical assets. Users can compile data collected on these assets like location, cost history, warranties, claims, meters and more, to maximize productivity and prepare for asset life cycle events. It offers performance, purchase, inventory and other modules to help users manage various asset activities.

Oracle’s asset management module allows users to track mean -time -between -failures easily, asset performance, downtime, maintenance history and more.

Oracle EAM gives users complete visibility into asset activities like transactions, usage, maintenance history, warranties and more. Users can assign parts lists to individual assets, track asset locations and set equipment check-in and check-out to track employee usage. It integrates MRO tasks with financials and operations in a single interface and enforces compliance to reduce risks and ensure worker safety.

Winner: All three of these CMMS systems perform at the top of their class for asset life cycle management features.

Work Order Management

Work order management encompasses how work orders are opened, processed and completed. Work orders can be anything from customer service tickets to maintenance tasks and are the blood that pumps through the beating heart of your organization.

IFS makes maintenance operations more efficient by reducing asset downtime and scheduling errors. It lets users create work orders and assign them to the appropriate resources via a mobile CMMS app. It also offers a calendar tool to plan project management tasks, maintenance work and more. You can base these schedules on frequency, equipment condition, events like inspections, and more.

You can integrate with the IFS planning and scheduling optimization module if you want an even more in-depth scheduling tool.

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HxGN users can create work orders that apply to multiple pieces of equipment. Automated work order creation helps reduce data entry and repetitive tasks for recurring work orders. It assigns tasks to technicians automatically. HxGN offers maintenance scheduling triggers that remind users of repeating maintenance tasks and enable a set-it-and-forget-it feature for scheduling these tasks.

HxGN’s intuitive interface makes managing work orders simple and efficient.

Oracle EAM automates the creation of work orders, resource allocation and the approval process. Users can route the work order to available resources or designated technicians based on the type of work order, improving workflows.

Users can track the work performed on each task and monitor metrics such as meter readings, runtime intervals, calendar days, and more, for quality assurance. The drag-and-drop scheduler can integrate with a workbench functionality from Oracle Manufacturing to schedule routine work orders.

Winner: In comparing IFS vs. HxGN vs. Oracle, all three EAM solutions tie for their performance in work order management.

Inventory Management

This module includes inventory tracking, barcode creation and scanning, stockroom management, cycle counting, lot control and serialization, and so much more. The ability of CMMS to monitor and manage your parts or equipment inventory is crucial to keeping track of where everything is at all times.

IFS EAM offers budgeting tools and inventory forecasting to help users make informed decisions about procurement, replacements and repairs. They can track asset usage history related to part failure to make more accurate purchasing plans and set up alerts when stock is low. Integration with IFS service management enables automated reverse logistics that help optimize inventory logistics.

Compare Infor, IFS and Oracle Against Your Needs

HxGN’s integrated inventory management system lets users manage physical and online stock. Its cycle counting features and warehouse analytics provide up-to-the-minute, multi-site stock level numbers. This frees up valuable space in your warehouse and reduces overstocking.

Oracle’s inventory management module offers barcoding, cycle counting, shipment tracking and more to help users efficiently manage their stockrooms.

Oracle users can create a master material requirement datasheet with custom fields related to minimum/maximum order quantities, work order requests, and more. This helps users remotely track item availability, place orders directly within the system and manage inventory and parts. It can also create stock-out reports to seamlessly and automatically place reorders.

Winner: Oracle’s customizable master material requirements datasheet and procurement features put it a step ahead of the competition for inventory management.

Maintenance Management

IFS EAM offers preventive maintenance to help keep enterprise assets in good shape. Detailed planning tools help with operational planning and managing disruptions in business processes.

Its in-depth analytics capabilities offer insights into enterprise-wide maintenance requirements. Using calendar-based scheduling, users can ensure the correct parties carry out all maintenance on time. The system’s maintenance logs store records directly in the asset profile for easy access.

HxGN’s EAM focuses on asset reliability and utilization. Maintenance managers can assign maintenance tasks to workers according to their availability to ensure timely completion.

HxGN offers maintenance scheduling and tracking features to ensure proper asset maintenance is performed promptly.

Users can also create work orders with multiple checklists for related assets or tasks to optimize workflows. Revision control lets users track modifications made to assets or work orders, and role-based access restricts authorization of said modifications to ensure security.

Oracle offers a library of preventive maintenance procedures to ensure standardized asset work. It integrates with the scheduler workbench tool to schedule work orders and asset maintenance. Users can create work order templates, track asset uptime KPIs and log maintenance history.

Winner: Since Oracle’s offerings rely on integration rather than base CMMS, HxGN and IFS tie for maintenance management offerings.

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Materials Management

Materials management tracks and manages activities involving materials moving in and out of your facility. These features include audit trails, hazardous material tracking, material allocations, item classification, parts management and status updates.

IFS provides embedded materials management features that help automate material tracking. It lets users define time limits for maintenance as well as track asset utilization records. Material sourcing is done via an RFQ directly in the solution, reducing switching between systems. Users can place part orders through the interface and track delivery progress. IFS also offers invoice creation, vendor payment and details on orders received.

IFS’ project management module offers a range of features for materials, contractors and maintenance management.

HxGN offers a range of tools to monitor inventory and materials. Economic order quantity, or EOQ, helps companies order the proper amount of inventory for a given task. It prevents over-ordering (unnecessary materials, losing money for your organization) or under-ordering (hindering the completion of projects and costing your organization money).

Oracle offers tracking and monitoring of material movement through the facility. Users can assign material allocation to multiple work orders, reserve parts and receive real-time material status updates.

Winner: IFS wins for incorporating procurement and purchasing management features alongside the other solutions’ more basic materials management features.

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Reporting/BI

Business intelligence allows users to collect data on their assets and draw insights into performance. They can also use it to make predictions based on facts rather than guesses. Once the purview of BI systems, reporting and analytics tools are becoming commonplace in other types of business software.

IFS offers built-in analytics tools to give users an in-depth understanding of their business operations. Its customizable dashboards allow users to create and manage KPI reports for individual work orders or assets and the business as a whole. It creates intuitive visualizations to portray trends and insights in the data.

IFS offers vibrant visualizations to help users understand data trends and use them to make decisions.

Users can manage fault history and set up fault limits to trigger preventive maintenance conditions. It can integrate with Microsoft Suite and Microsoft Power BI for even more advanced analytics options.

HxGN provides real-time reporting capabilities that let users gain insight into their business. Users can run ad-hoc queries and create reports on assets, projects, budgets, work orders and purchases. HxGN’s pre-configured KPIs let users monitor critical asset performance with ease. Users can drill down into data for in-depth information on any parameter.

Oracle’s business intelligence module offers robust reporting, data visualization and self-service BI. It does not offer comprehensive drill-down features. This limits its ability to narrow in on specific data points from a more general view.

For example, Oracle has your back to explore asset uptime. But if you want to focus on a single part of a single asset to see how it is performing, you’d have to generate a new report separately. It can integrate with Oracle’s BI solution if users desire these capabilities, but that will come with an additional cost.

Winner: Because Oracle requires an additional integration (again!) IFS and HxGN tie for this feature.

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Who Won?

All three systems can serve a modern enterprise in handling life cycle asset management, driving preventative maintenance and ensuring your company is operating at its full capability. As you can see from this comparison, all three systems offer robust EAMCMMS features. IFS either ties for or provides the best performance in the most features and holds the top spot on our CMMS leaderboard.

Nevertheless, each system has pros and cons, and the only way to know which one is right for you is by completing your own EAM software comparison based on your organization’s unique EAM/CMMS requirements.

All three of these systems are sprawling and powerful, which means they might be too robust for SMBs or organizations on a budget. Check out our CMMS pricing guide to get an idea of the costs of these systems.

Do you agree with our analyst’s verdict in our Oracle vs. IFS vs. HxGN face-off? What did you find helpful in this CMMS comparison? Let us know in the comments!

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