In 2010, IBM released Maximo Everyplace which is a tool that helps mobilize your workforce on mobile devices such as iPhone’s and iPad’s as well as Android devices.  It requires a persistent wireless connection to the server, which means there are no offline capabilities, and it requires the customer to build their own mobile solutions or applications using the Application Designer.  Maximo Everyplace was created in response to the growing smart devices in the mobile workforce.

What’s the difference between a tool and a solution? A tool is used to build the solution.  The needs of every customer is different and a tool can help solve problems, but sometimes the tool itself is limiting and can frustrate more then it helps.  Not every customer has a robust wireless network, so offline functionality or a fully disconnected mode is still a big requirement for most organizations, so Maximo Everyplace just isn’t enough to fill the void.  At the time of its release, Everyplace was not a free product.

In December of 2014, IBM released Maximo Asset Management 7.6.  Maximo Everyplace is now a free product because it’s included. IBM has also released another Maximo mobile solution called Maximo Anywhere, which is a completely new mobile framework that is a fully disconnected solution. Maximo Anywhere does have an online or connected mode, but it’s not the same real-time connectivity you get with Maximo Everyplace.  The “online mode” is what they call “near real-time syncing” in which the device intermittently send/receives data between the server if it has a connection.  Maximo Anywhere by default is a fully disconnected solution with an “online mode”.

Pete Karns, IBM Director of Product Management and Strategy for Smarter Infrastructure has stated:

“We’ve also incorporated our Everyplace mobile capability, which is a huge value add for our clients who have ‘always connected’ mobility requirements. This solution enables a simple reskin of a Maximo app to fit within the form factor of phones or tablets. It complements our Anywhere solution, which supports the sophistication of occasionally or always ‘disconnected’ scenarios.” [source]

If a customer needs both connected and disconnected modes, they will have to manage two different mobile products from IBM.   The way these two mobile solutions were initially designed, Maximo Anywhere will never have the real-time online mode and Maximo Everyplace will never have a disconnected mode.

So why not use a mobile product that provides both online and offline modes like EZMaxMobile which is built as an all-in-one solution?