Things to consider when upgrading to MAS...

End of Support for Maximo 7.6.1.x - September 2025

With the end of Support for Maximo 7.6.1.x approaching in September 2025, companies must plan their upgrade to Manage within the Maximo Application Suite (MAS). This blog covers key considerations, including licensing, hardware architecture, cloud migration, customization, change management, and interface updates...

The End of Support for Maximo 7.6.1.x is a little over a year away (September 2025), and many companies are in the process of organising their upgrade to Manage (the new name for Maximo) within the Maximo Application Suite ('MAS' - v9.0 released June 2024) - if they haven’t started to or have moved already!

Due to the significant changes in licensing, hardware architecture, and user interface, the move to Maximo/Manage isn’t as straightforward as more recent version releases. Because of this, I have been asked to attend many meetings and discussions recently by companies trying to understand what they should consider when moving to Manage.

While the industries have differed greatly, many of the topics in these conversations have been very similar. Due to this, I have written this blog to cover the key points when starting to consider and plan your move to Manage:

1. Licensing

The first step to moving to Manage should be to ensure your licenses allow you to do so. If you are still on older licensing, such as IBM Passport Advantage named or concurrent licenses, you'll need to move to MAS App Point Licenses or equivalent.

As a lot of collateral is available online that explains in detail how App Points Work (such as here), I’ll not go into too much detail in this blog. However, at a high level, users purchase a pool of points, which they use when they log into Maximo/Manage. The number of points taken depends on the user's access level when logging in and whether the user is classed as a ‘concurrent’ or ‘named’ user.

If you are still on older licensing models, the first question is typically, ‘How many app points will I need?’...

Purchase too few, and you would be out of compliance with IBM, and users may not be able to log in to Maximo/Manage at all. Purchase too many and you will be ultimately buying licenses that you don’t need!

At time of writing, IBM do not have any tools or options available that will accurately tell you how many points you need for your specific system, they only have general estimations and spreadsheets that will provide a rough estimate. Due to this, BPD have created GURU to accurately tell companies how many points they will need based on their specific usage and setup. BPD use GURU to offer a free MAS app point license usage analysis report Globally to help support companies using Maximo to purchase the right number of points.

If you are interested in this offer, please use this link to request an App Point license review.

2. Hardware/Architecture Changes

Compared to Maximo versions 6.x and 7.x, MAS utilises a completely new hardware architecture. In many respects, MAS is less flexible on architecture than previous versions of Maximo, with clients now needing to use Linux, OpenShift, and Containerisation. Whilst the use of containerisation technology isn’t new or specific to MAS, it provides greater resilience and security. Many companies currently do not have the skills needed internally to support a system that uses this technology. Furthermore, this technology is best suited for Cloud providers.

If they haven’t already, many clients are considering moving to MAS as the time that they also move to Cloud. While this isn’t the case for all clients, the amount of time and cost needed to upskill or procure skills in the new technology, together with the headache of ongoing support, management, patching, monitoring, securing, upgrading etc. is certainly a significant consideration for clients who rely on their Asset Management System.

While IBM do have their Cloud offering for MAS, it is key to remember that many other IBM Business Partners and other suppliers also offer this service. It is also worth noting that not all these offerings are equal! Due to the flexibility of the new architecture, there are also many ways of setting up MAS Environments, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

If looking at MAS Cloud Hosting options, it is always worth thinking about the following points:

Are Maximo Customisations allowed?

While not preferred, there are still times when customising Maximo/Manage may be the only/best option. However, some hosting providers don’t allow customisations. While typically not advised, there is a significant difference between not customising Maximo/Manage because there are other options and because you are no longer able to.

This can become especially problematic for interfaces where Maximo/Manage flexibility is often used to enable the integration to work successfully.

Can I access the Database directly?

Thanks to the rise of business intelligence (BI) tools such as Microsoft Power BI, companies are increasingly wanting to combine data from multiple locations to provide a full holistic view of operations. Maintenance data is often a key piece of the overall picture for Asset intensive companies today. It is highly beneficial to be able to report this data together with operational and other strategic data.

Unfortunately, some hosting options available do not allow you to connect external reporting or analytical tools to your Maximo Data. Furthermore, some options available do allow access, but not in a secure way, or in a way that can cause performance degradation to the overall Solution.

BPD’s MaxiCloud Offering provides options that offer full, secure access to your Maximo/Manage Data to any Strategic Reporting Solution. In addition, we also have skills and expertise in a range of Business Analytical Solutions including Microsoft’s Power BI and IBM’s Cognos. This enables us to provide detailed support and guidance on not only the Maximo/Manage Schema, but also how best to connect and utilise this data in strategic reporting.

How many non-production environments do I get as standard, and can I change this if/when needed?

It is widely accepted and endorsed by ISO27001 recommendations that two non-production environments are ideally used when any software is actively being developed and enhanced. Typically, these are named Development and Testing (or similar). In addition to this, there are often good reason to have additional environments for Training, project development work etc.

Some Hosting Options only provide a single non-production environment in addition to the Production environment, which reduces testing options ahead of moving changes to Production. This increases risk when migrating changes into Production and is far from ideal.

BPD’s MaxiCloud Offering provides three non-production environments as standard, with the option to increase this as and when needed. This gives clients best practice as standard, with the option to increase this if needed, either for a short period or on an ongoing basis.

3. More than Base Maximo is also available…

Whilst Maximo/Manage is functionally rich, with multiple options and methods of configuring the product to meet company needs and expectations, there is always functionality that would be helpful for users, but simply isn’t there as part of the standard 'out-of-the-box' product.

Some companies, including BPD, have taken IBM's standard offering and enhanced it further, providing additional functionality, accelerator templates, add-on solutions, and a range of other offerings to enable clients to get more from their Investments.

The MaxiCloud offering from BPD provides all the functionality available in base MAS Manage and a range of additional functionality, features, and user experience (UX) improvements for users and administrators. This functionality includes, but is not limited to:

This 'Essentials' functionality can be individually switched on and off, depending on if they are beneficial to you or not, and is included and kept up to date at no additional cost. This is also in addition to our Industry Accelerators, Fingertip Mobile Solution, DataStudio, LoveYourAsset etc.

4. Technical Upgrade or Process Change

When planning your upgrade to MAS Manage, there are two main approaches you can take. Do you use this opportunity to change processes and procedures? Or do you treat the upgrade as a purely technical activity and keep all processes and procedures ‘as-is’? This is a complex question and there is no set answer that is right for everyone, it really depends on your individual circumstances.

MAS Manage supports both options very well, with all functionalities available in Maximo 7.6.1.x still available in MAS Manage 8.x. That said, the User Interface is different between the two versions, for example:

This change in look and feel can often help support a wider change of processes and procedures in Maximo/Manage. From a change management perspective, if the application looks different, users typically accept a change in functionality easier too.

Of course, changing functionality at the same time as upgrading does inherit an increased risk to the overall project as further time often is needed to better understand the origin of bugs (i.e. is it due to the upgrade process, or the new functionality being added?). That said, time can also be saved by performing certain tasks for both the upgrade and new functionality at the same time (testing, migration etc). This means that performing both elements together requires less effort (both internal and external) and less overall cost, compared to doing both activities separately.

Thanks to our Global reach and number of clients, BPD have upgraded clients to MAS successfully using both methods many times now. I would advise taking into consideration your current change plan/roadmap to better decide which method you take.

There are certainly savings to be realised by changing functionality and upgrading together, however if no major changes are pressing, it may be worth reducing risk, time and effort and seeing the move as simply a technical upgrade of your asset management system.

5. Change Management

Another question that is often asked is if Change Management is required when moving to MAS Manage, and if so, how much? Regardless of seeing the move as a technical upgrade, or as a chance to change functionality and process, it is crucial that Change Management is not underestimated.

Even if the functionality will remain the same, the look and feel of Maximo/Manage have changed significantly between 7.6.x and 8.x. While Computers, Smartphones, Tablets, etc., have become common in our work and personal lives, many people are still not comfortable using technology, and a change in look can often cause problems.

In addition, any training and other supporting documentation that contains screenshots of Maximo will also be out of date and may need to be updated. There may also be changes to URLs, usernames, and passwords and a range of other small changes that need managing, co-ordinating, and communicating to the user community. A Change Manager can help manage this and work with the project team to ensure the overall upgrade project is both a technical and adoption success.

6. Do Interfaces need changing?

While all End Points available in Maximo 7.6.1.x are still available in MAS Manage, certain older protocols have been deprecated. These are specifically TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1, meaning that any interfaces that use these must be updated to use TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3. Furthermore, whilst SOAP is still supported, it is strongly recommended that any interfaces that still use this are moved onto REST APIs.

While these older protocols may not be used and upgraded already, it is always worth checking as early as possible if they are still being used and if so, does the other system support the newer protocols. If not, then interfaces may need to be reimplemented, or middleware used or introduced in order to provide the necessary integration.

While other topics have also been discussed, these are the main points that have frequently come up in my recent conversations. If you would like any further information about these or any other topics or would like to have your own discussion regarding the upgrade to MAS, please feel free to reach out - myself or any member of the BPD team would be happy to share our experiences with you!

CLICK HERE to arrange a free 'MAS-Ready' consultation.
For anything else, you can contact BPD Zenith below—we'd love to hear from you!