The only thing worse than having a piece of equipment fail is to have it fail and not have the parts to readily repair it at hand. Because of this, many companies stock a plethora of spare parts which drives their carrying cost for that inventory sky-high. Although balancing the risk of not having the spare parts when needed versus the costs of carrying inventory is not a trivial problem; many companies have not yet addressed the issue. That’s why we are highlighting Xtivity and its Cloud-based solution, xIO Inventory Optimizer.
Xtivity’s Inventory Optimizer Tool Helps Reduce Cost of Spares & Reduce Risk
Xtivity is a privately held company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Its primary focus is MRO inventory optimization. The company is just over ten years old, and its core product is the xIO Inventory Optimizer. It is a relatively small company with less than 20 employees. It can serve the client base it has with such a small team because it offers only a Cloud-based solution that simplifies support and implementation.
The xIO Optimizer and the Pulse reporting tool products coupled with consulting services delivered by Xtivity or through its MROConnection partners provide a way for organizations to outsource their MRO inventory optimization process. Xtivity provides this capability through the xIO Service offering.
One of the differentiating factors in the xIO Optimizer is the rigorous academic background behind the optimization algorithm. This enables Xtivity to deliver readily captured results relatively quickly.
The challenge that Xtivity, a small company linked to services, faces is its growth is more limited than a product-focused company in the same space. Delivery via the Cloud mitigates that to some degree, but end users looking at Xtivity need factor the company’s ability to support them into their decision-making process when considering MRO inventory optimizer alternatives. The tradeoff of functionality versus supportability is a common one when dealing with smaller startups, and while alliances with other partners in the MROConnection solution team (covered as an additional entry in the solution guide) mitigates the risk somewhat, each user will have to decide on their own tolerance for risk.
Overall we believe Xtivity offers a solution worth evaluating, especially for North American companies, even those with global operations.
How to Use the APM Solution Selection Guide
LNS’ Asset Performance Management Solution Selection Guide is a free resource that dives deep into MROConnection and 19 other Asset Performance Management (APM) solution providers by criteria such as company sizes served, geographies covered, technology platforms delivered, licensing and deployment models, and others. In addition to a written section for each of the 20 top APM vendors, the guide offers a side-by-side comparison of each provider for quick reader reference on the capabilities and attributes that matter to them.
