Greetings from sunny Phoenix, Arizona 🌵🌴

Fiix Forward 2025: Real Results is officially underway! The conference kicked off last night with good food, good drinks, and plenty of opportunities to socialize at our welcome reception… and yes, there was a nacho bar. Conversation flowed long into the evening, on the terrace under the palm trees and in our beautiful hotel dining room.

Day 1 began with an exciting (unintended?) fire alarm drill to wake everyone up. After a delicious catered breakfast, we dove right into our event with opening remarks by Fiix veterans Jason Afara and Roopali Bagaria. Interestingly, a quick audience survey by our MCs showed that many of the maintenance professionals in attendance had already answered work calls or responded to issues remotely… and it was barely 8 a.m. To me, this made their commitment to set aside time for learning and developing CMMS skills at Fiix Forward all the more special. After the opening remarks, the real learning began.

The Future of Maintenance: Harnessing Data to Automate, Analyze, and Advance Operations 

“Fiix Maintenance Copilot is going to redefine how your maintenance teams operate.”

In our event keynote, Product Director Stuart Fergusson tackled the buzzword on everyone’s mind: AI. Reporting that a staggering 95% of companies surveyed plan to implement AI/ML technologies within 5 years, he discussed the how and why of this fundamental shift in the industry (it’s not just a trend!). For the why, Stu emphasized that companies aren’t pursuing AI for its own sake—the goal here as ever is to empower people and teams, not chase the latest and greatest technologies. And for the how, it all comes down to data, which is essential for training AI models. The good news is that you’re already producing copious amounts of data just by using your CMMS (especially historical work order data). The bad news is that most of this data goes to waste or misapplied. In fact, did you know that 95% of corporate AI projects currently fail? Stu broke down the top five reasons why, such as not understanding the use cases where AI works and where it doesn’t (hint: don’t try adding 1/8 cup of non-toxic glue to your pizza sauce). He concluded by sharing advice on the correct way and the incorrect way to use Fiix CMMS so as to optimize a foundation for AI. 

Next, Senior UX Researcher Greg Keller took the reins to reveal a game changer for Fiix CMMS. Fiix Maintenance Copilot is a new, GenAI-powered conversational chatbot built right into your CMMS. Greg explained how this new tool will allow users to use natural language to complete a work order, locate a part, or understand asset history, among other things. He then demoed the new feature in action, asking Fiix Maintenance Copilot about sample assets as well as more theoretical concepts such as asset criticality. The result was accurate, immediate answers provided by FMC and it was a sight to behold.

The keynote session concluded with an engaged audience Q&A focusing mainly on the capabilities of the new tool, which also led to a few good suggestions for future development. 

Understanding Risk: GenAI and Correlated Sensors in Fiix Asset Risk Predictor 

“GenAI isn’t replacing you, it’s giving you superpowers”

The second session of the day dug deeper into the theme of AI, even featuring AI-generated walkup music. Director of Design and Software Control Julie Robinson took us on a tour of recent trends in AI starting by clarifying the move from automation to autonomy—think of a train on a track versus a self-driving car: autonomous systems continue to operate without the need for human intervention in high uncertainty environments through adaptation. Another interesting development is the deployment of SLMs (small language models) alongside large language models (LLMs), offering a less resource intensive AI option for specific applications. Think of a multi-volume encyclopedia versus a concise manual. Typically, Julie says, LLMs would be hosted in central locations, while an SLM could run on the device in your pocket—including providing offline or field access to AI help.

Solutions and OT Integrations wiz Mike Cooper then walked us through the maintenance maturity journey and added an exciting new level to the top of the pyramid: the Self-Directed Maintenance Advisor tier. This Agentic/Autonomous AI-powered tier represents the “state of the art” in maintenance, in which a centralized Agentic AI system coordinates multiple smaller AIs to essentially automate maintenance as far as currently possible. Mike emphasized, however, that we don’t want to skip steps in the maintenance maturity journey, we want to build on each tier as we progress towards Agentic. Finally, he addressed why daily stand-up meetings are crucial for effecting the culture change necessary for using AI effectively: AI is like a microscope, it can help you see things that would otherwise be invisible, but you still need keen eyes to interpret what you’re seeing. And this means taking the time discuss and action the insights surfaced by AI tools. The session concluded with another great audience Q&A session.

The Field Report: A Fiix Customer Panel

Because Fiix Forward is as much about learning from each other as much as from our Fiix experts, our conference wouldn’t be complete without an in-depth customer panel. For our third session of the day, Fiix Customer Success leader Jeff Saunders sat down with accomplished Fiix CMMS users Tyler Proffitt and Kevin Deopere. Though one works in mining and the other works in dairy, Tyler noted that from a maintenance perspective, many of their challenges are the same. Whether breaking rocks or shaping cheese, they discussed the unique challenges that have arisen in recent years as the complexity of machines and systems in industrial environments continues to increase, sometimes leaving less tech savvy maintenance workers behind. They highlighted the importance of good training to combat this knowledge gap, as well as how they’re using the Fiix Learning Center to develop and certify their people. Other discussion topics included the importance of the CSM relationship, integrations with SCADA systems such as Ignition, and the increased focus on sustainability KPIs and metrics. Jeff concluded by asking our panelists what they hope to take away from Fiix Forward 2025 (think AI and parts management!) and hosting an audience Q&A.

Gear Change: Evolving Your Maintenance with Fiix CMMS

“Maintenance is a cost center? Bullsh*t! Maintenance is a profit centre.” 

Switching gears from industry movers and shakers, Manager of Implementation Consulting Steve Ricard gave a tour de force in the nitty gritty of practical Fiix CMMS usage. Did you know that a good maintenance program can effect a 12-18% reduction? Beginning with an emphasis on long term planning for long term success, Steve’s talk was packed with useful takeaways. He covered the basics of a good CMMS setup: Single or multi-site, regions, asset coding and hierarchy, users and user groups. He drilled down to the essential fields to consider for assets (make, model, serial number, asset category, files, account), work orders, scheduled maintenances, and user profiles. He provided tips for implementation success: Involving the resistors, K.I.S.S., 6-9 month goals. He outlined some KPIs benchmarks to see if you’re on track:

• Aim for at least 85% user adoption within 30 days
• Aim for at least 80% scheduled maintenance vs. unplanned work 
• Aim for at least 90% SMs completed on time

Steve provided some sobering stats on the cost savings and reduction in safety incidents by planning work (90% of injures are during unplanned work!). And he showed the audience how to prove to management you’re short-staffed using backlog data (max 80hrs/tech is a good rule of thumb). Finally, he touched on how to approach more advanced topics such as condition-based maintenance, analytics and Fiix Foresight AI tools. Alas, his talk was so jam-packed full of info that there was no time for Q&A. But everyone came away with so much info that no one minded. Plus, we were getting hungry for lunch.

In the p.m., attendees broke into either beginner and experienced sessions to join The Fiix Beginner Bootcamp or Fiix, Connected: Unlocking Efficiency with IT & ERP Integrations, followed by a full afternoon of hands-on-training. Day 1 training sessions included:

• Better Decisions with Fiix Analytics
• Easy Ways to Manage Your Data with the Fiix API
• How to Build a Custom Analytics Dashboard
• Parts Management 101
• Self-Onboard to Fiix ARP: Unlocking Predictive and Prescriptive Maintenance
• Using Failure Codes in Fiix CMMS Enterprise
• Working Smarter with Workflows 

And of course, all day long we were running the 1:1 Fiix Office Hours, new for this year’s conference. Slots booked up fast as attendees took advantage of the Fiix brain trust on site to ask anything and everything about their CMMS journey. 

The day concluded with an exclusive dinner at Litchfield’s restaurant. The food was amazing, the drinks were flowing, and the cornhole was… cornholing. The games got pretty competitive and a bean bag may have ended up in a tree. All in good fun, we socialized well into the night before retiring to rest up for day 2.