What is IBM Maximo used for?
The short answer
IBM Maximo is enterprise asset management software that asset-intensive organizations use to manage physical assets and the work to maintain them: asset registers, work orders, preventive maintenance, spare parts, inspections and reporting. Its current form is IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS), which combines the core Manage application with add-ons for monitoring, asset health, failure prediction, visual inspection and mobile work.
What teams use Maximo for
- Asset registers. Recording what you own, where it is, how it fits in the hierarchy and what has happened to it.
- Work management. Raising, planning, scheduling and closing work orders, with labour and costs.
- Preventive maintenance. Scheduling work by time or meter, with job plans.
- Inventory and purchasing. Managing spare parts, storerooms and purchasing linked to the work.
- Reliability and reporting. Using failure codes and history to find repeat problems and report on performance.
It is typically used by organizations whose assets are expensive, safety-critical or heavily regulated, such as utilities, transport, manufacturing, oil and gas, and large facilities.
What each Maximo Application Suite module does
| Module | What it is used for |
|---|---|
| Manage | Core asset and work management, the successor to Maximo Asset Management |
| Monitor | Remote monitoring of equipment using operational data, with anomaly detection |
| Health | Scoring asset health from sensor data, asset records and work history |
| Predict | Using machine learning to estimate the likelihood of future failures |
| Visual Inspection | Using AI on images and video to find defects |
| Mobile | Giving technicians work orders, inspections and asset records in the field |
Maximo 7.6 and MAS: what is the difference?
Maximo 7.6 is the older standalone product, and its support has now ended. MAS is the current suite. It runs on Red Hat OpenShift and uses AppPoints licensing. Our guide to Maximo 7.6 end of support covers your options, and our MAS 9 migration guide covers the steps.
How much does Maximo cost?
IBM sets pricing by contract, so the real cost depends on your agreement. MAS is licensed through AppPoints, a shared pool of credits. Each user draws points according to their access tier (Self service, Limited, Base or Premium), and whether they are authorized or concurrent. Add-on applications also use points, so your user mix matters more than your headcount. Hosting, OpenShift skills and support are additional, so ask IBM or a partner to model your real roles.
Maximo vs SAP: what is the difference?
Maximo is a specialist EAM product, and it is often connected to an ERP for finance and purchasing. SAP’s asset management sits within the wider SAP suite, which appeals to organizations already standardized on SAP. Many organizations run Maximo alongside SAP, connected through interfaces. Maximo and SAP integration is common work for that reason.
Adding AI to Maximo
IBM offers AI features within MAS, and third-party agents can also work with Maximo through its APIs. What is an AI agent for IBM Maximo? explains how this works and what to look for.
Checked against IBM documentation and product material on 5 November 2026. Confirm current modules and licensing with IBM for your version. IBM and Maximo are trademarks of IBM.