SAM Smart Asset Management implementation at water-link
7 June, 2023Updated at: 13 March, 2026Ideo streamlines inspection and maintenance processes of the Belgian water-link through mobility
With the implementation of SAM Smart Asset Management, Ideo has enabled the Belgian water-link to efficiently and systematically record inspection and maintenance activities using mobile tools. This implementation involves the water-link IT department as well as the Maintenance and Operations disciplines. These disciplines – each with their own areas of expertise – share responsibility for asset maintenance and daily operations across the various locations. Within Maintenance and Operations, the Production and Industry departments are active. The implementation of SAM and its integration with the existing SAP system will be rolled out in phases. The first locations within the Industry department are already working with SAM.
About water-link
With a total production volume of 145 million m³, 635,000 end users, a pipeline network of 2,500 kilometers, and nearly 500 employees, water-link has been responsible for the production, distribution, and recycling of drinking water in Flanders since 1881. The Production division consists of two production centers responsible for the purification and production of drinking water. In addition, water-link operates an industrial branch under the commercial name Induss. This unit is divided into the geographical regions of Antwerp and Ghent, and the locations within these regions supply demineralized water (demineralized water) to industry.
Through implementation partner Flexso, several reference visits, and their own research, water-link became convinced of Ideo’s expertise. This resulted in a request for Ideo to provide the mobility solution. The extensive set of standard features was one of the reasons water-link chose SAM. Synchronization speed and ease of use also played an important role in this decision. Usability was evaluated based on product demonstrations and the previously mentioned reference visits. Finally, the system architecture also proved to fit well within the existing water-link IT architecture.
Running two systems in parallel
SAM will first be rolled out within Induss and only afterwards within Production. Unlike Induss, the Production department already uses SAP Work Manager as a mobile solution. Because of this and considering the phased rollout of SAM, water-link required that both mobile applications must be able to run side by side. In addition, the Distribution department, which ensures that water from the production centers is delivered to households and businesses, also uses SAP Work Manager and may continue to do so in the future. This means that SAM and SAP Work Manager will continue to operate alongside each other even in the final stage of the project.
Partnership and product
Ideo is the Benelux reseller of SAM Smart Asset Management, a product of our implementation partner msc solutions, based in Augsburg, Germany.
Downtime of critical assets in an inspection and maintenance environment such as that of water-link can be significantly reduced by using SAM. With SAM, technicians have full access to the history of individual assets, which helps them quickly identify problems and deliver high-quality solutions. SAM is a platform-independent offline solution available for laptops, smartphones, and tablets running Windows, iOS, or Android. Overall, this provides a solid foundation for the project.
Workshops and fit-gap analysis
During several workshops, water-link provides Ideo with insight into its business processes, while Ideo demonstrates the core functionality of SAM. At this stage of the project, key users are already involved. In addition to Maintenance, Operations, and IT, representatives from Supply Chain and Controlling also attend the workshops. This gives Ideo insight into the master and transactional data of water-link and its specific requirements.
Staff at the Induss locations were found to be recording various maintenance-related activities in a standalone Microsoft application that was not integrated with the SAP system in any way. The recorded information could be retrieved via SharePoint. In addition, a maintenance calendar was maintained in SharePoint, indicating on which days specific maintenance tasks needed to be performed. However, there was no feedback loop for these scheduled activities.
The overall objective is to establish fully integrated processes in which the newly configured PM setup, planning, and mobile execution seamlessly connect. Ease of use for technicians is an important consideration, and it is also a requirement that Induss will begin using the SAP MRS planning module, which is already used by both Distribution and Production.
Specific issues and improvement areas were identified that must be addressed as part of achieving the overall objective. One example is the lack of functionality to properly and systematically handle inspections. SAM is intended to provide this capability.
Following the workshops, a fit-gap analysis was conducted. From a SAM perspective, it was documented where standard functionality was sufficient and where it was not. In this phase, Ideo played an advisory role in determining the optimal way to address these gaps.
Design and realization
The water-link requirements that could not be covered by standard SAM functionality were documented in a design specification. This design includes various mock-ups intended to clearly define which information should be available on the screens. During development, the aim is always to remain as close as possible to the standard screens. Examples of screens specifically developed by Ideo for water-link include work order lists, order details, reporting objects, and asset list and structure views. These screens include specific data fields and functions that are crucial for efficiently supporting the processes at water-link
The previously mentioned inspection requirement was addressed using standard SAM functionality. It was encouraging to see that msc solutions moved the inspection round functionality forward on its roadmap to meet this requirement with the standard product.
Inspection round functionality
When a technician enters a value, the status of the inspection point changes. For quantitative inspection points, threshold values are taken into account. If a value is entered outside the permitted range, the technician receives a warning notification. The number visible in the INSPECTION tab represents the number of inspection points for that specific inspection round.
During the design phase, water-link IT, Flexso, and Ideo also made several agreements to ensure that the different components of the solution would not only work together seamlessly but would also integrate properly into the future production environment of water-link This included the delivery of technical documentation, the setup of proactive monitoring for technical and application components, and robust release management for both SAM and related SAP transports.
Testing
Projects always present challenges, and this became particularly evident during the testing phase. More issues surfaced during this phase than initially anticipated. The reasons varied. Although the collaboration between msc solutions and Ideo had already existed for several years, it became clear that the working methods of both parties needed to be aligned more closely during this intensive implementation project. This was partly due to the complicating factor of ongoing product development during the project.
Features that Ideo – sometimes incorrectly – assumed to be self-evident turned out in practice not to be so straightforward. Both msc solutions and Ideo learned valuable lessons from this experience. In many cases, these lessons resulted in additional product features. Representatives from msc solutions also spent several days onsite at water-link, which gave the project a significant boost. By combining efforts, the most critical issues were resolved. All of this took place under the leadership of IT business partner Marc Janssen and business representative Erik Borghgraef, with a clear vision and strong focus on the final product. Marc Janssen, IT Business Partner, stated:
“At the start of the project we had a general idea of where we wanted to go with the solution at water-link. As the project progressed and we gained access to the first versions of SAM connected to our own system, we were increasingly able to define more detailed functional requirements. This process of maturation meant that Ideo had to deal with changes in the application and was encouraged to think along with us about the right solution.”
“Through close collaboration between water-link (business and IT), Flexso, msc solutions, and Ideo, we ultimately succeeded in successfully completing phase 1 of the project and now have a strong solution that covers almost the full range of desired functionalities. In a next phase, additional features will be added alongside the rollout of SAM to more locations.”
Marc Janssen, IT business partner
“I know every company likes to present itself as highly knowledgeable, innovative, and collaborative. But I had never truly experienced this in practice—until Ideo. One of Ideo’s strongest assets is exactly this, and it should not be underestimated.”
Go-live
Two Induss locations are already live with SAM Smart Asset Management, and the remaining five Induss locations will follow in the near future. After that, the rollout will continue to the two production locations.
The feedback from the locations that are already live has been positive. The first phase of the project was also recently positively evaluated by the internal water-link audit department (together with KPMG). The final report is too extensive to include here, but the management summary states: “Field users find the necessary functionality in SAM to efficiently organize their work during the various stages of the maintenance process.”
Key users and end users are therefore satisfied, although—as mentioned earlier—this was not achieved without challenges.
Is that a problem? Moments of setback can certainly be frustrating, but projects are much like life itself: a continuously upward trend is rare. What matters is how you respond together with the customer, partners, and your team. Thanks to the constructive and critical attitude of the customer and the experience gained with msc solutions as a partner and SAM as a product, a strong mobile application is now in place.
We are not there yet. There are still many wishes, additional functionalities, and improvements planned for the next phase of the project. But we are well on our way.
