Deep Blue Automates Financial Processes Through Seamless ERP Integration with eMaint

Marcus McDaniel, Measurement Foreman at Deep Blue, and Brian Hoogendam, Chief Information Officer, explained some of the key challenges they faced before switching to eMaint.   

• Siloed systems: Each work order needed a corresponding purchase order created in Oracle NetSuite ERP. With different systems and lag times between work and payments, managing accruals was challenging, and generating reports took significant manpower.

• Suboptimal vendor utilization: Assigning work to outside contractors was done in a decentralized manner, leading to conflicting priorities.  “Our contractors were getting requests from many different people in the company, and it was coming via email, text, phone call,” explains McDaniel. “Work would get started and then someone else needed them to go work on another task.” 

• Lack of visibility for work orders and preventive maintenance scheduling: Without a CMMS, there was no defined process for handling work orders, maintenance requests, or even for maintaining a preventive maintenance schedule. “The very first thing I did after I came on board is I said, we need to get a handle on our work orders and what we’re doing in the field and tracking costs,” says Hoogendam.  

Hoogendam had previous experience working with eMaint, and knew the software was exactly what Deep Blue needed to improve its maintenance program. “What I liked about eMaint was it’s very flexible. If I wanted to add a field to do something, I didn’t have to call anybody. I didn’t have to use a development team… it was a natural choice.” 

Deep Blue was also challenged with implementing eMaint and shifting away from its previous system in just a few months. With so many systems and people involved, Deep Blue hired Curt Chamberlain, an IT strategy and business alignment consultant, to help it manage the transition.  

Chamberlain worked closely with Deep Blue and eMaint to convert old systems to eMaint and to configure the CMMS to make processes smoother and easier. Together, Chamberlain and the maintenance team completed integration and training before the deadline. 

Since implementing eMaint and integrating with NetSuite ERP, Deep Blue has seen significant benefits across its operations.  

• Automated financial processes: Now, eMaint automates accruals and integrates seamlessly with NetSuite, eliminating the need for manual calculations and reducing the time required to close financials at the end of each month. When someone creates a work order in eMaint, a corresponding purchase order is automatically created in NetSuite, streamlining financial processes. “The accounting group couldn’t be happier with the results that we actually were able to pull off,” says Chamberlain.

• Streamlined vendor management: The eMaint vendor portal has centralized communication with vendors, centralizing requests and allowing Deep Blue to efficiently prioritize vendor work orders. “The contractor portal allowed us to set a priority, a deadline, and it’s all traceable where everyone can see what they’re working on and we can see where they’re at,” said McDaniel. “I think the vendor portal makes my job easier, but I think it really makes their job a lot easier.”

• Enhanced preventive maintenance strategy: eMaint preventive maintenance scheduling has allowed Deep Blue to implement preventive maintenance programs for critical assets like pumps and meters. “We probably have somewhere around 36 scheduled work orders we use the capability of parent-child relationship on assets to cover all thousand of them,” said Chamberlain. “It’s very sophisticated and we couldn’t do it without eMaint.”

• Improved work order management and record-keeping: Deep Blue has gained clarity and visibility in its work order management process. “We can see when we have problematic meters that we’re constantly tending to over and over again,” said McDaniel. “We utilize eMaint to comment on everything that we’re doing so that way the person that generated the work request is aware of everything all the way from start to end, and everybody can go back and take a look at it.”

• Improved data visibility and decision-making: Since eMaint captures 90% of operating expense data and feeds it into its Azure data warehouse, the company now has powerful cross-system reporting capabilities, improving operational insights and decision-making. “It helps for me to justify to my management whether I need more resources or if I have too many,” McDaniel said.

• Flexibility and configurability: eMaint flexibility allows Deep Blue to change fields, forms, and make unlimited customizations instantly without submitting a ticket to a developer or IT team member. “So for example, we’re in the process right now of creating a number of MOC (Management of Change) forms, and we’re not limited by what we want to ask as part of that process,” said Hoogendam. “So if we want to have 10 people sign off on that management of change form, we can do that. If I want to add an 11th, I can add it.”

Deep Blue plans to continue working with eMaint and finding even more ways to use it to achieve results. “I think the biggest challenge for us over the past year is getting folks to really buy into the fact that if you don’t track it, you can’t measure it. We’re really at a point where I think people are really seeing the value,” said Hoogendam. “Going forward we’re going to keep building even more processes on top of it.”  

“I’m incredibly happy with where we started about a year ago to where we’re at now because I think the organization has done a heck of a job of adoption and of building new things,” said Hoogendam. “I honestly think we have a great partnership with eMaint. We’ve gotten a lot of really good support from the folks at eMaint.”