On June 16th-17th, the Maximo DACH community gathered for the 34th edition of its traditional user conference. This year, the event took place at IBM’s new location in Ehningen near Stuttgart. The conference was made possible by IBM as host, TD Synnex as organiser, the sponsors SPIE RODIAS, SVA, hands-on and MACS, as well as by us, Naviam.

Opening and Welcome

After a year’s absence, our familiar moderator Tom Meiler guided us through the two-day programme in his usual confident and lively manner. The event opened with a welcome address by Wolfgang Wendt, General Manager IBM Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Already in Mr. Wendt’s introductory remarks, it became clear that the visionary topics would strongly revolve around artificial intelligence. AI enthusiasts were certainly not disappointed. More on that later.

Keynote: The Role of Maintenance

The keynote by Professor Dr.-Ing. Katja Gutsche was a well-founded reminder of what maintenance is about – initially quite independent of the software tool being used – and encouraged the audience to understand maintenance more strongly as a contribution to operational value creation. Using clear diagrams, she also illustrated where Germany stands in this context and, pointedly, referred to “life-sustaining measures”.

Technical Sessions and Key Themes

To remind us that, at its core, Maximo is a tool for the “dangerous” maintenance practitioner, the subsequent expert presentations covered a broad spectrum of practical, grounded and visionary topics. Particular attention was given to AI and its various areas of application, whether in queries, visual inspection or communication between humans and Maximo via voice assistants. The program was rounded off by presentations from IBM, providing both a general outlook on upcoming versions and concrete insights into version 9.2, which will be available from the end of June 2026. Given the breadth of topics, there was certainly something for everyone.

Highlight: Maximo Secrets

A particular highlight for many was the opportunity to meet Andrew Jeffery, the mastermind behind Maximo Secrets, and to hear about his motivation and the story behind it. As it turned out, Maximo Secrets is one of the most popular sources of information on functional questions relating to Maximo. In any case, the statistics on the number of articles, videos and other materials were impressive and commanded great respect from the audience. Particularly noteworthy is that, according to the visitor statistics, most visits to the website originate from IBM.

Closing Moment

During Steffen Hartmaier’s closing presentation on the new features in version 9.2, everyone witnessed a historic moment: for the first time in the history of the user conference, someone managed to take the microphone away from Tom Meiler. A feat at which many had failed in previous years. After all, the golden rule for every moderator is: never let go of the microphone. Whether this lapse in concentration was due to the summer temperatures is something we will probably never know.

Bottom Line

This year’s conference once again demonstrated the value of personal exchange within the DACH community. In addition, the welcome address by Wolfgang Wendt in his role as General Manager was a strong sign of appreciation for the community. Between practical experience reports, concrete insights into the roadmap and the many impulses around artificial intelligence, one thing became clear: Maximo remains in motion – and with it the role of maintenance as a strategic contribution to value creation. As Naviam, we are pleased to have made a significant contribution with five presentations and are already looking forward to next year’s edition.

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