In this scenario, object numbers are managed in the maintenance management system and the relevant documents are linked to the objects in the system. The documents reside outside the system in a network file system or other shared location.

During deployment, the object numbers (and possibly other fields) in the maintenance management system database can be imported to create proxy objects in Meridian Enterprise. To store the proxy objects in an organized folder structure, it is most convenient to use a Field-Path definition. Because the Meridian Enterprise Administrator tool does not support importing directly from a maintenance management system database, the import is best performed using a custom program. A benefit of the custom program is that it can also be used to periodically update the vault from the maintenance management system database. A sample Visual Basic project is provided in the Asset Management Module distribution package that can be customized to connect to your maintenance management system. For assistance with customizing the program, performing the import, or implementing the entire system, contact your BlueCielo Solution Partner or BlueCielo ECM Solutions Professional Services.

Before you import the documents that are linked to the objects in the maintenance management system, consider that several copies or different revisions of the documents could inadvertently have been linked in the maintenance management system. All duplicates need to be identified before they are imported and one of the following choices made:

• Import duplicates as separate documents
• Import duplicates as revisions of the same document
• Do not import the duplicates

It is not possible to automatically import the attached documents without errors because there is no way to automatically determine whether one document is another revision of the same document. The only sure way is for someone to view the documents. A possible way to support and manage this process is to import all of the linked documents into a temporary Meridian Enterprise vault that can be used as a staging area. In this vault, the viewing and comparison features of Meridian Enterprise can be used to inspect the documents. A workflow can be configured to manage the identification and selection of documents to import into the final vault. When the staging process is complete, the selected documents can be imported into the production vault. A custom tool may need to be built for this task.

When the system is in production, numbers for new objects (equipment, locations, and so on) can be generated by the engineering department with automation provided by Meridian Enterprise. If the maintenance management system is Maximo, the Maximo SDK can be used to create corresponding new assets in Maximo. Alternatively, a procedure can be defined to let the engineer create the new objects manually in the maintenance management system.