Enterprise asset management (EAM) is a collection of software, systems, and services that keep track of and manage operational assets and equipment. The goal of the EAM is to enhance productive uptime and lower operating costs by optimizing asset quality and use throughout their life cycle. While EAM can be done on paper or using desktop applications like as spreadsheets, it is more commonly done with EAM software. Practitioners are implementing sophisticated analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) into EAM and AI techniques are used to examine data collected from instrumented assets. Those data can be used maintenance teams to make better decisions, increase efficiency, perform preventative maintenance and get the most out of their physical assets. Apart from that organizations can successfully maintain, control, and analyze their physical assets and infrastructure during all phases of the asset lifecycle including purchase, maintenance, and disposal, thorough EAM strategy in the organization. 

Difference between EAM & CMMS 

EAM and computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) are not the same thing, despite the fact that they are frequently used interchangeably. A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a component of a larger enterprise asset management (EAM) system and EAM will always have a CMMS component. However CMMS will not always consists the features and capabilities of an EAM. Because CMMS software is mainly concerned with asset management and facility maintenance during the operation stage of the asset lifecycle. EAM software is a set of tools and capabilities that allows companies to monitor, control, and enhance facility and asset performance across the course of their asset lifecycle. 

Key features of effective EAM 

• Work Management - Manage planned and unplanned work from start to finish, including the recording of actuals, from a central location.

• Asset Lifecycle Management - A well-designed EAM can offer the asset data and documentation required to reduce unplanned downtime, consolidate inventory, extend asset life, and shift from reactive to preventative maintenance methods.

• Supply Chain Management - An EAM can make it easier for team to purchase, track, and locate the MRO supplies that company requires to conduct repairs efficiently.

• Safety Regulation - By providing simple, easily accessible safety criteria for every job, streamlining audits, and lowering safety risk via incident analysis, an EAM can help you keep your staff healthy and safe.

• Labor Management - By making safety processes accessible, simplifying audit logs, and allowing those in authority to manage safety training, an EAM can help you assess, train, and certify employees and contractors more effectively.

• Service Contract Management - To limit risks, increase compliance, enhance ROI, and reduce contract-related costs and inefficiencies, simplify contract management with your customers, vendors, partners, and staff.

• Financial Management - Streamline important procedures including preventive maintenance, calibration management, work order management, purchase order management, and facility leasing management to get a complete picture of finances and save money.   

• Reporting and Analytics - Operations will be inefficient and under-productive if can't efficiently gather, analyses, and utilize data from equipment. EAM software can assist in extracting useful data in order to target preventative maintenance requirements and track KPIs.

• Vendor Management – By collecting information like certificates of insurance (COIs) and activity history, your EAM can assist with vendor management.

• Document and knowledge Management - An EAM may increase the quality of team's work while also enhancing their efficiency and identifying any areas of concern by centralizing all asset-related information and papers.  

However EAM is most commonly utilized in businesses that rely substantially on expensive and complicated physical assets like automobiles, facilities, and heavy equipment. The oil and gas, shipbuilding, mining, energy, government, utility, and aerospace and defense industries are also major users. As well as EAM offer many benefits that make solution ideal for modern asset-heavy businesses, including, 

• Maximized integrations

• More reliability

• Scalability

• Reduce maintenance cost 

• Increased security 

Reference: 

https://www.accruent.com/what-is-enterprise-asset-management-eam