We are planning to buy Datastream 7i. Can you
post your experiences, likes and dislikes about it ?

PS:
I e-mailed MRO from their web site several times about Maximo. Never got a reply from these guys. If they don't even respond to a sales inquiry, it will be scarry to buy their Maximo sw!

Don’t be to alarmed, I have worked with MRO tech support on a number of Maximo installs and they are quite good at getting back to me, they are pritty much on the ball, but as for there sales dept. that’s a different story.

DataStream 7i is big. We started with its predecessor Rapier in 1994. Rapier was bought by Datastream, and named it MP5. Now it is called Datastream 7i. In this eleven years we are still on the same product and probably will never change. Procurement, Stores, Maintenance, Engineering, Purchasing everything is in it, with roughly 200-250 users using it daily.

Does Datastream 7i contain Accounting & HR in it in addition to the normal CMMS function ie Maint & Material Mgmt System as mentioned?

Datastream has budgetting, tracking costs, purchasing, projects etc., but is a CMMS

HR stuff in my opinion there is better software for that. There is no universal rule for a payroll software. Look at bonus, overtime, personal loans, vacation, shift work, legal requirements, etc..

You can track how long a mechanic did a job (hands-on) but are you going to pay him according to that? People are inventive and we are paid for 8 hours a day. Take out lunch time, the first half hour, and the last half hour, of the day, then you have maybe 6.5 hours effictive working hours on a good day.
The high average of hands-on time is 4 hours in the industry. This will be coming out of the CMMS.
Onless you also make a workorder for sweeping the shop (housekeeping)

HR is a complete different dicipline and should not be served by a maintenance system.
The same applies to accounting.

SAP on the other end originated in accounting atmospheres. (Maybe that is why it is not user friendly to non accountants )