ENTERPRISE ASSET MANAGEMENT company MRO Software and IBM have formed an alliance designed to allow customers to increase returns on company investments, the companies announced Wednesday. Initially the two companies will jointly market e-business solutions to address enterprise asset management for companies in the utilities and pubic sector markets to be followed by other industries. Technologies supported in the agreement include IBM’s WebSphere Internet infrastructure software, the IBM eServer hardware platform, AIX operating system and DB2 Data Management software along with MRO’s asset management solution called Maximo. “There is a distinct focus in the industry right now in improving the bottom line,” said Brad Gammons, IBM’s worldwide solutions director for the energy and utilities industries. “By combining MRO’s solution with our integration capabilities through WebSphere, we can provide a full solution for a customer that is trying to take a work management solution and integrate it into other systems in the enterprise. That saves against the bottom line and allows business managers to make better decisions about their portfolio of assets and how they are using them.” MRO’s asset management solutions are designed to allow companies to manage the complete life cycle of strategic assets such as fleets and plant equipment including planning, procurement, deployment, tracking, maintenance, and retirement, according to company officials. Technology Industry