Herman Miller is the second largest office furniture manufacturer globally. It has a history of design excellence and innovation, producing iconic chairs and inventing cubicles. Herman Miller uses technology to pursue further excellence, embracing the internet and organizational flexibility. In recent years, the office furniture industry saw consolidation, with four companies reaching over $1.5 billion in revenue, including Herman Miller. The market fluctuated in the late 1990s, with growth in small and medium businesses. Herman Miller responded by focusing on superior customer service, faster product development, and creating new markets through innovation. It deployed information and collaboration technology throughout its supply chain to achieve these strategic goals.
The document provides an overview of production and operations management (POM). It discusses how POM aims to increase value at each stage of production through efficient transformation. This is done by meeting objectives like producing the right quantity, quality, and cost. The document also outlines different production approaches and categories of e-commerce. It discusses benefits and impacts of e-business on operations, including increased demand and changes to logistics. Break-even analysis is introduced as a tool considering total costs and revenues.
As part of our mission to help companies make the best software selection decisions. The goal was to answer some of the critical questions that companies should ask themselves before embarking on this business task.
This document discusses the benefits of IBM's WebSphere Commerce e-commerce solution over building a custom solution. Some key points:
- WebSphere Commerce provides rich out-of-the-box functionality for B2C and B2B stores that can accelerate deployment, unlike custom solutions which require extensive development.
- It has a flexible architecture and integration framework that allows for customization while maintaining support for future growth and changes in business needs and market dynamics.
- The solution handles both everyday business challenges as well as unpredictable demands, providing more functionality than a custom solution could deliver.
The document discusses ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems as the technological backbone for e-business. It describes how ERP integrated software suites automate back-office functions like finance, manufacturing, distribution, HR, and more. ERP allows companies to link processes like sales, inventory management, production, and finance. The document also covers the evolution of ERP systems and key decisions around selecting and implementing an ERP solution.
This document discusses Dell's use of customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) integration to dominate the PC market. Dell implemented enterprise software to profile customers, target them based on preferences, and streamline product flow. This included databases to store customer info, custom web pages for orders, and analytical CRM software. Dell also used i2 Supply Chain Planner and other software to coordinate build-to-order processes from order to support. This CRM-SCM integration helped Dell maintain low inventory levels while satisfying customers and achieving $30-60M in annual revenue.
The document discusses IBM's business-to-business (B2B) customer segments and how they segment their market. IBM targets large enterprises, growing businesses, mid-sized businesses, and public sector enterprises across various industries. They segment their market based on factors such as product/service, industry, company size, business needs, technology used, IT issues, business partners, customer capabilities, and usage situations. Examples are provided of IBM products relevant to different segments, such as Informix for small/medium businesses, datacenter management for financial/large companies, and industrial tracking solutions for manufacturing industries.
This chapter discusses various e-business patterns that companies can adopt to take advantage of digital opportunities, including:
- The e-channel pattern of enhancing, compressing, expanding, or innovating traditional sales channels online.
- The click-and-brick pattern of complementing physical stores with online ordering.
- The e-portal pattern of aggregating services for specific user groups like Yahoo or eBay.
- The e-market maker pattern of connecting buyers and sellers in a supply chain like an online marketplace.
- The pure e-digital products pattern centered around software, media, and other digitally delivered content.
This document outlines a chapter on supply chain management from an operations management textbook. It discusses key concepts related to supply chains including definitions of supply chain and value chain. It also covers topics like supply chain integration, the role of information technology, suppliers and outsourcing, e-procurement, and distribution. Various frameworks and examples are provided to illustrate supply chain processes and evolution.
The document provides an overview of production and operations management (POM). It discusses how POM aims to increase value at each stage of production through efficient transformation. This is done by meeting objectives like producing the right quantity, quality, and cost. The document also outlines different production approaches and categories of e-commerce. It discusses benefits and impacts of e-business on operations, including increased demand and changes to logistics. Break-even analysis is introduced as a tool considering total costs and revenues.
As part of our mission to help companies make the best software selection decisions. The goal was to answer some of the critical questions that companies should ask themselves before embarking on this business task.
This document discusses the benefits of IBM's WebSphere Commerce e-commerce solution over building a custom solution. Some key points:
- WebSphere Commerce provides rich out-of-the-box functionality for B2C and B2B stores that can accelerate deployment, unlike custom solutions which require extensive development.
- It has a flexible architecture and integration framework that allows for customization while maintaining support for future growth and changes in business needs and market dynamics.
- The solution handles both everyday business challenges as well as unpredictable demands, providing more functionality than a custom solution could deliver.
The document discusses ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems as the technological backbone for e-business. It describes how ERP integrated software suites automate back-office functions like finance, manufacturing, distribution, HR, and more. ERP allows companies to link processes like sales, inventory management, production, and finance. The document also covers the evolution of ERP systems and key decisions around selecting and implementing an ERP solution.
This document discusses Dell's use of customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) integration to dominate the PC market. Dell implemented enterprise software to profile customers, target them based on preferences, and streamline product flow. This included databases to store customer info, custom web pages for orders, and analytical CRM software. Dell also used i2 Supply Chain Planner and other software to coordinate build-to-order processes from order to support. This CRM-SCM integration helped Dell maintain low inventory levels while satisfying customers and achieving $30-60M in annual revenue.
The document discusses IBM's business-to-business (B2B) customer segments and how they segment their market. IBM targets large enterprises, growing businesses, mid-sized businesses, and public sector enterprises across various industries. They segment their market based on factors such as product/service, industry, company size, business needs, technology used, IT issues, business partners, customer capabilities, and usage situations. Examples are provided of IBM products relevant to different segments, such as Informix for small/medium businesses, datacenter management for financial/large companies, and industrial tracking solutions for manufacturing industries.
This chapter discusses various e-business patterns that companies can adopt to take advantage of digital opportunities, including:
- The e-channel pattern of enhancing, compressing, expanding, or innovating traditional sales channels online.
- The click-and-brick pattern of complementing physical stores with online ordering.
- The e-portal pattern of aggregating services for specific user groups like Yahoo or eBay.
- The e-market maker pattern of connecting buyers and sellers in a supply chain like an online marketplace.
- The pure e-digital products pattern centered around software, media, and other digitally delivered content.
This document outlines a chapter on supply chain management from an operations management textbook. It discusses key concepts related to supply chains including definitions of supply chain and value chain. It also covers topics like supply chain integration, the role of information technology, suppliers and outsourcing, e-procurement, and distribution. Various frameworks and examples are provided to illustrate supply chain processes and evolution.
The document discusses trends in e-business and technology that are important for managers to consider. It covers trends related to customers, such as demands for faster service and more integrated solutions. It also outlines trends for e-services, organizations, employees, and enterprise technology, such as a shift to integrated applications and multi-channel integration. General technology trends discussed include wireless applications, handheld devices, and infrastructure convergence. The document emphasizes that identifying and exploiting these trends is key to developing effective e-business strategies.
The document discusses the evolution of business intelligence and knowledge management applications over five waves. It describes how early applications focused on data sharing and reporting, while later generations enabled more advanced analytics and personalization. The next generation is proposed to use real-time personalization, broadcast technologies, and mobile access to provide personalized, proactive intelligence to customers across channels. Key elements of successful business intelligence frameworks are also outlined.
This document summarizes IBM's transformation of its supply chain over 20 years to become globally integrated and centered around client needs. It overhauled processes, technology, and talent to consolidate procurement and customer fulfillment into a single, global operation. The transformation included centralizing data and processes, establishing global centers, and operating clients' supply chains. It resulted in an "Integrated Supply Chain" that works across IBM units and industries to efficiently fulfill client orders globally.
This document discusses supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), and the integration of SCM and CRM (ISCRM). SCM involves planning and executing the flow of goods from raw materials to the customer. CRM uses technology to organize sales, marketing, and customer service to acquire, retain, and increase sales to customers. Integrating SCM and CRM allows companies to improve financial and operational metrics by providing customers with optimized product delivery and service. The document outlines the components, benefits, and types of CRM systems as well as a SWOT analysis of CRM.
This document summarizes the key points from a lecture on e-commerce systems. It discusses the major trends driving e-business, strategies for gaining customer loyalty online through trust and targeted marketing. It also outlines the evolution of Amazon's business model from online retail to marketplace platforms and partnerships. Product attributes suitable for online retail are identified.
The document discusses integrated enterprise systems and their evolution over time. It describes how functional information systems created data silos within organizations. Integrated systems address this by capturing data at the source and allowing sharing across departments. Key integrated systems discussed include ERP, SCM, and CRM. ERP provides an integrated solution that spans accounting, finance, supply chain and other functions. SCM manages the flow of materials and information throughout the supply chain. CRM allows identifying, acquiring and retaining customers through multiple channels. The benefits of integrated systems include reduced data duplication and improved information sharing, but implementation requires aligning the system with business processes.
Stores Under Siege: Balancing Sales, Service and Execution in an All-Channel ...RedPrairie
Traditional bricks-and-mortar stores are still the primary way people acquire merchandise. As physical retailers’ extension into a multi-channel world grows – along with consumers’ expectations – the pressure on retail stores to be the heartbeat of an all-channel customer experience has never been greater. Making the most of every dollar invested in labor is critical to ensuring optimal service levels, timely task execution, maximum revenue and loyalty-building store visits.
In this presentation, Dave Bruno, Director of Commerce Studies for RedPrairie, explores the latest research into the challenges facing modern retail workforce managers and discusses modern techniques that many leading companies leverage to engage, empower and mobilize their workforce to deliver optimal all-channel store experiences.
The document discusses customer relationship management (CRM) and the importance of integrating sales, marketing, and service to build customer relationships. It outlines the benefits of CRM, such as increased customer retention and understanding customers to increase opportunities. It also discusses challenges like organizational resistance and the need to transition to a customer-centric model from siloed departments. Successful CRM requires defining a strategy, understanding customers, evaluating applications, and measuring results through a scorecard.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP solutions can provide a return on investment within the first year through several key strategies:
1) Boosting sales by retaining customers, maximizing revenue opportunities, and streamlining sales processes.
2) Providing business intelligence through real-time visibility, aligning business units, and reporting/tracking capabilities.
3) Offering cloud hosting options that reduce costs while providing flexibility and choice in deployment.
4) Functioning as an all-in-one product that increases existing systems' potential through seamless integration.
5) Giving competitive advantages like improving customer service capabilities.
The document discusses selling chain management (SeCM) and its role in transforming customer contact into revenue. SeCM establishes linkages between previously disconnected sales functions and processes to enable new revenue channels while improving existing channels. It analyzes how companies like Cisco have implemented SeCM solutions to better engage customers, increase sales effectiveness, and coordinate team selling across multiple sales channels. However, fully reengineering core sales processes and implementing new business models, as shown by the example of Custom Foot, can encounter challenges integrating technologies with existing workflows.
Spring Wireless provides mobile solutions that help consumer goods companies increase productivity, customer service, sales cycles and reduce costs. Their solutions empower employees with real-time information and tools to manage inventory, customer loyalty and sales from the warehouse to the sales floor. Successful consumer goods companies are using Spring Wireless' solutions to bring the power of mobile enterprise to their employees. Spring Wireless deploys and manages end-to-end mobile solutions comprising software, infrastructure and services to improve business processes throughout the sales cycle.
The document promotes a cloud-based business application platform called E-ON RIX Business, Financials & CRM. It provides integrated commercial, financial, and customer relationship management functionality that can be accessed from any internet-connected device through a web browser. Key benefits highlighted include lower IT costs of up to 80% compared to traditional on-premise software, as well as real-time access to business information anywhere and anytime. The platform aims to help businesses improve productivity, automation, and competitiveness.
IBM presented on their advanced analytics platform architecture and decisions. The platform ingests streaming and batch data from various sources and filters the data for real-time, predictive, and descriptive analytics using tools like Hadoop and SPSS. It also performs identity resolution and feedback loops to improve predictive models. Mobility profiling and social network analysis were discussed as examples. Data engineering requirements like security, scalability, and support for structured and unstructured data were also outlined.
Customer relationship management and supply chain managementRohit Kumar
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a model for managing a company's interactions with current and future customers using technology to organize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support. CRM helps companies identify and reward loyal customers to retain business, acquire new customers through improved marketing efficiency, and enhance customer service to keep customers happy. Effective CRM requires centralizing customer data, supporting mobility, and flexibility to customize the software to user needs.
This document discusses supply chain management and business process engineering. It defines key terms like supply chain, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and business process reengineering (BPR). It also provides examples of how Dell and SAP implemented supply chain management and ERP systems to improve operations.
The document promotes a cloud-based business application platform called e-ON RIX Business, Financials & CRM. It provides integrated commercial, financial, and customer relationship management functionality that can be accessed through a web browser from anywhere. The platform aims to help businesses improve productivity, access real-time information, and gain a competitive advantage through automation and integration of business transactions and customer data.
IBM Coremetrics Web Analytics is a cloud-based digital analytics product that provides marketers with data and insights to increase ROI. It is part of IBM's larger digital marketing optimization suite and allows marketers to gain insights across marketing channels. Coremetrics provides real-time metrics, benchmarks, attribution capabilities, and power user analytics to help marketers improve strategies and optimize spending.
Supply chain management focuses on managing the flow of goods and information from raw materials to end customers. It encompasses all activities from procurement to production to delivery. The goal is to attain synchronization across the supply chain to be responsive to customers while lowering costs. Information technology plays a key role in supply chain management by enabling real-time communication and data sharing between suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and customers. This allows for faster fulfillment of customer demand.
This document provides an overview of supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM). It discusses how SCM involves collaboration between resellers and suppliers to deliver value to customers. CRM uses customer data to build stronger marketing programs and long-term customer relationships. The document argues that integrating SCM and CRM allows companies to achieve improvements in financial and performance metrics that would not be possible through standalone approaches. It provides details on the benefits and components of both SCM and CRM systems.
The document discusses how lean principles can be applied across an entire enterprise to create value for customers. It emphasizes identifying and aligning value streams across design and manufacturing. Removing waste through continuous flow and pull systems is key. Integrating people, processes, and IT helps overcome challenges. E-business is important for reaching new markets and tightening supply chain linkages to enable the lean enterprise.
IBM introduced new software and services to help clients transform their business processes to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and find new ways to grow. The new unified Business Process Management platform gives clients unprecedented visibility into key operations so they can model, automate, monitor, and adjust plans instantly. IBM also announced new consulting services to help clients improve the performance of processes like marketing, HR, and industry-specific processes. The new offerings are aimed at helping businesses gain insights into markets, tune processes, and enhance infrastructure to execute new processes.
The document discusses trends in e-business and technology that are important for managers to consider. It covers trends related to customers, such as demands for faster service and more integrated solutions. It also outlines trends for e-services, organizations, employees, and enterprise technology, such as a shift to integrated applications and multi-channel integration. General technology trends discussed include wireless applications, handheld devices, and infrastructure convergence. The document emphasizes that identifying and exploiting these trends is key to developing effective e-business strategies.
The document discusses the evolution of business intelligence and knowledge management applications over five waves. It describes how early applications focused on data sharing and reporting, while later generations enabled more advanced analytics and personalization. The next generation is proposed to use real-time personalization, broadcast technologies, and mobile access to provide personalized, proactive intelligence to customers across channels. Key elements of successful business intelligence frameworks are also outlined.
This document summarizes IBM's transformation of its supply chain over 20 years to become globally integrated and centered around client needs. It overhauled processes, technology, and talent to consolidate procurement and customer fulfillment into a single, global operation. The transformation included centralizing data and processes, establishing global centers, and operating clients' supply chains. It resulted in an "Integrated Supply Chain" that works across IBM units and industries to efficiently fulfill client orders globally.
This document discusses supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), and the integration of SCM and CRM (ISCRM). SCM involves planning and executing the flow of goods from raw materials to the customer. CRM uses technology to organize sales, marketing, and customer service to acquire, retain, and increase sales to customers. Integrating SCM and CRM allows companies to improve financial and operational metrics by providing customers with optimized product delivery and service. The document outlines the components, benefits, and types of CRM systems as well as a SWOT analysis of CRM.
This document summarizes the key points from a lecture on e-commerce systems. It discusses the major trends driving e-business, strategies for gaining customer loyalty online through trust and targeted marketing. It also outlines the evolution of Amazon's business model from online retail to marketplace platforms and partnerships. Product attributes suitable for online retail are identified.
The document discusses integrated enterprise systems and their evolution over time. It describes how functional information systems created data silos within organizations. Integrated systems address this by capturing data at the source and allowing sharing across departments. Key integrated systems discussed include ERP, SCM, and CRM. ERP provides an integrated solution that spans accounting, finance, supply chain and other functions. SCM manages the flow of materials and information throughout the supply chain. CRM allows identifying, acquiring and retaining customers through multiple channels. The benefits of integrated systems include reduced data duplication and improved information sharing, but implementation requires aligning the system with business processes.
Stores Under Siege: Balancing Sales, Service and Execution in an All-Channel ...RedPrairie
Traditional bricks-and-mortar stores are still the primary way people acquire merchandise. As physical retailers’ extension into a multi-channel world grows – along with consumers’ expectations – the pressure on retail stores to be the heartbeat of an all-channel customer experience has never been greater. Making the most of every dollar invested in labor is critical to ensuring optimal service levels, timely task execution, maximum revenue and loyalty-building store visits.
In this presentation, Dave Bruno, Director of Commerce Studies for RedPrairie, explores the latest research into the challenges facing modern retail workforce managers and discusses modern techniques that many leading companies leverage to engage, empower and mobilize their workforce to deliver optimal all-channel store experiences.
The document discusses customer relationship management (CRM) and the importance of integrating sales, marketing, and service to build customer relationships. It outlines the benefits of CRM, such as increased customer retention and understanding customers to increase opportunities. It also discusses challenges like organizational resistance and the need to transition to a customer-centric model from siloed departments. Successful CRM requires defining a strategy, understanding customers, evaluating applications, and measuring results through a scorecard.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM and ERP solutions can provide a return on investment within the first year through several key strategies:
1) Boosting sales by retaining customers, maximizing revenue opportunities, and streamlining sales processes.
2) Providing business intelligence through real-time visibility, aligning business units, and reporting/tracking capabilities.
3) Offering cloud hosting options that reduce costs while providing flexibility and choice in deployment.
4) Functioning as an all-in-one product that increases existing systems' potential through seamless integration.
5) Giving competitive advantages like improving customer service capabilities.
The document discusses selling chain management (SeCM) and its role in transforming customer contact into revenue. SeCM establishes linkages between previously disconnected sales functions and processes to enable new revenue channels while improving existing channels. It analyzes how companies like Cisco have implemented SeCM solutions to better engage customers, increase sales effectiveness, and coordinate team selling across multiple sales channels. However, fully reengineering core sales processes and implementing new business models, as shown by the example of Custom Foot, can encounter challenges integrating technologies with existing workflows.
Spring Wireless provides mobile solutions that help consumer goods companies increase productivity, customer service, sales cycles and reduce costs. Their solutions empower employees with real-time information and tools to manage inventory, customer loyalty and sales from the warehouse to the sales floor. Successful consumer goods companies are using Spring Wireless' solutions to bring the power of mobile enterprise to their employees. Spring Wireless deploys and manages end-to-end mobile solutions comprising software, infrastructure and services to improve business processes throughout the sales cycle.
The document promotes a cloud-based business application platform called E-ON RIX Business, Financials & CRM. It provides integrated commercial, financial, and customer relationship management functionality that can be accessed from any internet-connected device through a web browser. Key benefits highlighted include lower IT costs of up to 80% compared to traditional on-premise software, as well as real-time access to business information anywhere and anytime. The platform aims to help businesses improve productivity, automation, and competitiveness.
IBM presented on their advanced analytics platform architecture and decisions. The platform ingests streaming and batch data from various sources and filters the data for real-time, predictive, and descriptive analytics using tools like Hadoop and SPSS. It also performs identity resolution and feedback loops to improve predictive models. Mobility profiling and social network analysis were discussed as examples. Data engineering requirements like security, scalability, and support for structured and unstructured data were also outlined.
Customer relationship management and supply chain managementRohit Kumar
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a model for managing a company's interactions with current and future customers using technology to organize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support. CRM helps companies identify and reward loyal customers to retain business, acquire new customers through improved marketing efficiency, and enhance customer service to keep customers happy. Effective CRM requires centralizing customer data, supporting mobility, and flexibility to customize the software to user needs.
This document discusses supply chain management and business process engineering. It defines key terms like supply chain, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and business process reengineering (BPR). It also provides examples of how Dell and SAP implemented supply chain management and ERP systems to improve operations.
The document promotes a cloud-based business application platform called e-ON RIX Business, Financials & CRM. It provides integrated commercial, financial, and customer relationship management functionality that can be accessed through a web browser from anywhere. The platform aims to help businesses improve productivity, access real-time information, and gain a competitive advantage through automation and integration of business transactions and customer data.
IBM Coremetrics Web Analytics is a cloud-based digital analytics product that provides marketers with data and insights to increase ROI. It is part of IBM's larger digital marketing optimization suite and allows marketers to gain insights across marketing channels. Coremetrics provides real-time metrics, benchmarks, attribution capabilities, and power user analytics to help marketers improve strategies and optimize spending.
Supply chain management focuses on managing the flow of goods and information from raw materials to end customers. It encompasses all activities from procurement to production to delivery. The goal is to attain synchronization across the supply chain to be responsive to customers while lowering costs. Information technology plays a key role in supply chain management by enabling real-time communication and data sharing between suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and customers. This allows for faster fulfillment of customer demand.
This document provides an overview of supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM). It discusses how SCM involves collaboration between resellers and suppliers to deliver value to customers. CRM uses customer data to build stronger marketing programs and long-term customer relationships. The document argues that integrating SCM and CRM allows companies to achieve improvements in financial and performance metrics that would not be possible through standalone approaches. It provides details on the benefits and components of both SCM and CRM systems.
The document discusses how lean principles can be applied across an entire enterprise to create value for customers. It emphasizes identifying and aligning value streams across design and manufacturing. Removing waste through continuous flow and pull systems is key. Integrating people, processes, and IT helps overcome challenges. E-business is important for reaching new markets and tightening supply chain linkages to enable the lean enterprise.
IBM introduced new software and services to help clients transform their business processes to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and find new ways to grow. The new unified Business Process Management platform gives clients unprecedented visibility into key operations so they can model, automate, monitor, and adjust plans instantly. IBM also announced new consulting services to help clients improve the performance of processes like marketing, HR, and industry-specific processes. The new offerings are aimed at helping businesses gain insights into markets, tune processes, and enhance infrastructure to execute new processes.
IBM is promoting the use of cloud computing to transform businesses. Cloud computing allows companies to optimize their IT infrastructure and improve business processes. IBM identifies three gaps that cloud addresses: providing customizable cloud platforms, enabling new opportunities, and driving five times more growth than traditional IT. IBM expects $7 billion in cloud revenue by 2015, with $3 billion coming from new areas of growth.
IBM successfully deployed the SugarCRM platform, renamed IBM Sales Connect, globally to over 45,000 salespeople within 12 months. IBM took an agile approach, prioritizing enabling the salesforce over management needs. Key factors in the success included clear objectives, collaboration with stakeholders, change management support from leadership, and integrating social and predictive analytics capabilities. The deployment provided valuable lessons for large-scale global CRM projects.
The document discusses connected manufacturing and how integrating operational technology, information technology, communications technology, and consumer technology can power efficiencies, innovation, and growth for manufacturers. Connected manufacturing describes connecting plants, processes, products, and people across the entire ecosystem. This allows for better insight, streamlined operations, simplified supply chains, and bringing innovative products to market faster. Hewlett Packard Enterprise helps manufacturers transform to connected manufacturing through solutions that connect functions end-to-end and are powered by hybrid infrastructure, security, data, and workplace productivity.
7 Reasons Why Companies Need PLM Software .pdfVeryshop1Line
In the realm of Industry 4.0, PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is a strategic powerhouse, guiding products from conception to disposal. PLM software, tailored for dynamic markets, fosters seamless collaboration across departments through centralized data administration. Its merits include heightened engineering efficiency, unified data governance, accelerated time-to-market, cost mitigation, vigilant compliance management, enhanced customer retention, and elevated product excellence. PLM emerges as an indispensable tool for organizations aiming to navigate the complexities of product development and market demands.
IBM Private Digital Commerce (former Online Commerce): conductins business on...Farid Djaouani
About twenty years ago, IBM embarked upon a transformation process that would ultimately reenergize our brand and our business. That transformation began when the company made the critical decision to refocus the entire organization – every function, every product, every investment -- around a single design point: our clients.
The document discusses IBM's transformation to a client-centric business model called Smarter Commerce over the past 20 years. It focused on reorienting all functions around client needs through intensive research and feedback. Specifically, the summary discusses IBM transforming its online commerce capabilities in response to clients demanding more sophisticated purchasing and integration. This included expanding specialist teams, educating staff, and developing new consulting and technology solutions. The result was increased efficiency for both clients and IBM through more automated purchasing and information sharing.
1. CRM technology ties together all customer touchpoints like sales, marketing, and customer service to track the entire customer relationship history across channels.
2. There are many CRM technology options available now for businesses of all sizes, from large enterprise solutions to affordable web-based models.
3. Wireless technologies are expanding CRM capabilities by allowing access to customer information and CRM applications from mobile devices.
HCL Commerce Cloud: Elevate Sales with Integrated B2B SolutionsHCLSoftware
The key to successful B2B sales growth lies in digital strategies, particularly with the rising prominence of enterprise ecommerce solutions. Companies must adapt to the rapidly changing landscape of B2B e-commerce to remain competitive, as highlighted by McKinsey. Embracing digital transformation is crucial, with McKinsey noting the risk of falling behind for those who fail to do so. Going forward, digital will become the most important sales channel, contributing over 40% of total company revenue.
Learn more: https://hclsw.co/0wzv7y
The document discusses the concept of an "on demand business" and how breakthroughs are needed to achieve this. It provides examples of how technology enablers have allowed businesses to transform their supply chain management, resulting in cost reductions and increased sales and flexibility. The document advocates designing businesses in a modular way and identifying differentiating versus basic processes to prioritize and drive flexibility. This involves analyzing costs, capabilities, and partnerships needed to develop breakthrough on demand business designs.
George Chast of IBM's Smarter Process Leadership Team presented on reinventing business operations for greater customer centricity and top-line growth using mobile, social and cloud technologies. IBM's approach focuses on enabling greater customer centricity in an age of new technologies while driving efficiency. Chast discussed how knowledge worker empowerment is vital for success and customer centricity. He outlined IBM's Smarter Process capabilities including operational decision management, business process management, and case management. Chast proposed identifying business challenges, starting with an initial project, and establishing a program to build a roadmap for process excellence.
This document discusses challenges with managing customer identities and compares different approaches companies take to address these challenges. It outlines the issues with building a custom solution ("homegrown" approach) or stitching together existing systems ("Frankenstein" approach) and argues that a specialized cloud-based customer identity and access management (CIAM) platform ("buy it, don't build it" approach) provides the best value through lower total cost of ownership and improved customer experiences. An example compares the costs of a custom solution versus a CIAM platform for a company with 1 million customers and 5 application integrations.
MIcrosoft Dynamics CRM 2013 - Deep DiveBrad Tornberg
The session agenda document discusses how Microsoft Dynamics CRM can help businesses adapt to changing buyer behaviors and expectations. It summarizes how Dynamics CRM provides tools to personalize experiences across marketing, sales, and customer service. These include social networking integrations, mobile access, process automation, and data/insights tools to understand customers throughout their journey. Case studies show Dynamics CRM helping businesses increase sales volumes by over 150% and reduce customer support times by 75%.
Be sure to visit the following exhibitors at the v-FS3 conference! Without their support, there would be no conference. In addition to demonstrating their solutions and services in the exhibit area, Without their support, there would be no conference. Silver, Gold and Platinum sponsors will be offering on demand breakout sessions that you can attend at your leisure.
IBM Comprehensive Business-to-Partner IntegrationLightwell
Today’s environment demands flexible, well-designed partner and systems integration solutions that can help leverage existing investments, respond more easily to change, cut costs as they improve performance, and enable companies to capitalize on opportunities ahead of their competitors. Discover the benefits of IBM's Comprehensive Business-to-Partner Integration: A Tool for Revenue Growth.
The document discusses the shift in the enterprise software industry from licensing models to subscription and cloud-based models. It notes that anything offered as a service accounted for over $26 billion in revenues in 2011 for the top 100 software companies, representing a growing portion of the industry. The transition to new models is disruptive and challenges the pricing, delivery, and customer relationships of software companies. It also occurs alongside other industry trends that impact pricing models. The document outlines some of the positive and negative impacts this transition is having on software companies' business models and internal processes related to pricing, profitability, and financial reporting.
IBM Guide to Consumer Products Industry Technology TrendsTero Angeria
This guide provides a quick overview of what we believe manufacturers need to address within each of these
technological transformation areas and how IBM solutions can support that transformation.
IBM offers manufacturers the integrated solutions and services required to keep pace with today’s transformational business requirements. Based on the experiences and feedback from working with many leading consumer products clients around the globe, we have designed a portfolio of offerings that addresses the specific needs of consumer products companies from strategy and roadmap development to integrated software solution delivery all focused on using technology enablers to create new value across your enterprise.We help manufacturers deepen their relationships with their consumers, offer differentiated value to channel partners to generate competitive advantage, establish supply network improvements to increase efficiencies and achieve operational excellence—all for the express purpose of
supporting continued profitable growth.
Unveiling the Dynamic Personalities, Key Dates, and Horoscope Insights: Gemin...my Pandit
Explore the fascinating world of the Gemini Zodiac Sign. Discover the unique personality traits, key dates, and horoscope insights of Gemini individuals. Learn how their sociable, communicative nature and boundless curiosity make them the dynamic explorers of the zodiac. Dive into the duality of the Gemini sign and understand their intellectual and adventurous spirit.
Anny Serafina Love - Letter of Recommendation by Kellen Harkins, MS.AnnySerafinaLove
This letter, written by Kellen Harkins, Course Director at Full Sail University, commends Anny Love's exemplary performance in the Video Sharing Platforms class. It highlights her dedication, willingness to challenge herself, and exceptional skills in production, editing, and marketing across various video platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Best practices for project execution and deliveryCLIVE MINCHIN
A select set of project management best practices to keep your project on-track, on-cost and aligned to scope. Many firms have don't have the necessary skills, diligence, methods and oversight of their projects; this leads to slippage, higher costs and longer timeframes. Often firms have a history of projects that simply failed to move the needle. These best practices will help your firm avoid these pitfalls but they require fortitude to apply.
Industrial Tech SW: Category Renewal and CreationChristian Dahlen
Every industrial revolution has created a new set of categories and a new set of players.
Multiple new technologies have emerged, but Samsara and C3.ai are only two companies which have gone public so far.
Manufacturing startups constitute the largest pipeline share of unicorns and IPO candidates in the SF Bay Area, and software startups dominate in Germany.
Implicitly or explicitly all competing businesses employ a strategy to select a mix
of marketing resources. Formulating such competitive strategies fundamentally
involves recognizing relationships between elements of the marketing mix (e.g.,
price and product quality), as well as assessing competitive and market conditions
(i.e., industry structure in the language of economics).
Company Valuation webinar series - Tuesday, 4 June 2024FelixPerez547899
This session provided an update as to the latest valuation data in the UK and then delved into a discussion on the upcoming election and the impacts on valuation. We finished, as always with a Q&A
An introduction to the cryptocurrency investment platform Binance Savings.Any kyc Account
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Icc whitepaper
1. Herman Miller
Herman Miller, Inc. (HM) is the second-largest office furniture manufacturer in the world
by production volume and revenues. Historically, HM’s success and growth have been
driven by design excellence (including the Aeron chair and the Eames lounge chair) and
innovation (HM invented “systems furniture” or cubicles in 1968, revolutionizing office
spaces worldwide). Products are manufactured and assembled for the large, medium,
small, and home office (SOHO) markets from millions of products and product
variations. Despite the fact that office furniture is considered “low tech,” the company
has firmly embraced technology, the Net, and organizational flexibility in pursuit of
further excellence.
There is no doubt that HM is successful and revolutionary. Fiscal year 2000 revenues
were $1.9 billion and the average five-year growth was 13.2% in an industry that grew at
7% over that same time period.1 HM’s 7% net profit is the highest in the industry. As of
February 15, 2001, the company’s price/earnings ratio of 13.5 reflects success in the
market given the industry average ratio of 10.02. In the first six months of fiscal 2001 (to
December 2000), sales and orders grew in excess of 23% compared to industry growth of
8.8% and 7.0% for sales and orders respectively for the same period.3
Business Context
The traditional custom furniture industry targets 100+ seat (employee) firms with
elaborate office design needs. Many customers view office furniture as a strategic
purchase that will increase productivity. Design and quality are the main buying criteria,
with less emphasis on delivery time. By the mid 1990s this market segment was stagnant,
and manufacturers were competing on price, turning what was previously a custom
product into a commodity.
Industry consolidation characterized the 1990s. At the start of the decade the industry had
only one manufacturer with sales over $1 billion. By 2000, through acquisitions and
organic growth, four companies clocked in over the $1.5 billion mark, with Steelcase (the
largest) realizing over $3 billion in revenue.4 These larger companies, HM among them,
invested heavily in manufacturing and inventory management software to further exploit
economies of scale in custom manufacturing. HM also created a second supply chain
called SQA (simple, quick, and affordable) where suppliers provide semi-finished
products that are assembled by HM. Customers have less choice but products arrive much
faster, in as little as 5-20 days.
In 1999 and 2000 the market seesawed. According to the Business and Institutional
Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA), the office furniture market shrunk in
1999 (-1%) but rebounded in 2000 (9%). The 2001 forecast is for a slowdown in growth
to 5.6%. Market dynamics are also changing: “Much of the growth in the US economy is
1
Herman Miller 2000 annual report http://www.hermanmiller.com/us/pdfs/investors/00ar.PDF.
2
Hoovers http://www.hoovers.com/enterprise/landscape/6/0,3091,13676,00.html.
3
Hoovers, Herman Miller Feb 5 press release http://www.hermanmiller.com/us/index.bbk/10422.
4
1999 Herman Miller financial presentation, www.hermanmiller.com/investors/dlpresentations.html.
1
2. occurring in small and medium-sized companies. Many Fortune 500 companies are
downsizing and, as a result, are not requiring furniture for new employees.”5 The SOHO
(small office home office) market segment has different product and service needs than
larger customers, including more sensitivity to price and delivery time. HM’s SQA line
was created to address these needs.
BIFMA states that competitors are concentrating on cost control and production
efficiency to keep prices down. Also, “differentiation…based on service is often the only
way to distinguish oneself from competitors.”6
Herman Miller responded to these business conditions by focusing on three strategic
goals:
• Differentiate on superior customer service. HM focuses on providing the fastest, most
accurate delivery in the industry. The on-time, accurate shipment rate is over 99%. The
company’s 5-28 day delivery time leads the industry. 7
• Improve speed to market of new products. Drew Schramm (vice president, supply chain
management) estimates that HM can bring new products to market 15%-20% faster than
the competition.8
• Create new markets and increase the pace of innovation in the industry. For HM,
creating a new market means one of two things: being first to attack a market segment
like SOHO; or creating new systems that improve design efficiency.
Challenges and Opportunities
HM recognized that capitalizing on new opportunities, like the growing SOHO market,
required new production and service skill-sets. To offer semi-customized office furniture
systems faster and cheaper, HM needed to operate with more speed and agility. There
were also clear implications for HM’s relationships with suppliers and dealers. Business
processes—from supply and inventory management to ordering and design—had to be
aligned and integrated with production in order to respond quickly and accurately to
market demands.
HM’s large, diverse supplier base presented an additional challenge. It involves over 600
suppliers (125 of them “prime”), ranging from enormous conglomerates to tiny “mom
and pop” shops, each with different levels of technical sophistication, importance to HM
operations, and financial strength. HM’s goal is to empower and collaborate with
suppliers, so both parties realize greater value from the relationship. For example, HM
wants suppliers to deliver higher value, semi-finished goods rather than commodities.
5
BIFMA industry analysis: http://www.bifma.org/stats/stats_over2.html.
6
BIFMA industry analysis: http://www.bifma.org/stats/stats_over2.html.
7
Mark Schurman, director of corporate communications, Herman Miller Inc., interview by Dave Cosgrave
and Terrence Hibbert, Digital 4Sight, 22 January 2001.
8
Drew Schramm, vice president supply chain management, Herman Miller Inc., interview by Dave
Cosgrave and Terrence Hibbert, Digital 4Sight, 22 January 2001.
2
3. Gaining alignment with the dealer community (still responsible for 70% of HM’s sales)
would also prove challenging. Though HM continues to view dealers as value-adding
intermediaries, it acknowledges that the nature of their value is changing. By offering
new integrated design, sales, and order management tools, HM helps dealers operate
more effectively and focus on higher value customer relationship management and
service activities.
HM uses ICC to achieve speed to market and rapid innovation. Only by working more
closely and collaboratively with suppliers and dealers can HM create and dominate new
markets. Herman Miller was among the first in the industry to understand these changing
relationship dynamics. Says Schramm; “Our competitors thought that we were just doing
rapid delivery.”9 In reality, HM reinvented the entire supply chain.
ICC Deployment
Herman Miller’s ICC deployment strategies contribute to all three strategic goals shown
in Figure 1 below. Technology and the Internet are used to deploy information
intelligently and distribute decision-making.
Strategic Goals Deployment Strategy Result
Superior customer Supplier decisions based on Accurate orders
service complete access to demand and shipped on time.
inventory information
Total cost reduction Lower prices to
customers
Supplier rationalization Improved quality and
speed due to increased
collaboration
Z-Axis visual design Faster time-to-order
collaboration
eZconnect customer Web Easier to re-order
sites
Speed to market with Collaborative product and Faster design process
new products process design
Commodity managers Better information flow
to all participants, better
forecasting
Creation of new Collaborative product and Faster design process.
markets process design Easier to predict trends as
input comes from multiple
sources.
Figure 1
9
Ibid.
3
4. Buy side
Herman Miller has gone beyond automating its supply re-order system; it lets suppliers
actually manage component inventories. Information deployment empowers suppliers to
make strategic decisions in response to changes in demand, resulting in lower inventory
and production costs throughout the supply chain. Suppliers have access to real-time
demand and production information through one of two Web-based information systems
—Supply-Net and SIGN. According to Bill Bundy, vice president of operations, “all that
a supplier needs to access demand and inventory data in real-time is a PC, a Web
browser, and a password.”10 Suppliers can also check electronic invoices for accuracy,
ensuring prompt payment and maintaining cash flow. HM even has an automated alert
system to warn suppliers of discrepancies in invoices or orders. This saves both HM and
the supplier wasted time and effort in chasing down problems.
HM also collaborates closely with suppliers to reduce total component costs. By
analyzing costs at any point in the supply chain, components and processes can be
singled out and analyzed for cost reductions. This is very different from the traditional
model where manufacturers simply impose price reductions on helpless suppliers. The
joint decision-making based on technology-enabled open information provides an
excellent case for intelligent collaborative commerce.
Herman Miller enables further supply side agility by collaborating with a smaller number
of suppliers to create deeper, more flexible relationships. The goal is to transform tactical,
reliability-focused relationships into strategic relationships rooted in information
transparency and trust. HM uses a “bucket system” to rate suppliers along quantitative
and qualitative measures. Bucket one suppliers not only deliver over 99% accuracy but
also share complete costing information and can adapt quickly to change. Bucket two,
three, and four suppliers share fewer and fewer of these qualities.
The criteria are strict: of HM’s 600+ suppliers, only two are in bucket one. Drew
Schramm indicates that the company has at least one major supplier who provides critical
parts but risks being replaced because of its policy of not sharing cost information. Royal
Plastics, a bucket one supplier, accesses SIGN and Supply-Net via the Net to get orders,
inventory, forecasting, and payment info. “It helps us plan and keep better track of
information,”11 says Perry Franco, Royal’s HM relationship manager. Franco indicates
that many manufacturers simply demand that suppliers reduce prices and lead times,
whereas HM “puts the tools in place to make it happen.” The tools enable intelligent
collaboration between HM and Royal to achieve mutually important goals of leaner
production. Similarly, Pent Assemblies shared cost breakdowns of a plastic part (labor,
material, transportation charges, overhead attributed, cycle time of machinery). HM and
Pent then were able to target the cost of the plastic resin as the main variable for the
entire cost of the part. Working together, the two companies came up with a solution that
10
Bill Bundy, vice president of operations, Herman Miller, interview by Natalie Klym, Digital 4Sight, 11
April 2000.
11
Perry Franco, Royal Plastics Inc., interview by Terrence Hibbert, Digital 4Sight, 5 February 2001.
4
5. saves $50,000 annually. Schramm believes that there are many processes that can provide
similar (or greater) cost savings.12
Make side
Collaborative design pushes design information to all relevant parties and solicits input
from all simultaneously, thus reducing the cycle time and increasing product quality. This
practice allows HM to gain competitive advantage by increasing the pace of innovation in
the industry. The process can also be applied to manufacturing and sales process
innovation. As Schramm says, “our…suppliers literally have engineers sitting in our new
product development teams adding to the value of the product as it’s coming down the
pike.”13 He estimates that this collaboration allows HM to bring high quality new
products to market 15%-20% faster than the competition. Franco indicates that his
company will sometimes get involved two years before a product launch. Royal Plastics
can lower costs by designing parts that it knows are less labor-intensive.
HM intends to automate the design process by implementing software that enables virtual
collaboration, thus saving time and resources involved in physically co-locating
participants. Challenges may come from some suppliers who prefer to pay to send
engineers to HM to physically manipulate the product. “I am typically trying to get my
engineers to [HM’s] site to reduce headaches further on [during production],” says
Franco. “They like to touch and feel the product, understand how it is used and its
purpose.”14 For HM to be successful at virtual collaboration, it will have to simulate
product manipulation.
At HM the commodity manager is responsible for collecting information on a particular
commodity (plastics, wood, raw steel, steel products, etc.) and disseminating it
throughout the supply chain. The objective is to improve product design and trend
forecasting, both of which are necessary to increase speed to market and improve
production quality.
Sell side
Herman Miller shortens the sales cycle by embedding business and design process rules
into customer-facing technology. Shorter sales cycles increase dealer revenues without
increasing resources, and enable the pursuit of new market opportunities. Z-Axis is a
virtual room that allows dealers to collaborate with customers to design SQA systems in
real time. According to Lee Eilers “[Z-Axis] allows a customer to make better decisions
on a more timely basis so it can meet its targets.”15 The software intelligently displays
only the SQA furniture that can be delivered within the specified period and
automatically produces an accurate bill of materials. Traditionally, designing systems
12
Drew Schramm, vice president supply chain management, Herman Miller Inc., interview by Terrence
Hibbert, Digital 4Sight, 16 February 2001.
13
Drew Schramm, op. cit., 22 January 2001.
14
Perry Franco, op. cit.
15
Lee Eilers, (()), Herman Miller Inc., interview by Dave Cosgrave and Terrence Hibbert, Digital 4Sight,
22 January 2001.
5
6. with CAD (computer-aided design) is a long and arduous process, particularly where
changes are required. It could take months to complete sales to large customers. The cost
for sales to smaller customers was prohibitive. Z-Axis allows dealers to reduce the sell
cycle to weeks or even days and pursue the previously unfeasible medium-sized office
market.
eZconnect is a Web-enabled tool HM created for large customers to re-order, or make
changes to its order, online. Through eZconnect, dealers progress from a traditional
transactional relationship with the customer to a permanent contextual relationship that
keeps the dealer, and HM, permanently in the customer’s mind. It enhances the customer
experience by intelligently displaying only the furniture systems ordered and embedding
the order processing rules.
eZconnect was originally intended as a way for HM to connect directly with customers,
to increase speed and efficiency. Unfortunately it displaced dealers in the process.
“Literally, the product had to be enhanced or scrapped,”16 says Lee Eilers, who is in
charge of the product for HM. By collaborating with dealers (who felt they were being
disintermediated) and customers (who weren’t knowledgeable enough to order directly),
the tool was recast into its current form. Intelligent collaboration in technology redesign
creates the ongoing learning process that will help HM to “increase the clockspeed of the
industry.”17
Herman Miller’s technology is the glue that links all strategic goals. There is a very
experimental culture around technology. “It’s not a bad thing if technology doesn’t work
if we gain some intelligence about it”18 Drew Schramm says of the supply side software
he has used. The team applies the learning from the implementation of technology, even
failed technology, to be able to implement the next technology faster and more
efficiently. This organizational learning extends to technology that is used by suppliers
and customers.
16
Ibid.
17
Mark Schurman, op. cit. Clockspeed refers to the work of Dr. Charles Fine wherein he describes the pace
of innovation in an industry.
18
Drew Schramm, op. cit. Which interview date?
6
7. FIGURE 2 – COLLABORATION ACTIVITIES & SUPPORTING TECHNOLOGIES
SELL SIDE
COLLABORATION
Focus on reduced time-to-order Z-Axis
Fast-accurate delivery and installation eZconnect
Collaborative design Oasis order entry system
Supply chain optimization hmstore.com
Flex supply chain
SQA (simple quick affordable)
Complete demand and
supply chain
inventory information E N
ID IO CO M ERP (JD Edwards, Baan)
Total cost reduction Y S AT L L AK I2 Rhythm Factory Planner
Supplier rationalization BU BOR AB E S
A OR IDE Manufacturing Execution System
Collaborative design LL AT
Supply chain optimization CO IO
Menlo Logistics
SIGN N
Supply-Net
Menlo Logistics
Collaborative design
Commodity managers
Workflow planning
LEGEND
COLLABORATION ACTIVITIES
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
Source – Digital 4Sight Research
Figure 2
On the sell side, Z-Axis and Oasis Order Entry System provide the interface for dealer
orders. Customers, on the other hand, enter purchase information directly on eZconnect
or hmstore.com. The next generation of software will be completely Web-based and
designed to maximize customer usability.
On the buy side, HM and Menlo Logistics send information to suppliers via SIGN and
Supply-Net. This information is critical in the decision-making processes of suppliers and
they have input into any updates to the technology.
The make-side software feeds SIGN and Supply-Net through enterprise software like
manufacturing resource planners, execution systems, and ERP systems. The company
currently uses two ERP systems but have plans to reduce it to one. HM creates a
collaborative learning environment where programmers and users can share experiences
and leverage the lessons learned over multiple technologies.
Measures of Success
Herman Miller’s reliability score (a measure of on-time and complete shipments) is a
measure of ICC success. Everyone in the value chain understands that 100% reliability
means that the ordering, production, and fulfillment processes are running effectively.
This measure of effectiveness is complemented by measures of efficiency that are the
result of collaborative processes. Efficiency is measured by the time it takes for new
products to get to market or for changes in design to be implemented in production, and
also includes cost reduction through better design and production methods. The company
view is that effectiveness brings new customers, while efficiency improves the bottom
7
8. line. HM’s high growth and industry leading 48.7% return on equity, 15.1% return on
assets, and 36.7% return on invested capital all indicate success in effectiveness and
efficiency.
Herman Miller also values its ability to create new markets and its ability to innovate at
any point in the value chain. To do so, HM relies on economic value-added19 (EVA)
metrics to push information and authority to innovate or make decisions out to the most
appropriate organizational level. Schramm’s technology team uses EVA to decide
whether or not it should implement a new technology: “If my group says it wants to
spend $25,000 on a new piece of software, and it’s going to be EVA positive, there isn’t a
person that stops us, we just go out and do it.”20 Achievement of EVA targets also drives
corporate bonuses, which creates further incentive to use it as a decision-making tool.
A telling metric for evaluating how well HM is working with its suppliers is how many
are in the bucket one category. As more suppliers progress into bucket one, HM will
benefit from having better collaboration and opportunities to increase effectiveness and
efficiency.
Future Vision
Herman Miller will face challenges in deploying its ICC strategy internationally. Face-to-
face collaborations are more expensive, and HM must rely on embedded business and
process rules in software to collaborate virtually and maintain effective distributed
decision-making. Success will lead to furniture systems tailored to local tastes, rapid
growth in market share, and continued flexibility. There may also be new cultural barriers
to face around the principle of open information. The benefits of information sharing for
total cost reduction and rapid innovation must be communicated and the bucket system
expanded.
The company also wants to gather and harness more customer knowledge to enhance the
purchase experience and design of future systems. According to Mark Schurman, HM is
“implementing collaborative, remote interactive technology in our design process that we
believe will add speed and reliability to our new product commercialization process
going forward, including a ‘virtual’ development lab.”21 To begin with, the company will
create a “customer team” to solicit feedback from customers directly. Conversations will
yield valuable information and be disseminated throughout the value chain. HM plans to
reap information on preferences and dislikes directly from dealer software and Web tools.
If a certain office layout is never chosen, it may need more focus. If, however, the layout
is seen by many customers but never chosen then it can be eliminated. This level of
unbiased detail is difficult to obtain from conversations and illustrates the importance of
the ICC principle of capturing business information at the source of creation.
19
EVA is a measure designed to give companies a more accurate way of estimating real economic profit
than traditional financial metrics. It calculates after-tax net operating profit for a given period, less the total
cost of capital over the period.
20
Drew Schramm, op. cit. Which interview date?
21
Mark Schurman, Herman Miller Inc., interview by Terrence Hibbert, Digital 4Sight, 16 February 2001.
8
9. General Electric
“[Through the use of collaboration software, suppliers] will be working as if
they’re part of our team. We think it will change the whole paradigm of how we
work with suppliers.”22
Chris Fuselier, general manager of technology, GE Industrial Systems
General Electric is an expansive global corporation whose offerings range from jet
engines to financial services to the television show “Will and Grace.” Not only is the
company in the Fortune 500 (it’s #5), but 13 of its business units are big enough to
qualify individually. Business processes and markets vary widely from one business unit
to another—consider the difference in innovation strategies between nuclear reactors and
equipment leases.
Despite its size and varied mix of offerings, General Electric eschews the sluggish
behavior typical of a behemoth conglomerate. GE is an early adopter of innovative
business practices: the company was quick to embrace Economic Value Added23 as a key
business metric and passionately pursued Six Sigma excellence.24 During the 1980s,
when most companies divested assets and outsourced down to core competencies, GE,
under legendary CEO Jack Welch, constantly revamped its portfolio of businesses.
Retaining only business units that could consistently be ranked #1 or #2 in their markets,
the company sold $10 billion and purchased $19 billion worth of businesses. By 2000,
the traditional manufacturing company that Thomas Edison started in 1878 was
generating more than 60% of its revenue through services. This revenue is not just
realized by prized assets like GE Capital and NBC, but also through after-sales service
contracts on the company’s equipment business.
Business Context
Unlike many other global firms, GE did not react to dot-coms with panic or studied
indifference, but instead saw them as a challenge and opportunity. Welch announced that
the company’s e-commerce strategy would “change the DNA of GE forever by
energizing and revitalizing every corner of this company.”25 Welch imparted a sense of
urgency: “One cannot be tentative about this. Delay and you risk being cut out of your
own market, perhaps not by traditional competitors but by companies you never heard of
twenty-four months ago.”26 Simply adopting Internet technology and streamlining
22
David Drucker, “Virtual Teams Light Up GE,” Internet Week, April 6, 2000.
23
EVA is a measure designed to give companies a more accurate way of estimating real economic
profit than traditional financial metrics. It calculates after-tax net operating profit for a given
period, less the total cost of capital over the period.
24
Adapted from the 18th letter in the Greek alphabet, the term “sigma” is used in statistics as a measure of
variation. Each sigma represents a standard deviation. Within a set of random data, one sigma means 68%
of goods are acceptable and two sigma means 95% are acceptable. Six sigma means 99.999997% of goods
are acceptable (or 3.4 defects per million).
25
Howard Rudnitsky, op. cit.
26
Ibid.
9
10. operations will not generate a competitive advantage—all of GE’s competitors could do
that. To succeed, GE needed to leverage Internet technology faster with more focus.
Then, in the aftermath of the 2000 NASDAQ correction, many large companies let out a
relieved sigh, engaged in a little schadenfreude27 at the expense of some former dot-com
billionaires, and sent e-commerce to lower priority status. Not so General Electric. Welch
promises that e-business will realize $10 billion in savings between 2000 and 2002.
These savings will, in large part, result from GE’s aggressive adoption of collaborative
practices across business units and with customers and suppliers.
Challenges and Opportunities
GE’s corporate mission is to completely transform the company through effective use of
technology. Jack Welch set a clear direction that the entire company be digitized. In fact,
the company now tracks the number of computer printers and fax machines “retired” for
a given period, as proof that digitally captured data had replaced paper. This simple
metric understates GE’s challenge. Going ‘digital’ means patching together numerous
legacy systems, coordinating multiple data models and enabling more and better
communication between them.
GE’s overall corporate strategy has four components: continued globalization, further
pursuit of Sigma Six quality, increased revenue from services, and the pursuit of e-
business. Intelligent collaborative commerce, aided by corporate level investments in
technology, supports each of these initiatives.
ICC Deployment
In only four years GE’s Sigma Six quality initiative, a relentless commitment to reducing
production and performance errors to fewer than four per million, has become deeply
ingrained in corporate culture. For example, only those employees who fully ‘buy in’ to
Sigma Six qualify for senior positions in the organization. Thus far, the initiative has
yielded better than $4 billion in savings.
With the emergence of the Internet as a collaborative platform, GE now employs a new
set of tools in pursuit of ultra-high quality and speed. Lonnie Edelheit, a senior
technology and research advisor to GE, points to a number of Internet based collaborative
efforts the company now employs, including e-engineering and customer configuration.
Historically, GE operated with basic engineering tools, and relied on “intuition” to
predict customer demands. Its internal and external co-engineering efforts were highly
inefficient. Ram Matta, a senior GE research engineer, recounts a recent project where his
team was building jet engine wheel disks. At multiple stages of the project, an actual 10
ton wheel was shipped around the globe as engineers worked on interacting parts. Other
engineering activities were put on hold until the wheel was returned. According to Matta,
“it added 12 months to my cycle time and left me hostage to one supplier.”
27
A German term referring to the malicious enjoyment of another’s misfortune.
10
11. Utilizing an Internet based e-engineering backbone, GE now ‘ships’ knowledge and
information, not physical prototypes, to its global engineering teams. Information, from
precision design specs to extensive test data, is deployed to the right people at the right
time. In the process, the e-engineering platform administers a complex system of work
and information flows, approvals, change management and multi-layered data access to
ensure product quality. Matta expects it will reduce cycle times from years to months.
GE also deploys mission critical information to customers (and dealers) via the Internet.
Each of GE’s manufacturing businesses offers ‘wizard’ software tools to facilitate
intelligent product configuration. For example, customers can select product types and
colors, receive cost estimates, and view digital representations of custom-made products
on line. GE captures these customer preferences digitally and in real time.
Doing so required that much tacit organizational knowledge, including important design
and business rules, be captured and embedded in the software. According to Joe Hogan,
vice president of e-business, GE Medical Systems, “Some of these pieces of equipment
can be pretty complicated. That information used to be in a person’s head, and the only
way you could get it was to make a phone call or send a fax, and someone would take a
look at it and suggest what the configuration should be.”28 Both GE and its customers
benefit from reduced sales cycles and better product matches.
General Electric considers its size and diversity of business activities a tremendous
strength. Adopting best practices from other business units or outside the company is
encouraged—competitive intelligence-gathering is required of all managers. Internally,
executives consider GE to be a “boundaryless” organization. A commitment to
collaborating with suppliers and customers is nothing new. In 1993, Welch wrote in a
letter to shareholders: “We involve suppliers as participants in our design and
manufacturing processes rather than treat them as vendors, left to cool their heels in
waiting rooms. It means having major launch customers like British Airways, Tokyo
Electric Power, or CSX in the room and involved in the design of a new jet engine, a
revolutionary gas turbine, or a new AC locomotive, or a panel of doctors helping us
develop a new ultrasound system.”29
By 2001, this collaboration was fortified by effective use of collaborative Internet
applications. GE targeted conventional workflow pitfalls, like data hoarding, information
bottlenecks, rework, and long cycle times, for improvement using the Internet.
As a key part of the solution, GE has mandated the use of Matrix One collaboration
software, eMatrix, for all new product introductions. Consider the case of GE Appliances.
This division launched a program to enable the participation of Indian suppliers very
early in the design process. Using eMatrix, India based companies Tata and Satyem co-
design new products with GE engineers located in Kentucky. Workflows, approvals, and
information access levels are managed over the Internet. Design cycle times and costs are
slashed. Moreover, intense collaboration with suppliers results in better manufacturing
cost models, and ultimately higher margins.
28
“GE’s E-Biz Turnaround Proves that Big Is Back,” InternetWeek, date?
29
Robert Slater, Jack Welch and the GE Way (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999), p. 131.
11
12. The GE Power Systems group realized $40-60 million in yearly savings after migrating
product and service data to the Internet. It has built powerful Web portals, integrating
more than 50 disparate legacy systems, to service its large power plant customers. Linked
to real time performance data from a global install base of power generation equipment,
GE is better positioned to offer higher value proactive services to customers.
Within the GE Industrial Systems business unit, technology enables deep relationships
with customers. Product engineering is highly collaborative, which strengthens
relationships between the company and its clients and increases the customers’ cost of
switching suppliers. According to Chris Fuselier, general manager of technology, GE
Industrial Systems, “[Collaboration] gets us a lot closer to our customers. They’re going
to be more involved, more frequently. We’ll be much better able to meet their needs, and
we think it will result in great customer loyalty.” 30
Co-engineering is common practice within GE’s Aircraft Engines business, where
supplier engineers have full access to data and participate in system design. The engine
test data system is moving off an IBM mainframe and onto an Internet platform. The data
is reliably and securely stored in an organized fashion and is available to both GE and
Boeing engineers.
Enabling Technology
Figure 3 illustrates the three main branches of GE’s collaborative activity. For each of
sell side, buy side, and make side, the main activities and supporting technologies are
shown. Note that the same players and technologies often operate in multiple branches.
MatrixOne is present in all three segments, as it serve as a universal integrator of various
technologies. For example, Web City, an internal collaboration system, helps to manage
projects and creates virtual folders that allow GE industrial systems to capture best
practices and expedite repetitive tasks. Also, Web Methods software works with eMatrix
to enable GE Power system’s transformation from legacy systems to Web technology.
30
David Drucker, op. cit.
12
13. FIGURE B – COLLABORATION ACTIVITIES & SUPPORTING TECHNOLOGIES
SELL SIDE
COLLABORATION
Dynamic price discovery
Customer satisfaction metrics MatrixOne
Customer experience optimization Part Edge
Product customization Commerce One
Co-engineering GE Global VMR
Supply chain optimization Span
MatrixOne
Dynamic price discover i Center
Product customization Microsoft Exchange
Co-engineering E N CO M Lotus (Notes, Domino, Raven)
ID IO
Supply chain optimization Y S AT LL AKE
BU BOR AB S
A OR IDE
LL AT
CO IO
MatrixOne N
Web City
Commerce One
GE Global VMR
Workflow plan
Quality control
Documentation
Co-engineering
Testing results
LEGEND
COLLABORATION ACTIVITIES
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
Source – Digital 4Sight Research
GE has also increased collaboration in supply chain management. In October 2000, GE
Operations Services implemented GE Global VMI (vendor managed inventory), a
collaborative supply chain software product that supports inventory management,
forecasting, and logistics. According to Steve Pittman, General Manager, GE Operations
Services, “excessive inventories are often the hidden costs associated with inefficient
supply chain management. The GE Global VMI service allows for supply chain
monitoring and control 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Its inventory management
system can deliver up to a 50% inventory reduction of returned orders, leading to a 5:1
return on investment. This opens up new opportunities in supply chain efficiency for
suppliers and customers.”31 The results of this initiative, however, go beyond increased
efficiency and actually make the relationship between GE and its customers more
synergistic. Improved communication and transparency increase responsiveness and
reduce inventory costs. Products can change rapidly to adapt to market conditions and
inventory obsolescence is reduced or eliminated.
Measures of Success
GE’s commitment to e-commerce and intelligent collaborative commerce has been
unqualified. Although a great deal of work remains to be done to meet Welch’s
aggressive goals, the company has seen some promising early results (Figure 4).
These include baseline cost improvements resulting from transactional efficiency, to
higher order collaborative benefits such as shorter product development cycles.
31
“GE Launches Collaborative Supply Chain System,” Quality Today, October 26, 2000.
13
14. Buy-side ICC More than $15 billion worth of commodity products were bought
online in 2000. According to senior vice president and chief information
officer Gary Reiner, “if all of the [4 million per year] transactions went to
the Web, transactions costs would drop from an average of $75 each to as
low as $5 per transaction.”32
Internet transactions are already important, accounting for more than
$5 billion of GE’s $112 billion of worldwide revenue33
Sell-side ICC Customer service costs decrease. For example, a customer call
answered by a phone operator costs $5; a Web interaction costs 20¢.
According to Reiner, “You’re talking about a more than 90% reduction in
costs. [In fleet services] telephone order inaccuracies run at about 45%. The
same transactions done over the Web, with software that helps get and give
the right information, drives down the error rate to one tenth of one
percent.”34
The use of eMatrix within GE Power Systems alone will result in
yearly savings of $40-60 million
Make-side ICC Administrative costs decrease. GE management believes that through
Internet-enabled cross-functional collaboration the company can save from
20% to 50% of selling, general, and administrative expenses. This saving
would increase operating profits by almost 50%. 35
Innovation cycles decrease. Web City has cut 30-40% out of
innovation cycle times; more is expected when suppliers are fully
integrated.36
Using predictive modeling, GE reduced the time needed to make a
product modification for Seagate from over 100 weeks to 42 weeks. With
full ICC, this time should be further reduced to 8 weeks.
Infrastructure Global Exchange handles $1 billion transactions per year (2000)
development totaling $1 trillion in volume.37
Figure 4
Future Vision
When Jack Welch was asked to imagine GE in 2020, he replied, “I hope it will be the
greatest learning institution in the world. I hope it will always look outside. I want it to
have curiosity.”38 The fact that Welch endorsed Jeffrey Immelt, the head of GE’s
medical-systems business, as his successor makes a lot of sense—Immelt’s career at GE
has been exclusively within business units that depend on high-tech engineering and that
are most likely to benefit from successful ICC deployment.
32
Howard Rudnitsky, op. cit.
33
Ibid.
34
Ibid.
35
Ibid.
36
David Drucker, op. cit.
37
“GE’s E-Biz Turnaround Proves that Big Is Back,” op. cit.
38
Robert Slater, op. cit.
14
15. The next step is to utilize advanced tools—Web collaboration, digital prototyping,
advanced systems engineering—to completely transform the way GE interacts with
customers: “GE and the customer are seamless partners in the design process, like a
strand of DNA.” says Edelheit (See Figure 5). His main goal for GE is to expand the
innovation process beyond the boundary of the organization. Figure E illustrates the
evolution to true customer collaboration.
Historical Present Future
Tools Basic engineering DFSS 39and predictive Web collaboration
tools models Digital prototyping
Iterative guesswork Global resources
Outcome Hard to satisfy wants Identify/meet CTQs40 Delighting the
customer
Development Time Years Months Customized products
within weeks
Source: Lonnie Edelheit, Senior Technology and Research Advisor, General Electric
Figure 5
The GE corporate R&D team plans to enrich its collaborative activities through deeper
use of technology such as eMatrix. Ram Matta believes that when GE achieves his vision,
it will leverage digital design and optimization to reduce manufacturing costs by a factor
of two.
39
Design for Six Sigma.
40
Critical to quality.
15
16. ON Semiconductor
“Our knowledge management and its integration within our business process
will be a significant differentiator for our company. We have customers and we
have partners that say we are far ahead in this area of understanding, in terms
of driving the knowledge management side of our business.”1
Colum O’Neill, director of e-business, ON Semiconductor
One of the world’s leading suppliers of performance chips for power management in
electronic systems, ON Semiconductor is an employer of 14,000 worldwide. ON
separated from Motorola in 1998 and went public within a year. In 1999, its annual
revenues reached $1.6 billion.
ON Semiconductor’s products include integrated circuits for high-bandwidth data
applications, analog integrated circuits for power management, and low-voltage power
transistors. Though relatively inexpensive, semi conductors are a key driver of
technology in the new economy. ON collaborates with leading edge customers such as
Lucent, Cisco, Ericcson, and Nortel on a variety of products, including portable
electronic devices, networking equipment, and high-speed modems. Its participation in
pioneering ventures such as RosettaNet has made it a leader of product collaboration
within the semiconductor industry.
Business Context
ON operates in a crowded market, with many of its competitors producing similar – if not
identical products. In this intensely competitive industry, differentiation is critical to
success. Many of ON’s competitors compete on shipping, price, delivery, and service,
and margins in this business are becoming tougher and tougher to sustain.
ON ships approximately 22 billion units per year at an average price of 7.5¢ per unit.
60% of its revenue – approximately $1 billion, is generated from what it considers
commodity products. ON also designs customized solutions, developed collaboratively
with its customers. Due largely to a doubled R&D budget, ON also doubled its new
product introductions from 200 in 1998 to 400 in 1999. Integrating its business processes
and enabling greater product collaboration with customers are key elements of ON’s
strategy for dominating emerging product segments.
ON’s customers operate in fast-paced industries with extremely short product lifecycles.
Some of their products (cell phones and computers, for example) may have only 6-9
months of shelf life before becoming obsolete. Short product lifecycles are sustained
through rapid product development. ON’s OEM customers face relentless pressure to
come to market faster with products that have considerable advantages over existing
ones, and/or to target new customer segments. Product engineers are challenged to
innovate at an accelerated pace. ON’s peer suppliers must match their pace. Intense,
16
17. intelligent collaboration, from the conception of new components through their
manufacturing and delivery, is the key to speed.
“There has always been collaboration in this industry, but up to this time it has been
paper-based and labor-intensive,”2 says Colum O’Neill, ON’s director of e-business. The
evolution of the Internet as a collaborative platform, and the emergence of powerful
enabling applications are driving the widespread adoption of digital collaboration.
ON is turning to Internet technologies to create efficiencies. According to Jim Thorburn,
ON’s COO, “Shifts in our business model are customer-driven, and to remain
competitive, we must change the way we interact with its customers.”3 Integration with
key customer business processes, information sharing, and new technical platforms are
driving ON’s e-commerce activities. Changing customer relationships are driving internal
change as well, affecting processes, people, and technology, and their interactions with
one another.
ON is strategically repositioning itself from efficient manufacturer to a collaborative
innovation driver, to meet the competitive challenges of its industry. The goal is to lead
the industry in anticipating the customer needs, and to build the infrastructure to deliver
against them.
Challenges and Opportunities
ON’s business partners—customers, suppliers, and employees—need information: the
right information at the right time. Information-driven interaction with its customers is
an ongoing challenge; the collaborative infrastructure necessary to compete in emerging
segments is more complex than ever before.
According to Thorburn, ON needs to improve its understanding of three key elements of
its business: how ON builds its products; how ON sells its products and how customers
use these products. ON is transitioning its perspective on business practices, from having
been primarily internally focused, to becoming shared externally.
Traditional New
Use
Use
Build
Process
Sell
Process
Build Sell
Design
Design
Time Figure 6 Time
17
18. Figure 6 illustrates both the traditional and new approaches to sequencing the “design,”
“build,” and “sell” phases. The new model enables greater interaction, earlier, while
further integrating the design and sell phases. Customers become more active in the
product development cycle through collaborative product design, resulting in better,
higher value relationships. To build these new relationships with its customers and to
promote efficient collaboration, ON is working to develop seamless internal processes
and knowledge management solutions.
Although ON is a “new” company, it operates on legacy systems inherited from
Motorola. While these systems are adequate, they lack the functionality for more
complex workflow planning, information deployment and process integration, according
to Rebecca Glenn, CIO4. Access to accurate, real-time data, which legacy systems can’t
easily accommodate, is essential to doing business internally.
As ON strives to become more collaborative, system inflexibility becomes more than just
an internal obstacle. ON must be able to effectively ‘plug’ its business processes into
those of customers, and ensure the integrity of data exchanged. Consider the implications
for collaborative product development, a key element of ON’s strategy, where several
hundred people from various organizations might access product information through
design to manufacturing. Inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date information has wide
reaching, negative effects.
In addition to structuring activities and disseminating information, business systems
contribute greatly to the culture of an organization. ON’s evolution from manufacturing
supplier to value added collaborator requires a new set of cultural norms around
information transparency and sharing, inter firm co-operation and decentralized decision
making. ON’s emerging Internet based business systems are built around these norms,
and are helping enact cultural change through the organization.
ICC Deployment
One of ON’s early e-business initiatives was to develop a Web presence with functional
linkages back to business processes. Though small, this initial step has unleashed a
multitude of future opportunities. “We did not want to build a façade, we wanted to
ensure that our Web site had product information that was linked back to our business,”5
states Colum O’Neill.
The dissemination of product information to customers is a core collaborative function
that has been migrated to the Web. Don Lambert, ON’s product information manager,
indicates that 700,000 documents are downloaded from its Web site, and half a million
product summary pages accessed, every month. These documents are linked directly to
internal product information management systems (PIMs), rather than managed as a
separate catalogue function, which preserves ON resources, and more importantly
ensures that the information is correct and up to date.
18
19. ON will ultimately render all relevant business information accessible, via the Internet, to
all its b-web partners. By deploying a new set of capabilities and porting to the Internet,
static data will form the input to more dynamic, rich information. (Figure 7)
Static Dynamic
Changes Changes
Infrequently Frequently
Reported
Managed
& Analyzed
Manufacturing Result of
Processes Processes
Figure 7
Clearly, there are implications to such information transparency: “Before we can begin to
share our data with our suppliers or customers, we must ensure that the data is correct,
that it is able to flow through our organization, and that it is the data our customers are
looking for,”5 says O’Neill. To this end, ON is developing a single data model to capture
information and codify complex information relationships between business processes.
The single data model ensures that whenever information is accessed, it is the best and
latest available.
Moreover, where information is modified, changes must instantly be deployed wherever
they are relevant. “Dynamic documents must be integrated back to the business or there
will be misinformation floating around your customers’ organizations,”6 in Lambert’s
words. This implies the need for a seamless, secure network capable of pushing
information into multiple functional contexts. The same network must also be capable of
enforcing multiple business rules – from information access control to dynamic pricing
schedules. When ON’s engineers alter a design parameter, for example, the change must
instantly be reflected in ON’s manufacturing and ERP systems, as well as its CRM and
PIM systems. If the change is mission critical to a customer, then it must instantly flow
through to its planning and production systems. These data exchanges are the foundation
of efficient collaboration.
Utilizing Matrix One’s Web-based software eMatrix, ON was able to build this single
data model, or what Colum O’Neill refers to as the “hub middleware.” This layer of
architecture allows ON’s processes and content to flow through to its customer-facing
applications. Key customer information is gathered through the same hub. The single
source of information is the “engine” that feeds ON’s customer-facing applications such
as its product catalogue on the Web site and B2B market involvement.
19
20. According to O’Neill, “ON has only just begun.” The company will continue to offer
customers new collaborative, Internet based-services with real-time functionality and
links back to business processes. One example involves product numbers. ON currently
assigns every product an internal product number. Customers, after purchasing ON
components, assign their own numbers, creating certain inefficiencies when product
engineers re-order parts. ON maintains a separate cross-reference database so customers
can re-order components using their own numbers, but the system is imperfect. The
database lacks true process linkages.
In the next six months, ON will migrate this database into the eMatrix environment and,
through embedded business rules, fully automate the product number translation process.
Both ON and its customers benefit from new efficiencies. The creation of seamless
business process intersections supports ON’s mission to become the easiest company to
do business with in the industry.
There are also plans to improve linkages between product information systems and its
Siebel Systems CRM applications that aid the sales process. Ultimately, the systems will
be capable of automatically ‘recognizing’ customers and making intelligent
recommendations regarding product compatibility, business decisions and design. The
system will rely heavily on design and business logic embedded in software. For
example, ON could recognize an incompatibility between a low-voltage transistor and a
power management chip in a customer design and suggest an alternative. Or, it might
suggest an entirely different chip configuration to improve performance or lower costs.
There are also plans to make the system ‘smart’ enough to recommend ON’s components
over those of competitors, based on functionality or price advantages.
ON also collaborates with customers via RosettaNet, an industry initiative dedicated to
the development and deployment of standard e-commerce interfaces to align the
processes of global supply chain partners. As O’Neill explains, “RosettaNet is true
collaboration that leads to efficiencies.”11 Through RosettaNet, Lucent product engineers
conduct complex, cross-vendor parametric searches from their own operating
environments. ON is the first semiconductor company to participate in this venture. The
collaboration offers both cost and revenue benefits for ON and Lucent; the integration of
processes and the sharing of information allow the two organizations to communicate and
collaborate in real-time.
Measures of Success
ON is committed to measuring the results of its collaborative efforts, to ensure a healthy
return on investment. Early results from performance scorecards, used to monitor the
progress of key metrics over the last 6 months (March-December 2000), indicate that
improvements are being made.
The company set aggressive targets for percentage of their product portfolio available to
designers via the Internet, and are on their way to meeting them. The number of
customers requesting product samples online, for example, has increased ten-fold. ON
has also instituted an effective email notification program to inform customers of new
20
21. products. Indications are that that ON’s customers are finding value in their collaborative
strategy. On time delivery has improved, delivery time of internet sample orders has
decreased, and they now have more channels available to them for tracking orders.
ON has also improved internal quoting mechanisms and hence its ability to respond
quickly to market opportunities. The company both increased the number of quotes and
expedited their delivery over the measurement period. There has been a dramatic increase
in new orders being acknowledged internally within 24 hours. In addition, customers now
have the option of receiving quotes through the telephone, or the internet (pilot project)
and there are plans to expand this to include more B2B marketplaces (XML) beyond
RosettaNet.
Finally, ON has realigned compensation policy for product engineers, in order to promote
collaboration. This new program includes bonuses for new projects won, as well as new
patents registered. The intent of the program is to urge product developers to utilize the
new tools and technology available to drive innovation and interaction with customers.
Future Vision
Moving fast and managing change are key to ON’s future. “Collaboration at its best will
be measured by time to market,”12 states O’Neill. With a solid foundation in place, ON
will continue to roll out applications that enable further integration with customers. This
will culminate in the creation of a single, Internet based environment where ON
employees and customers can easily and efficiently work together. Collaborative product
development will continue to be the focus of ON’s strategy
Collaborative forecasting will also come to the forefront as ON continues to develop its
ICC strategy. Forecasting models, focused on the supply side of their business, will allow
for more efficient production. To date, ON’s focus has been on the customer side of the
business, though sustained advantage will come from promoting efficiency and
collaboration across the value chain.
21
22. products. Indications are that that ON’s customers are finding value in their collaborative
strategy. On time delivery has improved, delivery time of internet sample orders has
decreased, and they now have more channels available to them for tracking orders.
ON has also improved internal quoting mechanisms and hence its ability to respond
quickly to market opportunities. The company both increased the number of quotes and
expedited their delivery over the measurement period. There has been a dramatic increase
in new orders being acknowledged internally within 24 hours. In addition, customers now
have the option of receiving quotes through the telephone, or the internet (pilot project)
and there are plans to expand this to include more B2B marketplaces (XML) beyond
RosettaNet.
Finally, ON has realigned compensation policy for product engineers, in order to promote
collaboration. This new program includes bonuses for new projects won, as well as new
patents registered. The intent of the program is to urge product developers to utilize the
new tools and technology available to drive innovation and interaction with customers.
Future Vision
Moving fast and managing change are key to ON’s future. “Collaboration at its best will
be measured by time to market,”12 states O’Neill. With a solid foundation in place, ON
will continue to roll out applications that enable further integration with customers. This
will culminate in the creation of a single, Internet based environment where ON
employees and customers can easily and efficiently work together. Collaborative product
development will continue to be the focus of ON’s strategy
Collaborative forecasting will also come to the forefront as ON continues to develop its
ICC strategy. Forecasting models, focused on the supply side of their business, will allow
for more efficient production. To date, ON’s focus has been on the customer side of the
business, though sustained advantage will come from promoting efficiency and
collaboration across the value chain.
21
23. products. Indications are that that ON’s customers are finding value in their collaborative
strategy. On time delivery has improved, delivery time of internet sample orders has
decreased, and they now have more channels available to them for tracking orders.
ON has also improved internal quoting mechanisms and hence its ability to respond
quickly to market opportunities. The company both increased the number of quotes and
expedited their delivery over the measurement period. There has been a dramatic increase
in new orders being acknowledged internally within 24 hours. In addition, customers now
have the option of receiving quotes through the telephone, or the internet (pilot project)
and there are plans to expand this to include more B2B marketplaces (XML) beyond
RosettaNet.
Finally, ON has realigned compensation policy for product engineers, in order to promote
collaboration. This new program includes bonuses for new projects won, as well as new
patents registered. The intent of the program is to urge product developers to utilize the
new tools and technology available to drive innovation and interaction with customers.
Future Vision
Moving fast and managing change are key to ON’s future. “Collaboration at its best will
be measured by time to market,”12 states O’Neill. With a solid foundation in place, ON
will continue to roll out applications that enable further integration with customers. This
will culminate in the creation of a single, Internet based environment where ON
employees and customers can easily and efficiently work together. Collaborative product
development will continue to be the focus of ON’s strategy
Collaborative forecasting will also come to the forefront as ON continues to develop its
ICC strategy. Forecasting models, focused on the supply side of their business, will allow
for more efficient production. To date, ON’s focus has been on the customer side of the
business, though sustained advantage will come from promoting efficiency and
collaboration across the value chain.
21