Managing Automation - June 2008 - (Page 8)

INDUSTRY NEWS FULL COVERAGE MA NEWSLETTER TO SUBSCRIBE GO TO OF EVENTS AND ANALYSIS WWW.MANAGINGAUTOMATION.COM managingautomation.com Alliances, Executive Appointments, Mergers & Acquisitions, Products news For the maonline in perspective Record APPOINTMENTS SAP Cites Functionality, Cost Structure in Modified On-Demand Product Rollout BY J E F F M O A D & D AV I D R. B R O U S E L L Cognex Corp. promoted Justin Testa to executive vice president. Colibrys appointed Don Stoops VP global operations. Liaison Technologies, Inc. named Erik Floman chairman. Trakware Systems Inc. hired Bryan Maloney as VP sales and marketing. W CONTRACTS ABB won a $170 million deal from Svenska Kraftnät and Fingrid Oyj for a Baltic Sea power link. Honeywell installed its process control technology to run Ahlstrom’s new glassfiber tissue mill in Russia. Airbus selected IBM and OATsystems for a multimillion-dollar, multiyear RFID project to streamline supply chain and manufacturing operations. Cookson Electronics implemented IBS’ enterprise software in 55 locations. Plexus Systems, Inc. will implement Plexus Online on-demand software globally for Wescast Industries Inc. Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. was awarded a $1 million project to modernize the automation system at the Bayer CropScience site in Institute, WV. Continued on page 12 hen SAP formally introduced its scribed the on-demand BBD and the market it new Business ByDesign ontargets — organizations with100 to 500 demand software last September, employees — as fundamentally different from company officials described it as a what SAP has been used to serving, particularly “first edition” product. with its conventional All-in-One and Business Nine months later, Business ByDesign is One software products for the small and mediclearly in its second printing. Just several days um-sized markets. As SAP CEO Henning Kagerbefore its annual Sapphire user conference was mann said at a Sapphire press conference, “This to convene in Orlando, FL, in early May, the is the first time in 35 years that we’ve shipped a software giant said it would “modify the rollout completely new product. Our learning is a lot.” strategy” for the product. And one of the things This modification included SAP has learned in the rethinking BBD’s functionprocess of bringing BBD ality, the company’s investto market is the need to ment levels in the product improve the “cost ratio” this year, and the cost involved in operating the equation for customers. on-demand offering, says As a result, SAP said it Hans-Peter Klaey, presiwould take 12 months to dent of global small and 18 months longer to medium enterprise opHenning Kagermann reach $1 billion in reverations at SAP. enue with BBD, the original target for which “We want to get it right,” Klaey said during a was 2010. The company also had anticipated Sapphire presentation. Specifically, he said, SAP 1,000 BBD customers this year. At Sapphire, decided it needed to reduce its costs involved in SAP reported that it has 150 “customer enupgrading BBD on-demand software. gagements” with the product. In addition, SAP officials said, the company From the beginning, SAP officials have deneeds time to respond to BBD customers’ re- ERP Is Key Integration Technology Large companies with more than 1,000 employees planned to increase their ERP spending in 2008 by 5.4% to an average of $4.4 million, according to a late-2007 AMR Research study. Business intelligence, manufacturing operations, and CRM rose to the top as the most strategic ERP software investments planned, the report said. The increase in BI spending in such areas as operations intelligence, finance, and sales indicates a strategy to “connect the dots between disparate parts of the business” using ERP as “the lever,” AMR reported. Furthermore, the report said, “Becoming a demand-driven manufacturer requires rethinking the integration of manufacturing into enterprise and supply network business processes and using the right metrics, enterprise manufacturing intelligence, and agile execution architectures — often facilitated by ERP Also, over the next three years, 31% of all large .” enterprises plan to implement a single, standard ERP system. Among U.S. companies, 41% said they want to move to a single global system in that time frame. NUMBERS MOST STRATEGICALLY IMPORTANT ERP INVESTMENT IN 2008 Business intelligence Manufacturing (bill of materials, MRP, master production schedule) Customer relationship management Financial management Human resources Supply chain management United States 6% 16% 6% 12% 16% Source: AMR Research 22% 14% 18% 18% 18% 14% 13% 16% 14% 10% 20% 12% 11% BY THE UK Germany ma June 8 2008 http://WWW.MANAGINGAUTOMATION.COM http://managingautomation.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - June 2008

Managing Automation - June 2008 Contents Take 1 SAP Cites Functionality, Cost Structure in Modified On-Demand Product Rollout Dassault Exec Predicts More PLM Consolidation The Blackberry Goes Native with SAP CRM QAD Brings MDM In-House with FullTilt Buy Power Experts Look to End Voltage Sags The Progressive Manufacturers Notes Cover Story: Playing the Globalization Game to Win Special Report Integration Transformation Industries Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - June 2008

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