Managing Automation - June 2008 - (Page 9)

quests for additional functionality and performance. For example, said Jeff Stiles, SME marketing team senior vice president, manufacturing customers have been asking for more support within the BBD suite for RFID integration. And certain BBD transactions need to run faster, Stiles said in an interview with Managing Automation. Currently, he said, 85% of BBD transactions run in under a second. But some are taking 2 seconds or longer. Also, SAP needs time to adjust its BBD marketing plan, Stiles said. Initially, SAP expected most BBD customers to use a wide range of modules right away. Instead, many are exhibiting what Stiles calls “incremental deployment behavior.” “That means we need to change our marketing approach so that we can continue to connect with customers,” Stiles said. “But we need to do so cost-effectively.” Industry analysts said other issues have caused SAP to modify its approach to BBD. In a report published May 12, AMR Chief Research Officer Bruce Richardson said, “While there was some concern about the need for more functionality, the real reason for the slowdown was economic: Deal sizes were running 20 seats rather than 50; customers were starting with CRM or financials versus the whole suite; the low-cost system required too much hand-holding by sales and presales resources, thus obliterating any margin; and the single-tenant architecture ensured a plethora of excess blade capacity, causing SAP to move to a multi-tenant approach instead.” Stiles said the decision to scale back the BBD rollout was, ultimately, made at the top of the company by Co-CEOs Leo Apotheker and Kagermann and founder and Supervisory Board Chairman Hasso Plattner. In a keynote at Sapphire, Plattner cited the need for more functionality. “It’s an epiphany for me,” he said. Still, SAP is not backing off from its goal of increasing its overall customer count from 47,800 currently to 100,000 by 2010, Stiles said. “This just puts additional pressure on our other solutions,” such as Business One and Allin-One, he added. That pressure, perhaps ironically, seems to be well-managed. Even as BBD is being modified, the All-in-One product — for companies with 100 to 2,500 employees — and Business One — for enterprises with fewer than 100 employees — continue to post impressive growth in the small and medium-sized market. SAP said at Sapphire that the number of SME customers grew 28% in the first quarter of 2008, reaching a total of 35,688 customers. The segment represents 75% of SAP’s overall customer base. All-in-One now has 11,750 customers, while Business One has 18,690 customers. SAP said Brazil; the Commonwealth of Independent States, including Russia; and India were the fastest growing markets. The success of All-in-One and Business One may be giving SAP the sense that it has time to “validate and fine-tune” BBD. “There is no need to make compromises,” Kagermann said. Scan P Back MA JUNE 2007 inMA DASSAULT EXEC PREDICTS MORE PLM CONSOLIDATION he number of tier-one vendors of product lifecycle management software will boil down to three over the next three to four years — Dassault Systemes, Oracle, and SAP — with large ERP providers playing a significantly bigger role in the market, predicted Joel Lemke, CEO of Dassault Systemes Americas Corp. Other major PLM/3D design software providers, such as Parametric Technology Corp. (PTC) and Autodesk Inc., are likely to be acquired, much like Dassault purchased PLM provider MatrixOne two years ago and Siemens bought UGS last year, Lemke predicted in an interview with Managing Automation at the Dassault ENOVIA PLM customer conference here. Chances are good, he said, that PTC or Autodesk could get acquired by SAP as a way to accelerate that company’s position in the market and counter Oracle’s acquisition last year of Agile Corp. “SAP has been ambivalent about this market, but they’re getting more focused,” Lemke said at a recent Dassault user conference in Orlando, FL. “Ultimately the market will boil down to SAP, Oracle, and Dassault.” That eventuality will be good for the 1.3 billion-euro Dassault, Lemke said, because the deeper involvement of large ERP players will further legitimize and grow the market. Meanwhile, Lemke predicted, UGS, as part of Siemens, will become pigeon-holed as a provider of software for integrating design and plant floor systems rather than a provider of tools that address the full product lifecycle. Dassault itself, meanwhile, has no ambitious acquisition plans, although it may make small lans for Boeing’s groundbreaking 787 Dreamliner were well-publicized; the question was: Could Boeing build the aircraft? MA examined Boeing’s strategy to create a multi-tier, collaborative, global supply chain network and institute massive process changes to reduce time to market — from design to delivery. The new business model required Boeing to make the supply chain data and processes visible to itself and its partners in real time, 24/7. MA JUNE 2003 T I n the face of a market downturn, manufacturing companies were seizing every opportunity to reduce costs. Smarter sourcing of direct and indirect materials rose to the top of management’s priority list. Organizations were moving beyond online sourcing tools and processes to think strategically and look for more sophisticated software that would enable them to evaluate and rate suppliers worldwide in order to cut costs. MA JUNE 1998 A s manufacturers eagerly awaited the introduction of SAP’s R/3 4.0 ERP suite, MA took a look at the potentially game-changing technology and the competitive landscape shaping up. The market was looking to SAP and its rivals — Oracle, Baan, QAD, and others — to provide an integrated platform that supported corporate activities from front-office sales to back-office billing and logistics. MA JUNE 1993 ith the adoption of quality circles, Total Productive Maintenance, and Total Quality Management techniques, maintenance management systems were gaining recognition as a way to reduce downtime by keeping equipment conditioned and analyzing problems and seeking permanent fixes. Computerized maintenance management systems (CMMSs) were in use in only 20% of manufacturers, a penetration rate that vendors were intent on boosting. W 9 June 2008

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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