Managing Automation - October 2007 - (Page 12)

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 BY JEFF MOAD Record APPOINTMENTS CONTRACTS New Selling and Fulfillment Product Leads Plan to Transform Sterling Commerce Lawson Software has named David Osborne vice president of managed services. Mark Anapolsky has joined SigmaQuest as head of North America sales. Wonderware, a unit of Invensys, has appointed Rick Bullotta vice president and chief technology officer. W ABB has won a $56 million contract to provide automation equipment and electrical systems for a steel mill to be built by Zhangjiagang GTA Plate Co. in China. SmartSignal Corp. is using Borland Software Corp.’s SikTest for automated functional and regression testing to speed quality assurance processes in its asset analytics applications development. Channel Products Inc., a maker of ignition controls for gas appliances, has implemented IFS Applications 7 ERP product. Briggs & Stratton Corp., which manufactures small, air-cooled engines for outdoor power equipment, has rolled out MCA Solutions’ Service Planning and Optimization (SPO) software to manage spare parts planning in the aftermarket. High-tech manufacturer Inventec has will use supply chain risk management software from New Momentum. Continued on page 17 hen Bob Irwin took over as place its traditional horizontal marketing appresident and CEO of Sterling proach with one that concentrates on vertical Commerce at the end of 2006 industries — including manufacturing — and to following the sudden, unexaugment Sterling’s line of applications, possibly pected death of his predecessor, Samuel Starr, through additional acquisitions. the company was perhaps best known for its IT It’s all part of a plan, Sterling officials say, to infrastructure products, such as value-added transform the company into a growth-oriented network and secure file transfer offerings. provider of software suites that can compete While the AT&T subsidiary had head-to-head with larger vendors, begun to invest in supply chain, such as SAP AG and Oracle Corp. warehouse management, order While Sterling will continue to management, and electronic comoffer multiple product lines, inmerce products, its applications cluding value-added networks, — many obtained through acquisiand file transfer and integration tions — were, for the most part, tools, the company’s greatest positioned as unintegrated, bestgrowth opportunity will come of-breed, point products. from its recently released Selling Eight months later, under Irand Fulfillment Suite, particularly win’s direction, Sterling has begun the portion that focuses on the Bob Irwin to change all that. At its recent anmarketing, lead management, and nual Customer Connection user conference in e-commerce processes, Irwin says. Denver, the company said it has refashioned its Irwin’s efforts to reshape Sterling seem to disparate applications into an integrated suite be paying off. In his keynote speech in Denver, that addresses the bulk of manufacturers’ inIrwin told customers that the privately owned quiry-to-cash selling and fulfillment processes. company has seen a 19% increase in revenue in Irwin, in an interview with Managing Automathe past year. Over the same period, Sterling tion, also described the company’s plans to rehas boosted its research and development SCM’s Steady Gains Reflect Core Role The worldwide supply chain management software and services market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 8.7% from 2006 through 2013, according to global growth consulting company Frost & Sullivan. SCM revenues, which were $6.5 million in 2006, are expected to reach $11.6 million in 2013. Fueling the increase are implementations of RFID technology in vertical industries, such as consumer packaged goods, retail, and government, and global retail expansion, especially in India and China. In a report, “World Supply Chain Management Software and Services Market,” Frost & Sullivan Senior Research Analyst Dushyant Mehra stated, “SCM is emerging as one of the drivers of today’s enterprises, as managing material and information flow is highly critical, and is a key factor in differentiating a firm from its competitors.” Mehra also cited “inventory management, cost savings, and customer satisfaction, derived from any SCM, as basic requirements for competitive positioning.” NUMBERS Worldwide Supply Chain Management Software and Services Markets: Revenue Forecast $12 $10 Revenue ($ Billions) $8 $6 $4 $2 $0 Source: Frost & Sullivan BY THE 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 ma 12 2007 October http://www.managingautomation.com http://WWW.MANAGINGAUTOMATION.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - October 2007

Contents Take 1 Mailbox New Selling and Fulfillment Product Leads Plan to Transform Sterling Commerce Comtrol Closes Bizarre Chapter Involving Founder New Omron COO Outlines Four-Part Growth Agenda New Mfg. ‘Czar’ Will Have a Full Plate of Issues Lawson Embraces The Trend of Fewer Upgrades Notes Wanted: A Unified Infrastructure Needed: Greater Reliability Special Report: Innovation: Why Are So Many Coming Up Short? Transforamation: Beating the Odds in Global Supply Industries: Metals: Tracking Carbon Footprints Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - October 2007

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