Managing Automation - December 2008 - (Page 11)

cations as well as SAP application customers, Schwarz said, First, while working to more closely integrate its BI products with SAP’s NetWeaver middleware stack, Business Objects has stopped short of disabling features and functions accessible to users of non-SAP middleware stacks. And, second, SAP has decided to manage the BI unit as a subsidiary, retaining the Business Objects brand, Schwarz said. SAP also has made significant strides in integrating its product line with Business Objects’ and putting together a product roadmap that leverages the strengths of both companies. In some cases, SAP decided to make Business Objects’ products and technology “the leading choice, even if it meant that SAP’s own products had to be set aside,” Schwarz said. While SAP’s Business Warehouse will continue as the company’s principal data management platform, SAP has decided to focus on Business Objects’ data analysis and reporting tools rather than the Business Explorer (BEx) Analyzer tool, which it had sold as part of its NetWeaver middleware suite. SAP will also make use of Business Objects’ Enterprise Information Management tools, such as data federation, quality, and ETL products, rather than rely on products from external partners, such as Informatica, Schwarz said. At the same time, Business Objects software developers have begun to work with SAP developers to make changes to SAP applications and tools, such as its master data management (MDM) product, that will make it easier for SAP users to extract and analyze data generated by SAP transactions on a real-time basis. Business Objects and SAP developers, Schwarz said, are working on changes in SAP’s architecture that will isolate applications from data. That will allow users to more easily identify, isolate, and extract data that is strategic — for example, data pertaining to customers or important endto-end processes, such as order-to-cash. SAP will use Business Objects’ ETL and other tools to allow that data to be streamed into SAP’s MDM product where it can be more easily analyzed and modeled. “So MDM becomes a real-time tool,” Schwarz said. SAP also will begin to make widespread use of Business Objects’ tools for creating graphical dashboards and scorecards. The company believes it can use these tools to build user interfaces that will be more intuitive and compelling, particularly for top management users who have not been comfortable with SAP’s transaction-driven user interfaces, Schwarz said. “We are beginning to see Business Objects as a user interface for giving management users a view of the underlying process suites,” Schwarz said. “We think that that will be very interesting.” Scan T Back inMA MA DECEMBER 2007 raditional business intelligence tools weren’t designed to deliver real-time data, but that’s exactly what front-line operational managers required. An emerging set of BI technologies that delivered up-tothe minute data integrated with business processes offered manufacturers the means to pinpoint and react quickly to problems and the effects of an accelerating rate of business change on inventories, quality, and order fulfillment. YES, EMERSON, TOO, IS IN THE MES MARKET O ver a year ago, Emerson quietly acquired Decision Management International (DMI), a maker of manufacturing execution systems. Unlike Invensys or SAP, which made a big splash into the MES marketplace with their acquisitions of CIMNET and Visiprise, respectively, Emerson chose to bring a small, unknown, and very vertically oriented company under its wing. At first glance, this is Emerson’s attempt to gain a foothold in the budding manufacturing operations management market. According to an AMR Research report, MES specifically (excluding asset management and EMI) is expected to post 14% compound annual growth through 2011, increasing from $2.7 billion in 2006 to $5.2 billion in 2011. But Emerson hasn’t been completely absent from the MES field. It has been dabbling in MES since 2003, when it struck up a strategic alliance with DMI, then a 35-person, Florida-based business catering to the pharmaceutical industry. The companies had complementary products built on Microsoft .NET Bob Lenich using object-oriented code. The two worked together with several major pharmaceutical customers that needed the Emerson DeltaV advanced control and batch system together with an operational management program. And though Emerson’s management team wanted to delay any MES acquisition until they were sure they could make money, they ultimately had to surrender to customer pressure. “We had several major customers going through a combination of laying out an operational improvement program [together with] the MA DECEMBER 2003 T he make or buy decision was becoming clearer as hosted software alternatives became more widespread. The hosted option offered the advantages of lower costs, reductions in application staff, and increased scalability and flexibility. Once the decision was made to go outside, rather than develop software in-house, manufacturers had to consider the pros and cons of the hosted models: software hosted by vendors, outsourced IT providers, or application service providers. M A D E C E M B E R 19 9 8 he MES market got a second wind due to new technologies and cheaper, offthe-shelf systems targeting a wide range of manufacturers. Previously, many companies had trouble with packages being too industry-specific and vendors being too inexperienced. With the help of technologies such as object-oriented components and Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system, the MES market was moving back on track, focusing on integrating with ERP systems and providing easier access to shop-floor data. T M A D E C E M B E R 19 9 3 T he 1993 year in review took up seven up-and-coming fields in manufacturing. In enterprise management, the semiconductor industry was trying to reduce its environmental impact; process modeling software provided a way to package disks properly; bar-coding applications were showing promise; and remote-access products were helping people stay connected. Manufacturing was turning a corner, and robots had their best year ever. 11 December 2008

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

Managing Automation - December 2008 Contents Take 1 Business Objects Chief Says Union with SAP Meets Objectives After One Year Yes, Emerson, Too, Is in the MES Market Infor Chief Puts Off IPO, Restarts Buying Plans Kronos Now Tracks Shop Floor Machines IQMS Rolls Out User Interace, Other Upgrades Notes Five Ideas for Demand Planning Building on the SOA Blueprint Innovation Now A Team Effort Lean %2B Technology = LEAN^2 Finding Flaws Before They Spread Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - December 2008

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