Manufacturing Executive - November 2008 - (Page 16) MES UPDATE acquiring MES vendors? Will SAP’s Visiprise acquisition trigger similar moves by ERP vendors? “Absolutely,” Fraser says. “SAP is the market leader. When SAP goes off and buys something, when you’re Oracle, Infor, Epicor, IFS, if you don’t have one, you’re under a lot of pressure. We expect all other ERP vendors to start figuring out who they’re going to buy.” PARTNERSHIP STRATEGIES If Oracle is planning such a move, Chorley is not letting on, but he’s not ruling it out either. “Oracle’s position on this is to always look to improve ourselves. Sometimes that’s organic; sometimes it’s acquisitions,” he says, noting that Oracle’s approach is to partner with MES vendors such as Camstar. Thomas Parbst, the Copenhagen-based worldwide industry marketing manager for Microsoft Business Solutions, says Microsoft does not plan to acquire an MES company, but it is seeking to work with MES companies. It’s what Parbst calls “part of the story of supply chain management” because “it helps a manufacturer to plan resources, to plan capacity” (see Roadtrip, p. 10). Would SAP make another acquisition to follow its Visiprise purchase? “We will always be looking to complement our existing products and solutions,” Bapat says. “Certainly nothing’s off the table.” SAP continues to work with specialist MES companies such as Werum in the pharmaceutical industry and Performix in process industries. SAP’s Visiprise buyout could also encourage venture capitalists that back MES companies to shop properties interested in exit opportunities. Venture-funded MES vendors “are all going to be potential acquisition targets now,” Cambashi’s Fraser says. A sellout might also give global reach to a small MES company. “In five years’ time, there will be three main vendors,” predicts Luca Benporath, director of the global manufacturing market for FrancoDutch consultant and integrator Atos Origin. Along the way, they’ll have to start talking increasingly to executives in the C-suite. “They want to know about increasing fulfillment rates and more accurate allocation of overhead costs,” Wonderware’s Abildgren says. Note to MES industry trying to crack enterprise sales: Keep up the integration and analytics efforts. You’re doing an admirable job of walking the walk. Now it’s time to talk the talk. ■ Additional reporting by Stephanie Neil, senior editor at ME’s sister publication, Managing Automation. R miss chances to swipe at SAP. “Their integration approach is a toolkit, and, don’t forget, Visiprise grew out of acquisitions, too, so SAP has an integration challenge not only between SAP and Visiprise, but they have to rationalize internally the assets with Visiprise.” Oracle itself has worked toward integrating MES and other manufacturing software into its own enterprise software. Oracle credits the evolution of the ISA-95 standard for helping to implement commonalities across MES and ERP to smooth their integration. Thus far, Oracle has developed its products internally while working with independent MES vendors such as North Carolina-based high-tech industry specialist Camstar. In April, for instance, Oracle introduced the Manufacturing Operations Center, a set of products intended to integrate shop floor and enterprise systems, as well as provide interpretive intelligence. The offering includes a dashboard that displays key performance indicators to help executives spot plant performance trends and needs, and make decisions accordingly. Some industr y experts believe that the emergence of analytics marks the next important step for MES-to-ERP functionality. It has driven several acquisitions in recent years of analytics firms by MES and automation companies. These include Rockwell’s acquisition of Propack and Datasweep; GE Fanuc’s pickup of Mountain Systems; Invensys’ purchase of Cimnet; and ESOURCE CENTER Siemens’ acquisition of UGS, among others (see table, p. 14). ARTICLES: Julie Fraser, principal indusFew Achieve Shop Floor to Top Floor Integration (A Rare Breed) tr y analyst at Cambridge, www.managingautomation.com/rarebreed England-based research firm Can MES Play a Lead Role? Cambashi, expects more such www.managingautomation.com/mesrole acquisitions and singles out GE Great Aspirations Fanuc as one likely buyer. GE’s www.manufacturing-executive.com/mesaguidebooks Udstuen declined to comment. GE is clearly intent, though, COMPANIES MENTIONED: on linking the factory floor to ABB the enterprise through MES softwww.managingautomation.com/ABB ware supported by analytics, Atos Origin backing up its rebranding of www.manufacturingexecutive.com/atos MES as an enterprise system. In GE Fanuc June, the company added the www.managingautomation.com/GEfanuc3 Real Time Information Portal 3.0 Microsoft Manufacturing Intelligence www.managingautomation.com/microsoft Application to its Proficy stable of Oracle MES products, which delivers www.managingautomation.com/oracle3 insight into plant floor happenSAP ings while providing analytics www.managingautomation.com/sap3 and trends meant to support exWonderware ecutive decision making. www.managingautomation.com/wonderware What about ERP companies 2008 16 November http://www.managingautomation.com/rarebreed http://www.managingautomation.com/mesrole http://www.manufacturing-executive.com/mesaguidebooks http://www.managingautomation.com/ABB http://www.manufacturingexecutive.com/atos http://www.managingautomation.com/GEfanuc3 http://www.managingautomation.com/microsoft http://www.managingautomation.com/oracle3 http://www.managingautomation.com/sap3 http://www.managingautomation.com/wonderware
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