Manufacturing Business Technology articles from July 2007

Manufacturing Business Technology archives from July 2007

Time to do some strategic thinking.
July 1, 2007... By Sidney Hill, Jr., executive editor The chief goal at Manufacturing Business Technology is helping you understand the strategic value of information technology. But every year at this time I find myself pondering which class of technology...

Intelligence and performance management accept a merger.
July 1, 2007... By Jim Fulcher, contributing editor Rather than considering business intelligence (BI) and performance management software as two distinct solutions sets, leading manufacturers now see them as complementary tools. Using them in concert...

Impact on the enterprise does not require an extensive search.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Google has been quite vocal in its desire to compete with Microsoft for the hearts, minds-and desktops-of knowledge workers. To that end, it now offers Google Apps and Google Desktop, two sets of applications that some industry...

Turning everyday applications into collaborative business solutions.
July 1, 2007... By Staff While it doesn't use the term Enterprise 2.0 in its marketing efforts, Adobe Systems is at the forefront of this movement, which is all about harnessing interactive, Web-based technologies for business use. With its popular...

BI platform provider turns out continuous-improvement solutions.
July 1, 2007... By Staff The inherent and growing risk involved in running complex global supply chains is sparking interest in technology that analyzes current performance and allows developing strategies for improved performance. SAS , a leading...

Multisite fulfillment processes move to forefront of the demand-driven model.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Best known as a supplier of EDI infrastructure, Sterling Commerce has in the last several years assembled a portfolio of supply chain applications for multichannel supply chain execution and fulfillment, and is on the verge of...

Front-runner in on-demand software model accelerates apps test-drives.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Imagine browsing supply chain applications and test-driving them just like music lovers do with iTunes. Some say this 'Try before you buy' model is the wave of the future, and Salesforce.com has been at the forefront of this...

Suite facilitates information collection and analysis in the real-time factory era.
July 1, 2007... By Staff 'Business people suddenly discovered real time,' is how OSIsoft President and CEO Patrick Kennedy characterizes the past 12 months. As a result, there's been something of an explosion taking place in the amount of real-time data...

Moving reporting ahead of the curve in SaaS fashion.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Business Objects is using the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model to get its sophisticated business intelligence and reporting solutions into midsize enterprises. Its SaaS solution, Crystalreports.com, went from concept to...

What it means to be a computing platform today.
July 1, 2007... By Roberto Michel, senior contributing editor The sense of having been an 'IBM shop' or an 'HP shop' 10 or 15 years ago is vastly different from what that means today. It used to mean a manufacturing enterprise ran its business system...

Software strategy blurs the line between SOA and applications.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Gauging the impact of IBM's strategies across its businesses over the past year first requires a look at the software end, where dozens of acquisitions were made to fill out its brands-the latest being the Watchfire deal that,...

Next transformation deconstructs conventional products into mix-and-match service components.
July 1, 2007... By Staff BEA's evolution from Java to service-oriented architecture (SOA) provider reflects the larger trend of the middle tier becoming the next enterprise software battleground. With the emergence of SOA commoditizing software...

Office productivity, Web 2.0, SOA seen as 'new vistas' in apps vendor partnerships.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Microsoft Corp. passed a significant milestone in releasing Vista, the latest version of the Windows client platform; and put a stake in the sand regarding the next refresh of the Windows Server platform, which will occur in 2008....

Alliances keeps network management specialist moving up the application stack.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Having built its fortune in routing the IP packets that traverse the Internet, Cisco Systems is focused on applying the same approach further up the application stack. A couple years ago, it planted the first stake with...

Mid-tier offerings prove it's not just the database anymore.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Progress Software is extending well beyond its database/4GL roots with a range of mid-tier offerings that manage complex events and integrate processes. So when enterprise vendor QAD renewed its 20-year alliance with Progress, it...

ERP enters age of infrastructure.
July 1, 2007... By Roberto Michel, senior contributing editor The market for ERP software-the integrated enterprise management suites that companies rely on for everything from accounting to manufacturing management-is clipping along nicely. Some analysts...

First enterprise business applications vendor to surpass $12B in revenues.
July 1, 2007... By Staff SAP has shown steady growth in revenue, earnings, and margins in recent years, and at 24 percent has the largest share in the core enterprise applications space by far of any IT vendor. Yet with the recent abrupt resignation...

Acquisition streak breeds rationalization for successful apps augmentation.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Was anyone still surprised when Oracle announced in May that it was acquiring product life-cycle management (PLM) vendor Agile Software for $495 million in cash? It was deal No. 31 in almost as many months, beginning with the...

Number of new customer wins a measure of confidence in rationalizing software acquisitions.
July 1, 2007... By Staff In five years time, Infor amassed $2 billion+ in revenues, all recorded since its founding in 2002 as an enterprise software company. Growth was propelled by the deep pockets of San Francisco-based Golden Gate Capital; a big...

Centralized Microsoft .NET investment, strong service component satisfy 20,000 global ERP users.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Epicor is on a hot streak, reporting its first $100M quarter upon closing 2006, and another in first-quarter 2007-historically a lackluster period for software sales. It also made Fortune magazine's 100 fastest-growing list, while...

Engines for advancing the state of supply chain optimization.
July 1, 2007... By Staff For the past 20 years, ILOG optimization engines have powered supply chain planning and scheduling applications sold by other vendors. A number of large manufacturing companies also use ILOG technology to build custom supply chain...

Automation vendors solve integration with capable systems.
July 1, 2007... By Malcolm Wheatley, senior contributing editor Integration is the big story in the realm of plant-floor systems. Thanks to advances such as standards-based programming interfaces, SOA-based middleware platforms, and portal technology,...

Systems link product design, purchasing, sales, and service inside the intelligent factory.
July 1, 2007... By Staff In a high-profile speech at the Hannover Trade Fair in Germany in April, Klaus Wucherer, a member of Siemens' senior executive board, said the company is finally poised to deliver on the promise of a digital factory, which it...

New options for managing processes solve business problems at the plant level.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Honeywell Process Solutions has seen a year of solid growth, according to Mark Neas, the division's VP and general manager for the Americas. Fueling this growth is a series of products that give users new options for managing...

SOA architecture lends itself to profitable partnerships for plant-level information.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Kevin Roach, VP of software, Rockwell Automation, is on something of a roll. 'It's been a great year for growth and market share,' he enthuses. 'We've continued to deliver double-digit growth in a market that's growing a lot more...

Articulating a coherent message for wireless instrumentation.
July 1, 2007... By Staff When Emerson Process Management was selected by New York-based consultancy Frost & Sullivan as 'Company of the Year' for industrial automation and process control, Emerson's Smart Wireless automation solutions were a big part of...

ERP-driven business processes linked to plant operations enable real-time control, information management.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Peter Martin, VP of strategic ventures for Invensys, says release of the InFusion Enterprise Control System marks a huge shift for both Invensys and its customers. 'We're not a holding company anymore,' Martin declares. 'We're...

More ways to collaborate as PLM market consolidates.
July 1, 2007... By Elizabeth SanFilippo, associate editor Product life-cycle management (PLM) software vendors took some major steps this year in fulfilling a long-stated promise: enabling manufacturers to freely share product data throughout the extended...

Digital prototyping next in line as 3D design sees baseline adoption.
July 1, 2007... By Staff All things considered, 2007 has been a very good year for Autodesk, a $1.84B design software company that passed a major milestone in May when it announced its one-millionth seat license for its flagship 3D product. And the...

PLM platform merge makes digital manufacturing an operational reality.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Automation giant Siemens made news in 2007 when it purchased UGS , a leading provider of product life-cycle management (PLM) software and tools, in a $3.5-billion deal. The company-now known as UGS PLM Software, a division of...

A hefty dose of supply chain apps extend PLM from concept creation to service and maintenance.
July 1, 2007... By Staff The merging of the virtual world of product design and the physical realm of the shop floor remains a hot topic in manufacturing circles, with several high-profile deals leading some analysts to declare the official start of the...

Building products and processes at the same time.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Widely viewed as a product life-cycle pioneer, PTC's Pro/ENGINEER software for mechanical design also is seen as the forerunner of today's high-powered and feature-rich management platforms. Given the merger mania in the PLM...

Merger with Oracle puts Enterprise PLM on the table.
July 1, 2007... By Staff When Oracle announced its intent to buy Agile Software , the $495M all-cash merger seemingly opened a new front in the ERP wars, with industry analysts and stakeholders immediately wondering about the response of Oracle rival SAP...

In brief.
July 1, 2007... By Staff A report out of Framingham, Mass.-based IDC Manufacturing Insights cites a movement to 'democratize' product life-cycle management (PLM) as manufacturing execs call for improvements in next-generation tools. According to Joe...

Siemens/UGS PLM combination shows why the Global 100 is important.
July 1, 2007... By Kevin Parker, editorial director The July issue of Manufacturing Business Technology is devoted in its entirety to covering the 2007 Global 100 listing of leading information technology (IT) and software providers in manufacturing and...

Recent software moves by Hewlett-Packard point to business optimization future.
July 1, 2007... By Staff Hewlett-Packard (HP) has taken a number of steps to emphasize the importance of software for its future, but not necessarily as an applications vendor. The 2005 acquisition of Peregrine nicely complemented the...

Hewlett-Packard tops MBT 2007 ranking of IT vendors.
July 1, 2007... By Staff This year's Manufacturing Business Technology Global 100 has a new No. 1: Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard. HP is the world's largest IT company, reporting 2006 fiscal year revenue of $91.7 billion, thus surpassing IBM by a...

User groups keep Global 100 vendors moving in the right direction.
July 1, 2007... By Staff No vendor could generate enough revenues to qualify for the Manufacturing Business Technology Global 100 without a sizeable customer base, nor could they stay on the list very long without taking continual steps to keep those...

The Global 100.
July 1, 2007... By Staff The story behind the MBT 2007 Global 100 The 2007 Global 100 lists the leading IT and enterprise application providers for the manufacturing and supply chain markets. Vendor revenues for fiscal year 2006 were the starting...