| |
If you're a technical integrator with business expertise in
manufacturing, your timing is perfect. Customers are begging for supply-chain-management
solutions that meet their needs.
|
|
|
|
Stay Focused To Succeed At SCM
Stay within your vertical niche, find out what your customers want,
and then partner with the right manufacturer.
SCM Obstacles
|
| Percentage of Fortune 1000 companies who report
concerns about supply-chain-management. |
|
26%
|
Coordination with supply-chain partners.
|
|
32%
|
High cost in resource constraints
|
|
38%
|
Complexity of new supply-chain technology.
|
|
54%
|
Poor state of current systems and data.
|
|
68%
|
Cultural resistance of staff and
management.
|
| source: Forrester Research |
In its November 1997 report 'The Supply Chain Voyage;' Forrester Research
(Cambridge, MA) advises supply-chain management (SCM) solutions providers that
users are looking for integrated, industry- solutions. The market research firm
recommends that integrators perform the following:
- Commit to a set of core applications and a single application backplane
such as Oracle, SAP, or Microsoft. Forrester predicts that the market will
continue to consolidate around these two ERP/financial backplanes. "Focus
on a single application platform, and you'll be able to devote maximum energy
and resources to producing a compelling set of industry-specific application
portfolios."
- Pick an industry or two to focus on. Preselect a set of complementary applications
that easily fit into your chosen backplane.
- Preintegrate your entire portfolio. "It's easier and more profitable
to sell complete solutions than pieces of a solution".
Forrester cites the relationship between Marcam Solutions and MCI Systemhouse
as an excellent ISV/reseller partnership that others might want to emulate.
MCI Systemhouse tightly links parts of Marcam's new Protean plant automation
system with SAPs R/3 ERP system (which MCI Systemhouse resells to the chemical
industry).
Judy Sweeney, director of business relations at Marcam, states, "We
place heavy emphasis on the food and chemical industries, creating solutions
that complement and add value to customers who have already made their backplane
decision. Our partnership with MCI allows us to deliver a stronger vertical
solution. We provide expertise at the plant level, and MCI brings extensive
knowledge of SAP."
Pulling off a successful SCM/ERP blending is not as easy as it sounds. It
will be a few years before all the pieces fit together smoothly. Until then,
to quote the Forrester report, "Systems integrators will have to fill
in nontrivial gaps to bridge proprietary technologies:' On the other hand,
when it's tough to do, you can charge big bucks."
|
