Hi-Lex Cable Systems goes for Invensys Baan implementation

Hi-Lex Cable Systems, part of Nippon Cable Systems, the automotive control cables and window regulator manufacturer, is to implement an iBaan system from enterprise software firm Baan, now part of UK controls giant Invensys, at its Port Talbot HQ and manufacturing site. Hi-Lex says Baan will provide the IT backbone, covering integrated financials, warehousing and stock control, and will speed the introduction of EDI, product data management (PDM) and inventory barcoding. EDI will come from EDI Matrix and barcoding from Epic Data. Rob Vine, finance director and project sponsor at Hi-Lex, says Baan was selected against SAP, QAD’s Mfg/Pro and SSA’s BPCS ultimately because Baan was being implemented at the parent company in Japan. He also says that Baan was most promising in terms of including EDI and bar coding, and that the PDM product “looked very good”. He adds: “We are a new company, six people in June 2000, now 110, and growing, so it was a strategic investment.” Meanwhile, Baan is forging on with its iBaan software development: latest release is an extension to its business intelligence suite. It’s a new version of iBaan Decision Manager (v2.1), and what’s special is: first, its out-of-the-box business templates for web-enabled business intelligence gathering; second, its complete web view across supply chains; and third, its interfaces with main line applications like Cognos and Business Objects. The business templates are good – they cover what data is extracted from where, how it’s cleaned and manipulated into a data cube and the rest. So far Baan has included templates for core iBaan and e-procurement applications, although it promises more to follow and the templates are entirely customisable. And the point is it makes it easy. As Russell Johns, Baan UK’s manufacturing and strategic alliances manager, says, “It means they don’t have to start with a blank piece of paper, or reinvent the wheel. There’s about 10 which are full data cubes – so they give you a real good start. It means you don’t need a whole lot of education: you’re up and running quickly.” The bottom line is it should help users that aren’t doing it already to improve their data reporting, analysis and decision support in all the usual BI ways – extracting data from multiple disparate systems, and facilitating everything from sales and supplier performance, to project monitoring, resource utilisation and inventory movement. And for those that already have an investment in Cognos or Business Objects BI systems, but aren’t using them to the full, they can use the client for data slicing and dicing and viewing. Says Johns: “Normally sales and marketing use it for their trends and sales analysis, but now the rest of manufacturing can get their turn, add their own KPIs. Visibility of that data is very important.”