Standards-based integration seeing take-up as manufacturers build on existing IT investments

Business process improvements, made feasible through standards-based system integration and event- and exception-based business process automation, appear to be rising on the manufacturing agenda. Complex engineering project-based manufacturing ERP developer Cincom, is the latest to notice the trend – with more than $5 million worth of new ERP business in the first quarter of 2003 riding on the back of its Environ integration technology. The firm says it’s “providing compelling business value to those seeking to eliminate waste, improve business processes, and integrate disparate business systems.” Cincom managing director Jerry Miller reckons manufacturers are increasingly looking for ways to improve business operations and cut costs, either because of or in spite of difficult economic times. “Those who are more proactive also work to implement processes and tools that will enable more business once the economy turns around,” he says. Environ here is typical of systems that can help – and hence his new business. In Cincom’s case, the system integrates with Microsoft’s BizTalk Server technologies, running and managing automated business-processes across disparate applications, and handling workflow between employees, suppliers and customers. In fact, that technology now provides the foundation for Cincom’s latest release of its Control ERP, which is web- and software component-based. And it’s a similar story across many of the more modern enterprise systems providers as they gear up for the ‘enterprise service model’, involving software as a service – all standards- and Web services-based. Look at SAP. What the value of it all? Dan Nichols, Cincom’s senior director of product planning, explains: “Being able to support a company’s business processes that in many cases are subject to dynamic change, allows significant business value to be achieved with rapid return on investment.” And in a nutshell, that’s it.