71 Posts found for Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com

Describes some very important and very elusive IT concepts including:
– eXtensible markup language (XML)
– Universal description, discovery, and integration (UDDI)
– Web services description language (WDSL)
– Simple object access protocol (SOAP)
– Service oriented architectures (SOA)
– Business Process Management (BPM)
– Business process execution language (BPEL)

Content: Article | Author: P.J. Jakovljevic | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business | Industry: Information Technology

Today, there are literally thousands of outsourcing providers scattered around the globe looking to serve companies everywhere, with a primary focus on the US and European markets. The multitude of different outsourcing providers, each with their own message or business proposition makes the selection process very confusing and somewhat overwhelming. Many companies, especially small to midsize companies, do not have any experience with outsourcing. They … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: A.B. Maynard | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Outsourcing / BPO

The heart of CRM is not being customer centric but rather using customer profitability as a driver for decision making and action.

Content: Quotation | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business

Customer relationship management (CRM) represents a powerful and sophisticated set of software applications that are designed to leverage the efforts of customer-facing functions such as sales, marketing, and customer service. The CRM industry continues to flounder due to high costs and perceived high failure rates. Despite thousands of pages of analyst reports and hundreds of books written on the subject, the industry and the end … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Glen S. Petersen | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: Customer Related, IT / Technology / E-Business

Communications and transportation networks improved so dramatically over the last few decades, that even faraway regions and nations around the globe are now within the reach of a mere Internet connection. As a result, companies have jumped into international markets and outsourced their manufacturing and procurement operations to cheaper overseas manufacturers and suppliers, while some have established subsidiaries around the world. The Internet-based e-business promises … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: P.J. Jakovljevic | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: International, IT / Technology / E-Business

Many organizations are near, at, or past the end of their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems supported life cycles. These organizations might be readily convinced of the need to upgrade and of the benefits associated with remaining on a supported version. Yet, moving to a supported version of an already existing system may not always be the best decision if that system is not future … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Sean Wheller | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business

Last minute discounting has become so prevalent that many companies have come to depend on it as their default sales strategy. Employing a go-to-market strategy of being the lowest cost provider is one thing, but dramatic, tactical discounting on every deal will erode your company’s margins and leave you digging a deeper and deeper hole in which your company will ultimately bury itself.

Content: Article | Author: Dave Stein | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: Marketing / Sales

One method for discovering where to innovate that I always encourage companies to use is customer sacrifice mapping. Customer satisfaction is all well and good – but all it does is measure how well we’ve trained customers not to expect too much. Customer sacrifice mapping goes beyond expectations to examine the gap between the ideal offering individual customers want and what they have to settle … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation

There’s basically a three-stage process for any transformation. One, diagnosis – understanding customers’ aspirations and the gap between that and where they are today. Two, staged experiences – designing the exact set of experiences that will close the gap. And three, follow-through – ensuring that the transformation takes hold, and that the aspiration continues to be met over time. That’s where most consulting companies fail … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: Change Management

I recently asked a question to a senior supply chain executive:
“When should you trust your trading partners and when should you withhold information from them?”

His answer:
“Never and Never.”

His answer was only partly tongue-in-cheek. It highlights a dilemma we all face. When important information is withheld, it leads to enormous inefficiencies or even disasters in the supply chain. Trust is needed to streamline decision … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Bill McBeath | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Strategy

Global strategic sourcing evolved as a more sophisticated approach to selecting and managing the supply base and the procurement of direct materials. In strategic sourcing, the relationships are longer-term and there is a drive for continual improvement along many dimensions. Most companies that have adopted strategic sourcing practices have developed in-depth supplier scorecards for tracking performance and driving improvements. However, tools and methodologies for measuring … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bill McBeath, Colin Kessinger | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: Finance, Operations

The past two decades have witnessed dramatic improvements to supply chain performance through lean manufacturing, just-in-time (JIT) inventory, ever-increasing velocity, extreme outsourcing, and related transformations. In the ten years from 1992 to 2002, the ratio of inventories to shipments in the US fell from 1.65 to 1.35. These are enormous numbers in the context of our multi-trillion dollar economy. At the same time, the complexity … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Bill McBeath | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: Operations

“The last decade has witnessed a substantial shift in emphasis on the part of many OEM manufacturers, from a focus on the products they produce to a concentration on their customers and the value that their customers derive from ownership and use of these products after the initial product sale.

With an increasing awareness of the strategic value of service, companies are beginning to focus … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Morris Cohen | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Operations

Product lifecycle management (PLM) doesn’t work, but it should. Fundamentally, the idea that we can design better products and bring them to market more quickly by leveraging knowledge and experience from our own value chain and our customers and suppliers, is a sound one.

It’s just that buying PLM doesn’t always make that happen. In my view, industry’s general approach and attitude to PLM very … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: David Smith | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business

Author of Mass Customization and The Experience Economy

Content: Thought Leader | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: Management

Process manufacturing has unique requirements differentiating it from other types of manufacturing. When selecting software for the process industry, special attention and emphasis should be placed on these requirements to ensure that a company can operate at optimal levels, consistent with how it does business and not on how the software lets the company do business. This article defines process manufacturing; discusses its formulation, packaging, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Joseph J. Strub | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Operations | Industry: Software

When members of your executive management team communicate with key market influencers, are they delivering the right message? Or are they winging it? Are your product people muttering that management doesn’t listen to them—or worse? Ouch!

Did I hit a sensitive nerve? If the message that key influencers hear from top management is different from the one going out to the rest of your marketing … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Lawson Abinanti | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: Marketing / Sales

The lean manufacturing support philosophy has recently received increased interest, potentially allowing it to break like a huge wave across industry. The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems of the 1990s have been burdened with the liability of carrying on some well-publicized Material Requirements Planning (MRP) problems like complex bills of material (BOMs), inefficient workflows and unnecessary transactions, activities, and data collections.

Companies such as John … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: P.J. Jakovljevic | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Operations

A recent, extensive 269 pages industry report, OLAP 3 (published November 2003) by Nigel Pendse explains that BI benefits are very real. While the report covers many aspects of OLAP and BI, we will focus on business benefits and overcoming the obstacles of achieving those benefits.

Content: Article | Author: Olin Thompson | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business

You are about to embark on an important project. It is a good idea to hold a project kickoff meeting. Don’t miss this excellent opportunity to get across important communications and establish the tone for the project. This article discusses the 10 objectives of a project kickoff meeting, how to achieve them, and templates for presenting them. In Part I, the first three reasons are … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Joseph J. Strub | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subject: Project Management