Bridging the information gap
Cincom OBA simplifies complex business acquisition process
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 5/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
Cincom Systems has provided innovative software solutions and services for thousands of clients on six continents for the past 40 years. To add value to its solutions, Cincom has focused on areas where simplified business process management is most critical to success.
“Acquiring business and fulfilling contractual obligations is an example of a business process that's critical to the success of manufacturers of complex products,” says Dan Nichols, senior director, product research and planning, Cincom Systems.
Cincom found that the majority of the knowledge sharing and decision making required to support the business acquisition process is based on ad hoc collaborative workflows where people use Microsoft Office programs to process unstructured data.
“The problem was that Microsoft Office programs were not necessarily linked with a company's underlying financial, manufacturing, or ERP systems, so people couldn't easily access the supporting structured data,” explains Wilson. “This caused unnecessary errors and delays, restricted collaboration, and impeded the flow of information during critical phases of the business acquisition process.”
With the release of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Cincom saw the opportunity to create a new type of solution—an Office Business Application (OBA).
An OBA combines the power of an existing enterprise system—in this case Cincom's proprietary Sales and Product Configuration solution—with Microsoft Office applications. The Office application serves as the front-end interface to the business application.
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Cincom Acquire is an Office Business Application that streamlines the business acquisition process—one of the most critical processes for manufacturers of complex products. It does so by giving users the ability to tap into multiple business applications through a single interface. |
Cincom's OBA—called Cincom Acquire—is a Web-based solution that further simplifies the business acquisition process. It has an Office SharePoint Server 2007-based user interface, supplemented by smart document solutions in the 2007 Microsoft Office System. “With an OBA, we can continue to strengthen our reputation for off-the-shelf products with fast time to benefit,” concludes Nichols. “And our customers benefit from a new solution that empowers knowledge workers with information tools that they already use. Everyone wins.”
Joint value proposition:
Cincom Systems is an independent software vendor that develops solutions specifically for manufacturers of complex products such as heavy equipment, emergency vehicles, aircraft, submarines, or heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Cincom has a long history of building its products on the Microsoft technology stack. With the release of the 2007 Microsoft Office System—which includes Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007—Cincom took its partnership with Microsoft to a new level. It used these new platforms to create Cincom Acquire, an Office Business Application that simplifies the process of acquiring new customers. Streamlining this process—which is inherently cumbersome for makers of complex products—has an immediate positive impact on the bottom line.
Cincom Solutions
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Cincom Acquire: An office Business Application that combines the powerful functionality of Cincom's proprietary Sales and Product Configuration solution with the familiar functionality of the Microsoft Office suite. The solution gives users role-based portals that present them with the necessary information and applications to fulfill their particular part of the sales and business acquisition process.
Microsoft Solutions
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2007 Microsoft Office system: The latest version of Microsoft's ubiquitous desktop personal productivity suite integrates communications technology, enterprise systems, and Web services with the familiar Office applications that knowledge workers use everyday. This powerful combination allows teams of workers to communicate and collaborate more effectively and get jobs accomplished more quickly with better results.
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Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server: An integral part of the Microsoft Office System family, SharePoint is a portal framework for Web-based collaboration and content management with built-in workflows for processes such as approvals.
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