Midsize Avocent calls mySAP "the right choice"
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 8/1/2006 6:00:00 AM
With roughly 1,300 employees and $500 million in annual revenue, Avocent is the quintessential midsize manufacturer. The Huntsville, Ala.-based IT equipment maker also is exactly the kind of company SAP is courting in its quest to further serve the midmarket.
The mySAP ERP suite is Avocent's primary business application platform. According to Ray Holman, SAP's senior VP for the high-tech sector, "A midsize company typically needs a single vendor to run its business processes. They need robust business process management, but they don't have the resources [for multiple systems suppliers]."
Avocent started looking for an ERP system after an acquisition spree left it with production facilities in Alabama, Washington, and Ireland.
"We have a complex supply chain," says Gene Mulligan, senior VP of global operations. Avocent sells products under its own brand name through a network of distributors, and builds products for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM to sell under their brand names.
In the case of Dell, it requires delivery into distribution hubs called revolvers, which are managed by subcontractors. Suppliers like Avocent are expected to track inventory movement from the revolvers to the Dell plant so as to keep inventory there when it's needed.
Before mySAP, Avocent had trouble with inventory management, says Mulligan. The company actually chose mySAP largely for its APO (advanced planner and optimizer) module.
Mulligan admits to some initial frustration with APO's planning processes, which he says seem tailored for larger enterprises.
Still, he says, mySAP proved the right choice for Avocent, a still-growing supplier that eventually expects to be a large enterprise itself. In fact, Avocent wants to mimic Dell by moving to revolvers. And Mulligan expects mySAP will be the right choice to manage that move.
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