A new lifeline: MES vendor Visiprise gains Life Sciences consulting partner
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 1/30/2008 11:01:00 AM
HCL Technologies Ltd., a leading global IT services company, has entered into a global consulting partnership with Visiprise, Inc. for the Life Sciences industry, covering all aspects of the medical device manufacturing cycle. Visiprise provides manufacturing execution solutions (MES) that help global manufacturers to gain visibility into their operations, achieve shop floor control, and manage product and process traceability. The consulting agreement will include joint marketing, sales, and pre-sales services and will result in the ability for seamless licensing, blueprinting, implementation, plant-business integration, roll-out, support, upgrade/migration and instance consolidation services to manufacturers, according to the two companies.
The strategic partnership will further strengthen HCL's position in the manufacturing IT landscape with initial focus on medical devices further expanding to high-tech, aerospace, automotive, and other discrete industries. Under this agreement, Visiprise will also be training and certifying HCL consultants on Visiprise solutions.
In announcing the partnership, Pradep Nair, HCL’s VP, Global Life Sciences and Healthcare practice, said, "With increasing global competition, it is imperative for manufacturers to innovate faster, cheaper, with sustained/better quality meeting stringent regulatory norms. Manufacturers are therefore making strategic investments in comprehensive IT solutions focused towards improving efficiency in plant operations and increasing collaboration between engineering, enterprise, and plant functions as well as extended ecosystems such as partners and suppliers. HCL's partnership with Visiprise is well poised in bringing about the transformational change in plant operations. We believe that Visiprise's technology and strategic alignment with SAP and PLM vendors will help customers achieve seamless business integration from shop-floor to top-floor, which aligns well with HCL's focus towards manufacturing IT solutions and services."
Added Mike Lacky, VP industry business units with Visiprise, "HCL's focus in medical devices, coupled with their comprehensive approach in providing total plant-level IT aligns well with our vision of delivering a total manufacturing solution for the integrated enterprise. HCL has a global footprint and a proven ability to deliver solutions in a complex, manufacturing environment."
Commenting on the partnership, Ralph Rio, director ARC Advisory Group, remarks, "Among the discrete industries, the competitive landscape today demands a speed of execution that is driving the adoption of MES applications like Visiprise. In addition, electronic records provided by MES applications are needed for compliance with U.S. FDA regulations. Our research shows rapid MES market growth that recently reached 27 percent year-to-year. The HCL and Visiprise partnership helps fill this major market opportunity with software and support for the lifecycle of a MES project."
