Manufacturing Business Technology

• Cognex, Lockheed Martin partner for DoD-mandated coding compliance
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  Machine vision technology vendor Cognex says a partnership with Lockheed Martin will bring defense contractors an integrated solution to meet Department of Defense (DoD)-required unique identification, or UID. The DoD says any equipment it purchases with a value greater than $5,000—or that requires serialization—be marked with a 2D matrix code that uniquely identifie...
  
• No-frills kits offer starting place for RFID adoption or testing
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  Many manufacturers are taking a wait-and-see attitude, or investing only enough in RFID to meet customer requirements, according to a recent survey by Bangalore, India-based InfoSys that found 45 percent of RFID deployments are in response to customer mandates. Vendors are responding to the needs of that 45 percent with low-cost, easily implemented solutions.
  
• Infor achieves scale; explicates future focus
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  From its founding in 2001 until now, enterprise vendor Infor has grown from a concept in search of a market to the largest independent software company serving small and midsize business (SMB). With revenues of $500 million-plus and an aggressive but focused acquisition strategy—successfully digesting 13 companies (see time line at right)—Infor's vision is to harvest ...
  
• How midsize ERP vendors fend off newcomers
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  Cambridge, Mass.-based analyst firm Forrester Research says the competing styles of traditional midsize ERP vendors fall into three camps: While Forrester says all three strategies are in play, midsize vendors that focus on acquiring and integrating other independent software vendors (ISVs) could see more long-term success because they will be able to offer their customers viable...
  
• NAM endorses Bush Supreme Court nominee
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  In August, The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)—the nation's largest industrial trade association—endorsed the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts to fill the seat on the Supreme Court vacated by the resignation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. "This is the first time in our 110-year history that NAM has taken a position on a Supreme Court nomination," says NAM...
  
• SMBs: check SLAs with HP given reorg
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  Hewlett-Packard's (HP) breakup of its Customer Solutions Group means its customers—especially small and medium businesses (SMBs)—need to reexamine their service-level agreements (SLAs), says Carmi Levy, an analyst with Ontario-based Info-Tech. The HP restructuring, expected to be completed by November, will result in three distinct business units—Technology Solu...
  
• SMB market spending big on software, services
  
  by Staff, September 1, 2005
  For the past several years, software vendors have been circling the small and medium business (SMB) sector like hungry wolves. A recent survey from Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research says there's been good reason for such behavior. Drawing from the responses of nearly 800 technology decision makers, 25 percent of SMBs have begun, or are planning, a major application deploy...
  
• Drive for functionality, market share fuels Q2 consolidation spike
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  Consolidation in the technology sector spiked during second-quarter 2005, with 695 deals totaling $86 billion, according to New York-based The 451 Group, which monitors such transactions. This represents a 15-percent increase over the previous quarter, well above previous-year activity for the same period.
  
• Business and IT execs diverge on spending plans
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  While IT spending expectations remain a full percentage point above U.S. overall growth forecast at 5 percent over the next 12 months—this according to Framingham, Mass.-based IDC's July FutureScan assessment of IT industry indicators and customer surveys—a recent softening in industrial activity and uncertainties around energy costs and interest rates spell divergenc...
  
• Foxboro offers up a "control-room makeover"
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  Reality television is making its debut in the plant automation world, as Foxboro, an Invensys company, has embarked on a search for the North American control room most in need of a total makeover of its design and equipment. The makeover will include a mixture of components from partners—including professional control-room design, a conceptual design solution walk-through ...
  
• SSA Global buys customer management and HR-related suites
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  In one of its first acquisitions following its initial public offering, SSA Global is beefing up its customer relationship management (CRM) and human resources (HR) capabilities. In early August, SSA announced the intention to buy CRM analytics provider Epiphany, as well as, a short time later, Boniva, a privately held start-up specializing in human capital management.
  
• Commission levels fines at increased rate across vast jurisdiction
  
  by Staff, September 1, 2005
  The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has been flexing its muscles lately, and all that exercise is costing manufacturers. Since last October, the commission has leveled nearly $10 million in fines, compared with $3.5 million in all of 2004. In March, Graco Children's Productswas fined a record-breaking $4 million for failing to report defects in toddler beds and other pr...
  
• Multiple sources cite the good and bad for Sarbanes-Oxley
  
  By Staff, September 1, 2005
  Overregulation is viewed as the most critical threat to businesses in both developed and developing nations, according to a CEO survey presented at the 2005 World Economic Forum in Davos. For publicly traded companies doing business in the U.S., the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Sarbox), passed in the wake of the Enron and Worldcom accounting scandals, causes particular consternation.
  
• Coherent message, sufficient mass contribute to PLM vendor UGS' market grip
  
  by Staff, August 1, 2005
  Product life-cycle management (PLM) software today is all about packaging product information for immediate use in many business activities, especially those outside engineering and design departments. UGS is the largest CAD/PLM vendor, and at its June press and analyst event it delivered a coherent message based on its understanding of the evolving role of PLM, and a story about it...
  
• MES delivered as subscription gives smaller guys options
  
  by Staff, August 1, 2005
  Cimnet says it may be the only manufacturing execution system (MES) vendor that offers its solution on a subscription basis. Says CEO John Richardson, "It has given us a leg up when it comes to working with smaller companies because it offers them alternatives when it comes to funding a project.
  
• Two-tier approach to enterprise connectivity debuts
  
  by Staff, August 1, 2005
  Ron Monday, CEO of Online Development, says a three-tier approach to plant/enterprise connectivity—via PC-based supervisory control software, for example—can be costly and complex, even as it introduces information latencies and security threats. On the other hand, says Monday, an appliance-based approach—using something that looks much like a Cisco router&#8212...
  
• ARC kicks support for interoperability standards up a notch
  
  by Staff, August 1, 2005
  At Dedham, Mass.-based ARC Advisory Group's Performance-Driven Manufacturing Forum, President Andy Chatha reaffirmed support for the Plant-to-Business (P2B) Interoperability Initiative and encouraged more manufacturers to participate. The goal of P2B interoperability is out-of-the-box, plug-and-play integration between plant-floor and business software.
  
• The promise of a better Internet
  
  by Staff, August 1, 2005
  VeriSign has a plan for improving your Web browsing experience. Over the next year, the Internet domain company intends to triple its capacity for handling traffic flowing to servers that translate text-based Web addresses to the computer code necessary for connecting to a Web site. Aristotle Balogh, senior VP of infrastructure and operations, announced the plan in May, which cal...
  
• EPCGlobal members, U.S. educators calculating the ROI of RFID
  
  by Staff, August 1, 2005
  EPCGlobal, MIT, and Stanford University's Global Supply Chain Forum recently launched EPC Value Model, a calculator for midsize and large manufacturers that determines potential ROI from implementing RFID technology. The tool was developed based on study results generated by nine EPCGlobal members—among them Gillette, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, and Wal-Mart.
  
• Outsourced services provider says "Oracle economy" improving
  
  by Staff, August 1, 2005
  While Oracle's acquisition of suite vendor PeopleSoft—and more recently, retail solutions provider Retek—spawned a level of uncertainty among employees and customers alike, the deals have energized what enterprise application services provider Sierra Atlanticcalls the "Oracle economy," to the extent that this particular Oracle partner is redoubling its Oracle commitment.