Supply chain technology: Innovation the key to success
Analysts and studies say that IT spending will be among the last to be slashed and will help keep companies afloat.
By Allison Manning, Associate Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/30/2008
Even in an economic downturn, companies won’t be cutting from their IT budgets, Epicor Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer John Hiraoka assured attendees at Epicor Perspectives, held earlier this month at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Nev.
Technology is productivity, he said, highlighting studies and analysts who predict resilience in the IT sector. Hiraoka referenced Cisco Systems CEO John Chamber’s keynote address at Gartner ITEXPO in mid-October, who said there will be an “instant replay” in technology-led productivity gains, with collaborative IT intertwined with business strategy.
Rod Winger, Epicor Senior Director of Product Marketing, told Modern that even in a down economy, companies understand that the road to recovery is the leveraging of business process and innovation.
“They don’t even see a reduction in IT spending,” he said. “You can’t predict the future, but the economy has been on a downturn since this time last year and we have not seen [a reduction] yet.”
Keynote speaker Bruce Richardson of AMR Research outlined the ten trends he’s watching for 2010, including the increased pressure companies will feel to innovate, giving examples of a hydrogen-powered car by BMW and a pill camera used for diagnosing patients. Supply chain and distribution companies will have to come up with similar technological advances to stay afloat.
The IT architecture of the future will be different as well. Richardson said companies should be thinking of hybrid models and different ways to perform tasks, such as renting server space instead of buying it, as the New York Times and NASCAR have done.
Epicor hopes to help companies weather the storm through innovation with its next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution Epicor 9. Winger said as part of the company’s convergence strategy, Epicor 9 was driven by two key areas of improvement, global financials and supply chain and warehousing.
“The benefit that [adopters] are getting is this very much expanded footprint capability out into the supply chain and warehousing side and from a financial perspective,” Winger said.
Epicor 9 handles processing, advanced planning, handheld and bar code capability, pick pack and ship and task management, Winger said. “All the directed operations capability that you would find in a warehouse operation,” he said.
“Our customers expect that we should be able to provide all components from an IT perspective to run their business,” Winger said, calling it the “midmarket’s mantra.”
Presenter and Pointe Precision IS Administrator Nicholas Sondelski said his company will keep its IT spending about the same, with more executive support behind the department.
“Better utilization of software systems and technology can help make improvements that will impact the bottom line,” he said.
Sondelski said it is “imperative” for IT spending and innovation to continue during the economy’s downturn, with those that do invest in IT now coming out ahead when the economy improves.
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