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Dodging the puppy syndrome
With the pressure on to cut costs, yet improve business and system agility, 2010 looks like a difficult year for
manufacturing IT. Brian Tinham finds solutions with Andy Kyte, research fellow at analyst Gartner |
19/11/2009
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Less is more: aligning your IT
IT costs very, very big bucks, and manufacturing businesses depend on it now more than ever. Brian Tinham talks to CIOs about how to get more from less – and sustain it |
01/06/2007
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Unlocking business with cyber security
IT security is a cost of doing business, right? Wrong: today’s smart money is on configuring protection to enable better busienss. Brian Tinham reports |
18/04/2007
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Fit for growth
Hard pressed manufacturing SMEs need to think carefully before rushing into system purchases. Craig Such of Access Supply Chain tells Brian Tinham how to do it |
11/04/2007
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Who grasps virtual space
Everybody who’s anybody is saying it: even in quite small organisations IT managers would be well advised to investigate the potential for savings and efficiencies through consolidation and virtualisation – of their servers, storage, operating systems and whole IT networks. Virtualisation meaning decoupling the physical infrastructure hardware from the software and data it runs by means of an abstraction layer that provides for policy-based management of shared resources. The business case involves everything from reduced server real estate and complexity to simplified admin, improved utilisation, possibly also resilience and certainly flexibility – including with archiving and back-up. It’s about making the infrastructure cheaper to buy, own, run and manage, as well as better able to respond to changing business requirements, even on the fly. |
26/01/2007
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IT keys to mouth watering benefits
If you’re after a vision of how an ERP system implementation can become both driver and foundation of a total business transformation, look no further than Yorkshire Water. This one is extreme, and although the ERP system happens to be SAP, it’s the business objectives and how they were met that matter most here. |
11/12/2006
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Setting the IT agenda for your business in 2007
What’s hot? What’s not? Who cares? What matters to management teams running the various aspects of increasingly stretched and complex manufacturing companies today has nothing whatever to do with what analysts, journalists or anyone else see as ‘hot’, ‘in’ or ‘fashionable’. The primary concern is simply keeping the operation going, cutting costs and attempting to get production better and smarter – meaning faster, more efficient, more flexible and the rest of it. Brian Tinham talks to senior users in manufacturing for some serious clues |
28/11/2006
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SaaS: the brand new business case
"It’s seriously past time to reconsider what on earth we’re doing with our IT in businesses at board level.” That’s the challenge from Paul Davenport, European channel sales director at WASP IT, which has been successfully delivering ERP and full IT and network infrastructures as hosted services over VPNs (virtual private networks) to manufacturers for the last four years. |
28/11/2006
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Avoiding the pitfalls of outsourcing IT
As a means of saving money and improving service, outsourcing IT has not got the best of track records. Earlier this year, for example, in what seems to be an annual pronouncement, analyst Gartner published research saying that 50% of all outsourcing contracts signed in the previous three years had failed to meet expectations. There is a clear disparity between expectation and outcome on many outsourcing projects. So, what are the latest trends and how can you ensure your project is not one of the staggering 50% that fail? |
14/11/2006
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Don't let your IT be a barrier to the business
Manufacturers are spot on the average for hardware flexibility across the business sectors at 47%, according to analyst Butler Group’s recent benchmarking survey. However, they are well below the average on the software side – 20% against the mean 29% value. Does that matter? Well ultimately, yes it could – for two reasons. First, globalisation, commoditisation and technology are lowering the barriers to new entrants, so competing today is increasingly about improving your customer experience and opportunity awareness as well as cutting costs and improving agility in design and production. But typically when managers start wanting to adjust business processes, they find those are ‘hard wired’ in their systems – so making changes is going to cost a lot of money and take 12 months, by which time it’s too late. |
14/11/2006
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Disk-to-disk-to-tape takes 80% off back-up times
Critical data back-up times reduced by 80%, greatly enhanced data protection, much faster disaster recovery times and better business continuity protection earned electronic and industrial products firm Premier Farnell a ‘Highly Commended’ award from our independent panel of judges. The improvements came after implementing new disk-to-disk-to-tape technology. The company had been running short of storage capacity on its 200-plus servers, but also needed to cut disaster recovery times so that it could restore critical data systems within four hours. |
04/10/2006
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Scope for improvement with your projects
The major effort driving any IT project is best spent at the front end. But what, asks Brian Wall, are the most effective methodologies, tools and best practices? |
21/09/2006
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Pumping up at Ernest Hill
Choosing the right ERP company has resulted in improvements built on improvements at Sheffield-based £2 million specialist pumps manufacturer Ernest Hill. Brian Tinham reports on its latest developments involving fully managed IT and network infrastructure support plus custom-built e-commerce websites - all at sensible prices |
07/09/2006
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Looking out for the art of the possible
ICT (information and communication technology) is too diverse and fast-changing to take for granted. Brian Tinham romps through the state of the art – and some of the implications for IT strategy with manufacturing business systems |
01/08/2006
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Your guide to choosing and implementing ERP (and similar) systems
Nobody looks forward to a serious business IT project, and that applies whether you're installing a new ERP system (or similar), or `simply' upgrading or changing an existing one. It's hard work. It comes on top of the already demanding day job. Yet the success of your company depends upon it. And not just now but for many years to come. What's more, everyone has heard a horror story or two from someone. No surprise then that many are cynical as well as daunted.
But it doesn't have to be like that. Times, systems, functionality and, most important, methodologies and support, have all moved on immensely in recent years. And so has the body of understanding of hype, blind alleys and on the other hand, opportunities and best practice. So it is now perfectly possible to turn what might well once have been an unrewarding slog (likely to end in failure) into a structured project with manageable milestones and relatively quick wins for the
business along the way. Here's how to do it right, keep your workforce sane and on your side, and save serious time and money into the bargain. Do this and you'll also get as rapidly as possible to a project that will be judged a success not just
at the time but into the future and business-wide. |
25/07/2006
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Make this your online home page
www.mcsolutions.co.uk has been massively upgraded. Brian Tinham test drives the amazing new free online resource for news, reference and supplier information covering all of IT for all of manufacturing and engineering industry |
14/07/2006
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Gold dust from people just like you
If you’re about to start shortlisting suppliers for a substantial new business IT project, or are already in the throes of doing so, how would you like to hear about your peers’ real-world experiences, good and bad, of suppliers’ products and services? Of course you would. In a world where IT vendors are increasingly difficult to differentiate, insights from Benchmark’s customer satisfaction study into their manufacturing IT implementation experiences will help you plan and choose with more confidence, says Brian Tinham |
10/07/2006
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What's behind a slick supply chain
Unipart Logistics Systems looks after logistics for more than car majors. Brian Tinham talks to its head of IT about the systems and processes behind its operations |
19/06/2006
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Art meets science in glorious technicolour
Advanced planning and scheduling systems and lean thinking aren't often bracketed together, but ColArt paints a picture of perfect harmony. Brian Tinham reports |
19/06/2006
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Mission critical
With the world’s most demanding requirements for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), digital design collaboration and track-and-trace, the aerospace and defence sector has it all. Brian Tinham looks at the issues and their solutions |
11/04/2006
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An ideal standard for Ideal Standard
When Ideal Standard was going for growth across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, it solved its IT challenges using e-business and integration services. Brian Tinham reports |
11/04/2006
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Customer support moves on the web
EdgeCAM toolpath simulation software developer Pathtrace is using web conferencing and remote control to transform service. Brian Tinham reports |
11/04/2006
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Taming the business of disaster
Business continuity and disaster recovery planning are rightly higher up the agenda than in days gone by. Antony Adshead examines what ‘good’ looks like |
11/04/2006
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Finding the key to plant security
As we need ever greater access to plant and factory systems and machines, ensuring IT security requires special attention. Andrew Ward explains |
11/04/2006
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Conquering your servers and storage
It’s time to seriously consider virtualising your storage and servers for the considerable commercial and operational benefits it brings, says George Toxero |
11/04/2006
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