Interview with Charles Johnson, Managing Director for Manufacturing Industry Solutions, Microsoft
Charles
Johnson: The alliance we announced in March supports seamless integration
of the manufacturing supply chain by focusing on three key areas, all designed
to help bridge the gap between plant floor operations and enterprise business
systems.
First, the alliance takes advantage of the integration ABB can enable on the
plant floor with Industrial IT, and we ensure that ABB's framework can work
well with the installed base of Microsoft technology on the plant floor.
Second, the alliance provides an integration layer developed by Accenture using
Microsoft BizTalk Server to connect the data from the plant floor up through
the MES (manufacturing execution system) level to the enterprise-level business
systems.
Third, we take advantage of Microsoft products and technologies such as .NET, and Intel's standards-based architecture, to extend the integration throughout the enterprise. ABB's framework, Industrial IT, already does a great job of rolling up all the data on the plant floor to the MES level.
Thanks to Microsoft technologies like .NET, the work by Accenture, and Intel's standards-based architecture, manufacturers can seamlessly extend the integration started with Industrial IT and BizTalk Server into more areas of the enterprise.
ASCET: What is Microsoft doing to more directly support specific vertical industries?
CJ: When it comes to the vertical industries we support, the core of our efforts are centered on enabling the Microsoft Product teams and partners (ISVs and SIs) to develop and deliver repeatable, value-focused solutions to manufacturing customers. We do this primarily through our leading application development tools, such as Visual Studio .NET and C#; our enterprise-ready server products, such as BizTalk Server, Sharepoint Portal Server, and SQL Server, among others; and Microsoft .NET. From that core, we're doing four primary things:
First, we're building up our in-house industry expertise through new hires and training. Currently, we're focusing on broad manufacturing needs for both process and discrete manufacturing, and we're placing specific emphasis on six verticals - automotive manufacturing, high-tech manufacturing, oil and gas, consumer package goods, chemical, and aerospace. Our mission is to deliver Microsoft and partner solutions into these verticals that drive customer value through increasing top-line revenue, reducing bottom-line costs, improving employee productivity, and increasing their customer satisfaction.
Second, we're continuing to build an ISV and SI ecosystem within broad manufacturing as well as the three specific verticals, with partners who really understand the needs of customers within those verticals.
Third, we're helping those partners develop and deliver enterprise-ready solutions and services built on, or that take advantage of, Microsoft technologies. We also look to influence the development of our own technologies so they can better enable our partners to deliver go-to-market solutions (e.g., the past year's release of various accelerators for BizTalk Server, including RosettaNet and UCCnet).
Fourth, we educate our field salesforce about solutions and services available to customers within those verticals so we can better service our customers and improve our customer satisfaction.
ASCET: Collaborative manufacturing calls for common language architecture. Do you see XML as the answer?
CJ: Absolutely. XML offers a huge opportunity for improving collaboration in many industries, including manufacturing, because — obviously — XML allows you to add context to data. For that reason, XML is at the core of our .NET technology.
The core value of Microsoft .NET centers on "connecting." Microsoft .NET is built on XML Web service standards to enable both new and existing applications to more easily and effectively connect with software and services across platforms, applications, and programming languages.
.NET is integrated across our Windows platform. By integrating .NET in our platform, we give developers such as our ISV partners the ability to quickly develop and deliver solutions built on our platform that take advantage of XML Web services. These solutions enable faster, more agile business integration and information "anytime, anywhere, on any device."
ASCET: Starting from the plant floor with .NET and BizTalk integration, can you give some examples of new ways companies can improve process?
CJ: Sure. When we look at the benefits for manufacturers of our products, our technologies and the solutions built on our technologies, we look at three main areas: visibility, optimization, and automation.
Visibility, or "integration," includes Web services, intranets, and mobility. Microsoft technology helps companies gain visibilty to enterprise data that will enable them to collaborate more effectively. Optimization helps businesses make sense out of the data they're collecting in meaningful ways, improving their business intelligence and decision making.
Microsoft technology helps manufacturers automate processes within an organization for improved execution and information sharing internally, and, if they choose, with external organizations such as customers and suppliers. For example, BizTalk Server is the key product within our "automation" focus. As mentioned, it provides the integration layer at the MES level within our work with the four-way alliance and ABB's Industrial IT.
ASCET: Spending slowed recently on big enterprise SCM software packages, yet Microsoft seems poised to move into that space. What opportunities do you see in the supply chain market?
CJ: We certainly see opportunities. There are enormous pressures on manufacturers to optimize their supply chains. Certain sectors continue to have a tough time in this economy, but in many of those sectors, we see competitors increasing their operational efficiency, prices that aren't rising but instead are holding steady or are being reduced, and trading partners and suppliers who want to streamline their processes to increase their own margins.
While some large manufacturers may be holding back on spending, we see opportunities for supply chain optimization on the fringes of the large manufacturing customers and in the mid-market. The smaller operating locations and divisions of the larger manufacturers, and the mid-size manufacturers, are often more agile, have fewer product lines, and are more receptive to change. We see them as being more willing to invest in solutions to optimize their supply chains, and believe they'll quickly realize the benefits and ROI that will support their IT expenditures.
Thanks to .NET, our various adapters and our other integration technologies, the smaller operating locations that optimize their supply chains with solutions built on Microsoft technologies still have the ability to connect with the enterprise-level business systems at the corporate headquarters, typically with minimal regard to what those systems are. So, they can optimize not only their supply chains, but also how they report up to and share data with their higher headquarters.
With this in mind, we see many opportunities for our ISV partners, and also for Microsoft Business Solutions (the result of acquisitions of Great Plains and Navision). MBS doesn't foresee a move to the large enterprise market, as that's not a natural extension of MBS' current business model. Rather than pushing to move "up" into the enterprise space, MBS can serve the fringes and is looking to move "out" into a broader range of global markets and industries within the small and mid-market segments. n
