Everything is beginning to be considered a cutthroat market, at the same
time as big companies are consolidating ever more.
There is plenty of innovation possible, we have to start thinking and
creating.
Not just using graphics tools for the same functions, but serving them
up in new ways, suggesting new ways to analyze history data for trends,
profits, recuperating lost customers, and more.
I think there's a lot of untapped potential. GIS interfaces, analysis of
external data as relates to internal company data, even re-doing
interfaces for the regular accounting functions, which can be much more
user-friendly. These things are just examples take investment but can
yield up results and help them pass up competition (at least keep up).
I have a couple of ideas that can enhance manufacturing specifically,
not so hard to think of them. We're just so busy handling current
requests eh?
--Alan
My experience with marketing organizations suggests that the requirement to
respond quickly to client demands, dealing with massive amounts of
information accurately, determining patterns in a timely fashion that could not
be done without a computer.
I may have mentioned this before, but I've found the manufacturing sector
(mostly third-tier automotive suppliers) to be a mixed bag in this regard.
Very seldom have I seen strong IT management in this environment; usually
the IT managers are former programmers with no formal management training.
This, I believe, sets up the inevitable "yes-man" IT manager that reports to a
bean-counter executive. In this scenario, IT is utilized only to the
extent that bean-counters find value, which, 99% of the time, is the
accounting function.
