VIEWPOINT | MANAGING THE COLLABORATIVE PROCESS

One key to becoming a more nimble and responsive auto supplier is to better manage the problem-solving process. That means finding faster and more efficient ways to assimilate new information, handle shifts in program direction and deal with supply chain challenges. Companies typically rely on a serial process of problem-solving. Alerts flow from one person or group to another through a series of e-mails, phone calls and face-to-face meetings.

But the traditional serial process has become less effective as the pace of business accelerates, the volume of data expands and the size of staff available to handle problems shrinks. To cope, many enterprises are turning to collaborative social networks that enable them to broadcast alerts to all essential people simultaneously and to form ad hoc teams that can tackle and solve problems quickly.

John Flavin, executive vice president for manufacturing at Infor, discusses the advantages of collaborative tools and describes industry-ready Infor products designed specifically to help manage and facilitate the collaborative process.

What's wrong with the way collaboration happens today?

In most companies, collaboration means white boards, pieces of paper held by push pins or magnets, "do not erase" notes and hundreds of Excel spreadsheets. There's a lot of manual labor involved. Companies could get away with it a decade ago, but the flood of information is getting heavier and faster. The old ways are inefficient and prone to mistakes. Hiring more people adds bottom-line costs, and more spreadsheets aren't the solution.

The answer is better information, faster. At Infor, we suggest changing the way work gets done. People have historically worked using a very serial, step-by-step approach. But that's not how problems come at them. They arrive from several angles, and solutions require multiple angles. Our tools help arrange data and make sense of it in an easy-to-use manner. Our business software gives users the same experience they have with their smartphones and tablets.

Aren't there several types of collaboration?

Definitely. Infor identifies five levels, beginning with collaboration among employees. For some organizations, this is all they need. In the manufacturing world, it's a starting point.

This isn't just about conversations. It's about structuring communications around business activity and including business transaction information. These interactions are where institutional knowledge and insights are exchanged. The key is to capture the valuable information shared in these one-on-one conversations within the context of the enterprise's business processes. Doing so enables the organization to capture institutional knowledge so it doesn't walk out the door when employees leave or retire. Our next-generation Infor Ming.le technology is designed to do exactly that.

The next level of collaboration involves companies' information systems. They need a framework that enables various systems to connect smoothly and efficiently such as Infor's ION solution. ION knits it all together by providing the mechanism to link integration services, cloud services, mobile services and advanced reporting services.

What about the higher levels of collaboration?

In the auto industry, the next levels relate to product lifecycle management and vendor and customer collaboration.

An advanced PLM solution needs to support a very sophisticated and intricate collaborative process involving complex engineering information, CAD documents, multiple change orders and much more. Infor's PLM products provide the high level of integration needed to deliver successful products faster and more economically.

Automotive suppliers also recognize that success in today's hyper-competitive business climate requires effective collaborative relationships with their supply chains and customers. Infor's ERP and extended solutions tackle this critical need with Web-enabled vendor self-service portals that keep companies and their suppliers constantly up to date on program progress. Similarly, self-service portals for a company's customers help simplify and streamline the sales process.

Our ION system enables users to maximize their manufacturing capabilities by closely integrating their customer portals, vendor portals and ERP system.

Finally, a company needs to be able to access quick and useful reports about all these elements so senior managers can spend less time assembling data and more time making effective decisions. Here, Infor offers business intelligence solutions that combine pre-built integrations with pre-configured content and easy-to-build custom reporting options.

What does it take to get started?

We can get companies up and running with one or two of these tools, then expand later. We have deep consulting expertise specifically for the auto industry. Our experts come in and closely study a company's operations to find the process bottlenecks. Then we demonstrate how we can help them accelerate their decision-making.

Click HERE to learn more about Infor or visit http://infor.com/automotive.