Another end run on ELON! Howcum theses guys are never invloved?!?: "General Electric and Cisco Systems
To Build Networks Aimed at Factories
By MATT MURRAY and SCOTT THURM
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
General Electric Co.and Cisco Systems Inc. said they formed a new
company to build computerized infrastructures for manufacturing and
industrial facilities, in an effort to boost productivity and efficiency on the
factory floor.
The companies provided no financial details, but people familiar with the
transaction characterized the total investment as being in the tens of millions
of dollars.
The new company, GE Cisco Industrial Networks (www.gecisco.com),
will be more than 80% owned by GE. The company, based in
Charlottesville, Va., expects to start with about 30 employees. Most of the
top managers will come from GE's Industrial Systems business, which
makes electrical power products. The firm will be headed by Jeff Pompeo,
chief information officer of GE Fanuc, an Industrial Systems joint venture
that makes industrial-automation systems.
Networking Skills
Basic facts on GE's new company with Cisco Systems.
Name: GE Cisco Industrial Networks
Launch: June 6, 2000
CEO: Jeff Pompeo
Headquarters: Charlottesville, Va.
Employees: 30 (as of launch) Products and services: Network
integration with existing factory automation and control systems;
network assessments, troubleshooting, design, installation, and
equipment support, including training and maintenance, and remote
monitoring
Source: The company
Web site: www.GECisco.com
The goal of the new company, executives said, is to make better use of the
reams of data generated by factory-automation equipment and more
closely link manufacturing sites to corporate offices, suppliers and
customers. "What you have [are] pockets of information that are trapped
on the factory floor," said Lloyd Trotter, head of GE Industrial Systems.
Charles Giancarlo, a senior vice president of Cisco, said companies often
transcribe information from factory controllers by hand and re-type it into
the office networks that run the rest of the business.
The huge manufacturing reach of both companies, which are among the
nation's largest, provides a built-in base of potential customers, especially
with GE's industrial suppliers, and gives the new venture clout in selling its
products.
Mr. Trotter said the partners would be "disappointed" if GE Cisco
Industrial Networks doesn't reach $100 million in revenue within three to
five years. Though that's a pittance to both companies, they said they see a
potential market of $3 billion by 2003.
Factory automation has been a long-time interest for GE. Though plans in
the early 1980s for a big factory-automation business never met
expectations, GE Fanuc has been highly profitable.
The enterprise also dovetails with GE's growing interest in pitching its
internal-efficiency and measuring programs, such as its Six Sigma quality
drive, to other companies, almost acting as a consultant.
For Cisco, the new company is the latest in a string of deals that rely on
outsiders to design, install and maintain networks with Cisco equipment.
For example, Cisco has taken minority stakes in the consulting arm of
accounting firm KPMG LLC and European consulting firm Cap Gemini
SA." |
