Intel Investors - A few months ago, somebody was worried about Dell and their internal hardware/software used to run their business.
Here is an update!
Paul
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infoworld.com
Dell drops SAP implementation in favor
of Glovia
By Stannie Holt
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 5:43 PM PT, May 6, 1998
Dell is boosting its manufacturing and online ordering capacities through a deal with software vendors Glovia International and Oracle. The new applications will eventually have a role in the production and sale of every computer Dell makes.
Although the multimillion dollar deal was all in a day's work for Oracle, whose applications Dell will use for financials as well as order management, mid-sized manufacturing software maker Glovia considered it a major victory -- especially since Dell is using them to replace an unfinished implementation by SAP, the giant in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) field. Dell had also considered using Baan and Oracle, the second- and third-largest vendors in the ERP field, before choosing Glovia.
"David slew the giant," Glovia marketing director Patrick Adams bragged Tuesday. "There are alternatives to the Big Three all over." Dell is now his company's largest single customer, he said.
Analyst Jim Shepherd, vice president at Advanced Manufacturing Research in Boston, acknowledged that "it's a great win for Glovia," but didn't think it represents a black eye for SAP.
Rather, it shows that some users prefer a best-of-breed approach, with vendors that specialize in different niches, rather than one vendor for everything, Shepherd said.
This could be Glovia's signature deal, like ERP vendor Baan signing up Boeing, Shepherd added.
"Dell is so visible, so well-respected, that if they can capitalize on this, it has the potential to really jump-start Glovia's usiness," Shepherd said.
SAP officials were not available for comment Wednesday.
Dell will use Glovia for materials management, first at its U.S. operations in Austin, Texas, beginning in the first half of 1999, then roll it out to its other two plants, in Malaysia and Ireland, within two years, according to Dell vice president and CIO for
manufacturing Terry Kelley.
Glovia will interface with two existing manufacturing systems, a home-grown shop floor system, and i2 on the supply-chain planning end.
The best-of-breed approach gives Dell more flexibility and deeper vendor expertise in each area, Kelley said.
Speed of implementation was a priority for Dell, which is growing 50 percent to 60 percent per year, Kelley added. The company was familiar with Glovia from using an earlier version, Chess, at some of its facilities, and felt that Glovia's expertise worked well with Dell's just-in-time production model, he added.
"Dell has a very unique manufacturing process -- nothing happens in our world unless it's attached to a customer order," and that's hard for many ERP software vendors to deal with, Kelley said.
Dell went through an extensive testing process, giving Glovia a four-month pilot and heavy-duty benchmarking, before committing to it, Kelley said. The companies signed the deal last week.
The Oracle deal, signed in late March, will help Dell expand its online order capacities, Dell officials said. Oracle officials were not available for comment.
Glovia is a joint venture between MDIS and Fujitsu.
Dell Computer Corp., in Round Rock, Texas, is at dell.com. Glovia International LLC, in Los Angeles, is at glovia.com. Oracle Corp., in
Redwood Shores, Calif., is at oracle.com.
Stannie Holt is editorial assistant for InfoWorld.
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