FORD INTEGRATES GLOBAL DESIGN AND ENGINEERING SYSTEMS
Vendor: Iona Technologies
Product: Orbix
Ford Motor Company is integrating its Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing (CADCAM), Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE), and Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) applications. Using Orbix from Iona, Ford engineers worldwide will be able to collaborate throughout the design process. The interoperability that Orbix provides with multiple platforms and development languages will enable the deployment of component-based design and engineering services. Re-use and information sharing are the key enablers for rapid deployment of best-in-class applications and support for new knowledge based engineering initiatives, ultimately enabling faster time-to-market for new vehicle development.
“We are excited that Ford has chosen to implement Orbix across its engineering organization,” said Ed Gaudet, Iona’s vice president of worldwide marketing. “The business environment today demands that organizations have the ability to leverage knowledge across the enterprise. Through our technology, organizations such as Ford allow for enterprise collaboration and establish the infrastructure necessary to support e-business development.”
SWISSCOM INTEGRATES ITS B2B MARKETPLACE
Vendor: Actional
Product: Marketplace Control Broker
Swisscom is integrating its B2B e-Marketplace, conextrade, which links buying and supplying organizations around the world into real-time trading communities. Suppliers can reach multiple buyers with one electronic catalog, accelerating trade, reducing costs, and offering new business opportunities for all trading partners. Actional’s Marketplace Control Broker will now directly link conextrade’s e-commerce environment, built on the CommerceOne BuySite platform, with SAP R/3. Swisscom now has the ability to deliver real-time information to customers through its market-facing conextrade interface.
“We chose Actional’s Control Broker technology over alternative solutions because we have first-hand experience with Actional’s ability to repeatedly deliver solutions that live up to their promises,” said Reto von Arb, head of SAP integration at Swisscom. “Our extensive evaluation made it clear that only Actional could deliver a solution with the performance, near-zero latency, and flexibility we need to maintain our competitive edge without compromising transactional reliability or security.”
STEPSTONE GETS AN INTEGRATION JOB
Vendor: STC
Product: e*Gate Integrator
Online recruitment company StepStone.com is integrating its business processes into a fully-automated, Internet-enabled environment. With some 316,000 curricula vitae, 100,000 job vacancies, and three million user sessions recorded in June 2000, StepStone’s requirements for the accurate and automated management of customer orders were tied to a bold vision of migrating all business applications to the Web. In conjunction with Cambridge Technology Partners, StepStone selected STC’s e*Gate to Web-enable customer centric processes and manage the growing flow of data among Oracle Financials, Human Resources, and its Siebel-based CRM databases.
“The most significant aspect of our operations is in the processing of customer orders,” said Tasso Asteriades, business systems manager for StepStone. “In the UK, we’re dealing with 1,000 to 2,000 orders per day, and across all StepStone regions the number is ten times higher. With such an aggressive growth plan we needed a robust solution that not only deals with our current demands, but also provides a strong, scalable platform for the future.”