A study of PAC (Pierre Audoin Consultants)

More and more German companies rely on the Business Efficiency of IT technologies. The main factors here are Product Data Management (PDM), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Business Intelligence (BI) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

According to PAC, the use of IT experts could be crucial for the recovery or non-recovery of a company. Particularly affected by the economic crisis, the industry is now looking for new IT solutions. Support to reduce costs is now required more than ever. On one hand, the expenditure for IT employees is declining and on the other hand the business efficiency should be improved by IT tools.
Direct costs should be cut down by consolidating and standardizing the IT environment. In addition, the companies intend to rely more on outsourcing in the future. In order to further reduce costs, new contracts such as “pay-per-use” in which flexible pricing models are established should be made.

The PAC says that optimizing the business efficiency is particularly important at the product development stage. PLM and PDM are the appropriate fields. Using the Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), the manufacturing process should be designed more economical.
However, not only during the development process but also at sales and after-sales IT solutions are important. It is gaining in importance in the areas of CRM, BI and service management. From these findings, one is able to make better decisions in operational and strategic planning.

The investment priorities are different in every industry

In the automotive industry, for example, CRM, After-Sales, BI, PLM and collaboration are needed the most. In the aerospace and defense industry however it is more important to have an efficient product development and already adopted solutions should be harmonized. Building tools in the repair and maintenance area and the integration of applications with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) are common tasks of the IT employees.
Overall CRM, PLM and supply chain management (SCM) become increasingly important.

A detailed overview of the individual industries can be found directly in the study of PAC: Manufacturing Industry Germany 2010

Source: http://www.cio.de/strategien/analysen/2239448/