November 7, 2007 - Software AG, a global leader in business infrastructure software, today honored Corporate Express Document & Print Management, DSM, Lenders First Choice and Motorola as 2007 recipients of the Software AG Customer Innovation Awards. They were named winners in the Productivity, ROI, Innovation, and Business Agility categories respectively. Satyam Computer Services was named the winner in the newly-created Partner category on behalf of its implementation at the New Bangkok International Airport Ltd. Other finalists included BearingPoint, Lafarge, MetLife, Softbank Mobile, and the Victoria (Australia) Department of Justice.
This year's winners demonstrate the need for successful IT projects to embrace both a strategic or breakthrough vision followed by strong execution as a means for delivering significant business benefits. The winners are being honored for their success in achieving both of these objectives. The distinguished panel of independent judges included David Buckholtz, Vice President of Planning, Enterprise Architecture & Quality, Sony Pictures Entertainment; Paul Harmon, Executive Editor and co-founder, Business Process Trends; and Ken Vollmer, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research.
"Our winners and finalists make it clear that innovation today spans the globe. What these enterprises also demonstrate is how much a visionary IT organization can accomplish when equipped with the right resources," said Karl-Heinz Streibich, Chief Executive Officer, Software AG. "A common theme this year was a focus on optimizing processes and the successful introduction of the SOA paradigm. By doing so, our winners were able to improve customer service, reduce fulfillment and inventory costs and expand the flexibility of their operations. We salute all of our winners and finalists, and in particular, the visionary IT organizations that are leading them forward."
Corporate Express Document & Print Management, a business unit of Corporate Express US Inc., is a leading provider of document and print management, and business form, label, direct mail and fulfillment solutions, with eight US manufacturing plants. Using the webMethods product suite, Corporate Express Document & Print Management has automated their entire Order-to-Cash process, achieving significant cost savings throughout this end-to-end process while improving customer accuracy and on-time delivery as well. Furthermore, the system has allowed Corporate Express Document & Print Management to scale the business significantly, with electronic order volume growing tenfold since the system's implementation.
"The role of IT is clearly core to the DNA of Corporate Express as the company has used supply chain mastery as a competitive weapon," said Anthony Coker, Vice President for Strategic Business Solutions, Software AG. "By automating their Order-to-Cash process, the company's printing subsidiary is able to onboard and service new customers much more efficiently. By reducing fulfillment costs while expanding the customer base, they're able to grow rapidly in an otherwise very competitive market."
DSM, a global leader in life sciences and material sciences, has used webMethods technology to enable its adoption of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), a key initiative under the company's Vision 2010 strategy. Taking advantage of the flexibility of a service-oriented architecture (SOA), more than three hundred suppliers are now providing automated replenishment around the world. Already, $6bn in sourcing is handled this way, which has dramatically reduced both inventory and fulfillment costs.
"Due to the nature of its business, DSM needs to run very precise processes. However, their success demonstrates that precise isn't synonymous with rigid or inflexible," said Bruce Williams, Senior Vice President and General Manager for BPM Solutions, Software AG. "Rather, they've been able to take advantage of SOA's flexibility to actually simplify and streamline their business. With vendor's now managing significant aspects of their day-to-day inventory, DSM has been able to increase its customer focus with a specific commitment to market-driven growth and innovation."
Lenders First Choice is the fastest growing provider of settlement services and title insurance in the mortgage industry. Using webMethods BPMS, Lenders First Choice has completely automated title, escrow, closing and recordation processes. This new solution addresses dynamic and complex business rules, and it also incorporates location-independent business processes to facilitate business process outsourcing. The project's ROI exceeded $5 million and development costs are down 30%.
"In less than a year, Lenders First Choice has transformed its business - moving from manual silo processes to an automated system where human intervention is only called upon as needed," said Ivo Totev, Chief Marketing Officer, Software AG. "They clearly exemplify the value of implementing an SOA-based Business Process Management suite. With adaptive processes and dynamic applications, they've been able to define their operations around customer requirements, which gives them a huge advantage in winning new business."
Motorola, a Fortune 100 company, has long been a pioneer in the use of business activity monitoring (BAM) to streamline its supply chain processes. Due to the increasing role that software and protected digital content played in its cellular phones, the company needed a "touchless" and auditable means to update and repair content-enabled phones. Using BAM and SOA, Motorola was able to establish secure, real-time, bidirectional communication with its global facilities so that customer service representatives could troubleshoot these systems without calling upon IT resources. The cost avoidance and customer service implications have been significant.
"Our continued shift to a digital economy raises a host of new challenges. Fortunately, pioneers like Motorola are paving the way forward," said David Buckholtz, Vice President for Planning, Enterprise Architecture & Quality, Sony Pictures Entertainment. "In this case, they're empowering their CSRs to deliver an even higher level of customer service as they're now able to resolve many problems remotely that previously required physical intervention. The payoff in improved customer satisfaction has been huge."
A new airport in Bangkok was designed to accelerate the country's growth by serving as a regional air hub for all of Southeast Asia. The creation of a flagship facility would require the airport to implement a state-of-the-art information system that would allow the facility to operate with the utmost efficiency, adaptability and security. Satyam Computer Services Ltd., the global consulting and IT services leader, was tasked with this assignment. Leveraging the webMethods product suite, they developed an architecture that enabled the on-time opening of a new airport that is already setting new benchmarks for its seamless and flexible operations.
"Starting with a green field opportunity for process management can actually be more dauntingly due to the lack of previous milestones to guide your progress," said Paul Harmon, Executive Editor and co-founder of Business Process Trends. "Fortunately, Satyam was up to the challenge as they seized this opportunity to design the processes for a start-of-the-art airport from the ground-up. By doing so, they've actually helped to transform the airport experience, which is a huge accomplishment."
Previous winners of the Customer Innovation Awards include Ahold, Avnet, Eastman Chemical Company, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems, Motorola, The Bosch Group, and Wells Fargo & Company.