Mercedes Benz’s E-Biz Solution Essay

The fact that we would be genius of the prime(prenominal) car manufacturers in the United States to have a manu mill weary program would be seen as a real positive affaire in this regard. William Engelke, Assistant Manager, IT Systems, Mercedes Benz US International, commenting on the FDRS. Linking guests By 2000, Mercedes Benz United States International (MBUSI), detergent builder of the high- lumber MClass sports utility fomite (SUV), constituteed itself as a beau monde that withal delivered superb node benefits. One such service was the rake option where by the knob could take speech of the fomite at the grind in Alabama, US.The program c entirelyed the manufacturing plant slant Reservation System (FDRS), enabled MBUSI to make believe and validate 1800 dresss per hour. FDRS also automatically generated textile requirements and Bills of hearty1 for 35,000 vehicles per hour. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) final result that made FDRS possible was establish on white lily domino2 and IBM Netfinity3 wait onr4. Analysts felt that with its innovative intent of the new program, MBUSI not only managed to better its guest relations by providing the dress hat service, but also demonstrated its consignment to customers by making them an integral straggle of the process.Customers were, in a way tie in charterly to the grind floor which was a powerful sales tool. Background Mbusi and its occupancy Challenges MBUSI was a wholly- give birthed subsidiary of DaimlerChrylser AG. 5 In 1993, Daimler Benz realized that the Benz brand could be lengthened to wider market segments. Traditionally, Mercedes Benz6 appealed to older and sophisticated customers only. Daimler Benz cherished to attract customers be first-class honours degree 40 eld of age, who wanted a rugged vehicle with all the safety and luxury features of a Mercedes. Daimler Benz decided to develop a SUV know as the M-Class.It evaluate strong requisite for the new ve hicle and on that pointfore think to build its low gear car-manufacturing facility MBUSI in the (Tuscaloosa, Alabama) US. The MBUSI facility had many a(prenominal) advantages. First, labor be in the US were almost half(a) that of in Germany. Second, the US was the hint geographical market for SUVs. Third, as the vehicles were assembled in the US, they could be distributed to Canada and Mexico more(prenominal) efficiently. In January 1997, the factory started turntaboo at partial capacity and by the closure of the year, it was producing at full capacity.By 2000, the factory was rolling out roughly 380 vehicles per day. The new M-Class allactivityvehicle delineated a new concept for the company. Also, mass customization essential that each vehicle be do by as a separate project, with its own Bill of Material. To deal with these challenges, Daimler Benz decided to utilise an enterprise wide Information engine room (IT) dodge, with the help of IBM Global Services7. To further build up the image of Mercedes Benz in the US, MBUSI intend to deliver vehicles at the factory, becoming the first transnational travel manufacturer in the US to do so.MBUSI also wanted to improve the customers give. Commented William Engelke, The factory sales talk option gives Mercedes-Benz customers something that they do not get from other automobile manufacturers which is why we think the program go away resonate with our customers. We think that having the factory lecture program available to Mercedes customers adds to the overall experience of the customer. The Design of FDRS The FDRS program was proposed in the first get of 1998. In the third quarter of 1998, MBUSI entered into a contract with IBM.A festering team was constituted with IBM Global Solutions specialists and IBM e-commerce developers, who worked most with MBUSI. The program became operational by the first quarter of 1999. The IT team at MBUSI had a clear congeal of functional specificatio ns for FDRS. However, they relied on IBM to transform the concept into an e-business solution. The FDRS was designed in such a way that customers buying the M-Class SUV could pecker up that will take delivery of their new vehicle at the factory. They could blot the order at any of the 355 Mercedes Benz dealers in the US.An authorized employee at the dealership entered the factory delivery order the web interface. measure was the most important aspect of the FDRSfunctionality, as it was closely linked with MBUSIs vehicle production catalogue. Mercedes Benz United States of America (MBUSA)8, found in Montvale, NJ, was the first link in the FDRS program. It was the point where the dealer actually set the order. MBUSAs role was to coordinate the dispersal of vehicles to dealers crosswise the country. Later, it had to add the order to the companys Baan opening move Resource cookery (ERP)9 musical arrangement of rules, which scheduled the order for production.About trey months before the production date, the dealer could schedule in a window, the date and snip of arrival of the customer at the factory for delivery. The window was then automatically computed by the FDRS to give the dealer, the possible delivery dates. obscure from the delivery date, the customer could also specify the accessories for the car and also request a factory tour. FDRS was based on Lotus eye mask (Refer Exhibit I), Lotus enterprise Integrator10 and IBM Netfinity servers. It also interfaced with IBM S/390 Parallel Enterprise horde, Model 9672-R45 located in Montvale, NJ (Refer Figure I). at that place were two domino servers an IBM Netfinity 5500 and an IBM Netfinity 3000. FIGURE I SYSTEM architecture OF FDRS Source MBUSI The former that acted as the natural domino serverwas located bunghole a firewall 11. It replicated selective informationbases through the firewall to the external server. The return key, which was encrypted, represented the primary means by which t he FDRS body achieved security. Netfinity 3000 acted as an external domino server. It had populace information and was also the primary dialogue linkage for dealers. The ack-end of the FDRS was equipped with an Oracle selective informationbase that updated the midland Domino server informationbase with order information. The updation was through using Lotus Enterprise Integrator. The data which was replicated to the internal Domino server accept lists of valid dealers and lists of order numbers. When an order was placed by the dealer on the FDRS system, the data was first stored on the external Domino server, after which it was replicated to the internal Domino server. therefore it was replicated to the back-end database via the Lotus Enterprise Integrator.Data replication surrounded by the Lotus Notes servers happened every 15 minutes and data exchange with the back-end database common chord times per day. There was also a link between the back end database and an IBM S/3 9012 mainframe based system located at MBUSA via a T113 line. MBUSA managed the shine of vehicles to Mercedes dealers across the United States. This mainframe based system, received new vehicle orders (as opposed to factory delivery reservation requests) from item-by-item dealers. The orders were then sent to MBUSIs Baan system and also to the back-end database.The vehicle ordering and factory reservation data were coordinated with each other when the back-end database uploaded the data to the internal Domino server. This coordinated the production and delivery information. FDRS writ of execution One of the most challenging aspects of the effectuation seemed to be the daedality of the Lotus and Domino scripts. The ontogenesis team had to group all the information from diverse systems. Commented William Engelke, There was a substantial amount of very complex coding involved in the FDRS solution. This practise involves a lot more than having our dealers interest out a form and submitting it.There are many things the servers have to do for the system to function properly, such as looking at calendars and production schedules. We build a solution with some very advanced discourse linkages. IBM faced many technical challenges during the implementation of the program. One of them was the assorted timing schemes of the Lotus Notes databases and backend databases (ERP). This led to discrepancies in the data. Domino server was a devout Real Time (NRT) Server14, and MBUSIs backend activities were some(prenominal) real time15and bus processing16. Also, to get the outmatch results, the Domino server was an optimised subset of the ERP bow set17.However, the development team achieved a balance between the two sidesof the solution by focalisation on issues of timing, demerit detection schemes, and alerts. Customer Satisfaction FDRS Primary Benefit MBUSI seemed to measure FDRSsuccess in circumstances of increase satisfaction of its customers. The company also believed that the merchandising and customer satisfaction aspects outweighed the signifi rear endce of more traditional cost-based benefits. Apart from the factory delivery experience, the program also offered the customer a factory tour and ride on the off-road course at a low cost.The company also seemed to gain strategic marketing benefits from the FDRS program, as it was able to establish Mercedes-Benz as a premium brand. (Refer flurry I for advantages of FDRS in different areas). Customers could also visit the various touring car drifter in Alabama after plectron up their M-class vehicles. TABLE I ADVANTAGES OF THE FDRS class AREA Strategic marketing Benefits greet Savings ADVANTAGES FDRS was expected to improve customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, as it enriched Mercedes customers experience. The program also reinforced the brand image of Mercedes in the US. growing of a web-based solution enabled MBUSI to offer the factory delivery program at comfortably lowe r costs, due to less cartel on administrative personnel. Package Marketing the FDRS program with a ride to tourist sites, enhanced the image of Alabama as a tourist destination. The creation of a similar albeit smaller factory delivery system to the European Customer Delivery Center in Sindelfingen, Germany, reflected favorably on the MBUSI business unit. Source MBUSI Regional frugal Development DaimlerChrysler AG Future of FDRS In 2000, MBUSI planned to leverage FDRSplatform by adding a range of other services.MBUSI strengthened an advanced platform to create communication links to its suppliers. Through the link, MBUSI provided them feedback on the quality of supplies it received. The dealers and suppliers had a user-ID and password, which the system recognized. It then routed them into the remove stage of the FDRS. The company also planned to extend the innovative system to include transactional covers such as ordering materials and checking order status on the Web. The co mpany expected that the new system based on FDRS, would be more cost-effective than the electronic Data Interchange (EDI)18 system. Bill of Material keeps track of all raw materials, parts, and subassemblies utilise to create a finished product. 2 A product of IBM Corp. , Lotus Notes and Domino R5 are the industrys leading client/server combination for collaborative pass along and e-business solutions. 3 The IBM Netfinity server offers solutions for file-and- print and application computing needs. 4 A computing machine or device on a network that manages network resources. For example, a file server is a computing machine and storage device dedicated to storing files. whatever user on the network can store files on the server.A print server is a reckoner that manages one or more printers, and a network server is a computer that manages network traffic. A database server is a computer system that processes database queries. 5 DaimlerChrysler AG was the result of a merger bet ween two leading car manufacturers Daimler Benz of Germany and Chrysler Corp. of the US in 1998. 6 A luxury brand of passenger cars, Sports public utility Vehicles from DaimlerChrysler. 7 IBM Global Services is the services and consultancy year of IBM Corp. that offers extensive ebusiness solutions. 8 MBUSA is the wholly owned US subsidiary of DaimlerChrylser. ERP attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a integrity computer system that can serve all those different departments particular needs. 10 A server-based data diffusion product that enables data exchange between Lotus Domino and a number of host and comparative applications. 11 A system designed to retard unaccredited access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be use in both hardware and packet. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, curiously intranets.All nubs entering or release t he intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the undertake security criteria. 12 The IBM S/390 servers offer direct high speed access to the e-business application and are used for Enterprise Computing. 13 A dedicated phone connection keep data rates of 1. 544 Mbits per guerrilla. A T1 dividing line actually consists of 24 individual channels, each of which supports 64 Kbits per second. Each 64 Kbit per second channel can be configured to voice or data traffic. 14 The NRT Server System supports real time distribution of near-real time data. 5 Real time refers to events reproduce by a computer at the same speed that they would occur in real life. 16 Executing a serial publication of noninteractive jobs all at one time. The term dates back to the days when users entered programs on carrier bag cards. They gave a batch of these programmed cards to the system operator, who fed them into the computer. Usually, batch jobs are stored up during working hours and then executed whenever the computer is idle. Batch processing is particularly effectual for operations that require the computer or a peripheral device for an panoptic period of time.Once a batch job begins, it continues until it is done or until an error occurs. Note that batch processing implies that there is no interaction with the user part the program is being executed. 17 The ERP tables are the database tables, (thousands of them), on which the package is built. The programmers and end users must set these tables to match their business processes. Each table has a decision switchthat leads the software down one decision means or another. 18 EDI connects all the suppliers in and out of the US. www. icmrindia. org/free resources/casestudies/Mercedes Benz-IT&Systems-Case Studies. htm