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by David R. Brousell, MA Editorial Staff   | Abstract: | In some ways, this year has seemed relatively calm, but a number of transformational business and technology trends picked up steam. |
On the surface, 2006 seems to have been just a steady-as-it-goes year. No dramatic shifts in the economy took place, despite manufacturers' concerns at the beginning of the year, and no landscape-changing events on the technology vendor front on the order of an Oracle takeover of PeopleSoft occurred. Moreover, there were no Katrina-like natural disasters (thank goodness) like we had in 2005. But just beneath the surface, a number of important business and technology trends, which began germinating in prior years, started to blossom in 2006. Chief among these was the often disruptive idea of business transformation, a concept that MA began talking about in 2003 while the industry was still in recession and caution was the watchword of the day. In 2006, business transformation -- with its underlying notion of dramatic change to spur growth -- became mainstream in industry discourse, a sign that the years ahead will see tangible manifestations of this strategy as manufacturers pick up the pace of reinvesting in plants and equipment. The results of a CEO survey by IBM in March underscored that business transformation was starting to take hold in the industry. During the year, transformation met head-on with the relentless cost pressures facing U.S. manufacturers. Rising energy costs, combined with higher corporate taxes, worsened the competitive position of U.S. manufacturers. On September 27, for example, ManagingAutomation.com ran a story about a National Association of Manufacturers' study showing that the cost gap with non-U.S. manufacturers had grown from 22% to 31.7%. On the technology front, too, a number of trends that had their beginnings several years earlier played out in some important ways. In software, the new service-oriented architecture concept inched toward acceptance as manufacturers sought to develop solid business cases for adoption. In a similar vein, the top two application providers, SAP and Oracle, had a heads-down year trying to explain their SOA strategies. Prior to 2006, Oracle had dominated the news when it came to software company acquisitions, but this year clearly belonged to Infor. The Alpharetta, GA-based company's big deal of the year was its acquisition of SSA Global in May for $1.4 billion. In the enterprise asset management market, MRO Software was acquired by IBM in August for $740 million and Indus was acquired by a private equity firm in October for $240 million. Automation vendors took important steps toward linking their plant-floor systems to enterprise business systems. Rockwell began rolling out key elements of its FactoryTalk software suite. And, in April, Invensys introduced InFusion, described as an enterprise control system. In the data-collection technology area, the non-story of the year was RFID, which continued to move much more slowly than anticipated as manufacturers struggled with ROI issues. The big news here was Motorola's acquisition of Symbol Technologies in September for $3.9 billion. As we wrap up 2006, what should we expect in 2007? Most of the key business and technology trends will continue to unfold, but there's always the possibility of something new or a surprise. We'll let you know as soon as we hear. Page : 1 2 ... NEXT |