If John Fikany has anything to say about it, large manufacturing organizations may soon be the beneficiaries of an infusion of new ideas from companies in a variety of industries about how to grow by embedding new technologies into their products.
Fikany, who recently was named Microsoft Corp.'s vice president in charge of commercial sector industries, is responsible for developing and executing the software giant's strategy across all of the commercial industries that Microsoft addresses. In addition to both discrete and process manufacturing, these include U.S.-based financial services, retail/hospitality, healthcare, life sciences, and professional services.
Prior to his latest appointment, Fikany was vice president for Microsoft's manufacturing industries, where he oversaw the company's process and discrete manufacturing strategy. This sector represents $1.5 billion in sales and 1,100 enterprise customers to Microsoft. In his new role, Fikany's reach represents $5.4 billion in Microsoft revenue.
In his expanded role, which, in effect, consolidates all of Microsoft's vertical industry strategies targeting enterprise customers, Fikany says he plans to focus on cross-pollination - taking ideas that work in one vertical segment and applying them to others.
"By bringing all of this together, we'll be able to use things like customer advisory boards to understand what enterprise customers want and what are some of the best practices in specific industries," Fikany says. "In manufacturing, for example, there's a lot of emphasis right now on driving growth while also reducing costs. We want to collaborate broadly and help enterprises do that."
Fikany's group is already in motion on that idea. Microsoft's Commercial Industries sector, for example, has begun working to help automotive manufacturers - including Ford Motor Co. - understand how they can spark innovation and growth by building technologies from the consumer electronics world into cars. At Ford, that initiative has translated into the Sync project, a plan to build Microsoft software and Bluetooth wireless communications technology into cars to enable consumers to do things like voice-activated text messaging from behind the wheel. Thirteen Ford vehicles are expected to include the Sync technology in new models this fall.
Such efforts, Fikany admits, have taken Microsoft a long way from its roots of focusing mainly on software for horizontal applications, such as operating systems and development tools. Instead, he says, Microsoft is becoming much more oriented toward vertical industries.
"People expect us to come in and talk about their desktops," Fikany says. "But we're talking about how we can help them innovate and help them run the shop floor."
This article originally appeared in the July 2007 issue of Managing Automation.