Thursday, August 2, 2007

Maximo vs Oracle inventory

Our company Kangean Energy Indonesia Ltd (KEI) runs tailor made ERP for Material Management and Inventory System (MMIS) for procurement and inventory business applications by using Oracle iAS (internet Application Service) tools. It was adopted from our previous sister company for the reason of the tight time schedule for implementation. Acquiring BP Kangean doesn't mean all business application software and licenses could be transfered automatically during transition period. Alas, we had to leave all Oracle applications back to BP.
Our MMIS is now out-of-date of company requirement to have material stock status change in MMIS in terms of return material from well. Complete option for stock status changes is not supported by current MMIS.
We require multiple transactions among warehouses in the future, this feature can not be done in MMIS since in the future we will have more production sites for oil & gas (Sepanjang Island, TSB and West Kangean). We expect there will be warehouse transactions among the sites.
We are now comparing the Maximo with its inventory features and Oracle Inventory module application. Currently We run Maximo 4.1 and nearly upgrade with Maximo 6.2. On the other hand we also review Oracle Inventory application since we run iAS and Oracle database 9i. From what We have heard people on the floor, engineers maintenance people would find Maximo more aligned with processes and see as it is not Oracle as much since Oracle's strengths were in other areas (Finance, procurement). Our consideration on Oracle application is to have possibilities to have modules of business applications in package which links with each other. Besides interface between Maximo and Oracle business application is tested and matured.
Seems like we will run Maximo as Work order & asset management system and to consider Oracle application as our inventory system.

Cheers,

Dikman

Monday, February 26, 2007

E-Business Strategy Session 7 - Metrics

Scope of Metrics
In this scope Metrics provide framework system to periodically assess the health of an online business. Metrics are usually specialized by the subject area, in which case they are valid only within a certain domain and cannot be directly benchmarked or interpreted outside it.
The metrics framework is composed of five categories of metrics: market opportunity, business model, marketing and branding, implementation, and customer. These measurements or metrics can be used to track
trends, productivity, resources and much more. Typically, the metrics tracked are key performance indicators.
Metrics are important in online business, the suggestion the process for approaching the e-business health and performance:


Performance Benchmarking
The goal is to improve financial and operating performance on e-Business Company. The way how to gain the result is to measure client performance and compare to that of peers and determine competitive industry position for client. The process of Performance benchmarking can be done by revealing and quantifying areas of strength and weakness through comparison of Key Performance Indicators. It is expected that the respective e-Business company can develop strategies that improve areas of sub-par performance while continuing to build upon areas of strength.

Balance Score card
Implementing a Balanced Scorecard is a corporate life-changing event. It should not be viewed as a project initiative, but rather as a way of doing business. Done correctly, the Balanced Scorecard provides a template for business leaders to align day-to-day tasks with overall corporate objectives. It creates direct measurable links between strategies and performance for multiple constituencies in e-business company by evaluating performance from four perspectives: financial, customer, business processes and learning. To develop metrics is critical to success for each perspective and compare to performance standard on a Scorecard. Expected result is the alignment of corporate strategies and accountability for achieving goals in the four perspectives.

Online Surveys
Most research on changes in category performance focuses on historical product movement. Our customized online surveys focus on both historical and projected growth trends, in ways that lead to solid marketing and Profit Improvement growth strategies. Our Goal: Develop market insight, through analysis of collected data that will drive improvements in category marketing strategies, and increase profit potential for retailers and suppliers.
Our Approach: Conduct online surveys that are easy for participants and that will collect sufficient relevant data for insightful analysis.
Our Process: Analyze data with cross-tabulated responses that will reveal marketing strengths and weaknesses of the category and of suppliers’ marketing programs.
Results: Develop management report that presents key findings for tall topics surveyed; report is presented to retail participants and suppliers in roundtable format and/or electronically.

Business Planning
Most companies don’t plan to fail especially e-business company, but often do fail to plan. Over 90% of new business ventures fail within five years, often as a result of inadequate planning for resource and operational needs.
The value of going through the planning process is often as valuable to clients as the plan itself, as it stimulates constructive discussion among the management team. The final product of effective business planning is a plan that is challenging and achievable.
Our Goal: Create optimum success opportunities for clients through structured business planning.
Our Approach: Identify goals and the resources available to achieve them.
Our Process: Develop success measures and systematic approaches for achieving goals.
Results: A written business plan that achieves current goals and positions client firm to achieve future goals.

E-Business Strategy Session 8 - Media Transformation

New Opportunity Media Transformation
There is a fundamental transformation of the media industry that is creating a disruption to traditional media companies and well as creating significant opportunities. A Company should position Know More Media to capitalize on these opportunities.

Decline of Traditional Media Publishing
The majority of traditional media are reporting declines in almost all key growth and profitability metrics. The decline in traditional publishing is in part because of an explosion in the supply of media choices relative to the demand. As I earlier pointed out, supply has increased because the cost to produce and distribute content has dropped dramatically because of the emergence of digital and online content.

Media Convergence
Internet Protocol (IP) is the gateway for media convergence. This standard based protocol speaks widely. According to the theory of media convergence, very soon, there will be no more need for having a television and a computer separate from each other, since both would be able to do the job of the other, ultimately making both extinct and creating a new medium from the synthesis.
In the communication perspective, media convergence aims to bring together all forms of media into one single device. The migration of the various analog media channels and businesses to a common digital platform, with the Internet as its primary driver results in low cost media infrastructure.
Media convergence really refers to the merging of capabilities of each individual media channel. Technology is aiding the deletion of individual devices, but this is not what is referred in this case. Media convergence is the ability for an increasingly diverse range of content to be delivered through a range of media channels (digital convergence). Unlike the traditional delivery of TV programs through TV, we can now receive TV programs on both a TV but also a mobile phone, a computer, an Ipod etc. Convergence is not the reduction of devices but the expansion of channels to content combinations.

E-Business Strategy Session 6 - Implementation Strategy

Factors Involved in Success Strategy Implementation
· Implementation issues considered during strategy development
The issues are usually related to Human resource availability, the organization structural, Business process of the company, the existing system configuration, culture organization, the leadership of the project manager capabilities and partnership with vendors or supplier. Each entity affects the overall implementation success.
· Integration of IT planning and strategy with business strategy
Strategy implementation shall inline with Company strategy. Success implementation shall be sponsored by Company’s executives. Organization structure types considers they a company do the implementation.
· Enablers of and/or inhibitors to IS Strategy success
Vendors/suppliers part as enabler for the implementation positioned as important aspect. They can create innovation of implementation both technically and fulfillment infrastructure.
· Experienced Project Manager implementation
Project Manager is needed to be flexible, fast-moving, adaptive, results-oriented organizations as well as foster innovations and develop new intellectual capital investment.
· Implementation of any organizational strategy that is significantly impacted by IS
Department / Division directly impacted to the implementation shall be involved actively to the implementation success team. As a user of the implemented IS/IT services, they know exactly the business process and Project Manager shall socialize the steps implementation and the changes due to the implementation.
· Research, case studies, empirical studies of IS Strategy
Inputs from vendors/suppliers experiences can be useful for implementation reference.

The Challenges during the Implementation
Learn what support challenges users face after their new systems go live and some of the strategies users can incorporate into their support processes to get the most value out of there IS/IT services.
The challenges for online firm implementation are:
• Higher visibility to errors
Contingency plan for errors should be available for implementation online firms. Outage is not an option for online firms during the implementation.
• Lower switching costs
• Implementation shall deliver low cost for changing the vision for implementation. Never ending disputed implementation strategy shall result uncertainty.
• More dynamic competitive environment
• Competitiveness for online firms is high. Implementation strategy shall accommodate fast-moving implementation strategy.
• More fluid organizational boundaries
Flexible organizational structure offers dynamic project implementation strategy can smoothen the implementation.
• More complex linkage
• Business process shall be defined earlier to simplify the complexity of implementation. The more complex the implementation configuration the more time required for the implementation.

Monday, January 29, 2007

E-Business Strategy Session 5 - Market Communications and Beranding

MARKET COMMUNICATIONS
Marketing communication is the process of informing, reminding, and persuading the consumers about a particular product or service. A brand is the name, logo, symbol, or design that is the unique identity of a particular product or service. It differentiates that particular product or service from other products or services in the market. A brand exists in the minds of the consumer. The consumers identify with some associations when they hear the name of the brand. Stronger is this association; the more successful is the brand. An intense promotional program is imperative for the establishment and sustenance of a brand over time. The paper examines the role of marketing communications in branding.

BRANDING
Brand marketing is the art/science of making the right impression on prospects. It’s the active process of discovering, developing and bringing the right image or identity of your company to the marketplace. Too often, clients are focused on the later stages of the brand identity development process, such as the presentation on a Web site or advertisement in a magazine.
Effective Brand Marketing is a complete process of researching the market and developing an image for your
corporate identity, and then engineering its presentation at optimal times and places. Since search engine users are looking for a specific product or service, having your well-constructed brand presented in search engine listings, is perhaps one of the best brand impressions you can make.

ELEMENTS BRAND MARKETING
The elements of brand marketing are:
• Target market research: collecting information on prospect needs and preferences
• Features and benefits: identifying target prospects are interested in and which will move them to purchase
• Brand presentation: designing a web page that maximizes the impact and impression of your business.
• Brand experience: creating a Web site or other advertisement that makes the users meeting with your product or service memorable, fun or useful.
A strong brand is a big asset both online and offline. On the Web, creating and building a well-differentiated brand is worth the challenge. It's not enough just to reach customers today. You have to reach them in a way that is compatible with their beliefs, language, needs and expectations.

Session 4 - Customer Interface e-Business Strategy

Seven Design Elements of the Customer Interface
There are seven design elements of the customer interface (7Cs). It examines the characteristics of each element and gives a way to classify any website using the 7Cs Framework.
Look and feel Determination for Context classification
The look-and-feel of a website has two dimensions:
Form (or aesthetics), it focuses on the artistic nature of the site. Function, it relates to usability. Some argue that these are opposing deign aspects a involve unavoidable tradeoffs, while others believe that advancing technologies are leading new techniques and fever compromise as a both aesthetic and functional dimensions continue to expand.


Content Classification
The three content classifications are:
Product-dominant, the website’s priority is selling goods, although it often offers information as well (subcategories of Superstore, Category killer and Specialty store).
Information-dominant, websites exist for the purpose of providing information, generated either internally or externally.
Service-dominant, the websites help users perform a task, such as investing money.


Community
Users are motivated to join the community by involving the feeling and common interest sharing to create a group of people relationship.
There are three kind of community classified according to its functionality:
- Nonexistent Community
Sites that have no community offer no way for users to interact with one another

- Limited Community
Sites offer features such as reading and posting information, stories or opinions
- Strong Community
Sites offer interactive community functions such as chat rooms and message boards


Customization
Generic
Displays the same face to every user
Example: newspapers, government agencies
• Moderately Customized
Customized to some extent, but not so customized that the website varies wildly with each user
Example: Most e-commerce websites
• Highly Customized
Makes extreme efforts to give each user an individualized experience
Example: My Yahoo!, Amazon.com


Communication
One-to-Many, Nonresponding User, Websites send broadcast communications to defined audience, usually through e-mail newsletters or website events
• One-to-Many, Responding User, Websites send messages to registered users and invite them to submit comments or responses
• One-to-One, Nonresponding User, Websites send personalized messages to address users’ specific interest or needs
• One-to-One, Responding User, Websites send personalized messages such as reminders, but in this case users can respond, by e-mail or through live interaction

Connection
Connections can be divided into two basic types, depending on whether the pathway of connection leads the user off the original site or whether the user can retrieve materials from other sites without leaving the site. Outside links always cause a user’s exit from the original website, while framed links, pop-up windows, and outsourced content cause the retrieval of material from the same or other site without an exit from the current website.

Commerce
Commerce can be classified according to the ability to process the transaction (Low, Medium or High).

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Business Models Session 3 e-Business Strategy

Business Models

Components of a business model
Many different conceptualizations of business models exist. They all have various degrees of resemblance or difference. The model conceptualization describes a business model as consisting of nine related business model building blocks. Thus, a business model describes a company's business:
value propositions: The company's offers which bundle products and services into value for the customer. A value proposition creates utility for the customer.
target customer segments: The customer segments a company wants to offer value to. This describes the groups of people with common characteristics for which the company creates value. The process of defining customer segments is referred to as
market segmentation.
distribution channels: The various means of the company to get in touch with its customers. This describes how a company goes to market. It refers to the company's
marketing and distribution strategy.
customer relationships: The links a company establishes between itself and its different customer segments. The process of managing customer relationships is referred to as
customer relationship management.
value configurations: The configuration of activities and resources.
core capabilities: The capabilities and competencies necessary to execute the company's business model.
partner network: The network of cooperative agreements with other companies necessary to efficiently offer and commercialize value. This describes the company's range of
business alliances.
cost structure: The monetary consequences of the means employed in the business model.
revenue model: The way a company makes money through a variety of revenue flows.
These 9 business model building blocks constitute a
business model design template which allows companies to describe their business model.
Today, the type of business models might depend on how technology is used. For example, entrepreneurs on the internet have also created entirely new models that depend entirely on existing or emergent technology. Using technology, businesses can reach a large number of customers with minimal costs.

Business Models for Online Business
Specific for Business online, we should consider:
• Core Benefits and Proposition
The core benefit for company and buyers (customers) shall be well defined as company gets benefits for providing service access, information and transaction reversed to buyers to get all those deliveries as required.
• Online Offering
Company should Identify the scope of the offering, Identify the customer decision process and Map the offering to the customer decision process
• Key Resources
Company needs a strong brand name that signals both credibility and trust, reliable technology to facilitate bidding, an active community and strong back-office support.
• Revenue Model
The revenue model may include transactions, product sales and advertising.
• Key Threats
Online business becomes broaden around the world. Innovative value-added services on the part of competitors who offer alternative can easily threaten the profit stream.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Update Telecommunication and IT

There will be no more IT (Information Technology) but ICT (Information and Communication Technology).

Update Telecommunication and IT

There will be no more IT (Information Technology) but ICT (Information and Communication Technology).