Hard choices for software spending (investment in enterprise software by cash-strapped US manufacturing companies)

Article Type: Abstracts From: Strategic Direction, Volume 27, Issue 5

Cable J. Industry Week, November 2010, Vol. 259 No. 11, Start page: 28, No. of pages: 3

Records that, amid the cutbacks being made by US manufacturing companies in response to the need for austerity in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, there is a growing keenness by such companies to invest in enterprise software as a means of achieving greater efficiency and productivity. Illustrates these points with particular reference to the massive investment made by Lopez Foods Inc, the Oklahoma-based meat processing company, in Infor PLM Optiva software with a view to formalizing its product development process and gaining tighter control of product specifications and customer requirements. Explains that, in the midst of a fragile economic recovery, enterprise software spending is on the rise, with Gartner Inc forecasting that US manufacturing and natural resources sector companies will spend 17.4 billion US dollars on software in 2010, and expecting that this will grow by 7.3 per cent in 2011. Concludes that companies are not necessarily reinventing themselves, but they are enhancing their processes and business performance and attempting to become a leaner, more efficient type of organization that can respond more quickly and deal with more of an outsourced or global model in ways that were not possible earlier. Article type: Viewpoint ISSN: 0039-0895 Reference: 40AA219

Keywords: Computer software, Investment, Manufacturing,Manufacturing systems, Organizations, United States of America