cloud computing for electronics

IBM Sales and Distribution White paper

Electronics Industry

Cloud Computing for Electronics

2 Cloud Computing for Electronics

Staying Ahead with Cost-effective Cloud Computing Since the crisis in the financial markets in 2008, global business leaders have been aggressively rethinking their strategies. In the electronics industry, these strategies are likely to be quite different, reflecting the enormous diversity of the industry itself. From consumer electronics to medical devices, industry sub-segments are all trying to respond to lower consumer spending and stricter access to capital in their own unique ways.

The closer watch that consumers are keeping on their wallets has not affected the desire for intelligent, interactive electronic devices — from the largest flat-panel television to the smallest radio-frequency identification tag — however. To stay ahead, electronics companies are feeling the pressure to be the first to create and seize unrealized opportunities for developing innovative products that enable differentiated services.

Breakthrough technologies such as cloud computing can empower electronics companies, driving the convergence of business and IT. Through this process, the distances and costs between companies and their customers are significantly reduced and organizations are able to respond to the dynamic environment and complexity with operational dexterity, innovation and enhanced customer focus.

IBM® believes that cloud computing technologies are particularly well-suited for organizations in the electronics industry that seek to build a proactive approach to this dynamic new age.

This paper provides a view of cloud computing for the electronics industry and describes the technologies and functions required to improve efficiency, reduce costs and enable new capabilities.

At play: Integration driven by need to innovate and operational excellenceWith so many manufactured products now incorporating electronic components and the pace of commerce so rapid, the industry has not only grown quickly, but it has also become far more complex in order to remain competitive. The breakneck pace of technology development has put incredible pressure on original electronics equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to develop new and innovative products as a matter of course. And, they must also deliver on a tight schedule, with fewer resources and lower capital investment, and at ever-lower prices. For example, while companies are incorporating innovative technologies that will boost the performance of the next phone, camera or computer, they are also trying to make the products more affordable.

Electronics Industry 3

To meet consumer and customer needs, companies are actively seeking ways to bring their best offerings to customers and consumers, regardless of geographic location. Unfortunately, parent companies with multiple global subsidiaries often lack the seamless integration that enables them to take advantage of specific needs in local markets. Also, as electronics companies add new capabilities, make strategic acquisitions and enter new market segments, they increase the complexity of operations and the challenges of managing the investment in IT and the ongoing operational cost of IT. To overcome these business challenges, an electronics OEM should operate as a single, globally integrated organization. The benefits of doing so can position them to:

• Achieve cost-saving operational efficiencies with economy of scale.

• Capture global (and growing) market opportunities. • Achieve faster time to market using global scale, expertise

and resources (skills and IT).• Create the flexibility to quickly respond to change.

The emergence of cloud computing, web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA), together with new standards, is the key to providing the integration that will open up the field to innovation, collaboration and operational efficiency.

The Internet and electronics

The Internet has permanently changed not just our everyday lives, but also society at large and how enterprises operate around the world:

• Intelligent, interactive electronic devices — such as flat panel televisions that can receive the latest movies from a web subscription service to the small radio-frequency identification tag that track containers on trucks from port to distribution center — exploit Internet technology to enhance the consumer experience and improve how business is done every day.

• Breakthrough Internet technologies such as social media are empowering businesses, driving the convergence of business and the web.

• The distances between companies and their customers are becoming significantly reduced as the Internet makes it possible for them to communicate instantly.


In this dynamic new age, we strongly believe that deployment of information technology using cloud will be the key to success over the next decade. The very real challenges facing the electronics industry — and the trends that will shape its future — can now be fulfilled with cloud computing, using business process-as-a-service, software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service mechanisms as its delivery models.

Enhancing brand value with systems, application and data integration in the cloudNew direct sales channels — OEM online and branded brick-and-mortar stores — are becoming increasingly prominent because of their inherently strong profit margins. An additional, highly significant benefit that OEM direct channels can offer is improved customer value. By facilitating direct control over the quality of the user experience, direct channels help OEMs deliver what customers demand most. Research by the IBM Institute for Business Value indicates that a positive customer experience is a key driver of loyalty.

OEMs that seek to enhance the customer experience using direct sales channels need adequate integration. Effective order management is easier to achieve when front-end and back-end systems are integrated. Often, however, that is not the case. Also complicating matters is data that is fragmented and difficult to synchronize because it is stored in multiple and proprietary enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and content management systems.

Today, there are a number of options for integrating e-commerce applications and other backend systems. A common approach is to load data required by the e-commerce application as needed. Data management solutions vary, and the use of extract-transform-load (ETL) solutions make the job easier. But moving data from the source to the e-commerce application adds complexity. It also adds processing time, and it can be difficult to change the data in real-time.

Cloud computing is an option that can provide the integration OEMs need for direct channels without complexity and processing time. The information integration can be brought about much more effectively using software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service cloud delivery models and SOA. The technology can support anywhere, any time access and real-time information updates that are automatically fed to the ERP systems for the direct or online channels. The resulting improvements in product information availability, timeliness and accuracy, along with order processing that is more efficient and effective, are what drive the most critical benefit for OEMs.


When customers can find the product information they want quickly, they return and become loyal customers. This strengthens the brand of the OEM.

Improving operational efficiency with cloud computingThe electronics space is characterized by intense price competition, compressed product life cycles and continuous pressure to reduce costs. Retailers, hoping to attract customers with aggressive sales and promotions, in turn are starting to put pricing pressure on their OEM suppliers. Players throughout the extended supply chain are working down existing inventories to alleviate the need for working capital. Retailers are delaying or trimming orders and OEM companies are aiming to reduce output levels.

Consumer electronics trends

The current volatile economic climate has created trends that are having an effect on consumer electronics companies:

• Diminished consumer credit has led to a decrease in discretionary spending.

• Consumers now perceive the latest products—which many would typically purchase at the earliest possible retail availability—to be luxury items they must save for.

• Increasing insularity and longer working hours are making people worried about the safety and security of their home. Consumers are demanding security systems that can be monitored from a remote location.

• Broadband connectivity for homes is growing at faster rate. The typical flat rate fee structure for broadband connectivity reduces the marginal network cost of additional services to effectively zero.


As a result, proactively managing the supply chain and product life cycles to ensure that the cost incurred in the development and marketing of products is recovered before the competition introduces a new product is critical. Having access to information about consumer preferences, product sales trends, customer profiles and channel information, such as product velocity and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, can help. Solutions that take information from CRM, ERP and product life cycle management (PLM) systems and disseminate it in a standard format and structure for analysis and identification of problems can contribute to better product development and inventory management. Visibility of the market and competition at a global level can be analyzed and advanced analytics solutions can provide alerts to situation like stock outs or product failure well in advance.

The caveat for these solutions is the upfront investment for software and applications and the high processing power they require.

With cloud computing, OEMs can create a proactive and action-oriented operations environment without a large, upfront capital investment in more infrastructure and applications or overburdening their servers and data centers. Collaboration and advanced analytics tools delivered from the cloud can provide the means for sharing information and making decisions at a lower cost than if they had to implement and maintain various collaboration and business analytics applications.

Cloud computing with SOA can help companies integrate information from the market with PLM, procurement, operations, and logistics systems. The result is a connected, transparent supply chain and more efficient, proactive operations. People from different geographies and functions can travel less and communicate more. Various stakeholders can act as events occur with alerts and events triggered or activated by key metrics. Experts are readily available for guidance on problems and solutions for smarter, more effective resource management.


Enabling collaborative product development with cloudCompetitive advantage created by going to market first with innovative new products — be they feature-rich or value-driven — is critically important in the electronics industry. Market demands shift very rapidly in electronics, and expectations are invariably high. IBM research indicates that electronics companies feel these forces more than other industries (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Competitive differentiators according to electronics companies

Source: IBM Institute for Business Value

Comparison of competitive differentiators

Faster response to market needs

New products/services development

Differentiated product/services

Operational efficiency/ effectiveness

Organizational governance

Electronics

All Industries

0 20 40 60 80 100

Electronics OEMs are having difficulty bringing new products to market as fast as they need to, primarily because the majority of their products take more than 100 days to develop, test and release. Also, many products are delivered late, and late launches generate less revenue. A typical product development process starts with a design concept that requires the following input: product objectives, business strategy, customer buying behavior, and research and development (R&D) roadmap. Solution opportunities are explored, selected for best match to requirements and then further refined for plan commitment. The result is a set of product specifications, features, technology requirements, materials, staffing requirements, competitive positioning and so on.

During the process, inputs from various divisions and participants have to be collected, collated and shared. The process is iterative and involves many rounds of discussions about cost estimates, investments, technology manufacturing, skills, tools and methodology, pricing and economics. It involves a number of participants spread throughout an organization. These participants often need information stored in various applications and systems in different — and sometimes even incompatible — formats and updated according to need. If this variable space is not managed well, the result is a longer product development cycle and a greater demand on resources.


For R&D, cloud provides access to the high performance computing, storage and network resources necessary for electronic design and simulation. Engineering spending on IT is under increased scrutiny by CIOs as the burden to refresh engineering workstations, servers, storage and networks continually to meet new project requirements becomes unsustainable. Cloud makes it possible to provision and access interactive and batch engineering analysis workloads and to share resources between project teams very efficiently and with dynamic steering of resource assignments. Designer access to traditional desk-side workstation environments in the cloud enables them to work as needed and available, regardless of location.

In addition, a well-considered cloud computing approach makes possible remote, collaborative product development and management between design, commercial, operations and marketing teams. Everyone can access information on demand, which can bolster the trust between the stakeholders and facilitate accurate and reliable decision-making. This approach enables evaluation and action — on demand — so that you can respond more quickly.

Electronics OEMs have made dramatic reductions in the product development cycle time with product life cycle management (PLM) systems, but the development process remains inefficient. One solution is to integrate PLM systems with other business systems, which can support collaborative innovation and improve the parts requirements, ordering, supply and delivery processes. Simplifying the development environment and automating processes can also reduce cycle time while supporting quality.

Cloud computing with SOA is a cost-effective way for the electronics industry to bring about the deeper and faster data visibility, collaboration and analysis that can speed product development. The cloud delivery model can integrate information, applications and functions with SOA design technology and little or no capital expenditure. It handles the provisioning of systems and access to services such as design and process management applications and databases required for design control and project integrity.


The smarter home opportunity

By 2013, 1.2 billion connected consumer electronics devices are expected in the more than 800 million homes with broadband connections. OEMs can use cloud to take advantage of this opportunity in these areas:

• Entertainmentandconvenience: Consumer electronics companies can create open platforms for new lines of flat panel televisions with a portal that personalizes entertainment content from numerous broadcasters and movie studios. This can reduce the number of commercials viewers have to watch, enable broadcasters and advertisers to deliver more personalized entertainment options with targeted advertisements and provide TV manufacturers with an opportunity to differentiate their products.

• Energymanagement: Automatically synchronizing lighting, home appliances, climate control sensors and other home electronics minimizes energy use based on changing exterior conditions and usage patterns in the home, which can result in significant cost saving.

• Safetyandsecurity:The ability to deploy home sensors that can instantly notify homeowners, selected neighbors or the police and fire departments can enhance home security and provide peace of mind. These services can also empower family members to remotely check on the safety of children and the well-being of elders.

• Healthandwellness: A medical device maker designed embedded software that helps healthcare providers continuously monitor patients with implanted or other at-home medical devices without having hospitalization or office visits. Smarter homes and sensors monitor fitness, well-being and consistent activities. These home health electronic devices can collect evaluative information about current health condition for disease prevention and overall wellness.

Cloud can also help automate collaborative product development, coordinate business decisions and eliminate rework. With cloud, companies can enforce standardized protocols, synchronize information between systems and access a centralized database provided by infrastructure-as-a-service. With automation and standardization, OEMs can improve development efficiency and avoid costly downstream errors. This helps to speed time to market and time to value, which in turn can yield a critical competitive advantage.

Enabling smarter homes with cloudThe digital revolution has dramatically increased the function and reduced the cost of consumer devices. This has led to an explosion of new devices in the home, from digital TVs and game systems to environmental controls, appliances, and safety and monitoring devices, along with lifestyle, wellness and medical devices. As a result, consumers of various ages and backgrounds are becoming more receptive to connected products and experiences. At the same time, they are demanding more quality and intuitive interfaces with these experiences, offering service providers an opportunity to differentiate with new services and easy-to-use features.


This new paradigm introduces opportunities for innovative services that build on the computational power and scalability of the cloud, along with the collective consumer knowledge. Many of these devices can already connect individually to services in the Internet over the cloud, even though each might use different application protocols and interfaces. Putting the intelligence into services in the cloud reduces the complexity of managing software in the home devices and simplifies the interoperability of devices. This is accomplished by bridging the services throughout the network with Web service interfaces, translating the different device protocols to a common platform, then connecting the devices through the network cloud.

Data that is aggregated and then stored in the cloud can provide dramatic new insights about consumer needs and behavior. Ultimately, this paradigm facilitates a host of possibilities, from radically improving the performance of current devices and services, to delivering benefits which have not yet even been considered.

For device manufacturers, the incremental cost to connect devices that already have substantial intelligence in them is easily offset by a number of benefits. Fewer truck rolls to consumers’ homes reduce the repair and warranty costs and increase the consumer satisfaction for both the manufacturer and the retailer. The potential for product registration increases exponentially. Consumers are willing to pay a little extra for the assurance that their appliance will not fail at a time when it is most inconvenient. Other benefits such as access to more information, advice and the ability to control devices remotely are additional incentives.


The electronics industry in the current economic climate

The watchword in the electronics industry is volatility. Electronics OEMs constantly find themselves in a reactive posture, forced to respond quickly to a wide range of dynamics. Today’s economic climate, with double digit declines in the sales of semiconductors and LCDs, only further emphasizes this reality for electronics companies.

In the face of this harsh reality, survival in today’s market and positioning the company for future revenue growth remains a top agenda item for industry CEOs. The lowering of costs and improvements in efficiency are seen as the key components of surviving the global recession and emerging stronger than competitors for future growth as the economy recovers.

Facilitating demand-driven collaboration with cloudElectronics is more globalized than many other industries, which magnifies the effect of supply and demand shocks. The extended global supply chain introduces vulnerability to supply constraints and cost changes. For example, the availability of certain kinds of electronic components can affect everything from cell phones to televisions to computers to toys. On the other side of the equation, there is the ever-changing electronics marketplace defined by rapidly shifting customer preferences and the exercising of pricing power. These factors combine to squeeze electronics OEMs, compressing product life cycles and forcing them into dramatic pricing actions to maintain a competitive edge.


By providing timely, consistent information and automated data interchange between systems, cloud can improve transparency and reduce errors. The non-proprietary, flexible nature of cloud means it can easily integrate with the variety of systems used by retailers. The result for the business is faster execution, reduced channel inventory, improved resource utilization and better customer service, which, in turn, can optimize the efficiency and profitability of value chain relationships.

In summary, by delivering IT services when, where and how you need them, cloud computing can help OEMs gain competitive advantage and maximize return on investment. The best cloud computing solution is one that will take high-cost workloads and move them to low-cost environments that can be dynamically configured and provisioned on demand.

The best way to cope with changing market conditions is for all companies in the electronics value chain to work together. With greater transparency of supply chain partner activity, automated data collection, collaborating and integration of OEM organization and supplier systems, meeting demand is easier and yields better results. Automated processes and exception-based information access can improve the forecasting and planning process with retailers and suppliers. The automated electronic exchange of sales, pricing, discount, branding and consumer preference data between retailer and OEM systems can help all organizations choose the best marketing strategy.

The cloud delivery model is an excellent way to facilitate a collaborative value chain with optimized demand planning. Instead of all the stakeholders investing in expensive applications and infrastructure that they then must maintain, they can access the application, services, infrastructure and automation they need to exchange information and meet peaks in demand with scalability and flexibility. Retailers and OEMs can exchange information and collaborate on marketing plans and promotions. Suppliers and OEMs can exchange information about parts, raw materials and more — all without straining their budgets or data centers. In some cases, the same services can even be reused.


IBM’s methodology, for example, is to take a component business model view of an OEM enterprise and identify specific workloads that match the characteristics that are most suitable for movement to a cloud infrastructure. Figure 2 illustrates a Component Business Model for a consumer electronics company.

Getting started with cloudCloud computing is worth pursuing for cost reduction, integration, speed-to-market and quality benefits. The key to a successful move to the cloud is to create a cloud enablement plan that is not so complicated that it becomes unclear where to begin.

Getting precise about which OEM capabilities, functions and departments can benefit from cloud and moving specific workloads will be lot more effective than simply trying to “cloud enable” an entire IT infrastructure all at once.

Figure 2: Component business model for a consumer electronics company

Category/Brand Strategy

New Market Development

Product/Platform/Convergence Development Strategy

Solutions/Product/Software Lifecycle Management

Category/Brand Management

Services/Solutions Innovation Management

Solutions/Product/Software Development

Marketing Execution

Consumer Services Delivery/Solutions Execution After Sales Support

Services Delivery/Solutions Execution

Order Execution

Account Strategy and Planning

Channel Strategy

Services Partnership Strategy

Account Management

Channel Management

Services Management

Business Development

Sales Promotion & Execution

Supplier Contracts Management

Warehouse & Transportation Logistics

Configuration

Production & Assembly

Purchasing & Contract Execution

Reverse Logistics & Parts Fulfillment Management

Equipment Maintenance & Management

Inventory Management & Tracking

Distribution and Logistics Partnership Management

Supplier Management & Customization Tracking

Configuration Management

Assembly/Production Management

Forecast & Demand Management

Services Operations and Supply Chain Planning

Procurement/Sourcing Strategy

Supply Chain Planning Corporate Strategy & Planning

Asset Utilization/Capacity Planning

Investment Decisioning

Alliance & Outsourcing Strategy

Business Performance Management

Organization and Process Design

External Market Analysis

Outsourcing Management

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Indirect Procurement

Finance, Accounting and GL

HR Administration

IT Systems and Operations

Treasury and Risk Management

Facilities Management

Business ManagementSupply Chain (Manufacturing, Distribution & Logistics)

Client RelationshipConsumer Relationship

Strategy &

P

lanningM

onitoring & M

anagement

Execution

Business components that may harness the power of cloud


This model has broken down consumer electronics functions into four parts: consumer relationship; client relationship; supply chain management, manufacturing, distribution/logistics; and business management. On the y axis, the components are associated with a specific stage: strategy and planning; monitor and manage; and execution. In each category, the components that could be considered good cloud candidates are identified with a symbol. Of note is the fact that the entire supply chain category is a candidate for cloud.

Figures 3 and 4 show similar component business models for the semiconductor segment and communication service providers.

Marketing Communications Planning and Tracking

Product Offering Management

Figure 3: Business component model for the semiconductor segment

Market & Product Positioning

Demand & Customer Management

Distribution & Logistics

Business & Risk ManagementManufacturing

Strategy

Monitor & Manage

Execution

Dem

and

Gen

erat

ion

and

Mar

ket M

akin

g

Inno

vatio

n S

trat

egy

Pla

tfor

m S

trat

egy

Bra

nd D

evel

opm

ent

Trac

king

PLM

New

Pro

duct

D

esig

n &

Dev

elop

men

t

PLM

for E

nd-o

f-Li

fe

Pla

nnin

g

Env

ironm

enta

l Pla

nnin

g

Cha

nnel

Str

ateg

y

Par

tner

Str

ateg

y

Logi

stic

s S

trat

egy

Par

tner

Man

agem

ent

Cha

nnel

and

Par

tner

P

erfo

rman

ce T

rack

ing

Rev

erse

Log

istic

s P

lann

ing

Warehousing Management

Transportation Management

Partner Contract Execution

Partner Enablement

Reverse Logistics Execution IT Systems and

Operations

HR Administration

Facilities Management

Indirect Procurement/MRO Buying

Treasury and Risk

Management

Finance, Accounting

and GL

Outsourcing Management

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Organization and Process Design

Business Performance Management

Outsourcing StrategyInvestment Planning

Utilization of AssetsLine of Business Planning

Alliance Management

Corporate Strategy & Planning

Operations Planning Strategy

Production Strategy

Procurement & Sourcing Strategy

Supplier Selection

Forecasting and Demand Management / sop

Production Optimizations Operations

Product and Process Quality Control

Supplier Management

Inventory Management

Spares and Equipment Maintenance Planning

Production & Capacity Scheduling

Manufacturing Execution

Plant Maintenance

Purchasing & Supplier Validation

Inventory Tracking & Parts Movement

Environmental Compliance Execution

Environmental Service Planning

Post-Sales

Customer Feedback Execution

Order Execution

Collaborative Account Planning

Business Development

Manage Quotes

Customer Configuration

Customer Feedback & Issue Tracking

Incentive Management

Customer Allocation

Account Specific Strategy

GTM Coverage Model

Services & After Sales Strategy

Up-sell, Cross-sell Strategy

Pricing Strategy

Global Account Strategy

Product Catalog Classification and

Maintenance

Product Launch

Prototype Development



One way to begin to use cloud computing is to move noncritical services to the cloud first. As a company gains confidence, some of the more critical services can then become part of the cloud. The choice of what to move also depends on the cloud deployment model selected: private: private hosted; public; and hybrid. Other services that are good candidates for the cloud are e-commerce transactions, sales management, supply chain planning, test and development and business process management.

No matter where you start, IBM has solutions that can help.

IBM cloud solutionsCloud offerings from IBM, such as Smart Business Desktop, LotusLive™, Smart Business Storage Cloud and Smart Business Development and Test on the Cloud, provide the power to collaborate in real time on mission-critical tasks, offer access to scalable high power computing and help reduce infrastructure cost and investments.

Figure 4: Component business model for communication service providers

Client Business Development

Market Management

Channel Strategy

Market Portfolio Management

Client profile management

Opportunity Management

Sales Management

Account & Territory

Management

Solution Marketing

Manage Contract Lifecycle

Executing

Controlling

Directing

Customer Relationship

Business & Finance

Compliance, Risk & Quality

Information Management

Solution Development

Solution Value Chain (Supply Chain, Support & Services)

Business & Finance Strategy

Business Portfolio Management

Bus. Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Resource Strategy

Manage Standard Business Models

Financial Management

Bus. Process Performance

IT Management

Human Resources Management

Financial Operations

Bus. Processes & IT Infrastructure

HR Operations

Legal Management & Support

Business Resilience &

Disaster recovery

Quality Management

Implement Compliance

Policies

Regulatory Compliance Mgt.

Integrated Risk Management

Security, Privacy & Data Protection

Business Process Compliance

Regulatory Compliance

Strategy

Business Resilience Strategy

Asset & Information

Management Strategy

Knowledge Management

Strategy

Intellectual Property

Management

Information Resource

Management

IP Capitalization

Asset Lifecycle Management

Knowledge Capture & Availability

Data & Content Management

Research & Development

Strategy

Platform Strategy

Development Capability

Management

Solutions Architecture

Develop. Process Deployment

Development Program Mgt.

Release Integration Planning

Research

Solution Engineering

Solution Compo- nent Development

Collaborative Design-In

Engineering support

Value Chain Strategy

Value Chain Planning

Value Chain Rules & Policies

Value Chain Management

Demand & Supply Management

Partner Process Integration

Partner Management

Procurement Execution

Services Management

Production Management

Solution Operations & Maintenance

Solution Integration

Solution Logistics

Warranty Management

Client Inventory Management



Large scale storage on the cloud with IBM Smart Business Storage CloudRaw storage growth is being driven by the widespread use of email, need for instant file access for business reasons and the capture of more detailed business data structures to meet regulatory requirements. Also, OEMs maintain all kinds of product information, engineering data and customer feedback. Meanwhile, demands for redundancy and high availability can easily triple the size of an enterprise data storage set.

IBM Smart Business Storage Cloud can help electronics companies successfully deploy a high-performance, scalable storage virtualization solution to facilitate growth and innovation at lower operational costs. As data volumes grow and the ability to handle various file formats becomes more complex, this solution can grow to support efficient and cost-effective access to data without degradation of performance and with fewer outages.

Real-time collaboration with partners, regulatory agencies and suppliers with IBM LotusLiveFierce competition and dynamic customer demand are putting pressure on electronic companies to introduce innovative products at lower costs on a regular basis. This industry is facing a very real challenge as it attempts to manage enterprise risk, which is resulting from the faster product life cycle. The failure or delay in product launch incurs huge costs. Mitigating this risk requires collaboration between multiple stakeholders with on-demand transfer of data and information between suppliers, vendors, R&D teams, marketing and production functions and regulatory agencies for product approvals and validations. IBM LotusLive is a cloud solution with the collaboration features needed for effectively handling such issues.

LotusLive is a collection of integrated, online collaboration solutions and social networking services for your business. People can meet online, share files, chat, manage projects and network with potential clients, anywhere, anytime. Whether someone works remotely, manages remote teams or just needs one simple place to bring colleagues together, LotusLive delivers a securely designed environment that facilitates connection, communication and collaboration.


Improve time-to-market on high-technology applications with IBM Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM CloudElectronic companies are under constant pressure to innovate and use IT to integrate the information. As a result, developers for OEMs are being asked to update and develop applications that incorporate latest business needs with new programming languages and software. However, traditional development and testing environments pose several challenges: high labor and capital costs, long development cycles and greater risk for configuration errors. Developers are now finding ways to meet these challenges using cloud computing.

IBM Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud provides rapid access to a security-rich, enterprise-class development and test environment. The standardized development and test environment can help developers for electronics companies test and deploy applications with reduced capital and operational costs. There is virtually no infrastructure to maintain and electronics companies benefit from pay-as-you-go pricing for their development and testing resources. And, they can set up more accurate test environments in minutes versus weeks using standardized configurations.

Engineering and scientific computingBillions of dollars are spent on R&D and product design as companies feel the pressure to bring innovative products to market on time, at cost, while meeting targeted objectives for high quality. There is limited time to discover problems in the physical space, so a great deal of design planning, exploration and detailed implementation must be modeled and tested in the virtual realm before realizing in the physical. This often requires tremendous amounts of processing power to support fundamental research, engineering design and analysis applications The high computing resources needed for these processes are very expensive to manage and can be under utilized in one phase and inadequate in another.

Today the IBM Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud can provide OEMs with the power and flexibility to handle these demanding computing needs. Peaks and valleys might still exist, but IBM can help smooth them out. Over time, IBM will announce additional offerings specifically targeting engineering and scientific computing.


Desktop virtualization with IBM Smart Desktop cloud computing solutionsThe electronics industry is highly globalized, with operations in low-cost manufacturing hubs in remote locations and various distribution locations. The creation of a secure IT environment that these hubs, distribution centers and a mobile sales force can use to access and share information and applications remotely would require a major investment of capital and resources that is rarely feasible.

IBM Smart Business Desktop cloud computing services can help OEMs provide “anytime, anywhere” access to applications, information and resources. For OEMs that need to provide simplified, secure access to information and reduce IT cost, complexity and energy consumption, IBM offers desktop virtualization solutions using cloud computing that centralize a distributed client environment, help safeguard data and applications, help increase business flexibility and help reduce the cost of desktop hardware and management.

Conclusion: Work with IBM to use today’s cloud technology to build tomorrow’s solutionsOver the past decade, marketplace dynamics have changed dramatically. Globalization, deregulation, commoditization — and, in particular, the impact of the Internet — have been significant drivers of business transformation. This is particularly true of the electronics industry, which creates products both for end users (such as consumer electronics) and other manufacturers (such as office equipment providers and network equipment providers). With so many manufactured products now incorporating electronic components and the pace of commerce so rapid, the industry has not only grown quickly — it has also become far more competitive.

To meet today’s business challenges, an electronics OEM should operate as a single, globally integrated organization that has overcome disparate, inflexible, poorly integrated IT architectures, a lack of process coordination and insufficient collaboration. Cloud computing is an excellent option for achieving global integration.


Cloud computing solutions provide the resources, power and infrastructure necessary for global integration with little upfront capital investment and without taxing resources, people and processes. With cloud computing solutions from IBM, electronics companies can gain:

• Visualizationofcontextualinformationallalongthevaluechain. View the entire supply chain network of distributors, plants, warehouses and logistics providers in a fast and intuitive graphical interface, where data from every stakeholder is presented in hierarchical levels of detail, ready for analysis and decision making.

• Betterdecisionswithsophisticatedmeasurementandpredictiveanalysis. Perform deeper and more sophisticated analysis of your market, distribution networks and demand, viewing all KPIs and measurements in the right business context, for both real-time decision-making and operational planning.

• Intelligentalertsandeventmanagement. Work with intelligent, predictive, sophisticated alerts that drive information and action to both human and system participants.

• Optimizedautomationandintegration. Provide an open enterprise data and process integration framework for existing and new manufacturing applications.

• Expertcollaborationfunctions. Enable or extend the ability to collaborate with experts on challenges and solutions instantly using collaboration technologies and shared information — all available from an exciting new vision of the business control room.

• EnterpriseconnectivitywithERPandothersystems. Share critical operational information with other enterprise applications, such as procurement and ERP; this makes it possible for extended business users to plan, forecast and respond to business imperatives better.

• Collaborationtools. Knowledge sharing, messaging, video conferencing and screen sharing can drive productivity to new levels.

Change is possible. The tools exist todayGet started by developing a strategy to make the most of cloud computing. Your IBM cloud computing roadmap speeds time to value and lets you take action in the smartest way possible.

For more information, visit:

ibm.com/electronics

http://www.ibm.com/electronics

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011

IBM Corporation Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A.

Produced in the United States of America January 2011 All Rights Reserved

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, and LotusLive are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or TM), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml

Other product, company or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

ELW0-3002-USEN-00

Please Recycle