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January 27, 2004

e-Logistics

The Siemens Medical Solutions logistics project ("eLVIS") now has a good case-study writeup on the Groove website:

Each logistics project team is unique, comprised of both Siemens Medical Solutions' employees and third parties including shippers, installers, electricians, carpenters, and more. Highly mobile and only occasionally connected, logistics team members must work closely with both Siemens Medical Solutions sales executives and hospital staff at the customer site to ensure each product is delivered and installed correctly. Because each step of the process cannot begin until the previous step is completed, any unforeseen delay, error, or disruption in the process can lead to cost overruns.

...ELVIS structures Siemens Medical Solutions' logistics process by providing each project team a virtual workspace for sharing information and coordinating all project activities. Groove mobile collaboration services automatically funnel to the workspace the relevant quote, order, and factory information for each order, encrypt and synchronize changes (made online or offline) among team members, and publish content to Siebel, SAP, OSIRIS, the Oracle and Microsoft SQL data warehouse, and Microsoft Project.

...Director of Logistics Integration Lloyd Merithew explains: "Previously, revenue forecasting was an incredible fire drill of people - VPs, project managers, field-level - all by phone. It took people out of their normal jobs. ELVIS has changed the whole process. Because everything is done in a workspace, synchronized with our data warehouse, we know exactly what's going to be built, delivered and installed this month. We can adjust the forecast on the fly, pull projects forward, and make up for any shortfall."