CINCINNATI -- Although 72 percent of information technology (IT) managers at build-to-order and engineer-to-order manufacturers say becoming customer value-driven as their highest priority, only 25 percent have plans to evaluate the front-office infrastructures and processes often crucial to customer value, according to research by software maker Cincom Systems.
Cincom Systems surveyed 1,840 manufacturers of complex industrial, electrical and transportation equipment and systems.
The survey results show “a lack of understanding among IT professionals as to the potential impact of front-office automation and integration with back-office systems to the bottom line,” said Jim Wilson, Cincom Program Director and author of the report.
Of the IT managers surveyed, 85 percent ranked becoming customer value-driven, reducing costs and introducing new technology as their highest priorities.
According to Cincom, while many of those priorities could be met with a knowledge-management system, knowledge management actually ranked last in priority.
Additionally, IT managers considered seven measures highly important to in their organization, but the measures were seldom tracked. Those measures included quality of data, order rework, customer-facing time for sales reps, user adoption of IT systems, quotation rework, win rate, and perfect order rates.
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