Pretoria, 10 Sep 2014
The official launch of 4most's EMA (enterprise manager) for the automotive sector was held on Tuesday 26 August.
The event, hosted at SAP's Woodmead office, provided an opportunity to demonstrate the solution's ability to ease industry challenges, capture opportunities and manage complex processes - all in one simplified, user-friendly and intuitive system.
"It was an event tailored to the automotive industry," says Marius Fabian, MD, 4most, "and included a forum for the discussion of pertinent issues relevant to industry players.
"However, we had a mixed crowd of guests, from manufacturers, professional service providers and more," continues Fabian. "All were able to see the benefits that a cloud-based business management solution, powered by SAP Business One, can provide to enterprises."
The event kicked off with a discussion around the current automotive industry challenges. " It is quite astounding to discover that, according to Ernst and Young's trend indicators for 2014/2015, the average visits for car dealerships has dropped from six visits 10 years ago to 1.3 today," said Eugene Olivier, Business Development Director of 4most. "The average research time, done mostly online by new car dealers is up to 5.3 months."
He further revealed the rising need for OEMs and dealers to remain close to customers and connected to their needs, as well as the urgency to be able to react to these requirements quickly.
"Seventy-seven percent of companies with leading data tend to have better financial performance," he continues. "Intelligent monitoring of value chain performance, as well as the ability to create flexible manufacturing strategies is made possible through the leveraging of IT, data analytics and enterprise intelligence."
From 4most's side, this solution comes in the form of EMA, a home-grown, locally developed enterprise management solution built on the core of SAP Business One. It can be deployed in an intranet, as an onsite solution, in a data centre or on a cloud (both public and private).
EMA's functionality as it relates to SAP Business One and the automotive industry were explained, as well as its ability to accommodate from SMEs to MEs.
Thereafter, Isuzu Truck SA, a 4most client currently running EMA, was interviewed concerning its specific experiences. The discussion featured the company's initial needs, as well as 4most's ability to adapt to the requirements.
"Being different, we threw away the textbooks and basically asked 4most to address our needs as to what we wanted that were logical and would make our business flexible and efficient." says Craig Uren, Chief Operating Officer at Isuzu Truck SA.
The interview revealed how crucial the supply chain process appears to be for the automotive sector.
"Our business enabler is we are in the supply chain, we are not just an OE. The supply chain is probably more important to our existence than just the production and distribution of the hardware," continued Uren. "4most's solution worked well, it meets our needs to continue our distribution focus and customer focus on the world out there."
Uren continued to elaborate on the return on investment, key performances achieved, with increase in product delivery from an original lead time of six months, down to one month, as well as the overall journey prior to and after implementation of this solution.
"Beyond that, EMA's deployment brings what has quickly become an essential to surviving in the new world of business, namely the ability and agility to respond to the urgency with which business decisions often need to be made. We're very pleased we went with SAP Business One, because without it our lives would be quite stressful, challenging, and we would still be where we were five years ago," he concludes.
The interview was followed by a product demonstration by Fabian, highlighting key processes typical to the industry as well as further explaining EMA's capabilities.
"EMA's strength lies in its ability to automate business processes and deliver a reliable, unified picture of operations based on up-to-the-minute information, all from one single environment ," says Fabian.
"Along with boasting a high degree of customisation according to the end-user's needs and preferences, EMA's look, feel and functionality can essentially accompany business owners or managers wherever they go and from any device they might log in," he continues. "This enables them to respond to the 24/7 nature of competing globally, without being tethered to their bricks and mortar office location just to use a familiar enterprise management solution."
With EMA catering for 10 industries, businesses can look forward to the launch of EMA for the Transport sector in Q2 2015.
For more visit ema-on-one.com
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