Strategy roadmap and Component Business Modeling enable transformation

Advantech is a market leader in industrial computer manufacturing worldwide, and has only one competitor, Kontron AG. Advantech is also a global ePlatform service provider, and a leader in integrating Web-based technology, computing platforms and customization services to empower the eWorld. The company has been in business since 1983. Their annual sales revenue was U.S. $500M in 2007, and it has 3,400 employees globally.

Business Challenge
Having been the global leader in industrial computing and ePlatform services for years, Advantech is facing new challenges in strategic planning to accelerate global business growth. While Advantech's flexible business model, providing truly customized service and solution offerings, helps to meet customer requirements, it also generates issues in areas of internal resources management, logistical support and financial planning. Contributing is the planned transformation from a multinational to a "Globally Integrated Enterprise" (GIE).

Solution
An IBM Global Business Services team from Taiwan provided Advantech with strategic consulting expertise and assessments for the company to make the transformation into a Globally Integrated Enterprise (GIE). The IBM team used the IBM Component Business Model (CBM) methodology to provide an assessment of the client's current organization, and to draft the roadmap to GIE transformation based on functional business components. The analysis provided 15 prioritized initiatives to be implemented in five functional areas. IBM also shared its experience in several fields, including human resources (HR), sales, R&D, finance and supply chain, to give Advantech an understanding of how IBM has made a similar transformation journey to becoming a GIE. The experience of IBM provides an excellent example to help Advantech in its future transformation.

Benefits
The IBM Taiwan Global Business Services team provided Advantech with the tools it needs to achieve the transformation from a multinational to a truly global company. Advantech now has a GIE transformation roadmap.

• It has 15 initiatives that, once implemented on the clearly planned schedule, will address many of the company's functional and organizational business issues.
• The GIE transformation consultation gave Advantech the ability to design clear and reasonable processes to follow and execute to expedite the company's global communication and effectiveness, improve its sales and competitiveness and reduce its costs. Advantech can now fine tune the organization to meet these new processes, which it believes are critical for meeting future business challenges.
• In a further engagement, Advantech now has the IBM Taiwan team's support to implement the 15 initiatives one by one on the journey to the GIE model. Advantech's chairman, Mr. KC Liu, joined the IBM 2008 AP Insight event to share his GIE transformation story to Asia Pacific Media reporters and analysts in Shanghai, China in late 2008.