| I asked the exact same question of my managers here, told them apparently
it was going to change the world as we know it (but then I realised that
it couldnt,its a "system", and to change the world you need an
"architecture" 8^))
Their answers: 1. said he didnt know
2. has yet to reply
I dug out a copy of management memo and gave them to 1, its
back in the library. I still dont know, but everything points to
it being something like the failed Russian 50 day plan that got
squashed by the hardliners.
All I can say is, whatever it is, it must be pretty important. When
they design something thats absolute crap, you get lots of parchment
paper and gold embossed lettering with slogans like "The future of
management is within". People get up and throw acronyms and buzzwords
at you. If NMS was rubbish I would have expected a few new terms
like FOCAL-LINE-OMNIPRESENT-PROFIT-SYSTEM or
NON_EXEMPTED_RADIAL_DELIVERED_STRUCTURE
and people sort of get aligned to the concept (have you ever seen
Invasion of the Body Snatchers?).
There has been none of that. In fact, I havent seen much of anything,
so it must be working 8^)
John (DECoz)
|
| DIGITAL'S NEW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
by Alex Munn, manager, Management Reporting Architecture,
Corporate Finance Group
Digital's "New Management System," based on business units, has
been taking shape since last August. This system is designed to
add value to our customers and profit growth to Digital.
The Executive Committee has published the "Overarching
Principles" on which this system is based:
o Every cost adds value.
o We make profit on each value added.
o The business unit is responsible for the plan to make profit
on its value.
These principles are consistent with those outlined in November
by Ken Olsen, president:
o Everyone works for the business units.
o No one without responsibility tells anyone else what to do.
o Budgets are stable. Only the Executive Committee can change
them once approved.
o Everyone has more responsibility than authority.
o Results of an investment are always measured against an
approved budget.
Business unit managers are now making presentations to the
Business Unit Committee describing how they will manage their
units to add value, following those principles. This committee
is chaired by Win Hindle and includes Ken Olsen and other members
of the Executive and Operations Committees. Its focus is on
performance to plan, overhead, and sharing what has been learned.
Mick Prokopis has been named vice president, responsible for the
integration of the business unit plans that form the company's
budget. He will also provide a planning context for the
Executive Committee to effectively implement the New Management
System.
FY92 planning and budgeting is being done in the New Management
System format. A timetable of events, submissions and
requirements has been issued to business unit managers.
The "Corporate Captains Group" has been formed as a steering
group for the New Management System at the corporate level.
Chaired by Jim Osterhoff, vice president, Finance, this group
deals with issues relating to the implementation of the New
Management System that can't be resolved within individual
organizations. This group serves as the final court of appeal
and also provides guidance in philosophy and direction. Members
include: Mick Prokopis, Lyn Benton for Finance, Dick Farrahar
for Personnel, Susan George for Training, Frank McCabe for
pricing, Dan Infante for Information Management and Technology
FOR DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY
(IM&T), and Jim Cudmore representing Jack Smith. Other task
forces are following up on specific issues identified by the
Corporate Captains Group, such as systems requirements,
implementation by Finance, and pricing.
Much work still needs to be done to deliver the New Management
System reports with the detail, speed and accuracy desired.
Automated implementation of management reporting at the
transactional level could be as much as 18 months away, but rapid
progress is being made and useful reports of "actuals" already
are being generated by manual conversion from the old system.
Of particular note, for Q2 reporting, U.S. Area Finance was able
to produce 230 account P&Ls in the new system format just four
weeks after the close of business, which was just three months
after the decision had been made to convert to the New System.
Those accounts represent about 50% of U.S. business. And for Q3,
they produced 3400 account P&Ls, year-to-date.
Meanwhile the terminology that we use in talking about business
units has been changing as our vision of their role has become
clearer.
The main role of a Product or Service Creation Unit is to develop
and produce competitive products that satisfy customer needs.
"Products" could be hardware, software and/or services. These
"products" are sold to the Customer Account Units using a
business unit price, which is based on a competitive-level price
for a comparable product in the marketplace.
Product and Service Creation Units are responsible for:
o best-in-class product and service development, manufacturing
and service delivery;
o engineering, manufacturing and service competitiveness; and
o profitability on their direct added value.
Marketing Business Units (MBUs) are involved in three areas of
activity, each of which contributes to the company's profit.
First, they may develop unique product or service offerings,
tailored for their market segments. These offerings are then
"sold" to the Customer Account Units at a competitive business
unit price, benchmarked against what would be charged by an
outside vendor for comparable value added.
They also enhance base products and services in ways that
increase their value by recruiting and managing Complementary
Solution Organizations (CSOs) to provide a suite of applications
software targeted at their market segment.
Third, they increase the profits of the company by applying their
market expertise to reduce the selling costs of the Account
Units. For example, they provide sales support to Account Units
FOR DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY
through Digital Customer Centers (DCCs). In the latter two
cases, Customer Account Units will be charged for these services
through a value price.
They prepare a profit and loss statement (P&L) that reflects
their marketing activity and expense and clearly shows their
value added as business units.
The company also has established Integration Business Units.
They use their influence to plan and coordinate related
activities across the company. All Marketing Business Units also
have an "integration" role. In addition, there are some business
units which are just Integration Business Units.
There are 17 "vertical" Integration Business Units (which are
also MBUs) that look at specific vertical markets, such as
insurance or banking. They put together integrated P&Ls which
are summations of activity in particular groups of accounts. The
total of these 17 integrated P&Ls equals the total of the
company. In the past, this consolidating of all the numbers
across the company was done by Finance for Corporate, without
specific managers being held responsible for specific areas of
performance. Now the vertical IBUs are each responsible for the
overall integration of business plans related to their piece of
the business across the corporation.
In addition, there are "cross-industry" Integration Business
Units, which focus on classes of applications, such as Office and
Personal Computers, which are used in a number of different
markets. And there are also other Integration Business Units
that focus on classes of products, such as Workstations.
In other words, each of these business units has an individual
entrepreneurial marketing role, and at the same time has an
integrating role, making sure that the various parts of the
company work together as a cohesive whole to satisfy customers
and optimize business.
Customer Account Units use their expertise and Digital's tools
and solutions to solve customers' business problems. As business
partners to their customers and as employees of Digital, Customer
Account Units have a dual role: (a) to create the best possible
future for their customer, and do this (b) within the boundary of
returning a profit to Digital.
Account teams focus on the customer, managing all Digital revenue
transactions, investments and business practices with and for the
customer. In this context, they:
o are the focal point of responsibility and authority for
committing Digital to the customer in a timely manner;
o provide consistent treatment (pricing, terms and conditions,
support) for their customers across geographies and functions;
FOR DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY
and
o are the infrastructure that provides continuity with their
customers over time, through all business transactions.
The attached list of business units does not include the Customer
Accounts Units, which are too numerous to mention by name. But
Accounts are business units in every sense of the word and must
be run as businesses, consistent with the New Management System
principles.
In many cases today, the same organization acts as both a
Marketing Business Unit and an Integration Business Unit. They
are listed both ways to emphasize that these are separate roles.
Keep in mind that this list is a "living document." To remain
flexible to changing business conditions, business units will be
added, deleted and changed as necessary.
PRODUCT CREATION UNITS BUSINESS MANAGER
Systems
Entry Systems Business (ESB) Jesse Lipcon
Mid-Range Systems Business (MSB) Don Harbert
VAX Workstations Business (WST) Don Gaubatz
RISC Business (RSC) Don Gaubatz
PDP-11 (PDP) Art Williams
Personal Computers & Integration (PCI) John Rose
Intel/SCO (INT) David Poole
VAX 9000 Sultan Zia
Fault Tolerant Systems (FTS) Fernando Colon Osorio
Components
Memories (MEM) Tom Frederick
Disks & Subsystems Group (DSG) Charlie Christ(Acting)
Tapes & Optical Products (TOPS) Peter van Roekens
Video (VIPS) Larry Cabrinety
Hardcopy (VIPS) Larry Cabrinety
Corporate Backbone Network (CBN) Jac Simensen
Local Area Access (LAA) Fran Grigsby
Local Area Network (LAN) Mike Rinaldi
Open Network Systems (ONS) Dick Crosby
Open Systems Software Group (OSG) Kurt Friedrich
VMS Rick Spitz
Continuing Products Business Group (CBG) Russ Gullotti
Clusters (CLS) Fernando Colon Osorio
Image/Voice/Human Interface Bill Heffner
Semiconductor Operations (SCO) Ed Caldwell Process
Technology Group (PTG) Charlotte Frederick
Low End Networks & Communications (LENAC) Ralph Dormitzer
NAS Languages & Tools (NLT) Bill Keating
NAS Presentation/Communications Services Jeff Rudy
NAS Information Services (NIS) Chuck Rozwet
FOR DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY
NAS Distributed Computing (NDC) Dick Mahoney
NAS Transaction Services (NTS) Dennis Roberson
NAS User Frameworks (NUF) Jeff Rudy
NAS Security Services (NSS) Steve Lipner
NAS Concurrent Engineering (NCE) Mike Taylor
SERVICE CREATION UNITS BUSINESS MANAGER
Customer Service
Hardware Product Services (HPS) Adrian Flatgard
Software Product Services (SPS) Tom Carothers
Digital Assisted Services (DAS) Dave Starratt
Networks & Site Services (NWSS) Jim Neumann
Digital Customized Support Services (DCSS) Ralph Harmon
Desktop Services (DTS) Paul Kelly
Facilities Management Services (FMS) Tom Mitchell
Recovery Services (RCS) Jim Roman
Non-Digital Systems Services (NDS) Jon Morrison
Security Management (SM) Steve Lipner
Professional Services
Customer Training Pat Cataldo
Projects David Creed
Computer Special Systems (CSS) Sharon Keillor
Consulting Pat Zilvitis
MARKETING BUSINESS UNITS BUSINESS MANAGER
Vertical Marketing Business Units
Banking & Investment Norm Goldberg
Insurance Sandy Thomas
Media Bob Farquhar
Utilities Patti Foye
Wholesale/Retail Abbott Weiss
Travel/Transportation Max Dobres (acting)
Professional Services Dave Pepin (acting)
Engineering (ESG) Dave Copeland (acting)
CIM Marketing & Product Development (CMPD) Glenn Armbruster
Sales & Distribution Systems (SDS) Eli Lipcon
Research & Development Systems (R&D) Robert Horne
Healthcare Willow Shire
State & Local Government Bob Trocchi
Education/Science Jack McCredie
US Federal Government Harvey Weiss
Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) Gary Eichhorn
Telecom Ernst Wellhoener
Component Business Group (CBG) Jim Willis
Cross-Industry Marketing Business Units
FOR DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY
Information Systems Business (ISB) Bob Glorioso
Low End Networks & Communications (LENAC) Ralph Dormitzer
Personal Computers & Integration (PCI) John Rose
Workstations (WKS) Don Gaubatz
Environmental (ENV) Randy Levine
Finance & Accounting Michael Carabetta
Office Gene Hodges
Electronic Publishing Howard Woolf
Application Development Software Group Marion Dancy
I/S Operations Management Pat Mullen (acting)
Multivendor Integration (MIA) Dennis Roberson
CALS/Concurrent Engineering (CALS/CE) Mike Taylor
Corporate Information Systems (CIS) Dennis Roberson
Departmental Information Systems (DIS) Jeff Rudy
Software Development Departments (SDD) Bill Keating
Technical OEM Business (TOEM) Dick Heaton
Massively Parallel Systems Group (MPSG) Charles Wilson
INTEGRATION BUSINESS UNITS (IBUs) BUSINESS MANAGER
Vertical Marketing IBUs
Banking & Investment Norm Goldberg
Insurance Sandy Thomas
Media Bob Farquhar
Utilities Patti Foye
Wholesale/Retail Abbott Weiss
Travel/Transportation Max Dobres (acting)
Professional Services Dave Pepin (acting)
Engineering (ESG) Dave Copeland (acting)
CIM Marketing & Product Development (CMPD) Glenn Armbruster
Sales & Distribution Systems (SDS) Eli Lipcon
Research & Development Systems (R&D) Robert Horne
Healthcare Willow Shire
State & Local Government Bob Trocchi
Education/Science Jack McCredie
US Federal Government Harvey Weiss
Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) Gary Eichhorn
Telecom Ernst Wellhoener
Cross-Industry Marketing IBUs
Information Systems Business (ISB) Bob Glorioso
Environmental (ENV) Randy Levine
Finance & Accounting Michael Carabetta
Office Gene Hodges
Electronic Publishing Howard Woolf
Application Development Software Group Marion Dancy
I/S Operations Management Pat Mullen (acting)
Multivendor Integration (MIA) Dennis Roberson
Corporate Information Systems (CIS) Dennis Roberson
FOR DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY
Departmental Information Systems (DIS) Jeff Rudy
Software Development Departments (SDD) Bill Keating
Technical OEM Business (TOEM) Dick Heaton
Massively Parallel Systems Group (MPSG) Charles Wilson
Product IBUs
Low End Networks & Communications (LENAC) Ralph Dormitzer
Personal Computers & Integration (PCI) John Rose
Workstations (WKS) Don Gaubatz
Component Business Group (CBG) Jim Willis
CALS/Concurrent Engineering (CALS/CE) Mike Taylor
FOR DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY
|
| <><><><><><><><> T h e V O G O N N e w s S e r v i c e <><><><><><><><>
Edition : 2455 Wednesday 20-Nov-1991 Circulation : 8206
VNS COMPUTER NEWS: [Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk]
================== [Nashua, NH, USA ]
IBM - Mulls making its business lines more independent
{The Wall Street Journal, 19-Nov-91, p. A8}
This so they can make decisions faster and reduce overhead, industry
officials said. They cautioned that IBM hasn't decided exactly what to do,
because its five-person management committee is meeting this week to consider
the subject. Any decisions may not be announced until next month. The
executives also cautioned that any reorganizing at IBM may just be along the
lines of the numerous, generally small steps IBM has been taking for almost
four years now. In Armonk, N.Y., an IBM spokesman declined to comment. The
executives said the general idea behind the changes being considered is to
treat IBM as more of a holding company for its numerous computer businesses
rather than having headquarters try to direct the activities of IBM's more
than 350,000 employees. The industry executives said IBM also may try to take
some of the pricing decisions out of the hands of its field sales force and
return them to different business units. Any such move would be designed to
reduce the rampant discounting that has hurt several of IBM's businesses, most
notably its flagship mainframe line. IBM also may try to give the sales
force more autonomy over what it decides to try to sell, the industry
executives said. That way, the different business units wouldn't send out
armies of staff people to try to educate all the salesmen on all their
products; the sales force would decide what it wanted and place its orders
with the various IBM businesses.
<><><><><><><><> VNS Edition : 2455 Wednesday 20-Nov-1991 <><><><><><><><>
|