Question

Mercedes-Benz is a German automotive marque and a subsidiary of Daimler AG. Mercedes-Benz is known for producing luxury vehicles and commercial vehicles. The headquarters is in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The name first appeared in 1926 under Daimler-Benz. In 2018, Mercedes-Benz was the largest seller of premium vehicles in the world, having sold 2.31 million passenger cars.

Provide one example from Mercedes-Benz for each of the following:

a.      A workgroup process

b.     An enterprise process

c.      An inter-enterprise process

Answer 1

Businesses are now pursuing even greater degrees of cross-functional process integration than that supplied by the traditional enterprise applications. They want to make customer relationship management, supply chain management, and enterprise systems work closely together with each other, and they want to link these systems tightly with those of customers, suppliers, and business partners. Businesses also want to obtain more value from enterprise applications, Web services, and other integration technologies by using them as platforms for new enterprise-wide services.

Extending Enterprise Software: - Enterprise software has become more flexible and capable of integration with other systems. The major enterprise software vendors have developed Web-enabled software for customer relationship management, supply chain management, decision support, enterprise portals, and other business functions that integrate with their enterprise software to create what they call “enterprise solutions,” “business suites,” “enterprise suites,” or “e-business suites.” SAP’s my SAP and Oracle’s e-Business Suite are examples.

Enterprise software vendors are refashioning their architectures to be more Web centric so that core systems can work with the Internet, extended supply chains, CRM systems, and new business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce models. This new generation of extended enterprise applications is sometimes referred to as XRP or ERP II.

The work methods of Mercedes-Benz Design: Eleven steps to a finished automobile: -

1. Drawing/Rendering: At the beginning of the design process there is always a drawing – hand-sketched on a piece of paper, or on a screen. Ideas that had previously only existed in the designer's mind become visible.

2. Package: The basis for every design is the package, the sum of all the technical requirements. This is the basis upon which the sketches must be implemented in such a way that proportions, dimensions, and lines give a harmonious image.

3. 1:4 clay model: Not everything can be simulated on the computer, which is why the next step is to create a clay model of every variant of a new automobile. Only then can the designers decide whether their drafts create the desired effect in three dimensions, too. At the same time virtual models are always created on the computer.

4. Model selection: The final form of the new car is chosen from numerous variants, to be formally examined in a 1:1 scale. With the help of scanning and milling machines the first full-size "prototypes" are made.

5. 1:1 model: All the individual details of the new model are fashioned by hand. A deceptively real-looking model is created. All the characteristic features of the new car reveal themselves.

6. Interior sketches: First drawings and renderings are created for the design of the interior. This is when the different equipment lines are born, i.e. the interiors where the future driver must feel at ease. The leit motif here: "Perfect aesthetics" – a design that feels committed to beauty.

7. Interior clay model: The best way for the designer to experience the development of the form is with a 1-in-1 clay model, built, so to say, from the inside out. All the details are modelled until an aesthetically top-quality spatial feeling is created. As a rule, three alternative interiors are built for a decision to be made.

8. Color & trim / operating and display concept (control and display system): The material and color options for the vehicle interior are determined. From hundreds of fabric and leather samples as well as a virtually endless color spectrum the equipment variants for the future motor vehicle are determined. All the control and display elements are designed and developed to the optimum.

9. Interior data control model: All the materials and colors are tested for effect on sophisticated 1-in-1 interior models under "real-life conditions". Every material and every color receive a code and is specified.

10. Final model: The exterior and the interior with all their details are brought together to make a model. A deceptively realistic representation is created. All the characteristic features of the new car reveal themselves. The exterior shape of the future Mercedes-Benz model becomes tangible.

11. Model approval: The final point of every design process is the model approval by the Board. If this is successful, there is nothing more to stop the production of the new Mercedes-Benz.

Service Platforms and Business Process Management

Firms seeking better returns on their technology investments are focusing on ways to create entire services based on new or improved business processes that integrate information from multiple functional areas. These services are built on enterprise-wide service platforms that provide a greater degree of cross-functional integration than the traditional enterprise applications. A service platform integrates multiple applications from multiple business functions, business units, or business partners to deliver a seamless experience for the customer, employee, manager, or business partner.

For instance, the order-to-cash process involves receiving an order and seeing it all the way through obtaining payment for the order. This process begins with lead generation, marketing campaigns, and order entry, which are typically supported by CRM systems. Once the order is received, manufacturing is scheduled, and parts availability is verified— processes that are usually supported by enterprise software. The order then is handled by processes for distribution planning, warehousing, order fulfillment, and shipping, which are usually supported by supply chain management systems. Finally, the order is billed to the customer, which is handled by either enterprise financial applications or accounts receivable. If the purchase at some point required customer service, customer relationship management systems would again be invoked.

A service such as order-to-cash requires data from enterprise applications and financial systems to be further integrated into an enterprise-wide composite process. To accomplish this, firms need a business process management plan and application integration software that ties the various pieces together. Business process management is a methodology for dealing with the organization’s need to change its business processes continually to remain competitive. It includes tools for creating models of improved processes that can be translated into software systems. Because most companies are unlikely to jettison their existing customer relationship management, supply chain management, enterprise systems, and homegrown legacy systems, software tools that could use existing applications as building blocks for new cross-enterprise processes would also be required. See below fig.

Order-to-cash is a composite process that integrates data from individual enterprise systems and legacy financial applications. The process must be modeled and translated into a software system using application integration tools.

The major enterprise application vendors now have tools for creating cross-application sets of services from existing systems. SAP’s version of cross-application services is called xApps. xApps enables businesses to build and automate new cross-functional, end-to-end processes atop existing applications, regardless of the technology platform they use. xApps uses Web services standards to pull together data from the firm’s SAP software suite, from internal legacy systems, or from external systems for use in new business processes that span multiple functions and application areas. The software synchronizes with the existing business processes embedded in these systems.

Increasingly, these new services will be delivered through portals. Today’s portal products provide frameworks for building new composite services. Portal software can integrate information from enterprise applications and disparate in-house legacy systems, presenting it to users through a Web interface so that the information appears to be coming from a single source.