Real-Time Enterprise Performance
Joe Bellini, executive vice president and general manager, and Jeff Nestel-Patt, director of marketing communications of Brooks Software stopped by the Automation World offices in Chicago last Thursday to give us an update. Bellini is obviously a bright person who has thought about the needs of the real-time manufacturing organization. He co-authored a book, "The Real-Time Enterprise" with consultant Peter Fingar. I've been a big fan of Michael Porter of Harvard Business School and author of a series of books on competitive advantage. Bellini gets kudos from me by talking about competitive advantage in a similar way to Porter, but the practicing manufacturing person part of me finds the book a little too glib and light on specifics. However, his presentation to us focused on his analysis of the manufacturing supply chain and the next killer app (his, of course).
Bellini must have used the term "killer app" a dozen times in the three hours we were together. For those who may not recall, the development of VisiCalc, the first widely usable spreadsheet, was considered the application that launched the PC revolution in business. (We won't mention, oh I guess I am, that VisiCalc is history.) Bellini also managed to fit in another term popular in high tech marketing circles--disruptive technology.
OK, let me combine all this background. First the analysis. Similar to AMR Research's demand driven supply chain model, Bellini refers to the demand driven manufacturing enterprise. He divides the sector into Asset Intensive (already highly automated with high ROI for technology), Material Intensive (low techonogy ROI at present), and Distribution Intensive (beginning to invest in technology with the RFID revolution). He is targeting the Material Intensive section of manufacturing. That is, not the process plants or semiconductor fabs where Brooks is strong, but the assembly shops and other discrete manufacturing. This sector is ripe for automation, and the killer app is software that provides the vital real-time connection of orders from the ERP system to manufacturing scheduling and other tools--or demand driven manufacturing. Naturally, Brooks has a product in this space. In fact, Bellini says Brooks is the only company providing such a solution.
Hear that all you Rockwell Automation, Siemens and GE Fanuc people out there? Got a response? Does your MES provide real-time information flow from ERP to manufacturing? Click "comment" and let me know.
Now, where the rubber meets the road is how Brooks is going to get from concept to several hundred million dollars in revenue. Bellini seems to have a three-legged stool marketing strategy evolving from a base that can't support a classic software advertising and promotion execution. The first leg is to "follow the chips" and use direct sales to target customers of his current customers. The second is partnerships. He alluded to a coming partnership announcement believing that the partner will bundle and sell a lot of Brooks Software. The remaining leg, and a very important one when you are breaking new ground, is promotion. Looks like Brooks will be relying on free publicity (kind of like this blog) to get the word out.
Experience tells me that reliance on mentions in magazines, while at no cost, is not a good way to break new ground. Even magazines that run articles by supplier marketing managers (and Automation World is not one of those) will only run one article per year, tops. That's not much when you are trying to tap a $500 million market. This appears to be a classic trap of hardware companies trying to grow by going into software. The whole financial model of a software company is different from a hardware company.
I agree that the market looks huge, and untapped. And Brooks' software offering looks solid. The question is, what is Brooks' future. A private label supplier? Purchased by an ERP supplier? Infusion of VC dollars to grow to the next level? Time will tell.
12:24:45 PM 
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