Manufacturing companies urged to invest in IT to stay competitive

Steve Tattum, Principal Manufacturing Consultant of Sage said, "Manufacturing companies face pressure of ever-increasing customer expectations, general economic downturn and new competition. Today, knowledge is the main source of competitive advantage. Investing effectively in new IT systems provides companies with knowledge to re-engineer their business processes to improve efficiency, enhance quality and deliver better customer service."

"New technology can drastically reduce the time needed to process orders and also reduces the need for expensive stock-holding. Electronic communication with suppliers can lower cost of procurement and improve quality of purchased material" said Steve, "A web site gives a company access to a much wider potential market and reduces administrative cost when integrated to back office."

"The phenomenal growth of the Internet is opening up new markets and leaner, fitter ways of doing business" said Steve, "Recent research conducted in the US & Europe by Benchmark showed that manufacturing companies are keen to capitalize on the benefits offered by e-business. 81% of manufacturing companies had web sites, 46% were selling online, 40% believe becoming an e-business will improve service. Local manufacturing companies should have a formal e-business strategy in place so that they don't loose out"