Panasonic’s New Organizational Structure and GT12

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 18:58
Posted in category Green IT, Sales Strategies

Panasonic just announced a new organizational structure that is to be implemented in January 2012.

This new alignment is aimed to achieve goals that is set out in Panasonic’s Green Transformation 2012 (GT12) to fulfill their vision of being “the No. 1 Green Innovation Company in the Electronics Industry” by 2018, which is their 100th anniversary of its foundation.

Panasonic has set its sights high. The last year of GT12, fiscal year ending March 2013, Panasonic sets the following targets:

  • 5% or more in operating profit ratio
  • 10 trillion yen in sales
  • 3 year accumulative total of over 800 billion yen in free cash flow
  • 10% in ROE
  • 50 million ton reduction in CO2 emissions

This new organizational structure is in line with Panasonic’s three basic concepts:

  • Maximize value creation by strengthening contacts with customers
  • Realize speedy and lean management
  • Accelerate growth business by boldly shifting management resources
Panasonic's New Organization Structure

Panasonic's New Organization Structure

Panasonic is expecting their growth to be driven by six key businesses by fiscal ending March 2013:

  • Energy Systems Business: 16% increase
  • Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Business: 7.4% increase
  • Network AV business: 10% increase
  • Healthcare, Security & LED: Targeting 540 Billion Yen from these three businesses

There is a lot going inside of Panasonic right now. They have tons of internal goals that they want to reach by fiscal year end 2013. They hope that these initiatives will help in their overall goal to be the number one green electronics company by 2018. For a deeper dive of all Panasonics initiatives as well as org charts, contact info, IT highlights, business drivers, insights to budgets, IT projects and major initiatives, check out the Panasonic CRUSH Report.

Trish Ellis
SalesQuest
trisha dot ellis @ salesquest dot com

 

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Top 10 ERP Initiatives

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 17:59

Integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have become increasingly key to IT functionality at businesses over the last several years. Here are the Top 10 of the most common trends in ERP in 2011.

1. ROI analysis. Financial belt-tightening continues at many companies, and ERP installations and upgrades are falling victim to that as executives demand and get more in-depth studies before approving implementation projects.

2. Managing risk. Installing or upgrading any large database software is an expensive and often disruptive step for any business. Executives facing an implementation are increasingly turning to outside experts to ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible.

3. Delaying implementation. A sad corollary to the previous two items: Many companies, not convinced these projects can be implemented safely and on time, are opting to put the installation off for months or even years.

4. Breaking up projects. Even companies that move ahead on ERP systems may opt to act in budget-friendly stages, rather than making sweeping changes all at once.

5. Focusing on areas key to the business. When an enterprise resource planning project is broken up or delayed, it’s often implemented first in areas key to the specific business. One company may opt to roll out all financial functionality first, while another may begin with customer support.

6. Accepting packaged systems. Enterprise systems provide out-of-the-box functionality for such areas as account management and other financial uses. If that isn’t a key competitive area for a company, the company can streamline implementation by using the software as installed.

7. Cloud computing. Cloud computing is everywhere these days, including in these projects. The most common approach for a cloud enterprise resource planning system is a public cloud, in which a single vendor owns and supports the cloud space used by the organization.

8. Software as a Service (SaaS). In this cloud variant, an organization’s data is stored centrally and accessed through the Internet, often over a web browser. This technology is still fairly new, but projections show 2011 revenues 20 percent over 2010 figures.

9. Digital certificate security. In Internet-accessed cloud and SaaS ERP systems, a key concern is protecting the data from unauthorized access. Digital certificates at sign-on are increasingly being used for this purpose.

10. Integrating more functions. Enterprise systems have made strides from the back office to customer support functionality;  now they’re moving into e-commerce, sales and CRM.

Sign up for CRUSH Alerts to receive daily sales trigger event updates from Fortune 1000 companies, like ERP Initiatives.

Trish Ellis
SalesQuest
trisha dot ellis @ salesquest.com

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Sales Intelligence Hunting

Thursday, November 10, 2011 16:47

Author, Speaker and Strategist Jill Konrath recently did a series of articles whereby she compared sales stories to safari animals.

As she rotated through the giraffes and rhinos, I was personally waiting to hear from the King of Beasts, which of course, finally appeared right on queue:

King of Beasts

And my hunch was right; it was all about being prepared to sell.

About the same time this article came out, Mike Damphousse of Green Leads called asking me how he could use CRUSH data to get a focused list of contacts for his client.  It made me think information gathering is a lot like hunting.

He was about to do some very specific campaigns, drive new leads, deliver juicy appointments and he needed some sales intelligence to get the job done.  First, he needed a list of the top companies who had recently implemented specific SAP modules within specific verticals.  While most companies dwell on the experience of their callers or the level of sales intelligence they gather, Mike was focused on saving time and heading into a fertile hunting ground.  Why not hunt where the most prey are gathered in the first place?

That was just the beginning of the sales creativity.  The next campaign was taking the challenge up a notch.  Rather than focus on technology, he wanted to know how he could get a list of the top Fortune 1000 ranked companies with current and specific initiatives around “Disaster Recovery” and “Business Continuity”.  And while you’re at it, get me only contacts which are VP and Director Level titles in the network and security technology areas.  Wow, now you are talking focus.

Green Leads

Green Leads is clearly a leader in creative campaigns to help their customers find the best, hottest and ready-to-strike leads and sets their clients’ reps in for the killing.

When I asked Mike what differentiates Green Leads from the pack, I was not surprised to hear his response.

  • Start with the hottest and best targets
  • Go in with a customized approach to each prospect/target
  • Qualify and shoot to close

Sounds to me like the right company to engage if you have some sales hunting to do this quarter!

If you want to know more about the CRUSH Data and sales intelligence used in these searches, contact us at www.salesquest.com.

Mimi Evans
SalesQuest
mevans @ Salesquest dot com

 

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PepsiCo Ups Its LEEDS to 27

Thursday, November 3, 2011 17:42
Posted in category Green IT, Sales Development

Earlier this year, PepsiCo was proud to receive another LEED Silver certificiation by U.S. Green Building Council.  This time for their manufacturing facility in Avoz, Russia. This brings them to a total of 27 LEEDS from their manufacturing plants around the world.

LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is internationally recognized and is given to companies with high performance green buildings including the design, construction and operation of the facility.

The requirements to obtain the LEED certification are plentiful and could make your head spin. Obtaining this is definitely an achievement. Visit the U.S. Green Building Council’s website to download the checklists depending on the type of building, whether it be existing, new construction, schools, retail, healthcare, etc.

“As one of the world’s leading global food and beverage companies, we believe that we have a duty to be a good corporate citizen,” said Jeff Malcolm, Senior Vice President of Operations PepsiCo Europe. “Through our focus on sustainable business practice, which we call Performance with Purpose, we believe in investing in a healthier future for people and our planet. This is a fantastic achievement for the Russian team and is a huge milestone for the European business, once again recognizing PepsiCo’s commitment to greener business on a global scale.”

Green IT initiatives continue to be top of mind for many companies. The cost savings due to rising costs of energy and the need for accountability is not going away anytime soon. For these, and other Fortune 1000 business drivers, check out our eStore and download the PepsiCo sample report.

Trish Ellis
Marketing Manager
SalesQuest
Trisha.ellis @ salesquest dot com

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Top 10 Virtualization Initiatives

Tuesday, November 1, 2011 13:06
Posted in category Marketing and Sales

Virtualization provides IT professionals with flexibility, scalability and increased capabilities.  While it has a substantial up front cost, the savings over time from decreased physical servers, power costs, facility acquisition and administration will more than pay for the initial investment.  The following top 10 virtualization initiatives further explore the benefits of implementing this system.

1. Consolidation
Data, servers and IT efforts can all be consolidated among fewer physical servers, improving efficiency and lowering costs.  Business can save 50-70 percent on IT operational costs by implementing virtualization.

2. Improved Backup and Recovery Efforts
A consolidated system allows for faster retrieval and backup of critical information, and the virtual atmosphere enables more control over these efforts.  Because the information on a virtual server is independent from its hardware, recovery is accomplished quickly and easily.

3. Expansion of Applications into the Virtual Infrastructure
This allows for quicker retrieval of application data and increases application availability across the network.  Single desktop computers can now run multiple operating systems within the virtual environment.

4. Disaster Recovery
The entire virtual server can be encapsulated and saved on a failover site, allowing recovery to take place in one hour instead of the 40 or more hours with a physical server.  Hardware independence reduces the chances of loss dramatically.

5. Security in a Virtual Infrastructure
Unlike physical servers, virtual servers are meant to share information virtually, eliminating the need for special sharing procedures and providing a secure way to transmit information.  A typical virtual server operates on a proprietary operating system, leaving it nearly impervious to attack.

6. Improved Operational Processes
Better desktop control allows for quicker response time to user issues and faster desktop deployment.

7. Move from Test to Production
Testing in the virtual environment allows for easy tweaks and a smooth transition when it is time to put a new project into production mode.  A complete test server can be created to fully develop a system before launching it into production

8. Storage Deployment
With everything stored virtually, deployment can happen in a matter of minutes to anywhere in the network.  Storage can also be placed onto anything from a USB drive to an enterprise storage area network

9. High Availability
Baseline availability of all applications can be easily increased on a virtual server, and downtime for common maintenance can be eliminated completely.

10. Management Software Integration
Web and command line management software interfaces can be seamlessly integrated on a virtual server to create partitions, manage virtual storage and virtual Ethernet.

The bottom line is that companies that have adopted some or all of the Top 10 Virtualization initiatives will save money in the long run. Business continuity alone can save a company millions of dollars.  To receive notifications of when Fortune 1000 and Global 500 companies take on Virtualization initiatives, sign up for our CRUSH Alerts.

Trish Ellis
Marketing Manager
SalesQuest
Trisha.ellis @ salesquest dot com

 

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