News on 13 October 2000
Siemens has seen the writing on the wall. Announcing a billion-euro investment programme yesterday, the company said it intends to integrate its operations at a "fast and furious" pace.
The company plans to establish a number of strategically located ‘centres of e-excellence’ to coordinate and drive networking initiatives. Its ambition is transformation of business processes, extending from e-procurement to e-logistics and e-recruitment. By the end of the year, all 440,000 employees will have intranet access.
Around 70% of company activities are already networked, and these separate solutions are to be integrated into a total system. The use of e-procurement is a key priority. Ten percent of Siemens' total procurement volume of 35 billion euros is now processed electronically and that will rise to over 50%.
In what might be taken in some quarters as a note of warning,
the company said: "All processes will change – quickly and completely."
