CINCINNATI ― July 02, 2009 ― Despite the relatively high level of project management automation that surveyed aerospace and defense (A&D) manufacturers have in place, few have automated the critically important request-for-quote (RFQ) process.

NEARLY 70% MANUALLY TRACK A&D SALES OPPORTUNITIES

Only 23% of manufacturers capture sales opportunities in a system that classifies, organizes and escalates them through an automated workflow system, while nearly 70% manually track them or have them in separate systems. This is according to a 2009 research report by software maker Cincom Systems (www.cincom.com/acquire) based on a national survey to sales and IT executives that sheds light on how these aerospace and defense organizations are managing their businesses for increased efficiency and effectiveness.

SEPARATE, MANUALLY UPDATED CATALOGS PREVAIL

Aerospace and defense (A&D) manufacturing survey respondents overwhelmingly (61%) had separate catalogs for product, pricing and sales data, with many of their records being manually updated. With AMR Research predicting that maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services will become the majority of A&D revenues by 2010, the lack of accurate catalogs may hurt aerospace and defense manufacturers’ ability to maximize profit.

“Separate catalogs for product, pricing and sales data drastically slow down the selling cycles for spare parts and can lead to lost sales over time,” says Louis Columbus, co-author of the Cincom report. “MRO products are for the most part pure profit, so not having these systems integrated costs the company profitability big time.”

PREDICTIVE GUIDED-SELLING NON-EXISTENT

No single aerospace and defense (A&D) manufacturer surveyed used a predictive, guided selling system to present the best possible product combinations to customers based on their preferences and profiles. In the MRO setting, this type of guided selling system would be used for selling replacement parts.

“If you are a mechanic working on a jet engine and you wanted to get this one part, you would have to call your rep and give them the part number out of the catalog over the phone,” says Columbus. “A guided selling system would take the engine type, even serial number, and then specify not only that part but any additional parts about to go out as well.

“A guided selling system can increase the speed of repairs since they find out what they need faster,” continued Columbus. “Best of all, the increased productivity means A&D manufacturers can sell more repair work to the same group of mechanics.”

For a copy of Cincom’s report visit “2009 Aerospace and Defense Industry Survey Report,” ( http://www.cincom.com/ADebook.)

RELATED LINKS:

Cincom Acquire manufacturing web site: http://www.cincomacquire.com

Cincom Enterprise manufacturing web site: http://www.cincomerp.com

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About Cincom Systems
For 40 years, Cincom’s problem-solving software, services and people have helped thousands of companies all over the world grow and manage their businesses. For more information about Cincom’s products and services, contact Cincom at 1-800-2CINCOM (USA only), send an e-mail to info@cincom.com, or visit the company’s website at www.cincom.com.

Media Contacts:
Steve Kayser
Cincom Systems, Inc.
513.612.2348
skayser@cincom.com

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