CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
12 April 2005
Implementation Investments
Spescom Wins Contract with Leading Defense Contractor BAE Systems to Provide Advanced Management Software for UK Submarine Fleet
Spescom Software Inc has been awarded a contract valued at over $300,000 from BAE Systems, one of the world's largest defense contractors, to deploy its next-generation eB software to manage key aspects of the United Kingdom's entire fleet of naval submarines. Spescom has successfully completed the implementation of the solution together with Computer Sciences Corp (CSC), the information technology systems integration partner selected by BAE.
The contract is the latest demonstration of the unique capabilities of Spescom's eB software platform to enable organizations to manage the millions of pieces of data generated by and distributed among different types of software applications. For the contract with CSC and BAE, Spescom Software has implemented a unique integrated solution to manage a range of different types of documents and data at the BAE Systems Submarine design and manufacturing plant, located in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, U.K.
"The explosion in growth of computer-generated data that accompanied the Information Age has long ago outstripped the ability of separate software applications used in these large organizations to keep pace with their fast-changing complex data management demands," said Carl Mostert, CEO of Spescom Software. "Large and highly complex organizations, whether they are managing nuclear power plants, the Space Shuttle, or submarine fleets, simply cannot operate with optimal safety, security or efficiency under the fragmented computing and software environments that have evolved."
Organizations such as nuclear power plants or the UK's submarine fleet literally hold millions of different pieces of information in many disparate software applications. Furthermore, the information is always changing, whether due to repairs, replacement, maintenance or other dynamic factors. Spescom's eB software enables not just the consolidation of this information into a single coherent platform, but also has built-in business process rules for effective management of change, catering for the constantly changing environment caused by maintenance and expansions to plants or systems.
"The contract award by BAE Systems, one of the world's largest and most respected defense contractors, is a powerful recognition that our eB platform can perform critical functions in the complex document and data management environments of the defense industry," said Mr. Mostert. "It is just one example of the potential opportunities in our multi-million-dollar target market sectors of energy, utilities, aerospace/defense, homeland security and other industries. We believe that our eB product platform fulfils critical business needs in these industries through our proprietary capabilities to manage both structured and unstructured data, as well as to ensure high levels of information integrity."
Under the contract Spescom implemented a number of services for BAE, including a Drawing Distribution and Management solution based on eB that is replacing BAE's aging system, originally installed in 1994. The Spescom eB system will provide a range of critical services, including automated drawing distribution, requisition and recall facilities. This solution will also address a number of work management requirements, and will control the generation of prints to be used in the production process.
The contract also calls for Spescom to expand its eB solutions for BAE in the near future across several areas of document and data management. Among them, eB will be used as the basis for a Product Breakdown Structure, and will allow documents and drawings to be linked to the physical items that make up the submarines. This will support the implementation of comprehensive change-management processes, and will form the basis of "As-Planned" and "As-Built" baselines.
BAE Systems is an international company engaged in the development, delivery and support of advanced defense and aerospace systems in the air, on land, at sea and in space. It is one of the largest defense contractors in the world with over 90,000 employees operating on five continents. CSC is one of the world's major IT services companies with annual revenues of more than $17 billion, with 79,000 employees in 80 countries.
"Contracts with large enterprises such as BAE represent a key component of Spescom's business and growth plan," said Mr. Mostert. "Such contracts can roll out in stages, with additional substantial value at each step. Spescom's strategy and products are designed to capitalize on these contract expansion opportunities, to enable us to grow revenues with existing customers. We will be aggressively looking at further opportunities for significantly expanding our footprint within this customer."
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