Interoperability by Design at Microsoft Customer Solution Case Study
Honeywell Uses Smart Tags to Improve Interoperability, Save $1.5 Million Annually
Overview
Country or Region: United States Industry: Manufacturing–Automotive & Industrial Customer Profile Honeywell Transportation Systems, based in Torrance, California, makes engineboosting systems and car-care products that are sold worldwide. This division of Honeywell International employs approximately 12,000 people. Business Situation Design engineers needed to access parts data in SAP R/3 business systems from Windows® XP–based desktop computers running Microsoft® Office Professional Edition 2003 programs. Solution The Honeywell IT staff used smart tags, an interoperability feature in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, to give engineers instant access to SAP parts data or PDM designs from Microsoft Office documents. Benefits Annual productivity savings of U.S.$1.5 million Faster, better decisions increase competitive edge Expanded use across the supply chain
―It was very easy to integrate UNIX and Linux-based back-end systems with Windows, because smart tags use Web services … [That will enable us to link] … to other operating systems and applications.‖
Jim Schwaller, Senior IT Analyst for IT Emerging Technologies, Honeywell Transportation Systems
Honeywell Transportation Systems employs thousands of engineers who design engine-boosting systems and other automotive products. Early in the design phase, they consult parts data that resides in an SAP R/3 ERP system, and parts drawings that reside in a Linux-based product data management (PDM) application. Engineers spent hours each week retrieving data from these systems using Windows® XP–based desktop computers. The IT staff then created an Office Business Application using smart tags, an interoperability feature in Microsoft® Office Professional Edition 2003, to create quick links from any Microsoft Office file to these enterprise engineering systems. Engineers click on a smart tag to access SAP parts data or PDM designs. Honeywell has realized a U.S.$1.5 million annual productivity savings from its solution and is able to make faster decisions while speeding design cycles.
―Anything we can do to improve collaboration and the exchange of information adds tremendous value to our engineers‘ work and to maintaining our competitive position.‖
Jim Schwaller, Senior IT Analyst for IT Emerging Technologies, Honeywell Transportation Systems
Situation
Honeywell Transportation Systems is a leading automotive supplier that enhances vehicle performance, efficiency, and appearance through products such as turbocharging systems, filters, antifreezes, coolants, and car-care products. The division‘s globally recognized brands include Prestone, FRAM, Autolite, Holts, Bendix, and Jurid. Honeywell Transportation Systems is a unit of Honeywell International, a U.S.$37 billion diversified technology and manufacturing leader based in Morristown, New Jersey, that employs approximately 120,000 people worldwide. Honeywell Transportation Systems has approximately 12,000 employees, with thousands of engineers located all over the world—across the United States, United Kingdom, France, Czech Republic, China, Mexico, Brazil, and India. Getting to market quickly with innovative, high-quality products requires a highly collaborative design environment. ―Anything we can do to improve collaboration and the exchange of information adds tremendous value to our engineers‘ work and to maintaining our competitive position,‖ says Jim Schwaller, Senior IT Analyst for IT Emerging Technologies, Honeywell Transportation Systems. However, engineers had to negotiate productivity hurdles daily, which slowed their work. Their standard engineering desktop ran the Windows® XP operating system, Microsoft® Office Professional Edition 2003, and several Windows-based design applications. But engineers also needed to pull parts and inventory data from IBM AIX– based SAP R/3 enterprise resource planning (ERP) modules and part drawings from a Linux-based product data management system (PDM) (ENOVIA MatrixOne from Dassault Systemes). Switching between the
Windows, SAP, and MatrixOne environments was very time-consuming. For example, when a customer requested a new turbocharger, an engineer would start by researching existing Honeywell turbos and their associated bill of materials (BOM). This ensured that he or she could closely match the new unit to existing units and thereby lower design and manufacturing costs. To accomplish this research, the engineer needed to log on to SAP, enter a turbo part number, run the relevant SAP transactions, and locate the BOM. He or she then needed to open MatrixOne and copy and paste every component part number from the BOM into MatrixOne to access drawings and other design information. The whole process took several minutes per component part number, or hours for a complete product BOM. ―SAP is critical to our business, especially to our supply chain and manufacturing organizations,‖ says Jerry Ibrahim, Director of IT Emerging Technologies, Honeywell Transportation Systems. ―But not all of our engineers are SAP power users. SAP is a very transactional system, and engineers are not used to it because they don‘t use it continuously as our supply-chain workers do. Every time they accessed an SAP part number, it required multiple clicks, which amounted to several hours per week.‖ Because of the time involved, engineers would often avoid SAP; instead, they would either contact colleagues by phone or e-mail message in hopes that they would have the needed information or find someone who knew how to gather the information. This information-chasing was time-consuming and incredibly frustrating. ―We are currently the leader in turbos and other automotive parts, but these design inefficiencies had the potential to put that lead at risk,‖ Schwaller says.
―With smart tags, we‘ve returned three to four days of productivity per year to thousands of engineers around the world.‖
Jim Schwaller, Senior IT Analyst for IT Emerging Technologies, Honeywell Transportation Systems
Solution
Ibrahim and Schwaller looked around for a simpler way for engineers to access valuable business data residing in UNIX and Linuxbased back-end systems from their Windowsbased desktop computers. Ibrahim‘s job is to become familiar with the company‘s technology investments and figure out how to take full advantage of them. He had read about Duet, software that gives users access to certain kinds of SAP data from within Microsoft Office programs. Duet did not provide links to engineering information, but Ibrahim decided to use the same underlying technology to assist the Honeywell engineers. Honeywell opted to use the power already on its desktops by creating an Office Business Application (OBA). OBAs connect line-ofbusiness applications such as SAP with Microsoft Office productivity programs. Specifically, Honeywell used a Microsoft interoperability technology called smart tags— a feature in Microsoft Office programs that recognizes certain words or patterns and converts them to hyperlinks for rapid data exchange between applications. Clicking a smart tag brings up a list of possible actions for that data type. In Honeywell‘s case, Ibrahim and Schwaller turned SAP part numbers into smart tags. When engineers receive a Microsoft Office Outlook® e-mail message, Microsoft Office Excel® spreadsheet, or Microsoft Office Word 2003 document containing an SAP part number, they simply hold the cursor over the number to see a list of possible actions from a drop-down list. These options include ―Get summary BOM,‖ ―Get expanded BOM,‖ and ―Get part drawing.‖ The engineer simply clicks the desired action, and the smart tag automatically pulls the requested data from SAP or MatrixOne. The engineer can then insert the data into a Microsoft Office document or design specification.
―Using smart tags, we were able to reduce two to three minutes worth of work that only a limited number of people knew how to do, to a single mouse-click that everyone can do,‖ Ibrahim says. ―It represents a tremendous efficiency gain across the company, lets our engineers take full advantage of the investment we‘ve made in SAP and MatrixOne, and broadens access to information.‖ Rapid Development It took Honeywell just one month to design its smart tags–based Office Business Application, and three months to build it. Today, the team can build a new smart tag in just four to six weeks; this includes all the back-end Web services and the smart tags themselves. Earlier integration efforts had taken months to build. Honeywell worked with Microsoft Services to develop a proof-of-concept and demonstrate the ability to connect Windows-based desktop computers with Linux and AIX-based server computers and to exchange data. After only a month-long design effort, Honeywell‘s development team used the Microsoft .NET Framework and the Microsoft Visual Studio® 2003 development system to create the interoperability solution. Included in the three-month development period was a twoweek security review to help ensure that the company‘s SAP and product data management systems were secure. ―I understood the business benefit of linking SAP to Office programs, but I was concerned about whether it would be secure, both within the application and over the network,‖ says Tom LaBonte, Manager of SAP Security for Honeywell Global Security. ―It‘s very important to keep our SAP user names and passwords safe, and I‘m very pleased that we were able to create this productivity application so securely.‖
Figure 1. Honeywell uses smart tags technology to pull part data from SAP databases into Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 programs.
Interoperability Built In by Design In addition to smart tags, Honeywell took advantage of three other Microsoft interoperability technologies to create its Office-to-SAP and PDM solution. The most important of these was Web services, which Microsoft has integrated across its product line to enable easy integration of Microsoft and non-Microsoft programs. ―It was very easy to integrate UNIX and Linux-based backend systems with Windows, because smart tags call Web services,‖ Schwaller says. ―The fact that Microsoft has chosen to embrace Web services really opens up the desktop to our users; they can pull information from many different sources. Because they‘re based on Web services, smart tags can connect to any system we have. That gives us a huge advantage and will enable us to build many more smart tags that link to other operating systems and applications.‖ Honeywell also used Microsoft Office 2003 Primary Interop Assemblies (PIAs) to implement its interoperability solution. PIAs make Microsoft Office programs available to
programs built using Visual Studio and allow unmanaged code to be called from managed code by using the Microsoft .NET Framework and the common language runtime. Windows Credential Manager is the third Microsoft interoperability technology that Honeywell used in its smart tags solution. Windows Credential Manager is one of several Windows authentication services that can be used to verify client machines that access remote resources; it stores user credentials locally on individual desktop computers. Honeywell uses Windows Credential Manager to store SAP and PDM user names and passwords. Engineers enter their master Honeywell credentials to log on to the Honeywell network each morning, and then they enter their SAP and PDM credentials just once. Windows Credential Manager saves those credentials, so that users don‘t have to enter them every time they click a smart tag. Seamless Windows-Linux Interaction The Honeywell SAP parts and inventory management databases run on IBM AIX– based server computers, and the Web services integration layer runs on a Red Hat Linux version 4.0–based server. Apache Tomcat is the application server software, and the solution uses an SAP Java Connector to communicate with SAP through SAP Remote Function Calls. When a user clicks a smart tag in a Microsoft Office program, the Windows client software calls a Web service running inside a Tomcat instance. Tomcat uses the Apache AXIS XML–based Web services framework to make remote function calls to the SAP server. The SAP server runs the transaction as if the user were sitting at an SAP thick client. The SAP data is given back to the Web service, which formats it for the smart tag and delivers it back to the smart tag client/user. (See Figure 1.)
Five-Minute Training Schwaller scheduled 30-minute sessions to train engineering teams around the world on the smart tags solution and heard rave reviews. ―I would schedule 30 minutes to explain the solution, but I was always done in 5 minutes,‖ Schwaller says. ―During one presentation, after I finished, no one said anything. Then suddenly, one of the engineering directors exclaimed, ‗It‘s magic!‘ They couldn‘t believe that it was so easy to get to the information that was so critical to them.‖
the timesaving totals 3,750 workdays each year, which Honeywell estimates is worth $1.5 million in annual productivity savings. ―With smart tags, we‘ve returned three to four days of productivity per year to thousands of engineers around the world,‖ Schwaller says. A Honeywell quality inspector in the United Kingdom says of the solution, ―I was surprised at the ease of use and the speed of the smart tags. This is a fantastic concept and will significantly reduce non-value-added time in my daily workload schedule.‖ A U.S. buyer said of the solution, ―It just saves so much time!‖ Faster, Better Decisions Increase Competitive Edge By dramatically improving the accessibility of information that engineers need to design turbos and other products, Honeywell has increased both the quality and speed of design. Engineers can use the extra time to innovate and produce a larger portfolio of products. ―We‘re currently the leader in the turbo field, but efficiency improvements like this will help our engineers collaborate more effectively, make better turbos faster than we could before, and stay out front,‖ Schwaller says. ―The more data you put in front of someone, the better decision you‘ll get.‖ Adds Ibrahim, ―We‘ve been able to bring all the information that engineers need into the applications they like to use. Using smart tags, our engineers are willing to dig a little deeper, gather more information, and thoroughly evaluate all options for their designs.‖ Faster communication among team members yields faster collaboration, faster design cycles, and faster time-to-market. Expanded Use across the Supply Chain With the success of the engineering smart tags project, Honeywell Transportation Systems is now introducing smart tags to
―We‘ve been able to bring all the information that engineers need into the applications they like to use. Using smart tags, our engineers are willing to dig a little deeper [and] gather more information ….‖
Jerry Ibrahim, Director of IT Emerging Technologies, Honeywell Transportation Systems
Within the first five months of their use at Honeywell, smart tags enabled about 50,000 transactions; today, about 10,000 transactions a month go through smart tags. In addition, the number of engineers regularly using SAP to do research and design work has increased from fewer than 500 to thousands worldwide.
Benefits
The new smart tags solution at Honeywell Transportation Systems has produced dramatic productivity savings: 3,750 workdays per year, equivalent to U.S.$1.5 million in engineering time. Also, the ability to quickly access SAP and PDM data encourages engineers to do so, which improves the quality and speed of designs. Having proven how easy and effective it is to link Windows-based desktop computers to non-Microsoft back-end business systems, Honeywell is using smart tags to provide additional linkages across the company. Annual Productivity Savings of $1.5 Million In a mouse-click-count comparison, Honeywell found that under the old system, engineers required 15 clicks and 6 data entry fields to enter SAP data into a Microsoft Office program. Using a smart tag, the same action required just two clicks. Divisionwide,
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 4269400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 5682495. Customers who are deaf or hard-ofhearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com For more information about Honeywell Transportation Systems‘ products and services, call (973) 455-2000 or visit the Web site at: www.honeywell.com
sales people, buyers, and partners in its supply chain organization. ―These are our SAP power users, but smart tags make their job that much faster,‖ Schwaller says. ―When customers are on the phone, for example, they can pull information out of SAP quickly and answer questions right then and there, rather than getting back to customers later.‖ Honeywell Transportation Systems will integrate smart tags into its SAP financial modules to allow faster approval of purchase orders and other documents, and into several internally developed applications. The division has demonstrated smart tags to other Honeywell divisions, too, and all are interested in integrating them into their own applications. ―Because Web services are a standard way of integrating data, we can use smart tags for anything we can dream up,‖ Ibrahim says. ―We will soon start to see smart tags popping up across Honeywell, saving more time for even more people.‖
Microsoft and Interoperability
Microsoft delivers interoperability by design. Microsoft‘s approach to interoperability helps customers focus on the issues most important to their business and operational needs, such as improving business processes, increasing productivity, connecting with customers, reducing costs, and collaborating with other organizations. For more information about Microsoft and Interoperability, go to: www.microsoft.com/interop
Software and Services
Microsoft Office − Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition 2003 Microsoft Visual Studio − Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Windows XP Professional
Services − Microsoft Services Solutions − Office Business Applications Technologies − Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published February 2008