Avnet 2000 Annual Report Download - page 10

has expanded around the world, it has pursued a three-pronged strategy in
establishing its e-business and information technology leadership: establishing
a global SAP platform; Web-enabling its operating groups via internal and
external connections and tools; and establishing collaborative relationships
in the Internet marketspace.
Avnet is creating a single, global, multi-currency, multi-lingual information
technology enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform that supports the
Company’s full suite of products and services. Avnet’s conversion to the
SAP 4.0 client/ server is complete in Europe and Asia. Planning in the
Americas is underway.
The Company continues to create Intranet and extranet connections
facilitating the flow of vital information internally and externally, with
Avnet’s customers, suppliers and vendors. In 1993, Avnet began building a
private wide area network (WAN) to give employees access to vital information
regardless of location. The WAN, which also provides access to the
Company’s Intranet site, now connects all Avnet locations in Europe and
Asia; the Americas should be fully on board in FY’01. Avnet’s Global Data
Warehouse (GDW) allows the Company to consolidate information throughout
Avnet into a single database. The information is then used for a number of
purposes, including optimizing inventory, demand planning using forecast
data and customer relationship management.
For example, by coupling the power of the GDW with the latest online
analytical programming software, Avnet can balance its inventory based on
current and projected need anywhere in the world. And Avnet’s Electronic
Commerce Gateway allows customers and suppliers to send and receive
e-commerce transactions in any format they choose, adding flexibility to the
lineup. The Company is also continuously upgrading employees’ desktops
worldwide to optimize their efforts as new technological innovations
become available.
China ECNet
(Equity investment)
Chinese government-sponsored
venture that selected Avnet as its
exclusive provider of products,
logistics and technical services
to indigenous Chinese original
equipment manufacturers.
China ECNet is the country’s
first Internet venture dedicated to
its exploding electronics industry,
which boasts a 34 percent
compound annual growth rate.
As the third aspect of its three-pronged strategy, Avnet is
establishing strategic relationships with complementary
enterprises in the Internet marketspace. This year, Avnet has accelerated the pace
of its equity investments and/ or alliances with dot-com enterprises that comple-
ment the Company’s own offerings and extend Avnet’s reach even further into the
global technology marketspace: Buckaroo.com, eConnections.com, Viacore.com
and China ECNet (see sidebars).
Avnet is also collaborating in RosettaNet with more than 250 industry participants,
including powerhouses like Cisco Systems, Inc., Intel Corp., Federal Express Corp.
and IBM Corp. RosettaNet, which operates in the information technology and
electronic component realms, is an independent, non-profit consortium dedicated
to the development and deployment of standard electronic business interfaces to
form a common e-business language and align processes between supply-chain
partners on a global basis.
Avnet has received a number of accolades throughout the fiscal year for the
Company’s information technology leadership. For the fourth consecutive year,
Avnet has ranked among the ‘100 Best Places to Work in IT,’ according to
Computerworld magazine's 2000 survey. InformationWeek ranked Avnet 4th
among the Top 500 Technology Innovators in the United States for 2000, up from
14th in 1999. And Avnet’s Web site, www.avnet.com, was listed among the most
promising and competitive B2B Web sites from 25 industries by Forbes maga-
zine. According to Forbes, avnet.com is one of the 25 ‘Best of the Best’ in the
computer/ electronics industry – and was the only distributor recognized in the
category. Two of Avnet's strategic Internet alliances forged in FY’99, ChipCenter
and QuestLink, also made the list. Each company was judged on its strategy,
execution and financial staying power, as well as the quality of the Web site itself.
By creating an IT infrastructure where all Avnet’s business applications are
integrally linked internally and externally through the interconnected marketplace,
Avnet is on the road to establishing the virtual alliances and virtual relationships
worldwide that will secure the Company’s place in the value web, and create
shareholder value over the long term.
Viacore.com
(Strategic alliance/ equity investment)
A supply-chain process service
provider that enables deep,
quick and efficient electronic
process integration between
disparate trading partners.
Together with its strategic
investors, Viacore is the first to
bring to market the rapid, pervasive
and cost-effective deployment of
RosettaNet Partner Interface
Processes (PIPs), a set of
XML-based dialogues that define
how business processes are
communicated.
Brian Hilton, co-President of
Avnet Electronics Marketing (fifth
from left) participates in a cere-
mony at the Great Hall of the
People, Beijing, China, celebrat-
ing the announcement between
the Chinese government and
Avnet to start China ECNet, an
e-commerce initiative.
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COLLABORATION