Ford Motor Company Globally Deploys eRoom Technology's Digital Workplace for Collaborative eBusiness Initiatives
DEARBORN, Mich. and CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--May 8, 2000--Ford Motor Company today announced that it has signed an enterprise-wide agreement with eRoom Technology, a leading provider of digital workplaces for eBusiness, to manage many of the collaborative activities that support the complex and rapidly changing business projects and processes across its extended enterprise. eRoom will allow Ford to work more closely with its suppliers, partners and customers to design, build, and improve new automotive products and services faster and more efficiently, as well as provide for the knowledge capture and re-use of information developed during these processes. This move represents yet another step toward Ford realizing its eBusiness vision. In addition, Ford has further strengthened its relationship with eRoom Technology by making an equity investment in the company.
"Providing our employees, partners and suppliers with a digital workplace creates a clear, competitive advantage for Ford," said Ford Vice President and CIO Jim Yost. "eRoom will enable the collaborative environment required for both the structured and unstructured business-to-business processes in the extended enterprise. Ford recognizes that the next phase of eBusiness goes beyond simply transacting data; it realizes the need for a digital workplace that allows for more rich interactions, an ongoing exchange of information, and the ability to build working relationships with suppliers and business partners."
Ford's equity investment in eRoom Technology will accelerate the company's ability to further invest in sales and marketing, international business development, and partner and product development.
The eRoom solution will be available to any Ford Motor Company team requiring a collaborative workspace. The eRoom digital workplace allows organizations to quickly assemble a project team wherever people are located and manage a wide variety of business projects. Customers use eRoom for a range of applications including gathering new product requirements, enabling distributed product design and development, roll-out of new products to market, establishment and coordination of changes across the supply chain, coordination of distributed selling efforts worldwide, and management of consulting engagements from requirements through delivery. Using eRoom, customers can create their own digital workplace on the Web in a matter of minutes. It empowers distributed teams to work together more effectively by providing a comprehensive and easy-to-use workplace where they can create and manage a broad range of project content including documents, milestones, issues, changes, discussions, and decisions.
The Ford Systems Integration Center conducted an extensive search and evaluation of eBusiness collaboration products and selected eRoom Technology to provide the business-to-business solution that it needed. "We found eRoom to be an excellent solution which will integrate with and leverage Ford's existing technology infrastructure. It has enough flexibility to be deployed across the entire organization and requires little or no learning curve for our end users," said Robert Dickson, manager, Ford Systems Integration Center.
"In the Internet economy, innovative organizations such as Ford are quickly redefining the value chain for their customers and business partners," said eRoom Technology President and CEO Jeffrey Beir. "eRoom will provide Ford with a competitive edge as today's fast-paced, rapidly-changing global competition requires companies to collaborate on business processes within their organizations and with their customers, suppliers, and other business partners, wherever they are located."
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is the world's second largest automaker, with more than 370,000 employees in 200 markets on six continents. Its automotive brands include Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury, and Volvo. Its automotive-related services include Ford Credit, Quality Care, Hertz, and Visteon Automotive Systems.
eRoom Technology
eRoom Technology is a leading provider of Internet-based software and services for eBusiness collaboration among the members of a company's extended enterprise of employees, customers, suppliers, and other business partners. Its flagship product, eRoom, provides a digital workplace for eBusiness, allowing organizations to quickly assemble a project team wherever people are located and manage the collaborative activities that support their complex and rapidly-changing business projects and processes. Customers use eRoom to get products to market faster, drive down production costs, enhance customer relationships, and improve the work products that drive their businesses. eRoom is used by more than 300 innovative companies such as 3Com, Arthur Andersen, A.T. Kearney, Bausch & Lomb, Cisco, Compaq, Deloitte & Touche, EDS, GTE, Hewlett-Packard, KPMG, Pfizer, Siemens, Towers Perrin, and The Wharton School of Business. More information about eRoom Technology and its product offerings can be found at the new location for the company's Web site, www.eroom.com.
Editor's Note: eRoom is a registered trademark of eRoom Technology, Inc. The names of products of other companies mentioned in this document, if any, may be the registered or unregistered trademarks of the owners of the products.