DealerConnect and the eEngineering Portal
Also see:
The eEngineering Portal (2002)
The Information Technology Management group developed the eEngineering Portal, a Web-based application that provides access to current engineering data across organizational, company and system boundaries 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to IT chief Sue Unger. Nearly 4,000 employees worldwide -- in Engineering, Product Planning, Purchasing, After Sales and Service -- currently use the system with suppliers being connected in 2002-2003. The worldwide user base is expected to grow to 20,000 by 2004.
"The eEngineering Portal is driving collaboration between virtual teams at DaimlerChrysler and enabling global processes," said Unger. "Work can occur in a parallel rather than in a sequential process, which speeds development and brings the Company significant market and cost benefits." [As far as Allpar knows, this was implemented first at Chrysler, by Chrysler employees, and was to be spread across the corporation, starting with Mitsubishi.]
DealerConnect (2002)
DealerCONNECT is a single point of entry for all Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealer-related transactions and will improve the speed and effectiveness of factory-to-dealer communications. More than 150 dealer-facing transactions are being engineered for DealerCONNECT. Because of standards, all the transactions will have the same look and feel, and will be accessible via a Web browser.
"For example, once the 2003 code guides were approved, we were able to distribute them to all dealers within one hour via DealerCONNECT, cutting two weeks off the process with no delays for printing, mailing or distribution," explained Sue Unger.
DealerCONNECT allows the nearly 5,000 Chrysler Group dealers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and around the world to order vehicles and parts or check inventories and mail from anywhere, at anytime.
"For the Company, DealerCONNECT provides a long-term cost benefit through a centralized, streamlined environment, as well as real-time information sharing," said Unger. "For the dealer, it will simplify his infrastructure, reduce the dealership technology lag and result in a single physical network at the dealership."
[Our note] These technologies are, as far as we know, all outgrowths of existing Chrysler technologies and projects, under way long before the takeover by Mercedes - even though they were billed as "DaimlerChrysler" initiatives, partly because Chrysler's American operations were renamed to DaimlerChrysler Corporation (which does not include Mercedes-Benz USA).