Question relates to technical information (text or graphic data (CAD
files, plans, schematics, etc) used by engineers in the field or a
plant, by repair or maintenance people, or facilities managers.  I'm
trying to find industry or case studies that document the economic
benefits of using document management, facilities management or
content mangement systems.  Benefits could be cost savings, increased
operating efficiencies, increased up time, fewer accidents or others.

I've been to several seminars and heard people something along the
lines of, "Studies have shown that engineers spend 50% (or some
similar number) of their time locating the right information, with our
system we can reduce that time by $70%"  I'd like to actually find
those studies and see what benefits can actually be documented. They
seem to be the type of studies that are done by industry groups,
universities or perhaps vendors for customers that either own and
operate complex facilities such as refineries, chemical plants or
power plants, or they are in the automotive or complex machinery
business.

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Clarification of Question by hanuman67-ga on 20 Aug 2004 14:38 PDT

Of particular interest is the use or value of graphical information
that might be used to trouble shoot a problem.  I'm NOT interested in
GIS systems or maps.  I am interested in plant or facility layouts,
P&IDs, electrical schematics or other technical/engineering info.

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Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 21 Aug 2004 06:35 PDT

Hello hanuman6,

I located a Research Study focused on Document Management (DM) solutions.
The findings of the report found that 83 percent of study participants
felt they had achieved a positive ROI from their DM investments.
http://www.nucleusresearch.com/press_releases/prbdm.html

Is this the kind of study you had in mind?

Thanks,
Bobbie7

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 21 Aug 2004 07:20 PDT

I believe this is the kind of example you're looking for:


http://a1851.g.akamaitech.net/f/1851/2996/24h/cache.xerox.com/downloads/usa/en/s/solutions_chemical_bp_amoco.pdf


although I must say, I found the "study" to be somewhat short on
cost-savings specifics, although there are a few bits of data
scattered around the white paper.

Let me know if this is the sort of thing you had in mind.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by hanuman67-ga on 23 Aug 2004 11:45 PDT

Both studies that were cited approach the right area, but (as you both
noted) lack any sort of specificity or quantification of the benefits.
 Some of the speakers I heard indicated that there were some industry
studies out there that examined how engineers and technicians actually
used there time and related that to the savings.  Souces could be
companies like Accenture or their competitor solution providers,
industry group such as AIIM (document management industry) or industry
groups for professional engineers or facility managers.

I really need some studies with specifics or some quantification,
expecially for benefits other than just a reduced time to retrieve
documents.  Other benefits might be improved operating efficiencies,
reduced down time for facilities, reduced training times.

I hope this helps and thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 23 Aug 2004 12:05 PDT

Dear hanuman67,

Thank you for your clarification.

Please review the following studies.

?Caunton Engineering Ltd implemented an off-the-shelf, intranet-based
document management system to draw together data and processes from
across the firm?s various applications and databases, giving staff and
partners a single view of company and project information. Caunton
estimates that this has led to cost savings of more than £30,000 in
the first three months of operation.?
http://www.itconstructionforum.org.uk/publications/casestudy.asp?id=978
Download here:
http://www.itconstructionforum.org.uk/uploadedFiles/044_CAUNTON.pdf

The Value of Document Management:A Management Summary by Pitney Bowes
http://crm.insightexec.com/cgi-bin/library.cgi?action=detail&id=4990&dir_publisher_varid=10

Do the above studies meet your requirements?

Thanks,
Bobbie7

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Clarification of Question by hanuman67-ga on 24 Aug 2004 16:16 PDT

The Cauton Engineeering is close the area (engineering, plant
managment), but doesn't say anything about how the benefits were
achieved other some in reduced software purchases.  It's the benefits
of saved time, improved operations, less training time, etc. that were
cited and that I'm looking for.

The Pitney Bowes studies are for non-technical areas and fall outside
the scope of my search.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 24 Aug 2004 18:37 PDT

Does this get you any closer?

http://www.microsoft.com/business/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?CaseStudyID=14065

Global Communications Company Reduces Deployment Costs with Software
Management Solution

...?We estimate that Systems Management Server helped us achieve a
cost avoidance of several million U.S. dollars, with our development
and operational costs backed out, last year in software deployment
costs alone,? says Pierce. ?We found that using Systems Management
Server saved us at least 15 minutes per machine for the smallest piece
of software that you can install unattended, and this savings
increased depending on the size and complexity of the software.?

Pierce provides this example: In June 2002, Motorola deployed a patch
for a well-known security vulnerability with SNMP Community String to
66,508 systems. Using the minimum time of 15 minutes to manually apply
the SNMP patch, Motorola saved 16,627 working hours for this one
update alone.

?When you consider that we performed over 807,000 successful software
updates, hot fixes, and security patches to 65,000 desktops in 2002
alone, we saved over 247,000 working hours,? says Pierce. ?Systems
Management Server has paid for itself many times over.?

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Clarification of Question by hanuman67-ga on 25 Aug 2004 11:32 PDT

?When you consider that we performed over 807,000 successful software
updates, hot fixes, and security patches to 65,000 desktops in 2002
alone, we saved over 247,000 working hours,? says Pierce. ?Systems
Management Server has paid for itself many times over.?

This is good example of the type of data that I'm trying to find, it
just isn't in the correct field (software deployment) vs.
technical/engineering information management.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 25 Aug 2004 11:45 PDT

This comes closer, I think, to hitting the nail on the head, but I'm
still not satisfied with the level of detail:



http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/magazine/read.jspx?id=229378&rows=10&page=2

Enterprise Resource Planning - The Ripple Effect


With a budget of $8 million?most going to pay for internal labor
costs?the team began mapping out metrics and integrated business
processes for maintenance; purchasing; and maintenance, repair and
overhaul (MRO) inventory management. One of the most significant
pieces of the project was a common maintenance parts database. Now,
for example, "If you have a gasket in France, you can cross-reference
it in North America,"...NOVA Chemical finished standardizing its
maintenance processes in 2001. Immediately, the financial benefits
were clear. The company shaved 15%?or $10 million?off its annual total
maintenance costs in the first year. Since then, it's managed to cut
an additional 5% from maintenance costs each year, for an average of
$10 million per year.

===========

I'm still looking, but let me know what you think of the above.


paf

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Clarification of Question by hanuman67-ga on 25 Aug 2004 11:58 PDT

paf,

Thank you.  ERP systems examples, such as the one your posted, comes
close, but I'm trying to build a business case for a related
system/add-on and am searching for the underlying metrics to use to
build the case. By underlying metrics, I mean   information or studies
about areas or activities that waste time for engineers/technicians in
performing their tasks in a operating environment such as a plant or
in the field.

Spare parts is really on the edge of this, but it is specific about
the benfits in and is the type of info I'm looking for.

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Clarification of Question by hanuman67-ga on 25 Aug 2004 12:11 PDT

In my last clarification I wrote" "Spare parts is really on the edge
of this, but it is specific about the benfits in and is the type of
info I'm looking for."

I should have written: 
"Spare parts is really on the edge of this, but it is specific about
the benefits TO THE CUSTOMER and is the type of SPECIFICITY I'm looking for."

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Clarification of Question by hanuman67-ga on 25 Aug 2004 13:16 PDT

pafala-ga

I think I may have worn out this topic, but appreciate your
information and effort.  Not sure how it works, but would it be fair
to you to reduce the price on this question, accept your answers with
high marks?  Maybe I can get some more info that will help me repost
the question later.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 25 Aug 2004 13:23 PDT

I appreciate your offer of partial payment for this, but the way
Google Answer works is that the customer (you) pays for an answer. 
Since you didn't receive an answer, it doesn't seem quite right to me
to accept any payment.  Call me old fashioned...

Hopefully, you can fine-tune your question and post it again one of these days.  

All the best...

pafalafa-ga


P.S.  If you're genuinely finished here, you should probably close
this question by going into your GA account and finding the cancel
option.