IT professionals in two UK manufacturing firms recently
acquired by foreign rivals could get a career boost from managing
the IT transformation necessitated by the mergers, according to
analyst group AMR Research.
Earlier this month industrial gases firm BOC was bought by
German company Linde for £8bn, and last month Japanese glass
manufacturer NSG bought Pilkington for £2bn.
Pilkington has become a leading example of SAP best practice in
UK manufacturing, according to Derek Prior, research director at
AMR Research.
In 2003, Steven Pownall, Pilkington's group IS director, said,
"Everyone is under pressure to cut costs in infrastructure and
maintenance, but here IT investment is recognised by the business
as not specifically an IT cost but as making a contribution like
any other investment."
The company ran a £40m project to bring common business
processes to 50 separate IT groups across the world and put much of
its business online.
Although NSG is not running the same ERP systems as the UK
manufacturer, the sound Pilkington roll-out would put IT management
in a good position during the merger and beyond, Prior said.
"It definitely can benefit their careers. To put on your CV that
you have been through a merger makes you very valuable, and demand
for these skills will not go away," he said.
BOC's SAP roll-out was more troubled. In 2003, the company wrote
off £5m after problems with the implementation in the US, but it
was now well-regarded, Prior said.
Integration could be easier for BOC than Pilkington, since Linde
also runs SAP. In this case the most valued IT professionals will
be those who have had a role in developing business processes as
well as software expertise. "Somebody who has got a track record
with business users, a knowledge of the business and underlying
software - those people are like gold dust," said Prior.