Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Presentation

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Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.Presentation

• James Jun
  Introduction/ History/ Today/
  Background Environment and Issues
• Manaa Kularayasin What theyve done I
• Young Kim What theyve done II
• Stephen Kwok
  Analysis/ Evaluation/ Recommendation

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Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
Sector Basic Material Industry Chemical
Manufacturing www.airproducts.com 7201
Hamilton Boulevard Allentown,
PA 18195 Phone [phone]  
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Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

• HISTORY
• Founded in 1940, Leonard P. Pool, Detroit,
  Michigan, on-site concept of producing and
  selling industrial gases, primarily oxygen.
• Concept of piping the gas directly from the
  generator to the point of use
• Expanded its business through Internal
  development and Acquisitions

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Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

• TODAY
• Air Products (NYSEAPD) Nearly 20,000 employees
• Customers in technology, energy, healthcare and
  industrial markets worldwide
• 3 Segments
  Gases
  (70), Chemicals (25), and Equipment (5)
• Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ), as of
  1-May-05, Better than 53.6 of SP 500
  companies and 83.6 of Materials
  companies
• Operation over 30 Countries
  United state(50),
  Europe(28), Asia/Other(17), Canada and Latin
  America(5)

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Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

• Background Environment 1990s
• Changing MIS and Business
• Low growth, Low inflation Economy
• Industrial Gases and Chemicals Industry
  Mature Market, Highly Competitive, Excess
  Capacity, Squeezing Margins
• New Focus Productivity, Service Differentiation,
  Cost Containment

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Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

• Background Issues 1990s
• ICON decentralization projects.
• Decentralized MIS staff,
• Global network, client/server architecture,
• New data center issues,
• Outsourcing,
• A new highly strategic customer interface,
• (OOPS) object-oriented programming,
• Future of the MIS organization.

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Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
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Project IBM Consolidation (ICON )

•  Transfer the processing of IBM mainframe
  applications from UK to US through channel
  extension technology and two undersea fiber
  optic cable across the ocean (1991).
•  Challenges close communication, time
  difference(later were solved by automation of
  manual checking and communication)
•  Success resulted in many benefits (Cost saving,
  more applications developed, more customers
  served, the ease in sharing of applications
  between Europe and US)
•  Architecture issue the need to increase
  bandwidth of the network due to high volume of
  communication traffic.

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IT Organization issues... 

• Distribute Systems staff
• ACPI expected multi-tasking capability in new MIS
  professionals.
• ? ACPI should take good care of its MIS
  personnel and treat them with respect. Job
  expansion(e.g. Job enlargement, enrichment,
  rotation, employee empowerment) is suggested. 

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IT Organization issues... - continued
Networks and Client/Server -     Maintenance and
stability of global network is critical.-     Cap
ability of the network should be properly
assigned to suit the telecommunication
costs.-     Multiple national platforms raised
the issue of compatibility of machine.Would
establishing interface be the best
solution?-     Reliability of client/server
networks.-     Software updates, backups and
contingency plans for the existing 8,000
workstations with 280 different hardware and
software configurations were troublesome.? MIS
should adopt Knowledge Management Technology to
ensure one standard of APCIs distributed system
and consistency of data.
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IT Organization issues... - continued

• The Data Center Management
• The problem of bottleneck has been addressed
  by increasing servers.
• Mainframes vs. smaller machines??
• Total costs involved for each choice should be
  assessed.
• (Cost of machine, cost of software systems
  management and
• memory upgrades for 8,000 machines)
• Mainframes are therefore more suitable.
• Prevention of blackout events should be
  guaranteed.
• MIS should still assign one IT technician in
  the data center
• (for physical tasks and technical support)
•  

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    Outsourcing

• Increased necessity for external support
• Managing relationships and portfolios with
  outsourcing
• Regulatory and compliance problems
• Current outsourced significant systems
  development
• Customera project, support of PABXs, all PC
  installations and maintenance, and COM (Computer
  Output to Microfiche/Microfilm) service
• Current evaluating systems European LANs and
  WANs
• Internal IT professional innovative or
  particular task
• Domestic outsourcing (75) Gases MIS, Central
  MIS, Microsoft, HP
• International outsourcing (25) not stable

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Customera

• Customera
• The Era of the Customer (improving customer
  interface)
• Companys the most important new project for
  service differentiation
• Comfortable and efficient order process,
• Key point Integration between Business process
  and IT system
• First service from October 1993

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Organization and Size

• From a part of operating to part of everyones
  job (decentralization).
• To smaller IT unit at the center which may
  consist of telecommunications, architecture
  planning, emerging technologies, standards, and
  professional oversight.
• Key point To get a critical mass in IT center
  for new technologies and to identify the key
  skill sets and core competencies necessary for
  success.
• New requirement for CIO a blend of business
  acumen, IT awareness, and outsourcing
  relationship management skill for the new
  paradigm.

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OOPS

• Objective-oriented programming systems
• Key for reducing MIS cycle times and for
  responding to changing business needs.
• Key point response users need
• Create, apply objects and reuse and integrate one
  already created for the organization.

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Analysis / Evaluation / Recommendations

• What is ahead
• Centralize / Decentralize IT,
• BU Integration , and Outsourcing
• Computing Development
• Strategic Implementation
• Future Role of MIS and CIO

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Centralize / Decentralize IT, BU Integration, and
Outsourcing

• Core MIS
• Database Management / Custom Programming
• Infrastructure Development
• System Planning
• Extended MIS
• BU Liaison
• System Audit

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Centralize / Decentralize IT, Outsourcing, and
BU Integration

• Outsourcing
• Infrastructure Maintenance
• Computing Network
• VoIP
• Video Conferencing
• Desktop Support
• Desktop Hardware Maintenance
• Call Center

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Computing Development

• Object-Oriented Programming
• Modular and Client modifiable Interface
• Database Integration
• Open Source Software
• Linux (ie SuSE)
• Storage Management
• SANS
• Mirror Site

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Computing Development

• Server Farm / Clustering
• VPN / Extranet
• Security
• SSL , SSH, HTTPS, FTPS, Hostbase firewall, ACL,
  etc.
• Internet II
• IPv6

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Strategic Implementation

• Establish MIS as a essential Business Unit
• Develop a global communication procedure within
  MIS
• Call escalation process
• Knowledge management (ie Tivoli)
• BU Integration Training
• Each BU is a client of MIS
• Customer relation and management

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Strategic Future Role of MIS and CIO

• Be an integrated part of business and company
  development
• Knowledge of business process and technical
  computing development
• Manage outsourced and internal processes