Datastream and IBM Global Services Team up for Successful Deployment of Datastream 7i at Florida Rock Industries
Florida Rock uses Datastream 7iTM to consolidate asset management across 150 locations; IBM Global Services provides strategic implementation services
Greenville, S.C. — April 14, 2003 — Datastream Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSTM) today announced that Florida Rock Industries is deploying the Datastream 7i enterprise asset management (EAM) solution across 150 locations in North America.
Florida Rock is one of North America’s largest producers of construction aggregates, concrete and cement. The company’s 150 facilities rely on a large number of fixed and mobile assets to perform its day-to-day operations, including mining equipment, quarry haul trucks, loaders and ready-mix concrete trucks. Florida Rock will use Datastream 7i to improve the financial return on these assets by automating the process of tracking, managing and maintaining them, so they operate at peak efficiency.
“The long term care of our physical assets is critical to our goal of delivering value to our shareholders. We have made significant investments in our fleet and plant assets over the past five years, growing from a net base of $205 million to over $500 million this past year,” said John Baker, CEO of Florida Rock. “We chose to partner with Datastream and IBM Global Services to help us implement systems and processes that will ensure maximum return from these investments.”
Florida Rock is using the multi-site capabilities of Datastream 7i to encompass 150 facilities under a single Web-architected deployment. This radically decreases the total cost of application ownership, when compared to deploying individual applications at each of the 150 facilities, while delivering valuable business intelligence based on the aggregation of data from across the enterprise. This data is brought to life by the Datastream 7i Web-services-based executive dashboard, which gives executives and facility managers “at a glance” information on key performance indicators and other critical metrics, so they can make better business decisions.
“Our management team utilizes a disciplined approach to business planning that includes extensive use of scorecards and visual display of measurable goals,” said Roger Ferenbaugh, CIO of Florida Rock. “We expect Datastream 7i to give us the accurate, real-time data we need to make decisions based on fact, rather than hunch. The Datastream 7i executive dashboard and key performance indicators are an excellent complement to our use of measurement scorecards.”
The deployment of Datastream 7i follows a thorough evaluation process, in which Datastream not only had to rise to the top of a “short list” of vendors, but also had to pass a 30-day field test at two Florida Rock locations utilizing the Datastream hosting service.
“This was a very careful process in which we confirmed the decision through a live proof-of-concept implementation,” said Craig Goldstone, senior consultant for IBM Global Services. “The product demonstrated a clear and rapid time-to-benefit. Its broad functionality addressed everything from complex fleet assets to facility assets. Florida Rock’s operations people were impressed with the ease of use of Datastream 7i.”
“Florida Rock’s expansion strategy has included several acquisitions, which means we’ve inherited a lot of disparate processes and systems for managing our assets,” said Chris Land, project manager and senior business systems analyst with Florida Rock Industries. “Datastream 7i lets us remove this complexity by standardizing our data and processes across all of our facilities with a single, enterprise-wide asset management solution. Another very important part of this implementation is that we’ve validated it with the most important people of all: the workers who will use it every day to keep our equipment up and running. This makes us even more confident that everybody in our organization, from the mechanic to the corporate executive, will benefit from Datastream 7i.”
“Datastream is pleased to be working closely with Florida Rock and IBM Global Services on a project that will deliver real value to Florida Rock’s bottom line. Providing an enterprise solution to asset-intensive companies like Florida Rock is at the heart of what we do well,” said Larry Blackwell, president and CEO of Datastream Systems, Inc. “This competitive win is further evidence that Datastream 7i combines the ‘real world’ functionality that companies need with the enterprise benefits that come from technology built for the Web.”
About Datastream Systems, Inc.
Datastream Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: DSTM) provides Asset Performance Management software and services to enterprises worldwide, including more than 60 percent of the Fortune 500. Datastream’s solutions combine world-class asset management functionality with advanced analytics to deliver a powerful platform for optimizing enterprise asset performance.
By using Datastream’s solutions, customers can maintain and manage capital assets – such as manufacturing equipment, vehicle fleets and buildings – and create analyses and forecasts so they can take action to improve future performance. Datastream’s flagship product, Datastream 7i, delivers a complete Asset Performance Management infrastructure by combining an Internet architecture with broad enterprise asset management functionality, integrated procurement, advanced analytics and multi-site capability.
Datastream was founded in 1986 and has customers in more than 140 countries. For more information, visit http://www.datastream.net/.