Collaboration in the cloud: How Lenovo is teaming with E2open to improve global supply chain execution
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Country
- China
- United States
- Germany
- Japan
Product
- ThinkPad
- ThinkCentre
- ThinkStation
- ThinkServer
- IdeaCentre
Tech Stack
- Cloud Platform
- Automated Procurement Processes
- Digital Key Ordering
- Real-time Tracking
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
- Customer Satisfaction
- Digital Expertise
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries
- Electronics
- Software
Applicable Functions
- Procurement
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Supply Chain Visibility
- Digital Twin
- Inventory Management
- Predictive Maintenance
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- System Integration
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- Training
About The Customer
Lenovo is the world’s second-largest maker of personal computers (PCs) and is known for producing innovative products such as the ThinkPad® notebook, ThinkCentre®, ThinkStation®, ThinkServer®, IdeaCentre®, and IdeaPad® sub-brands. The company has a dominant position in China and has been expanding globally, outpacing the PC industry and nearly doubling its market share by 2011. Lenovo's expansion included key mergers and acquisitions, such as the German PC and consumer electronics company Medion and a joint venture with NEC to form the leading PC business in Japan. Lenovo's acquisition of IBM’s Personal Computing Division in 2005 for $1.75 billion marked a significant milestone, positioning the company as a global player in the PC space.
The Challenge
In 2005, Lenovo acquired IBM’s Personal Computing Division, which led to significant growth and revenue potential. However, the integration posed several operational challenges. Lenovo had to operate its global supply chain on legacy systems, which were expensive and lacked flexibility. The company needed to design and build a worldwide IT platform to transition from these legacy systems quickly and with minimal business disruption. The new platform required improved visibility, efficiency, and responsiveness to manage its growing trading network. Additionally, Lenovo aimed to drive business innovation, operational excellence, and unparalleled customer experience.
The Solution
Lenovo partnered with E2open to design and build a strategic, cloud-based solution for seamless information sharing, process management, and collaborative exception management. Lenovo deployed E2open’s any-to-any cloud platform, enabling data exchange in any preferred payload format and protocol. This automation allowed Lenovo to operate in a real-time, collaborative manner. E2open’s optimized onboarding methodology extended value to trading partners immediately, offering self-configuring connectivity options and eliminating costs associated with testing and infrastructure maintenance. Lenovo also focused on centralized procurement and software license management. By leveraging E2open’s solution, Lenovo gained direct control of strategic components purchasing, regardless of production location, using automated procurement processes from a single hub in Hong Kong. This capability enabled Lenovo to maintain market-competitive, volume-based pricing and the confidentiality of supply agreements. The procurement solution also supported Lenovo's global service network, enabling post-sale, warranty, and service providers to purchase materials at lower, pre-negotiated prices.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Remote Temperature Monitoring of Perishable Goods Saves Money
RMONI was facing temperature monitoring challenges in a cold chain business. A cold chain must be established and maintained to ensure goods have been properly refrigerated during every step of the process, making temperature monitoring a critical business function. Manual registration practice can be very costly, labor intensive and prone to mistakes.
Case Study
Cloud Solution for Energy Management Platform-Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric required a cloud solution for its energy management platform to manage high computational operations, which were essential for catering to client requirements. As the business involves storage and analysis of huge amounts of data, the company also needed a convenient and scalable storage solution to facilitate operations efficiently.
Case Study
Leveraging the IoT to Gain a Competitive Edge in International Competition
Many large manufacturers in and outside Japan are competing for larger market share in the same space, expecting a growing demand for projectors in the areas of entertainment, which requires glamor and strong visual performance as well as digital signage that can attract people’s attention. “It is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate ourselves with stand-alone hardware products,” says Kazuyuki Kitagawa, Director of Service & Support at Panasonic AVC Networks. “In order for Panasonic to grow market share and overall business, it is essential for us to develop solutions that deliver significant added value.” Panasonic believes projection failure and quality deterioration should never happen. This is what and has driven them to make their projectors IoT-enabled. More specifically, Panasonic has developed a system that collects data from projectors, visualizes detailed operational statuses, and predicts issues and address them before failure occurs. Their projectors are embedded with a variety of sensors that measure power supply, voltage, video input/ output signals, intake/exhaust air temperatures, cooling fan operations, and light bulb operating time. These sensors have been used to make the projector more intelligent, automatically suspending operation when the temperature rises excessively, and automatically switching light bulbs. Although this was a great first step, Panasonic projectors were still not equipped with any capability to send the data over a network.
