Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
GM Unveils $130M Enterprise Data Center
WARREN, Mich. -- General Motors Co. unveiled Monday its $130-million enterprise data center that will serve as the computing backbone for the automaker's vast global operations.
The center is the capstone of GM's efforts to transform its IT operations to help the company work smarter and faster from the design studio to the factory to the showroom floor, said the chairman and CEO of GM, Dan Akerson.
In its technical center here is the first of two information technology operations and command centers that bring in-house GM's global IT infrastructure and consolidates a network of sites. The two centers will integrate and streamline all aspects of product development, manufacturing, marketing, sales and OnStar applications to speed access to any GM employee anywhere in the world.
"Having a single nerve center for our global operations will get newer vehicle designs and technologies into our customers' hands quicker and improve the bottom line," Akerson said in a prepared statement. "IT is back home where it should be, and it further drives unnecessary complexity from our businesses while improving our operational efficiency and better supporting our business strategy."
For example:
- Simulations of crashes enabled by super-computers generate data that engineers analyze and apply in vehicle design and development or refinement of safety technologies, saving $350,000 for each physical crash test avoided.
- An application that enables global product development teams to make tooling payments to suppliers at key points throughout the development cycle helps the suppliers set priorities in timing the shipment of critical parts and reduces overall engineering expenses by millions.
- Chevrolet tracked sales data of last year's Impala in markets where car buyers traded in non-GM models, enabling a jump-start in sales of the new 2014 Impala in markets where it had underperformed.
The enterprise data center and a companion data center at the Milford Proving Ground are part of a plan announced earlier to transform GM's global IT footprint from 23 centers to two by 2015. Construction of the $100 million data center in Milford will begin this summer.
"Our data center consolidation is just one of the initiatives driving the transformation of GM's business," said Randy Mott, GM vice president and chief information officer, in a prepared statement. "It's part of an overarching strategy to transform not only information technology but also allow GM's business operations to be more responsive to our customers, quicker to market and deliver on our objectives to shareholders."
The 5,040-square-foot IT operations and command center has 48 work stations and a 955-square-foot video wall composed of 28 configurable screens that monitor data across operations around the clock. The modular design of the "white space" in the center, where the technology resides, enables future expansion for handling the increasingly complex computer simulations GM teams need as they work on vehicle design, fuel economy, safety and quality.
SOURCE: General Motors Co.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our free daily email headlines and to our twice-monthly print edition.