SkyWave Mobile Communications Launches New M2M Products Faster, Opens Doors to Improved Collaboration with Global Partners
 
 

SkyWave Mobile Communications Launches New M2M Products Faster, Opens Doors to Improved Collaboration with Global Partners

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SkyWave Mobile Communications is a global provider of wireless data communications for the machine-to-machine (M2M) market. SkyWave products provide dependable communication, tracking, monitoring, and remote management of fixed and mobile assets. Over the past 15 years, SkyWave has designed, manufactured, and shipped more than 550,000 Inmarsat-based satellite terminals to customers globally in the transportation, maritime, oil and gas, utilities, and government sectors. SkyWave partners with a global network of solution providers that integrate the company’s hardware into a broad range of applications.

Previously, SkyWave used cumbersome and error-prone Microsoft Excel and manual processes for product lifecycle management. It needed a system to centralize and streamline product records, documentation, item generation, bills of material, and manufacturer parts management. The company also wanted to accelerate time to market for new product launches and improve collaboration with its subcontractors, many of whom operate internationally.

SkyWave implemented Oracle’s Agile Product Collaboration to centralize product data, while improving collaboration companywide and with partners. In addition, the company successfully completed its largest product launch to date, just five months after the implementation of Agile Product Collaboration.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from SkyWave Mobile Communications

  • "Oracle’s Agile Product Collaboration provided SkyWave with a single system of record to better manage our recent product introductions, while enabling broader business collaboration internally as well as externally with global supply chain partners. It truly delivered when we needed it." – Maxime Vadeboncoeur, Manager of Business Practices and Methods, SkyWave Mobile Communications

  • Implement a product lifecycle management system to centralize and streamline product records, documentation, item generation, bill of materials, and manufacturer part management
  • Enable the company to collaborate enterprisewide on a single, product-record platform, as well as interact with subcontractors, many of whom operate internationally
  • Accelerate time to market, particularly for the launch of IsatData Pro—a satellite and satellite-cellular-based terminal product line

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Deployed Oracle’s Agile Product Collaboration to automate many Excel, paper-based and legacy systems’ product management processes, using the centralized system to improve visibility and efficiency
  • Launched IsatData Pro just five months after the Agile Product Collaboration go-live, using the application to create, manage, and collaborate on product items, parts, attributes, documentation, and change management—ensuring future growth opportunities for the company
  • Reduced signoff time for engineering changes to one day or less per functional approval
  • Expanded from 4 active users in engineering to more than 70 users across engineering, manufacturing, operations, product management, marketing, finance, and order management in just 12 months, thanks to the solution’s ease of use and simple user interface
  • Connected the Agile system to SkyWave’s key global supply partners, providing forward visibility into products released in the lifecycle and enabling partners to more easily approve changes and ensure they will work in their regions
  • Integrated Agile Product Collaboration with the company’s enterprise resource planning system for greater financial management and operational planning efficiency

Why Oracle

“We are a small company with a relatively small budget and a need for high levels of system functionality and versatility. Oracle’s Agile Product Collaboration fits our company’s needs like a glove. We have used it since going live without a single customization, and its usability is top notch. We don’t need a database administrator to manage it, since it basically runs on its own, and Oracle support is first class,” said Maxime Vadeboncoeur, manager of business practices and methods, SkyWave Mobile Communications.

Implementation Process

SkyWave completed the implementation in house, in just three months.

“I’m not a DBA or programmer, but I was able to single-handedly deploy and fully configure the solution quickly. It speaks volumes for the software usability, flexibility, and total business value,” said Maxime Vadeboncoeur, manager of business practices and methods, SkyWave Mobile Communications.