In concert with e-commerce

With the introduction of its 3C Platform, Enigma rounds out its content and commerce software suite for manufacturers, dealers and operators of capital equipment with a robust collaboration component.

Randy Clark, Enigma’s marketing VP, says, “Large manufacturing companies basically earn all their money in the razor/razor blade model--they build a piece of equipment then sell spare parts for its life cycle.” In fact, he adds, government figures show that 8% of the GDP is capital equipment spare parts.

Clark explains that because it’s so capital intensive, “manufacturing, per se, is not that good a business.” However, aftermarket sales and services account for anywhere from 25% to 40% of the manufacturer’s revenue. And that’s where Enigma’s 3C platform--content, commerce, collaboration--comes into play.

“Our mission is strengthen the relationship between the manufacturer and installed user base. In KM terms, 3C allows manufacturers to take all their intellectual assets and expertise in supporting equipment and share it with the customers in a way that facilitates transactions,” he says.

Through the Web and customer intranets, 3C links original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and operators, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities. The original intellectual property continues to reside on the OEM's extranet for aftermarket support and services, however, 3C allows to establish many subsets of the OEM master site on intranets behind their firewalls. The customers can then integrate their own content, such as best practices or alternate procedures, to these sites, as well as aggregate other suppliers' technical information into their intranets.

With Enigma's 3C Platform, the OEM's Web site and remote intranet sites can then be directly linked to ERP, e-procurement and order management systems. Users can maintain and update the OEM-authored product content that resides behind their firewall.

CommunitySight is the new collaboration component of the Enigma platform and is fully integrated with CommerceSight and the Content Suite. It employs XML-based Web annotation and messaging to improve maintenance productivity, increase equipment uptime and create tighter communities between OEMs, operators and MROs.

Enigma explains, for example, that capital equipment customers can annotate the procedures supplied by an OEM to give immediate feedback on a new service bulletin. These customers can then gather information from mechanics in the field regarding best practices and incorporate it into the OEM's information. When using the updated product information, mechanics can give additional feedback on the customized content, effectively closing the communication loop.

The customer can also route mechanics' and engineers' feedback to the OEM--creating an ongoing cycle of commerce and collaboration based on technical content and intellectual property--because the annotation and feedback forms are attached to specific technical content.