DaimlerChrysler Rolls Out Standard PCs Worldwide

Computerworld - DaimlerChrysler AG is standardizing its 160,000 PCs worldwide on common hardware and software in an effort to eliminate costly bottlenecks on upgrades and enterprisewide deployments of applications.

The automaker still plans to buy PCs from multiple vendors. But as part of the standardization project, which is called PC Global, DaimlerChrysler will replace all of its desktop and laptop PCs with systems that run Windows XP and meet or exceed certain hardware configurations.

Vince Morrotti, DaimlerChrysler's chief technology officer, said last week that the company has spent much of this year laying the groundwork for PC Global and designing the project plan. Thus far, it has replaced about 20,000 PCs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and it expects to swap out a similar number of systems in North America by year's end. The remaining systems are due to be replaced by the end of 2005.

DaimlerChrysler's use of multiple versions of Windows on hardware with a range of capabilities has made it difficult to quickly install software updates and patches, Morrotti said. He noted that applying a single patch to all of the company's systems can take anywhere from 10 to 30 days. Once the standardization project is complete, IT staffers hope to be able to distribute patches in just one day.

The hodgepodge of PCs has also complicated efforts to roll out enterprise applications, such as new human resources and manufacturing systems, according to Morrotti. He said DaimlerChrysler typically has to do considerable integration work to ensure that new applications will work on all systems. That slows down the work and results in added labor costs.

"Our ability to roll out global systems quickly ... and to respond to the needs of the marketplace was, in fact, inhibited by the heterogeneous nature of our infrastructure," Morrotti said. He added that standardizing PCs "gives us the opportunity to develop systems without putting geographical and/or business unit boundaries around them."

Vince Morrotti, DaimlerChrysler's chief technology officer

"In many companies, desktop management is still a manual process," said Jean-Pierre Garbani, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. Garbani added that he thinks DaimlerChrysler is ahead of the curve among multinational companies in dealing with the need to better automate the process of managing PCs.

The big obstacle for IT managers is the upfront cost of standardizing systems, said IDC analyst Tim Grieser. "It costs money to bring everything forward," Grieser said, adding that a uniform PC environment could also "raise your exposure to certain vulnerabilities." But those security risks are offset by the ability to more quickly distribute patches, he said.