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The operational initiatives that we’ve
been implementing since mid-2000 are fundamentally changing how
Agilent does business. These initiatives take many forms but have
a common goal: to make the company better able to manage and succeed
in the business cycles that are an indelible feature of our markets.
To do that, we need to become even more flexible, customer-driven
and cost-effective in order to maximize the value we return to
customers and to shareholders.
In 2002 we continued an ambitious information technology (IT) transformation: the launch of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, a major upgrade to our web environment and, in early fiscal 2003, the rollout of a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. These efforts, taken together, involve reducing several thousand legacy systems and applications to only a few best-in-class integrated information systems. The benefits of the IT transformation are substantial. We will be much easier for customers to work with because they will have access to customized, real-time information. Our people will be able to share information much more easily than they do now. We will be able to manage our assets more cost-effectively. In 2002 we made outstanding progress on the IT transformation while we lowered overall IT spending for legacy applications and infrastructure operations by about $85 million compared with fiscal 2001. |
