IT and Globalization at Plantronics

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IT and Globalization at Plantronics

May 2005 Tom Gill
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Agenda

• Plantronics overview
• Plantronics IT
• Globalization at Plantronics
• QA

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Plantronics Overview

• World leader in communications headsets
• 560M annual revenue and growing
• 6000 employees
• Headquartered in Santa Cruz
• Offices in 26 countries

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Plantronics Product Evolution

• 1962 - Introduced first product, a lightweight
  aviation headset
• 1964 - Continued with aviation market by
  providing air traffic control headsets
• 1969 - Went to the moon
• 70s and 80s - Focused on call center and office
  products
• 90s - Expanded product line to include mobile
  and computer headsets
• 2000s - Added USB, gaming (Xbox), residential and
  bluetooth headsets

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Business Growth

• It took twelve years to make our one-millionth
  headset
• We now make over 1 Million headsets per month!

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Product Development at Plantronics

• Design / Engineering Centers
• Santa Cruz
• Tijuana Mexico
• Swindon England
• Suzhou China
• Outsource to partners for special services and
  fast time to market
• Increased emphasis on design
• Products started in the cockpit and call center
  cubicles
• Headsets are now ubiquitous design matters
• Quality is a differentiator
• Very high levels of customer satisfaction
• Very low return rates
• Excellent audio quality

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New Markets Present New Business Challenges
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IT Makes it Happen

• IT is ubiquitous
• Virtually all associates use information
  technology throughout the day
• Consider a day without IT!
• IT solutions have enabled growth
• Advanced supply chain solutions
• Portals / knowledge management
• Information warehouse / Business Intelligence
• Wireless solutions
• Workflow and approval applications
• Shorten cycle time, increase collaboration,
  improve productivity reduce barriers of time and
  geography

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Plantronics IT Organization

• Worldwide team of 75
• IT teams at six largest sites
• Other locations and SOHO sites serviced remotely
• Enterprise applications, WAN and technology
  standards managed centrally
• Local applications and infrastructure managed by
  remote sites
• Payroll, customs, logistics
• Local LAN, voice systems, Exchange servers, etc.
• Local intranets including direct labor kiosks
• WW management team meets weekly
• Communication is key to virtual team success
• Annual offsites and regular travel also key to
  effective collaboration

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Information Technology Footprint Infrastructure

• Dell / Microsoft desktop
• Microsoft Exchange / Outlook messaging
• Cisco networks including WiFi in all locations
• WAN technologies include dedicated circuits,
  frame relay, MPLS, point to point VPNs and remote
  access
• Avaya voice systems (PBX, voicemail, unified
  messaging) migrating to VoIP worldwide
• Mobility devices phones, PDAs, smartphones
• 120 Windows servers
• 40 Sun Solaris (Unix) servers

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Information Technology Footprint Key
Applications

• Oracle eBusiness Suite
• 11.5.8 / 9iR2
• Complete suite (finance, manufacturing,
  purchasing, HR, logistics, order management)
• Self service (iProcurement, iExpense, iStore,
  etc.)
• Single instance / multi org
• Customizations include reports, some forms,
  alerts
• Informatica / Business Objects Information
  Warehouse and Business Intelligence Suite
• Saratoga Avenue CRM
• ATG commerce applications / Interwoven contact
  management
• Microsoft intranet and Sharepoint portals

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Road to CIO

• BS in Business Info Systems from SDSU
• TRW Electronics and Space started as a
  programmer analyst
• Syntelligence expert systems startup
• Tandem computers gained international business
  experience
• Bay Networks emphasis on CRM and web
  technologies
• Plantronics started as Director of Technical
  Services and promoted to CIO in January 2000

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Key IT Management Competencies

• Business enterprise knowledge
• Client partnership
• Business influence
• Change management
• Team leadership
• Empowering others
• Accountability
• Systems thinking

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IT Management Challenges

• Hiring and retaining talented people
• Exciting technologies help
• Culture of learning and innovation is key
• Management role is to provide direction and
  environment to succeed!
• People challenges
• Communication / style
• Corporate vs. remote sites
• Change management
• Internal to IT
• End user impact
• Outages / downtime
• Problems will occur
• Its all in the recovery

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Globalization at Plantronics

• The world is indeed flat
• Started with manufacturing
• Business process outsourcing
• IT offshoring
• Home workers
• IT makes it happen
• Fiber network and Internet break down the
  barriers of time and distance
• Standards enable supply chain integration and the
  virtual corporation
• Plantronics started in 1972!

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First Wave of Globalization - Mexico

• Established Plamex manufacturing facility in 1972
  as a maquiladora
• Moved all manufacturing from Santa Cruz to Mexico
  during the 80s
• Innovative people oriented business culture
  includes
• On site family health care
• Bank accounts with direct deposit
• Transportation to and from work
• Career pathing

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Plamex Today

• Grown from one building to five
• Product design center
• Contact center agents
• Technical assistance
• Inside sales
• Connected to Santa Cruz voice and CRM systems via
  IP network
• Winners of the 2004 Mexico Quality Award

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Globalization Europe

• Started with sales offices
• Expanded to product design center with emphasis
  on local product variants and regulatory
  compliance
• Currently 25 of worldwide revenue
• Contact center flattens Europe
• Technical assistance
• Inside sales
• Customer service / order mgmt
• All VoIP with clusters by region

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Globalization - China

• Started with parts sourcing and contract
  manufacturing
• Design center and manufacturing facility under
  construction planned for March 2006
• Temporary factory established in April
• Temporary design center established this month
• IT makes it happen
• Single instance ERP
• Voice, video and data over IP LAN and WAN

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Manufacturing by Location

• Plamex operations in Mexico
• High quality
• Highly variable product mix / many product
  variants
• Just in time production / made to order
• China contract manufacturing and our future
  Suzhou operation
• High volume products
• Sub assemblies
• Predictable demand due to longer lead times
• Products for local markets

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Globalization IT Enablers

• Standard platforms where appropriate
• Consistent user experience
• Lower support costs
• Security
• Interoperability
• Single instance ERP
• Lower TCO
• Facilitates consolidations and rollups
• Worldwide planning
• Standard processes
• Change control / change mgmt
• Governance
• Virtual teams / collaboration a must
• Sharepoint portal
• Video conferencing
• Web meetings
• IM and mobility

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Lessons Learned

• Globalization
• Cultural awareness / training is a necessity
• Communication
• Preparation key skills
• Written and verbal communications
• Collaboration and virtual teamwork
• Job search advice
• First opportunity may not be ideal but its a
  start
• Consider consulting
• Be patient!