Best-of-Breed Software: A New Level of Results and ROI

A New Level of Results and ROI

Until recently, Textron Inc., the $12 billion Providence, R.I.-based parent company of Bell Helicopter, Cessna and other businesses, operated 87 e-mail servers across its global business units. Eighty-seven. It's a number that Larry Costello, Textron's director, finance information systems, often returns to when describing his role in transforming the company.

For five years, through mid-2000, Textron was busy acquiring companies to strengthen its aircraft, fastening systems, industrial products and finance organizations. Now the company wants to meld these acquisitions into a networked enterprise. For Costello, that means standardizing 100 general ledger systems down to one chart of accounts and one consolidation system.

The number 87 serves as Costello's mantra as he works to consolidate corporate performance management applications, a top priority at Textron. It's also a focus for his colleagues who are winnowing out the organization's excess finance applications. "Sometimes the tendency is to roll with what you've gained," Costello notes. "You don't fix what's not broken in that acquisitive mode, and all of a sudden you wind up with 87 e-mail servers and an abundance of financial systems." Textron is investing in both best-of-breed and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to meet its consolidation objectives. "We're transforming the company so that when the economy does pick up, we're in a much better position than we would have been in had we not done this," Costello adds.