The Industry Standard – November 11, 2008 – General Motors (GM), facing possible bankruptcy, has been pursuing efficiencies on the desktop with visual modeling technology that simulates an IT user's experience of a software application before it is deployed. The technology will speed new tool development, cut project costs and increase adoption of IT applications by allowing internal users to weigh in during development, according to GM's Chief Systems and Technology Officer Fred Killeen.

"It's a great way to avoid errors, figure out costs and behaviors," says Gartner analyst Jim Sinur. In the current economic environment, IT is under cost pressures like everyone else. And GM itself is fighting for its life after losing billions of dollars in 2008. At press time, the automaker was seeking federal help to stay afloat. Sinur says that new process technologies allow for the simulation of a process to detect issues early on. Older process technologies required a complete development cycle before finding the issues. "You also had to spend a lot more time modeling before you had a chance to try it out," he says. Visual models also foster collaboration by expediting the ability for far-flung groups to work together, says Marc Halpern, research director in manufacturing advisory services for Gartner.

GM is using visualization software from iRise and a rapid prototyping process developed by Capgemini. The automaker has already implemented a number of business applications built from this modeling process for its manufacturing, human resources and dealer-facing systems. Visual modeling reduced project duration, on average, by 10 percent, according to GM. "We use it early on in any project where we are doing sessions with business customers about how they want the applications to behave and look," says Killeen.

Killeen plans to incorporate IT visual modeling into all of GM's customer-facing applications. "The sooner you deploy, the sooner you get business benefits," he says. "It's less about the development costs and more about the speed to completion."

GM has used visual models before to simulate vehicle design and crash testing. It developed the Production Operations Execution Test Simulator, a tool that simulates the manufacturing plant floor operations and vehicle production, which won a 2008 CIO 100 Award.