"From procurement and manufacturing to logistics, sales, customer service and accounting, IT plays an integral role in maintaining Dow's efficient operations."

Behind Dow's wide variety of convenient connectivity options lies a solid foundation in information technology (IT). From procurement and manufacturing to logistics, sales, customer service and accounting, IT plays an integral role in maintaining Dow's efficient operations. Dow also uses advanced technologies for modeling in research and process automation, in addition to the traditional IT capabilities that support its extensive, strategic eBusiness portfolio. Using IT to knit all these processes together enables increased connectivity, collaboration and communication options among the chemical industry, making the industry more globally competitive and responsible.

For over 15 years, Dow's strategic work in IT focused on developing global, standardized solutions to enhance productivity and empower employees to more effectively collaborate with customers. The company pioneered the world's first global implementation of SAP, resulting in an enterprise-wide system that integrates every aspect of Dow's organization and creates a common approach to computing around the world. This integrated IT capability was complemented by Dow's global implementation of 50,000 standardized PCs, which was among the first and largest in any industry.

Over the next several years, Next Enterprise Architecture (NEA) will become an industry best practice. NEA is the foundation for future innovative IT solutions, providing a platform to support critical company initiatives, like JVs, emerging geographies, market facing opportunities and M&A’s/divestitures. These initiatives are directly linked to strategic growth and low cost to serve. The new architecture is “net-centric,” and “service oriented,” using the net as the standard way to deliver IT services. Applications deployed on this new platform will be more flexible and adaptable.