Business Intelligence Vendors

The demand for accurate, timely information across disparate systems in an enterprise has been answered by vendors touting some or near total corporate performance management (CPM) capabilities. Yet, while there are plenty of vendors to choose from, there is no overall CPM market leader. Attempting to gain a competitive advantage in the crowded business intelligence (BI) and CPM market, some enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors are resorting to prudent BI and enterprise process management (EPM) acquisitions.

Geac Goes the Acquisition Route

Geac Computers' 2003 acquisition of former financial analytics provider Comshare has resulted in Geac MPC. Geac MPC is a single, integrated CPM offering that supports dynamic planning and analysis for CFOs, and improves visibility throughout the organization with the aim of a single version of the truth, and no surprises. Although Hyperion and Cognos are the undisputed leaders in financial planning and budgeting, with Oracle (including the former PeopleSoft Enterprise Performance Management product) and SAP also having a sizeable market share, Geac, is still worth mentioning. While not a market leader per se, it is still notable because it has been reinventing itself within the realm of BI.

Part Five of the Business Intelligence Report Status Quo series.

Geac MPC is a centrally-maintained, Web-based application that provides the enterprise's strategy formulation, planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, and reporting and analysis functionality that users need to run their business efficiently and effectively. It is a unified, comprehensive solution that enables management to set strategic goals and translate them into action plans, track results, and take corrective action as needed—all based on a continuous flow of near real-time performance data. In other words, with the solution, organizations should be able to model business plans to develop effective strategies, link these strategies to budgets for better resource allocation, automate global financial consolidation to see accurate results faster, generate statistically accurate budgets and plans, and report and analyze data in the most meaningful ways. All this should reduce the time spent performing manual tasks, and free managers to spend more time analyzing results, evaluating alternatives, and implementing business decisions.

Although integration should be one of the cornerstones of CPM offerings, unfortunately, solutions offered by most vendors are not often integrated. Instead, the solutions are made up of multiple diverse (acquired) applications and administration tools that focus on making interfaces, audits, and reconciliations more efficient. This requires companies to have separate IT and finance department support for each of these applications, with the result being that both the financial and IT staff spend most of their time trying to ensure that each system has the same data, and that the users are accessing the correct, most recent data. Needless to say, these types of solutions could be unnecessarily expensive, may require multiple implementations, and are difficult to administer and maintain, and as a result, they struggle to promote collaboration and do not maximize return on investment (ROI).

To remedy this problem, Geac MPC stores business information on a single platform, using a single business model. Data is contributed only once, which eliminates the need to re-key or link data, copy and distribute templates, and guess which version of the data is correct, as is often the case with error-prone spreadsheet-based management systems. Enterprises should benefit from data integrity, one version of the truth creating confidence in the produced numbers and figures, and a clearer line of sight into operational performance. Furthermore, business professionals, with proper user security, can access data immediately via a Web browser, MS Excel, and a personal digital assistant (PDA), which all should in turn lead to improved productivity. When modifications to structures, business rules, calculations, or the application are necessary, they need to only be made once and are automatically reflected throughout the application. Geac MPC can do this all by leveraging the data stored in existing underlying transactional systems which will allow everyone across the enterprise to work with the same version of accurate, up-to-date information.

In May, Geac launched a major new release, Geac MPC 7, which should offer Global 2000 companies multiple benefits, including improved enterprise-wide planning and alignment, streamlined reporting, and simplified compliance. The product, which has already been delivered to early adopter customers, will be generally available worldwide this summer, and should further advance how enterprise-wide strategic and operational business planning is done. Rather than just periodically updating a scorecard with operational results, Geac MPC 7 will help organizations transform and communicate their strategic plans into quantifiable objectives, tactics, and supporting activities with assigned ownership at the correct responsibility level throughout the enterprise. Consequently, the result will be a collaborative environment for planning, tracking, and predicting progress toward key management objectives.

To that end, Geac Planning is an enhanced planning application that is geared toward making the planning process easier, from a single planner creating "what-if" operational plans to multiple teams of collaborative planners around the world. The application is driven through a fairly easy-to-use Excel interface, whereby a planner may, for example, set a high-level target needed to achieve a desired profitability percentage and then let the system adjust ("spread") the values of the chosen plan variables to achieve the goal. Planners may also add, delete, or change business assumptions and structures at will and in near real time, leveraging Excel's strong and flexible data gathering, reporting, and formatting capabilities. This should create a much more nimble planning environment that should also drive changes in operational plans and budgets for the enterprise. As a result, alignment throughout the organization should occur more quickly and efficiently, and communication should be quite enhanced. Because the application is built with centralized controls on the Geac MPC financial application foundation, business users can collaborate on the same plan without having to keep track of how the changes made through the planning process will be driven into the "system of record". Geac Planning also organizes and manages the sharing of structures and data across the planning environment, allowing the information to be used to seed the budget, measure operational plans, or build long-range strategic planning models.

Further, meeting the need for sophisticated formalized reporting, Geac MPC 7 offers a new management reporting capability featuring a creation wizard, which streamlines initial report design and shortens the time to create and deliver critical enterprise reporting. Excel power users often want to do highly personalized analysis and reporting from their performance management systems, and, to that end, the product extends the current Excel Services functionality to deliver Excel cell-based reporting capabilities. Users can leverage the data in the centralized application without giving up any of the flexibility they need and can create virtually any layout they choose without the need for pre-built views, templates, or formatting requirements. In addition, Geac offers a production reporting module that integrates Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services, broadening the range of reporting options available to Geac MPC customers.

Last but not least, Geac MPC OpenLink is a Web-based mapping tool that simplifies the process of accurately moving data from multiple ERP and other transactional source systems to the Geac MPC application. The tool helps to relatively quickly define the mapping profile using either a basic or advanced pattern-matching syntax for one or more data sources; processes the mapping profile, loads the information into the application, and provides an audit trail of the mapping process. OpenLink is designed to work with the most popular and widely deployed ERP and general ledgers on the market. Along these lines, Geac MPC Fast-Track is a set of packaged application integrations between the Geac MPC performance management software and several Geac ERP offerings, such as Geac E Series, Geac M Series, Geac SmartStream, and Geac System21.

Yet, as seen with Geac MPC, financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and planning are at the heart of a CPM solution, however, without these features, true CPM cannot be achieved (see Financial Reporting, Planning, and Budgeting as Necessary Pieces of EPM). Moreover, although CPM starts with strong financial management, it will eventually extend beyond financial planning to almost all areas of corporate activity. Therefore, organizations choosing BI suites should consider both their financial management tools and future integration with key business-area solutions, such as, product lifecycle management (PLM), customer resource management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), etc. Thus, eventually, more organizations will turn away from best-of-breed BI point solutions to pursue integrated CPM suites, possibly with the idea of having a corporate-wide BI/CPM standard, as they seek to source components from a single vendor rather than integrate disparate product sets themselves.


SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/business-intelligence-vendors-18058/

Intentia Prepares for Merger

Not waiting for the merger transaction with Lawson Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: LWSN) to close, Intentia International AB (XSSE: INT B) announced the release of Intentia Application Suite (IAS) 5.1. IAS is a full integration of Intentia's entire application portfolio that, like Lawson's upcoming Landmark product, uses service-oriented architecture (SOA) to create business processes and develop applications flexibly, while enabling Web services and a faster return on investment (ROI). For details on the merger announcement, see "New" Lawson Software's Transatlantic Extended-ERP Intentions. IAS is a solution aimed specifically at companies in the manufacturing, distribution, and maintenance industries. Particular focus is placed on those companies in food and beverage, fashion, wholesale distribution, and asset and maintenance intensive industries that include enterprise asset management (EAM) and product service management (PSM). It consists of eight Intentia application areas, including customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise management (ENM), supplier relationship management (SRM), supply chain management (SCM), enterprise process management (EPM), workplace management (WPM), value chain collaboration (VCC), and foundation and tools (FTO).

Part two of the "New" Lawson Software's Transatlantic Extended-ERP Intentions series.

Intentia points out that the product is further evidence of the company's ongoing commitment to SOA (for more of pertinent information, see SOA-based Applications and Infrastructure--The Next Frontier?). Intentia invested early in Java technology and currently has over 250 live customer implementations, and it already delivers a fully Web services-enabled application suite.

The latest release boasts many new features within the CRM, SCM, and FTO applications. Within the CRM applications, the Intentia e-Sales product has a new advanced channel, category, and market analysis functionality, which is provided through Cognos ReportNet. It is designed to improve a user company's ability to implement sales strategies in order to increase revenue and profit. In addition, new capabilities should help fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies improve category, space, and promotion management. Information from both the sales and order fulfillment processes is now available in the field sales solution, which should enable salespeople to improve individual efficiency during customer visits, and ultimately, create opportunities to increase sales.

This is Part Two of a four-part note. Part One detailed the merger. Part Three will analyze the market impact. Part Four will cover challenges and make user recommendations.

Supply Chain Management

Within the supply chain planning (SCP) realm of the SCM applications, Intentia has introduced sales quotas, transport rules, and purchase agreements functionality. These constraints aim at increasing planning efficiency and optimizing profit by controlling what, how much, when, and to whom products are purchased, processed, moved, and sold. Lastly, Movex Adaptation Kit (MAK), a tool within FTO, has new features that reduce the time, effort, and cost involved in supporting and maintaining IAS. These new features include validation wizards, improved language editing, and one-click analyses.

As to further vertically differentiate its functional scope, mid-July, Intentia also released a stock build optimization solution that strives to maximize food and beverage manufacturers' stock mixes and reduce the surplus of finished goods inventory by up to 20 percent to avoid stockouts and product waste. In other words, the solution tackles one of the major issues facing the food and beverage industry—the need to build stock to meet seasonal peaks and promotional spikes. According to reports from the Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufacturers of America, product waste is estimated to have cost food manufacturers $2.57 billion (USD) in 2004, and $6 billion (USD) in lost retail sales from stockouts, which run as high as 13 percent during promotion periods.

To that end, the Intentia solution processes a wide spectrum of business variables that impact stock exposure risk. Today, manufacturers still rely heavily on spreadsheets to calculate stock builds, which becomes unmanageable given the number of products and factors that must be navigated. These include changes to capacity, shelf life and cost constraints, margins, new products, and recipe and manufacturing process changes. In fact, according to a measurement formula created by Intentia, the level of stock build complexity increases exponentially with the number of production lines and products planned. For example, increasing the number of products from two to four over a twelve week planning period increases data complexity by a factor of 100, and from two products to six by a factor of 10,000.

To calculate the optimum target stock per period, by product stock keeping unit (SKU) and to meet peaks based on demand forecast, available production capacity, existing inventory, and costs, the stock build optimization solution creates a time-phased stock plan—reportedly in a matter of minutes. This plan optimizes customer service levels and profit margins, thus eliminating over-stocking and the risk of product waste. The solution also incorporates the shelf life of each product, regardless of whether the products are stored under room temperature, chilled, or frozen conditions.

During the stock build optimization process, the solution evaluates the cost impact of alternative manufacturing processes, production costs, and stock holding costs to ensure that all possibilities are explored. Maximum and minimum stock levels and the days' coverage of stock are taken into account during the stock build process. In addition to managing these complex variables, Intentia's stock build optimization solution provides manufacturers with the opportunity to collaborate with retailers by creating promotional scenarios and proposals that can utilize spare capacity and inventory. The solution might have the added advantage of requiring little or no alteration to current business processes, as it runs on a personal computer (PC) with Windows XP, and takes approximately 15 to 20 days to install, while using only limited resources from the user company.


SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/intentia-prepares-for-merger-with-lawson-18237/

Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) in ProcessPart 3: Process PLM Requirements

In Part One of this series, we discussed Product Life Cycle Management as a proven concept in the discrete industries and as a growing concept in process. In Part Two we examined the motivations for a process company to undertake a PLM project. In this part, we explore the requirements for PLM in the process enterprises.

In Part Two of this series, we stated that a comprehensive approach was required in order to meet the time-to-market requirement. Key to that comprehensive approach is a central repository that completely defines the information needed for the life cycle of the product. This repository must store the information to support the entire cycle, from idea, through R&D, through commercialization and into the many revisions and eventual retirement of the product.

Some of the data stored in the repository is common with the needs of discrete PLM systems but much is unique to the process industry. Common data includes project information such as workflow, basic project management information, approval information, and high-level product concepts. The data unique to the process industry includes product information such as formula (ingredients only) and recipe (formula plus processing procedures), packaging specifications, processing steps, test procedures, and plant independent production requirements.

A comprehensive approach also means that many organizations and individuals must collaborate in the process. Because this collaboration spans different levels of the organizations, the solution requires seamless integration between the project information and the product information in order to allow for a coordinated, collaborative business process. The organizations and individuals are both internal (marketing, legal, advertising R&D, production, etc.) and external (testing labs, outsourced production, ad agencies, etc.).

Specific Process PLM Requirements include:

* Web-Based Deployment

* Process Specific Tools

* Global Standards

* Centralized, Integrated Project and Product Information

* Product Portfolio Management

Web-Based Deployment

In today's environment, these internal and external entities are often combined into ever changing virtual teams to meet the requirements of a specific product or project. Today, this is very true in discrete manufacturing and a growing trend in process. . Therefore, the PLM system must accommodate rapid, global deployment of the system. This need drives a requirement for web-based deployment in order to minimize both the start-up and the long-term cost of ownership of the system.

Process Specific Tools

The productivity of the various collaborators must be addressed with a variety of tools. R&D personnel require process specific tools to build and search material specifications to enable them to locate candidates that are similar to existing products or ingredients. A variety of formula analysis and balancing tools will speed the calculation intensive process of formula development, leading to both greater productivity and the ability to evaluate more alternatives. Some of these tools are specific to an industry, like nutritional analysis and label development in the food industry.

To speed the product commercialization phase, the data repository must provide support for production scale up and tools to enable the knowledge transfer to production facilities. Since these facilities are increasingly outsourced locations, a plant independent and ideally standards based (SP88) approach must be supported. To select production facilities that allow for the maximization of profit across the extended enterprise (including outsourced location) tools must be available to intelligently match production requirements with the available capacity.

Global Standards

To continually drive out cost, the PLM system should contribute to the global standardization of recipes to reduce redundancy and global standardization of ingredients to increase the impact of the buying power of the enterprise and drive down the investment in redundant inventory.

Centralized, Integrated Project and Product Information

Since the development of a new product or the revision of an existing product is conducted as a project, the PLM system must provide project management capabilities designed for the needs of PLM, for example automating the stage-gate processes common in product development processes. Much of the benefits of a PLM system come from synchronizing the business process that companies use across departments and enterprises. This synchronization needs to include both project and product information, for example the automated routing of new recipes for approval across multiple departments. This drives the need for centralized, integrated project and product information.

Product Portfolio Management

Another key area of integration is portfolio management. The management of the product portfolio represents an additional level of requirements. The above requirements deal with individual projects or products. Portfolio management manages the conflicting objectives of many projects and products. Portfolio management must allow a managerial view of all products and projects in order to achieve balance with the company's strategic objectives. For a valuable comparison of often disparate project to be made, it is very important that the data used for decision making is strongly tied to the reality of the project, allowing key decision makers to drill down into the necessary details of the projects as required.



SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/product-life-cycle-management-plm-in-processpart-3-process-plm-requirements-16837/

Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) in Process Part 2 Process PLM Motivation

In Part One of this series, we discussed Product Life Cycle Management as a proven concept in the discrete industries and as a growing concept in process. In this part, we explore the business motivations for PLM in process enterprises by reviewing business strategies. In part three, we will look at requirements for Process PLM decisions.

The business strategies reviewed are:

* Accelerating Time-to-Market

* Increasing the success rate of new products

* Increasing the profitability of products

* Increasing return on assets

Accelerating Time-to-Market

Time-To-Market is the delay between an idea, from the marketing department or a customer, to the general availability of the product. The compression of this time leads to greater responsiveness to market demand, greater market share and greater profitability. Time-To-Market can be broken into two periods, idea to final product design and the decision to commercialize the product to its availability on the market. Speeding Time-To-Market encompasses both time periods.

Time-To-Market is not only important for new products. The Director of R&D of a leading food company tells us that 50% of her R&D efforts are for new products. The remaining 50% are on changes to existing products. These changes are demanded from a variety of reasons including cost reduction programs and reacting to changes in raw material supply.

To speed Time-To-Market, a comprehensive approach is required. The business processes involved include many internal and external organizations. Internal organizations often include marketing, R&D, production, quality and others. External organizations may include third party R&D, testing facilities, customers, suppliers, outsourced manufacturing and others. These many organizations must be managed as a single entity sharing in a single process with a single view of the product and project (with the appropriate security concerns.)

Speeding Time-To-Market requires providing the creative team with appropriate productivity tools. Providing the chemist, flavorist, food engineer, nutritionist, and others with the right tools increases productivity and speeds Time-To-Market. These tools include the ability to identify existing materials or products with appropriate or similar characteristics, formula analysis and balancing tools that help to more efficiently develop the optimal formula, label generation tools to comply with regulatory labeling requirements, and more. In addition, the integration of administrative functions into the processes can minimize unproductive administrative workloads.

Once the final product is approved for commercialization, the task of transferring the product from R&D to full commercial viability is required. Much of this task is a transfer of technology. The product and processes must be transferred to the appropriate system or organization, be they internal or external. The appropriate plant or plants must be selected for production and the product data and processes transferred and implemented. This includes plant and corporate level systems like ERP, SCP, quality, MES and others. Automating the technology transfer is a key weapon in speeding Time-To-Market.

Increasing the Success Rate of New Products

In some markets, like CPG and food, the failure rate of new product introduction is very high, one source places it a 70%. A major motivation for Process PLM is decreasing the rate of failure or increasing the rate of success.

The most obvious way to increase the success rate is to not bring the failures to market. Actually, killing off products or projects that are doomed to failure as early as possible is a key to many objectives. This requires a management approach that looks at all projects and products as a portfolio to be managed together. It requires tools to evaluate the competing projects and products objectively.

These management tools must address the development process itself. Which projects are behind schedule? What are the steps to be initiated once a particular step in the process is approved and who approves. These management processes must be automated thought workflow approaches to define and ensure best practice, reduce handoff times and to allow for clear accountability and continuous improvement.

To be successful, a product must meet the needs of the customer. The marketing organization or customer defines these needs as a set of requirements. These requirements can include final product cost, physical or chemical specifications, customer perceptions and others. These requirements must be used continually to project the success of the product. A key is the early identification of "losers" to maximize the attention spent on the eventual "winners."

SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/product-life-cycle-management-plm-in-process-part-2-process-plm-motivation-16822/

How Project Portfolio Management Can Deal a Winning Hand to the SMB Project Manager

As organizations fight tenaciously for every inch of market share, IT departments have had to deploy technology that assists these dynamic organizations to remain competitive. One of these technologies is project portfolio management (PPM): a set of processes to analyze, recommend, authorize, activate, expedite, and monitor projects to meet organization improvement goals. Figure 1 provides a visual of these processes and how they flow during a project.
According to The AMA Handbook of Project Management (2nd edition), PPM, when used to its full potential, can assist organizations to realize the following goals:

*

an estimated 20–30 percent reduction in the time it takes to develop new products
*

significant improvement in completing projects on time and on budget
*

improvements in research and development (R&D) productivity

How Organizations Should Support PPM

To support a PPM system, organizations must have an internal process for each of the following:

1. Governance—the executive role in the decision-making process, usually conducted by a C-level executive who determines

*

what projects to approve or reject, as priorities are determined
*

when to activate projects, and establishes their completion dates
*

what resources are required (both capital and human), and sets the project budget

2. Management—the process that monitors a project to ensure it is fulfilling its stated goals and that it is running on time and on budget. Such monitoring is usually the responsibility of the project manager (PM) and the project management office.

3. Administration—the management and updating of project portfolios according to their deliverables and resources (planned and used) in order to document the project status, note key milestones, and ensure adherence to the schedule for project deliverables. Usually the mandate of the PM.

The Democratization of PPM

Long before the digital age, British novelist G.K. Chesterton wrote: "You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy to start a revolution."

This paradox holds true when you consider the modern business landscape, which has seen the decision-making process transform from being the responsibility of a mere handful of top-level executives, to include a greater number of people across many departments and levels within the organization. To a large degree, this transformation has occurred because of the ever-increasing number of methods corporate data is collected and processed to allow greater visibility for management and to support the business process.

The average small to medium business (SMB) has many of the same strategic needs as Fortune 500 organizations have for processing data into information. Consider an SMB's need to integrate technologies to support its manufacturing and supply chain issues, which affect the organization's ability to generate revenues. These SMBs may sell to larger organizations, which demands greater integration with these organizations' business processes and systems. The requirements have an impact on everything from product design to engineering, to sourcing and procurement, to sales and distribution, coupled with greater compliance issues and regulatory concerns.

The mid-market has limped along with rigid systems and processes that were developed on platforms and architecture now about 20 years old. As a result, organizations have had to create a variety of ad hoc reports by using spreadsheets, replete with the constraints of inaccurate and static data. When managing projects, spreadsheets are a poor way to track changes, as they leave no audit trails, and they are an inadequate medium for interpreting data.

Until recently, PPM was viewed as a solution only larger organizations could benefit from, the logic being that PPM was time-consuming and costly to deploy. For SMBs, the cost of software licensing, hardware, and consulting services, as well as disruption to a business's day-to-day operations during implementation of PPM, were simply too high.

So what alternatives to using spreadsheets, with all their inherent flaws that risk the loss of valuable revenues to increasing global competition, do SMBs have?

The Hosted PPM Alternative

Many PPM vendors that originally sold on-premise solutions have made a transition into the on-demand marketplace. The primary reason for this change is that they have realized the potential value of this untapped market space, as software as a service (SaaS) offers a number of advantages to the client in the SMB market:

*

No software needs to be installed.
*

No infrastructure is required to support the application.
*

The SaaS vendor manages all network issues and all software version updates.
*

SaaS applications result in a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). On-premise software can cost a substantial amount in implementation fees and user support.
*

SaaS applications allow scalability. Many of the features designed for an on-premise PPM system may be too robust for the small business user. But users can derive the benefits of a PPM system with an on-demand application, even if at first they are using only the parts of the software they require. Features and functionality can be added later, as users become more familiar with the application.

A Snapshot of Some PPM Solution Providers in the SaaS Space

1. Genius Inside

Established in 1997 and headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, Genius Inside creates and sells enterprise project management solutions, known as Genius Project.

With over 70,000 North American users and close to 400 installs worldwide, Genius Inside also has a vast network of resellers, and the company is a certified IBM Business Partner. The software is designed for the Lotus Domino Collaboration server, and has won numerous awards, such as the 2008 Lotus award for Best Mid-Market Solution. The product is a comprehensive set of integrated applications across ten modules.

Genius Project: Features and Benefits

*

User-friendly software with a customizable user interface.
*

Numerous standard templates, such as Project Management Institute (PMI), PRINCE2, and Six Sigma, which easily integrate to an organization's existing processes within its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, such as procurement, accounting, etc.
*

A complete project management solution, including portfolio management, project tracking, cost and budget tracking, planning tools, etc.
*

A resource management system, with user-friendly and customizable time- and tracking-sheets, advanced reporting, process and workflow support, a document management system, and the ability to use rich collaboration.
*

A cross-industry solution that can be used in both process and discrete manufacturing environments, and that is scalable to both large global locations and small offices having two or three users.
*

Reports that can be exported to MS Project, and vice versa.
*

Project information work breakdown schedule (WBS) that can be displayed in Gantt chart format.
*

Multi-project milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be displayed and that support rich analytics using online analytical processing (OLAP) tools through a business intelligence (BI) interface.

For more information on this vendor, please visit www.geniusinside.com.

2. Innotas

In 2000, this Silicon Valley, California (US)-based vendor was acquired by venture capital firm Com Ventures, and formed a joint venture with Arrow Path Venture and Cedar Circle. This venture provided the seed capital to launch the Innotas solution, which made its market debut in 2006. The success of this product was recently documented by Gartner in its June 16, 2008 edition of Magic Quadrant for IT Project and Portfolio Management, a notable achievement for an organization in its early stages. As stated in Gartner's report,

PPM prospects small and large (based on the number of potential PPM end users) increasingly are considering SaaS/on-demand as an alternative option for deploying PPM technologies, which will lead to more market consolidation and more competitive pricing.

Innotas's main thrust is in the area of managing IT project portfolios, which can differ in some respects from non-IT-based PPM. SaaS model PPM isn't usually the most obvious choice for outsourcing, given the complexities of managing large-scale projects. However, Innotas, with its product known initially for being a tool to manage projects within the IT sphere, has recently announced that its new application's management capabilities will permit the vendor to broaden its industry and customer base.

Innotas Features and Benefits

*

Three core modules that fall under the portfolio management umbrella.
*

Project Portfolio Management permits organizations to select and indicate the priority of various project portfolios, to align themselves with strategic business goals.
*

Application Portfolio Management helps firms determine what the costs are according to budget and resource allocation in order to support critical processes and work flows and which applications not supported further beyond strategic objectives.
*

Project Portfolio Management and Application Portfolio Management include flexible and structured hierarchy-based portfolios that permit users to integrate their business process change scenarios according to customer-driven KPI metrics or relationships.
*

Resource Management gives a global, macro, and micro view into overall resource capacity for staffing projects and applications, both at the project development stage and while the project is in progress.

For more information on this vendor, please visit www.innotas.com.

3. Meridian Systems

Meridian, based in Folsom, California (US), provides software solutions for construction projects and to facilitate physical infrastructure improvements. Meridian has been ranked as the market leader for project management software within the construction industry by Constructech magazine, which also ranked the vendor's solutions as top products in March 2008.


SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/how-project-portfolio-management-can-deal-a-winning-hand-to-the-smb-project-manager-19410/

Supplier Logistics Management (SLM) Part 3

Supply chain executives are in the hot seat given the flat economy and a slowdown in revenue growth. They are challenged by senior executives to find new and innovative ways to reduce cost, while still meeting customer needs. However, in today's customer-centric environment, meeting customer's expectations is not a competitive advantage, but a fundamental necessity of existence. Delivering products on time, at a higher level of service, is now a standard expectation, leaving limited room to leverage performance as a sustainable competitive advantage.

To reduce costs and gain a competitive advantage, supply chain executives need to focus on supplier management inefficiencies in their supply chain. Ignoring upstream supply chain activities can be costly. For instance, it has been estimated that the food and beverage industry loses $7 to $12 Billion per year through incorrect data flows between suppliers and retailers. Additionally, when European consumer goods and food retailers lost more than $17 billion in inventory last year, they could only explain about 41% of these losses. Results like this point to the strategic advantage supply chain executives can obtain by focusing on improving their fragmented and complex supplier logistics networks. Through improved supplier logistics management, supply chain executives can provide senior management the silver bullet they are looking for to minimize operational inefficiencies, reduce costs and gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

This is Part Three of three-part note.

Part One covered how Technology Enables Supplier Logistics Management.

Part Two covers the Seven Fundamental Issues Targeted by Supplier Logistics Management.

(1) Kraft In Sync with Shaw's Supermarkets' Consumer Goods Technology, Ralph Bernstein, June 2001
(2) Unexplainable Losses', Traffic World, John Parker, June 4, 2001

Supplier Logistics Management Targets Seven Fundamental Issues

With the Internet as the road and Net-Native applications the vehicle, supply chain executives have the opportunity to drive significant efficiency improvements and cost reductions through Supplier Logistics Management (SLM). SLM enables companies and their suppliers to successfully synchronize information; thereby, allowing companies to extend supply chain optimization and process flows to their supplier base. With SLM in place, companies can target seven fundamental supply chain issues facing the management of successful supplier fulfillment:

1. Order Visibility and Event Management
(see Part Two of this article)
2. Inbound Planning and Optimization
(see Part Two of this article)
3. Information Synchronization
(see Part Two of this article)
4. Supplier Management and Compliance
5. Available-to-Promise
6. Forecasting and Capacity Management
7. Resource Scheduling

Supplier Management and Compliance

Historically, supplier management and compliance have been an administrative and labor-intensive headache for both companies and their suppliers. Companies typically devote teams of individuals to ensure suppliers comply with corporate routing guides, ordering instructions and appointment scheduling. Suppliers, on the other hand, are flooded with frequently updated paper based routing guides from multiple customers. (For example, one large retailer sends its' suppliers routing guide updates as frequently as every two weeks.) In addition, long hours are spent on the phone waiting to schedule appointments. SLM brings efficiencies to both suppliers and their customers by reducing overhead for both entities. By leveraging a customized on-line, inbound routing guide, paper correspondence is rendered obsolete and inbound carrier selection and shipment tendering is completely automated.

Through appointment scheduling automation, suppliers and carriers, can schedule pickup and delivery appointments without human intervention. On average, shippers and consignees spend upwards of 40% of their time on the phone scheduling and managing appointments(3). (As an example, one large grocery chain frequently keeps suppliers on hold for upwards of an hour to schedule an appointment, while one large retailer does not answer appointment requests of suppliers until the next day).

By adopting technologies such as integrated voice response and PDAs, carriers have the opportunity to reschedule appointments when they anticipate pickup or delivery problems due to weather, traffic or other operational problems. Mutual benefits exist as companies become more flexible to free dock space. In addition, for carriers, excessive wait time due to late pickups or deliveries is eliminated. Companies enjoy improved labor management at facilities as well as strengthened relationships with carriers.

Automating routing and appointment scheduling processes allow companies to successfully measure and monitor supplier and carrier routing guide and appointment compliance. By proactively identifying and addressing potential weak points, these types of metrics enable companies to keep a pulse on their supply chain. Taking full advantage of the compliance benefits that SLM offers enables companies to redirect employees from tactical operations, such as appointment scheduling and vendor compliance, to more strategic operations such as process improvements and customer care.

(3) Overdriveonline, Martin Labbe Associates Study for Truckload Carriers Association, August 1999

Available-To-Promise (ATP) Commitments

The goal of ATP is to ensure that companies make real-time service commitments to customers through a quick evaluation of supply chain constraints.

Too often companies commit to order delivery dates without considering all supplier constraints. Transportation service restrictions are typically not considered when committing to delivery dates. This overlook results in a trickle-down effect that communicates unrealistic delivery dates and creates a disruption in the flow of goods; sending ripple effects down the supply chain.

SLM circumvents this issue by factoring supplier sourcing locations and transportation transit and service restrictions to determine accurate delivery dates. By providing accurate transit and service requirements, companies can produce an achievable plan with compliant supplier dates and attainable customer commitments.




SOURCE:-

http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/supplier-logistics-management-slm-part-3-16574/

SOA From a Management Perspective: Part One

We have been hearing about service-oriented architecture (SOA) for some time. Now, major software players are starting to lay out their plans and strategies. Some are even willing to assign delivery dates. As a company, you cannot ignore SOA, since we are constantly told that, from a software perspective, it is the best thing since sliced bread or, to use an updated analogy, the TV remote control. Regardless of your views, chief information officers (CIOs) need to outline their plans and be prepared to respond to executive management's question: "What are we doing?" This note sounds the alert, raises the flag, or fires the warning flare as to why converting to SOA does not appear to be an easy transition and cannot be accomplished with smoke and mirrors. Accordingly, we will look at the basics of SOA; the rollout plans of major software vendors; the benefits of SOA; concerns about SOA; and why the implementation of SOA won't be easy.

This is Part One of a two-part research note. Part Two addresses concerns about SOA and how your organization can migrate to an SOA environment.

What is SOA?

SOA is a collection of services or groups of components that perform business processes such as credit verification, currency conversion, or inventory availability. SOA employs an architectural style for building applications by combining loosely coupled and interoperable services. By being loosely coupled, an application does not have to understand or even know the technical details of a service to call it. As a result, SOA attempts to deliver platform independence, and is not tied to a specific technology.

Examples of SOA can be found in our everyday lives. A common example is a DVD player. The player offers the service of playing a DVD. You can play multiple DVDs in the player. You can even play the same DVD in another player, but the sound quality may not be the same. SOA, however, should not be confused with object-oriented programming (OOP). Following our DVD example, in OOP the DVD would come with its own player, not to be separated. This diminishes one of the primary advantages of SOA, namely reusability. To understand the evolution of SOA, see research note Architecture Evolution: From Mainframes to Service-oriented Architecture.

Being loosely coupled also helps to screen some of the technical complexity of programming, a potentially big boost for productivity. For example, you do not need to know how a credit check is performed to complete a customer's order. You just need to know what information, such as customer ID and order amount, the credit checking service needs to return an approval or rejection. The process is similar to when televisions were built with individual electronic components and repair meant replacing a component and not the entire set.

With SOA comes new terms and concepts, or old concepts with a new lexicon, both of which mean some difficult decisions lie ahead. With the use of services you can expect a lot of messaging traffic. Accordingly, you will need technology to manage this traffic and its flow on the information highway. An enterprise service bus (ESB) facilitates the connection of legacy systems to services. It also transforms and routes traffic. ESBs are particularly effective for long-running processes, invoking multiple services such as purchasing, which can encompass item look-up, pricing, discount terms, and more. After being developed and tested, services must live somewhere. Typically, services are published in registries or directories while being stored in repositories. This combined infrastructure controls secured access, specifies the input parameters, and enforces run-time performance parameters. Relative to performance and after services enjoy wider and wider acceptance, reporting and alerts are needed to ensure that applications are taking full advantage of SOA. Other difficult choices such as development platform, integration with web services, and testing and debugging protocols remain, and must coexist with your current technology and network topology.

Major vendors are starting to lay out their visions for SOA. Based on its NetWeaver development and integration platform (see research note Multipurpose SAP NetWeaver), SAP's approach is to deliver narrowly defined models or packages rather than release large-scale updates of closely interlinked components. By providing business process models, SAP provides the means of getting you up and running quickly, assuming that the models can fit within the constraints of your business.

Attempting to merge the software code resulting from its recent acquisition of PeopleSoft, Oracle's Project Fusion endeavors to provide a more open environment. Accordingly, Oracle's approach is to provide tools to model your business processes. These tools include a business process development platform and middleware and database components, which are open to third party vendors. This business process management (BPM) approach can deliver a more open framework, resulting in components tailored to your environment. So, while SAP's approach could simplify and accelerate the overall process of implementing SOA, Oracle's plan may provide greater adaptability of the unique aspects that make a company successful.

Referring to the "real approach" to SOA, Microsoft advocates a more incremental method, using advancements in .Net Framework, SharePoint, 2007 Microsoft Office System, Exchange Server, and Vista (see research note Subtle (or Not-so-subtle) Nuances of Microsoft .NET Enablement). Unlike the enterprise infrastructure-centric approach, Microsoft touts a wave approach to deliver SOA interoperability gradually to the Microsoft Dynamics product lines. Microsoft Dynamics, formerly known as Microsoft Business Solutions, includes Axapta, Great Plains, Navision, and Solomon. In so doing, some features will be available now instead of waiting for the full rollout. Originally known as Project Green, Microsoft has committed to an initial phase called Wave 1, which is nearing completion. It is expected to achieve a common look and feel throughout Microsoft Dynamics. Obviously, this is where Office 2007 and Vista will set the tone. Expect to see left-pane navigation bars for easy access, top-page trails for traversing back to a previous point of reference, and user ribbons, which will replace the traditional menus and toolbars with a set of tabs of common and most relevant commands. Wave 2 is expected for release in 2008 or 2009 as product lines continue to move away from coding to model-based development using Visual Studio .Net tools and languages. Once this transition is complete, Microsoft can consider merging product lines. Microsoft shares two potential obstacles with Oracle. First is seamlessly integrating acquired software packages to present a consistent and familiar theme. Second is adopting a model building capability as opposed to delivering the models, potentially sacrificing delivery speed for the sake of flexibility. While Microsoft's architecture vision appears to be clearer due to our familiarity with and the release of Office and Vista, the starting point for merging product lines is vague, particularly when compared to SAP and Oracle.


SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/soa-from-a-management-perspective-part-one-18864/

TEC Vendor Note: Lectra, A Focused PLM Player

Thirty years ago, Michael Porter introduced three best generic strategies—cost leadership, differentiation, and market segmentation (or focus)—in his 1980 book Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors. Since then, these three strategies have helped explain numerous success stories in the business world. While looking at Lectra with Porter’s theory in mind, I had to accredit market segmentation as a winning strategy for the company’s success.

Headquartered in Paris, France, Lectra provides software, hardware, consulting, and related services to its global customers. Its software ranges from design to pattern-making, 3D prototyping, marker-making, and product development collaboration. Its hardware is high-performance automated knife and laser cutters for fabrics, leather, industrial fabrics and composites. Fashion is the major industry that Lectra targets, however the company also serves the automotive, furniture, aeronautical and marine, wind power, and personal protective equipment industries. With that being said, Lectra looks quite diverse in terms of the product lines and industries it serves. However, when examined for the purpose of using Lectra products and services, the company’s focus is clear—Lectra helps companies develop and, to a certain degree, manufacture specific types of products that use soft materials. The commonalities amongst these products allow Lectra to service multiple industries and business functions and remain focused.

A Brief History of Lectra
Founded in 1973, and offering its first computer-aided design (CAD) systems for apparel pattern-making and grading in 1976, Lectra has maintained its key target customers with reasonable expansions.

1) Vertical expansion: Starting from pattern-making and grading systems, Lectra has been able to support more business activities within the fashion industry throughout its 37 years of evolution, for example, computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), textile and fashion design, product development collaboration and management, 3D virtual prototyping, etc.

2) Horizontal expansion: Realizing that its expertise and products can benefit some adjacent business needs outside the fashion domain, Lectra expanded its services and technologies to address the needs of developing and manufacturing products that require significant use of soft materials, for example, upholsteries for the furniture industry and seats, interiors, and airbags for the automotive industry.

3) Geographical expansion: Lectra established most of its global reach during the 1990s. Nowadays, the company generates 89 percent of its revenues outside France—93 percent directly with customers through its network of 31 sales and services subsidiaries, five International Call Centers, and five International Advanced Technology Centers.

There were ups and downs in Lectra’s history, but the dedication of the company and the leadership demonstrated by the management team saved the company whenever there was an internal or external hardship. Although Lectra has had vertical, horizontal, and significant geographical expansions, the company’s move has always been built upon its core competency: the fashion industry. Today, after its expansion in other industries, about 60 percent of its revenues still come from the fashion sector.

Lectra Product Portfolio

As discussed previously, Lectra’s vertical product development allows the company to cover its customers’ product development and production cycle with necessary specializations for each industry. In short, Lectra’s offerings fall into the following categories:

1) Collection Development Collaboration and Life Cycle Management

Lectra Fashion PLM: A comprehensive, modular, and scalable product lifecycle management (PLM) solution designed specifically for fashion brands, retailers, and manufacturers to create, develop, produce, and manage fashion collections from the designer idea to the final end-product.

2) Product / Collection Design and Development Tools

Kaledo®: Lectra’s fashion CAD solution that allows the digital design of fashion concepts (story boards), styles, prints, knits, and woven fabrics.

Modaris®: The CAD pattern-making and grading solutions, covering the apparel product-engineering process, that not only accelerate the pattern-making process but also simulate the “look and fit” results using 3D virtual prototyping.

Diamino®: Automated or interactive creation of cut-ready markers that prompt material savings and productivity gains.

Romans Cad®©: Specialized CAD for footwear and leather goods, covering 3D design, 2D pattern-making, model specification, and technical data management.

DesignConcept: Specialized design solutions for automotive, aeronautical, and marine interiors, furniture, industrial fabrics, and composite and furniture materials.

3) Digital Manufacturing and Cutting Room Solutions

Optiplan®: The solution that simulates, optimizes, and automates the material cutting process—a critical step in apparel manufacturing.

Progress® Brio: Automated spreaders functioning for continuous production during the cutting process.

Vector®: Automated cutters catering for various production volumes and material types.

ProSpin®: Single-ply cutter specifically for prototyping and small runs.

Leather cutting (MFC and CLS): Designed for automated leather cutting for the furniture industry (MFC) and the automotive industry (CLS).

FocusAirbag®: Lectra’s laser cutter specialized for producing vehicle airbags.

Where Is Lectra Standing Now

With €153 million ($214 million [US]) in revenues in 2009, Lectra holds a large market share in the fashion CAD/CAM and PLM market. Hit by the economic downturn—like many other software vendors—Lectra had noticeable decrease in revenues in the past couple of years mainly due to the decrease of new systems sales. However, Lectra was able to bring some exhilarating news by posting €43 million Q1 2010 revenues, up 15 percent relative to Q1 2009. More importantly, revenues from new systems sales (€17.9 million) were up 31 percent.

The in-depth knowledge that Lectra has accumulated through its long-time practice serving the fashion industry is the most significant competitive advantage it holds. From the artistic optimizations of the fabric cutters and cutting processes to the know-how and libraries embedded in the fashion collaborative solutions, fashion-specific expertise is a critical differentiator between Lectra and many of its competitors with shorter presence in the fashion PLM market. As a software and equipment provider purely dealing with soft materials, Lectra may not be quite effective at managing both soft-line and hard-line products at the same time if a customer needs to do so. However, soft-line along should give Lectra enough opportunity to grow.

Organic integration between CAD/CAM and its collaborative platform is a winning factor for Lectra. This factor becomes an even greater advantage when domestic fashion brands in emerging markets start to boom. Due to fashion manufacturers in North America and Europe outsourcing their production to lower-labor-cost countries, manufacturing process management (MPM) hasn’t been a big concern within many global fashion players’ PLM adoption plans. However, to these domestic brands in emerging markets, they need not only to design and distribute products, but also to manage the manufacturing process directly. In emerging markets, Lectra has already secured its ground on CAD/CAM products and has started marketing its fashion PLM.

Looking into the Future

Based on recent interactions with Lectra, my understanding of Lectra’s future growth is that the company will keep focusing on serving its current target market with greater breadth and depth in its product and service offerings.

Rooted in point solutions such as pattern making and fabric cutting, Lectra’s moves to product data management (PDM) and then PLM indicate the vendor’s growing interest in helping customers manage their business processes. As Lectra’s capability keeps expanding to supply chain collaboration, business performance management (BPM), and enterprise integration, the vendor’s future offerings may trigger another time of discussion on whether enterprise resource planning (ERP) or PLM should be the backbone for a company’s entire information environment, a topic that has been on and off during the past decade.

On the depth side, I’ll expect Lectra to support product design, development, and manufacturing process in a more granular manner. Enhancements in collaborative concept development, line planning, order management (for prototypes and samples), and vendor management will probably be seen in the near future.


SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/tec-vendor-note-lectra-a-focused-plm-player-21273/

Glossary of Enterprise Applications Terminology Part Two: Just-in-Time to Extensible Markup Language

ERP (enterprise resources planning) was an important step in an ongoing evolution of computer tools that began in the 1960s. Each evolutionary step is built on the fundamentals and principles developed within the previous one. As systems developed over time, a continuous stream of new terminology surfaced.

This is a glossary of those terms.

Part One of this glossary covers the terms from accounts payable through Internet.

For terms not covered here see The Lexicon of CRM Part 1: From A to I , Part 2: From J to Q , and Part 3: From R to Z.

Just-in-Time through Order Entry

just-in-time (JIT): A philosophy of manufacturing based on planned elimination of all waste and continuous improvement of productivity. It encompasses the successful execution of all manufacturing activities required to produce final product, from design engineering to delivery and including all stages of conversion from raw material onward.

lead time:

1) A span of time required to perform a process (or series of operations).

2) In a logistics context, the time between recognition of the need for an order and the receipt of goods. Individual components of lead time can include order preparation time, queue time, processing time, move or transportation time, and receiving and inspection time.

lean production: A philosophy of production that emphasizes the minimization of the amount of all the resources (including time) used in the various activities of the enterprise. It involves identifying and eliminating non-value-adding activities in design, production, supply chain management, and dealing with the customers. Lean producers employ teams of multi-skilled workers at all levels of the organization and use highly flexible, increasingly automated machines to produce volumes of products in potentially enormous variety. It contains a set of principles and practices to reduce cost through the relentless removal of waste and through the simplification of all manufacturing and support processes.

mass customization: The creation of a high-volume product with large variety so that a customer may specify his or her exact model out of a large volume of possible end items while manufacturing cost is low because of the large volume. An example is a personal computer order in which the customer may specify processor speed, memory size, hard disk size and speed, removable storage device characteristics, and many other options when PCs are assembled on one line and at low cost.

mass production: High-quantity production characterized by specialization of equipment and labor.

master production schedule (MPS): The anticipated build schedule for those items assigned to the master scheduler. It is a set of planning numbers that drives material requirements planning (MRP). It represents what the company plans to produce expressed in specific configurations, quantities, and dates.

material requirements planning (MRP): A set of techniques that uses bill of material data, inventory data, and master production schedule to calculate requirements for materials. It makes recommendations to release replenishment orders for materials. Further, because it is time-phased, it makes recommendations to reschedule open orders when due dates and need dates are not in phase.

manufacturing resource planning (MRP II): A method for the effective planning of all resources of a manufacturing company. Ideally, it addresses operational planning in units, financial planning in dollars, and has a simulation capability to answer what-if questions. It is made up of a variety of processes, each linked together: business planning, production planning (sales and operations planning), master production scheduling, material requirements planning, capacity requirements planning, and the execution support systems for capacity and material. Output from these systems is integrated with financial reports such as the business plan, purchase commitment report, shipping budget, and inventory projections in dollars. Manufacturing resource planning is a direct outgrowth and extension of closed-loop MRP.

manufacturing execution system (MES): A factory floor information and communication system with several functional capabilities. It includes functions such as resource allocation and status, operation/detailed scheduling, dispatching production units, document control, data collection and acquisition, labor management, quality management, process management, maintenance management, product tracking and genealogy, and performance analysis. It can provide feedback from the factory floor on a real-time basis. It interfaces with and complements ERP systems.

online analytical processing (OLAP): A category of software tools that provides analysis of data stored in a database. OLAP tools enable users to analyze different dimensions of multidimensional data. For example, it provides time series and trend analysis views. The chief component of OLAP is the OLAP server, which sits between a client and a database management systems (DBMS), and which understands how data is organized in the database and has special functions for analyzing the data. There are OLAP servers available for nearly all the major database systems.

order entry: The process of accepting and translating what a customer wants into terms used by the manufacturer or distributor. The commitment should be based on the available-to-promise line (ATP) in the master schedule. This can be as simple as creating shipping documents for finished goods in a make-to-stock environment, or it might be a more complicated series of activities, including design efforts for make-to-order (MTO) products.


SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/glossary-of-enterprise-applications-terminology-part-two-just-in-time-to-extensible-markup-language-17687/

Business Intelligence Corporate Performance Management Market Landscape

The vendor landscape remains diverse, with every vendor touting some or near total corporate performance management (CPM) capabilities. The abundance of astute vendors will prevent any single vendor from achieving leadership any time soon, while growth for all will be, in part, hampered by increasing pricing pressures. Thus, the "arms race" to marshal the most complete CPM platform has been intensified among major vendors, and many have a comprehensive set of business intelligence (BI) functionality, including online analytical processing (OLAP) analytics, ad hoc query, end user reporting, enterprise reporting, planning, and some type of analytic dashboards or balanced scorecards.

Part Five of the Business Intelligence Report Status Quo series. Parts One to Three were published June 27June 29

While 2003 saw a major onslaught of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the market involving large BI vendors like Cognos, Business Objects, SAS, Actuate, and Hyperion (see Has the BI Market Consolidation Been Crystal-Clearly Actuated?), 2004 and 2005 have also had their smaller share of M&A, with IBM acquiring AlphaBlox and Ascential, and Cognos acquiring Frango and Optima Analytic Solutions.

The pressure for these pure-play BI players also comes from large enterprise applications vendors like SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, or Siebel and their resources and business motivation to invest in their own BI solutions. This includes the underlying technology and the analytical applications, with their install base as the primary target.

This is Part Four of a seven-part note.

Part One detailed history and current status.

Part Two looked at contemporary BI tools.

Part Three described what is available.

Part Five will discuss Geac and Point Solutions vendors.

Part Six will compare direct access to a data warehouse for the mid-market.

Part Seven will make recommendations.

SAP Analytics

For example, SAP is changing the positioning of its business information warehouse, SAP BW, to become a part of SAP NetWeaver, a platform aimed at delivering infrastructural functionality like collaboration, portal, business process management (BPM), application integration, and BI across the entire enterprise applications landscape. (For more details, see SAP Bolsters NetWeaver's MDM Capabilities). It opted for this route instead of delivering a packaged standalone data warehouse (DW), as was initially marketed after its launch in 1998.

Building on the successes of SAP NetWeaver BI, and the Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM) suite, SAP, during its European SAPPHIRE '05 user conference, unveiled more than 100 industry-specific analytic applications built on the SAP NetWeaver platform. These applications should empower users with new ways to drive core processes and business decisions based on actionable business insight. Accordingly, SAP Analytics are a new breed of model-driven, composite applications across more than twenty-five industries. SAP Analytics aim at merging data from SAP and non-SAP applications with BI queries, to eliminate disparate islands of data. They will also combine transactional, analytic, and collaborative steps across multiple business functions, departments, and even organizational boundaries.

Unlike traditional after-the-fact reporting tools, SAP Analytics applications will aim at pulling all relevant information—whether historical or current—from across a wide variety of enterprise systems to deliver clear and broad business insight that should help users drive current processes and take the wisest possible steps. These will reportedly deliver data in the business context of the specific process—letting a business manager know, for example, not only the day's sales figures but also whether these figures are on target compared against past performance and the current year's revenue goals.

Reportedly, each SAP Analytics application will be designed to easily be combined and extended with other analytics applications, and will play a specific role across areas such as SCM, CRM, and product lifecycle management (PLM). Some examples include

* SAP Analytics for retail will help store managers better understand and predict the performance of core activities, such as trade-promotions, in order to make adjustments to processes and strategies while there is time to impact outcomes.

* SAP Analytics for credit management will allow financial service companies to display customers' credit information, buying behavior, past purchases, and credit lines in the historical context of data stored in SAP and non-SAP systems or syndicated data sources such as Dun & Bradstreet. From inside the same application, users can then increase or stop access to credit lines for a given customer or partner and even block or authorize individual purchases.

* SAP Analytics for tax management will complement the SAP for Public Sector solution. It will allow organizations to better monitor and understand the tax basis, where contributions are coming from in the context of historical tax collection, and take steps to reclaim amounts due using the same application.

* SAP Analytics for high-tech manufacturing will allow managers and other employees at production plants and warehouses to gain an insight into order status, plant utilization, order backlog and restock levels. Some SAP partners have consequently built SAP Analytics applications that unify manufacturing execution system (MES) data with order supply chain and production data from SAP systems in order to provide highly granular views down to individual machines' uptime status and throughput capacity.

* SAP Analytics for CRM will continue to complement the mySAP CRM solution by providing visualization across marketing, lead generation, pipeline visibility, sales effectiveness, and individual customer views. By unifying sales data with financial data, fulfillment data, and manufacturing inventory data, SAP Analytics for CRM will empower sales executives and corporate offices with a complete view of customer buying patterns and profitability allowing them to detect hidden opportunities for future business growth.



SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/business-intelligence-corporate-performance-management-market-landscape-18056/

Why Service Matters: Enterprise Solutions, Market Differentiation, and IQMS

IQMS (www.iqms.com), a privately-held company located in Paso Robles, California (US), has experienced a period of growth over the past few years when other companies have experienced decline. Its flagship product, EnterpriseIQ is one of the industry's leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for repetitive manufacturing environments, particularly suited for injection plastics molding/extruding and rubber industries. With its products, the company experienced a 12 percent growth globally in 2003 when 700 new licensed users reportedly joined its client base. Closing the year with a 15 percent increase in revenue, IQMS responded to this increase by expanded its US Midwest office, offering additional training and sales support to clients.

Part Two of IQMS Prospers by Helping Enterprises Work Smarter series

At first glance, IQMS resembles many of its peers from the lower-end of the enterprise applications market, not only in terms of its budding global presence, annual revenues, and install size figures, but also in terms of its industry-specific software that reduces implementation and training costs. For example, an average EnterpriseIQ implementation typically only takes between three and six months. However, despite the like corporate profile and product similarity, IQMS has a comprehensive, one-source delivery and service where all of its product development, training, implementation, and support are provided by its own employees, rather than third party providers. These employees are American Production & Inventory Control Society (APICS) certified and have extensive implementation and proven project management experience. They also have strong manufacturing and accounting backgrounds. This, in addition to its implementation methodology that balances on-site consulting, classroom training, and Internet-based training, are notable differentiating traits.

IQMS also has an upfront nature that makes it stand-out from its peers. Its maintenance contracts include all product upgrades and technical support, without any hidden costs. This, combined with IQMS' great reputation for customer support, highlights the company's open lines of communication. Customers are almost never put on hold or have to go through an annoyingly long automated process. Rather, calls are answered by a knowledgeable person, not a recording. The vendor happily lets anyone talk to any of its satisfied customers within selected industries of focus and that have had similar issues as the prospective customer. IQMS also proclaims its confidence by offering a one-year, money-back guarantee.

Still, although indisputably impressive, one could dig up similar value propositions from other players in the market. Also, on the surface, the product has many pedestrian functional and technological capabilities. For example, it has a Microsoft Windows-based platform for the client side and networks features familiar user-friendly interface with familiar navigation that involves easy jumps between tightly integrated modules and drill-down capabilities. The database resides on the server that performs operations on that data at the request of clients. Data is then transmitted over the network and users access the information from clients/workstations; ultimately, its a process that uses very little code. Furthermore, the front-end Delphi graphical interface allows users to manipulate or search for data, while Microsoft Terminal Server (MTS) and Citrix Metaframe clients are used for wide-area network (WAN) links.

Part Two of the six part IQMS Prospers by Helping Enterprises Work Smarter series

Part One presented the company background.

Part Three will continue a discussion of product differentiation.

Part Four will review IQMS' Single Database Solution and quality management.

Part Five will cover integrated EDI and miscellaneous utilities.

Part Six will present challenges and make user recommendations.

EnerpriseIQ Modularity

The EnterpriseIQ system is also modular, with a broad core package, and many optional modules that extend the product's functional scope. Consequently, the IQ Accounting & Financial Management modules include the "usual suspects" like general ledger (GL); accounts payable (AP); accounts receivable (AR); cash management (including disbursements, receipts, and cash analysis); budgeting; multiple currency capability; bank maintenance; customer and supplier status; standard costing; auto-invoicing; cost variance analysis; bank reconciliation; employee maintenance; tax code tracking; and so on. Another common feature is FRx Reporter, a powerful financial reporting system from FRx, a Microsoft company. The product, which has recently been re-branded as Microsoft Business Solutions Analytics (MBSA)—FRx, reads directly from EnterpriseIQ GL. With this feature, it is fairly easy to create and use customized financial reports, since the product was designed by accounting professionals for their peers. It has customizable formatting similar to Microsoft Excel, linking data from multiple sources with a drill-down viewer capability—from the summary level to underlying account and transactional detail. For more extensive information on the product, see FRx Poised To Permeate Many More General Ledgers.

Moving onto the IQ Sales & Distribution suite, one will also find many typical modules and capabilities, such as inventory availability, capable-to-promise (CTP), order entry, order tracking, shipping schedules, pick tickets, advanced shipping notices (ASN), bills of lading (BOL), packing slips, return material authorizations (RMAS), consignment inventory, freight maintenance, rework tracking, commissions, sales analysis, distribution centers, release management, customer specific sales pricing, tiered pricing, forecasting, and so on.

Linked with this suite is a native IQ CRM system, which also tackles some basic supplier relationship management (SRM) functions, and that features the Internet and a personal digital assistant-enabled contact management system. The product was devised to improve customer and supplier relations by tracking sales and marketing/procurement efforts and customer and supplier issues through, for example, notes, activities, follow up, alerts, etc. As a result, the product is workflow-enabled and provides customized alerts and scheduling, while its true integration with other EnterpriseIQ modules ensures centralized data management.

Likewise, the IQ Purchasing suite also seem to offer common capabilities like purchase orders, requisitions, material exceptions list, purchasing approvals, receiving, supplier management, supplier RMAS, 1099 contractors management, purchasing history, receiving inspection tracking, alternate purchase pricing, supplier performance analysis, supplier consignment inventory, and so on.

Differentiating IQMS' product from its peers' offerings, however, is the native IQWorkforce HR module. It enables employee benefit management and tracking, training and skill set management, application process management, and review and termination tracking. As with native CRM capabilities, the benefit of this module comes from consolidating information in a single database. The result is more reliable tracking of training in accordance with quality management standards; improved employee communications; centralized employee activity; and reduced management tracking activities. Moreover, the system also features a native payroll system that also centralizes employee activity. Automatic tax code updates, direct deposit, and electronic bank transactions are also supported.

All the reports and forms throughout EnterpriseIQ use Business Objects' Crystal Reports, which are relatively affordable, easy to use, and fully customizable. Further, in addition to financial reports by FRx, IQMS' partnership with CorVu provides the following analysis and executive information systems (EIS):

* CorManage—automates the user's balanced scorecard, Six Sigma, total quality management (TQM) systems, and economic value added (EVA), which is the financial performance measure that comes closer than most other to capturing the true economic profit of an enterprise. It is most directly linked to the creation of shareholder wealth over time.

* CorBusiness—provides business intelligence (BI) management with end user online analytical processing (OLAP) analysis, interactive reporting, database queries, executive dashboards, and key performance indicator (KPI) alerts.

* RapidScorecard—provides administration and data entry facilities for the CorManage product by automating proverbial Kaplan and Norton's balanced scorecard systems.

* CorPortfolio—enables executives to fairly quickly review reports, analyses, and business commentary from virtually any data source, collating them into an electronic portfolio.



SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/why-service-matters-enterprise-solutions-market-differentiation-and-iqms-17877/

Extricity Makes a Move into IBM’s Sphere of B2B Influence

Extricity, Inc., a leading business-to-business (B2B) software platform provider, has announced that IBM is shipping the Extricity B2B software platform as part of IBM's WebSphere BtoBi Partner Agreement Manager. The two companies announced an OEM agreement in September wherein IBM licensed Extricity's B2B process technology to be integrated as a critical component of the WebSphere Business-to-Business Integrator offering.

IBM believes that their enhanced WebSphere Business-to-Business platform now offers a full range of B2B solutions that span customer requirements from simple connectivity and supply chain integration, to complete e-marketplace development and management.

"Extricity and its process capabilities offers a leading platform for B2B relationship management that provides a high level of interoperability and collaboration across trading partner boundaries," said Rob Lamb, director business process management, IBM Corp. "This critical requirement, combined with IBM's leadership in enterprise integration, creates a powerful solution for managing the entire range of B2B processes among organizations."

According to David Cope, vice president of marketing for Extricity, "Extricity is pleased to extend IBM's WebSphere Business-to-Business product family with its B2B process engine and look forward to building highly successful joint customer implementations. The strengthened WebSphere Business-to-Business platform brings to market a single, scalable integrated platform to simplify and seamlessly manage real world Internet-based trading partner communities that are easy to deploy, manage and change."

Market Impact

Any vendor possessing a technology sufficiently robust to be incorporated by IBM into one of their key product suites is going to give competitors reason to reexamine their product strategy. Many of the EAI and B2B vendors, including vendors who are pure-play in one of the two technologies, consolidators of the technology, and new entries to the field, are attempting to jump on the WebSphere bandwagon, especially by incorporating integration with IBM's MQSeries Integrator Version 2, and support for the WebSphere Application Server. (See prior TEC news analyses under EAI for related developments).

As the line between software for business-to-business and enterprise application integration continues to blur, (a process already started but greatly accelerated by the merger of webMethods and Active Software), vendors must increasingly seek strategic relationships with larger, better-established firms to add missing functionality quickly. In addition, they must protect their market share and prevent takeover attempts in this exceptionally competitive market.

SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/extricity-makes-a-move-into-ibm-s-sphere-of-b2b-influence-16292/

Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) in Process Part 1 Proven in Discrete, Ready to Blossom in Process

Product Life Cycle Management is a series of business processes, enabled by application software, which has proven to generate business valuein a variety of industries. Discussion with end-user companies reveals a consistent list of benefits including reduced time to market, gains in engineering productivity, increased revenue, increased reuse, reduction of redesign activity and more. A review of vendor web sites supports this conclusion with a number of case studies about companies that have seen significant advantages from implementing PLM processes and software solutions. Many of the vendors are now offering collaboration solutions that allow multiple enterprises or locations to participate in a single, coordinated design project for great benefits.

The growth of a large number of software suppliers targeting the PLM needs of the discrete industries prove that the PLM market within discrete companies is hot. The "Discrete PLM" vendors are numerous with more joining the list. These vendors primarily come from a background in Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Product Data Management (PDM).

Proven Value - But What About the Process Industries?

Searching for users and reviewing the available case studies shows that few experiences are available that reflect the PLM value available to process companies. Some of the case studies that focus on process companies show the PLM products used to enable packaging design or plant engineering but few include the development of the basic recipes for products.

The development of a food, chemical, pharmaceutical or other process product is a complex and costly process. Process industry companies could benefit from many of the PLM concepts that have proven to reduced time to market, gains in engineering productivity, increased revenue, increased reuse, reduction of redesign activity in the discrete industries. But PLM has had minimum penetration into the process industries. Why?

Again, Process Requirements are Different

As in many application areas, the requirements for process companies are different from those of discrete companies. Process companies lacking the option to buy standard PLM packages, have been forced to build their own solutions. These solutions have often been built by individual departments and don't address the process across departments or enterprises.

Discrete PLM suppliers correctly provide a suite of products that support the needs of discrete companies, for example, Computer Aided Design (CAD), configuration management, parts and product structures and more. However, the process companies have different requirements. Their product development processes require different functions, for example, formulation, specification management, nutritional analysis, test/analysis procedures, processing procedures, batch manufacturing deployment, packaging and more.

In addition, the link into manufacturing within a process company is complex with the role of PLM stretching into the plant environment. Process companies require a standard process specification (based upon S88 and S95 standards) in order to create consistent product worldwide. While there appears to be overlap between some PLM functionality between discrete and process vendors, most PLM products are based on underlying discrete assumptions that don't work in process.

The Discrete PLM suppliers remain focused on the extensive needs and opportunities provided by the Discrete PLM market. The Discrete PLM vendors do not provide the process functions and therefore, their products have not been received well by process companies. Industry experts predict that the Discrete PLM vendors will be either slow to address the very different needs of the process industries or more likely not attempt to address the process needs at all - or possibly make alliances with the process PLM players.

The market is now seeing new PLM vendors focused on the process industries or "Process PLM" vendors. These companies are not working on the needs of the discrete companies. The Process PLM vendors are working towards suites of PLM products that address the specific needs of process companies. The founders of these companies come from a different background than their discrete PLM counterparts.


SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/product-life-cycle-management-plm-in-process-part-1-proven-in-discrete-ready-to-blossom-in-process-16815/

Product, Project, Process, and People: The Four Ps of PLM Analytics

After a product lifecycle management (PLM) system has been implemented and used for a while, the accumulated data within the system becomes valuable. This data not only supports daily operations but it also has the potential to help companies to better understand historical performance and predict the future, if it can be interpreted properly. In fact, reporting and analytics has been a part of some PLM offerings for a while. For instance, Siemens PLM Software has included this capability in its Teamcenter solution since 2006. However, because most PLM adopters are still focusing on improving product design and development productivity, analytics remains a relatively quiet area.

Recently, following a series of activities such as PTC's acquisition of Relex Software Corporation (a vendor focusing on providing analytics in product reliability and safety), Aras and Microsoft's collaboration on enterprise business intelligence (BI) for product-driven companies, and Oracle Agile PLM 9.3 highlighting its product risk management capability as the extension of its analytics platform, PLM analytics may receive more attention from the PLM community.

Although the PLM industry has not reached a consensus on the definition of PLM analytics, it doesn't prevent us from discussing what insights PLM users should expect after mining through available data within a PLM system. The main purpose of this article is to propose a framework that may help you comb through possible areas that PLM analytics may apply to.

Different Data Sets Within a PLM System

Data is the raw material that needs to be processed in order to produce the final output of PLM analytics. Hence, before heading for analytics, taking a look at the different orientations of PLM data may help conceptualize what PLM analytics can provide (see table 1).
Orientation Description Example
Product This is the most prominent group of data within the PLM system. Product data (i.e., product definition information) is the backbone of the entire PLM data set. Other data exists and is organized around product data.

* Product requirements
* Product structure data
* Product document data
* Product document metadata

Project Project-oriented data is used to define and help execute product development projects and processes. This group of data exists for the purposes of facilitating the creation of product definition information, but it is not categorized as product data.

* Work breakdown structure (WBS)
* Resource information
* Work progression data
* Project risk data

Process This group of data refers to PLM users' specific business processes. In general, there are overlaps between this group and the previous group (project data). Process data refers to the daily operational activities that are not managed as projects.

* Routing and approval activities
* Problem-solving activities
* Collaboration records
* Transactional data associated with business processes

People User information (with regard to PLM systems) may be associated with all the previous categories. However, it is necessary to treat the user-oriented data as the fourth data set since the "people" element is an important part of a PLM system.

* System user information
* Roles and groups
* User login data
* User participation records

Table 1. Four orientations of PLM data

The above table separates PLM data into four groups: product, project, process, and people. This is not a scientific way of categorizing PLM data since there may be overlaps, dependences, and consequences between one group and another. However, these four sets of data represent four different facets when we look at the entire collection of PLM data, and each of these facets explores an area of PLM analytics.

Product: Developing Better Products

There are multiple areas where people can use product data to make better decisions for existing and future products. These areas include, but are not limited to, the following:

1.

Product quality improvement: Based on quality incidents, customer complaints, test results, design scenarios, computer-aided design (CAD) model analysis, and all other relevant information, analytics will help manufacturers determine root causes of product problems and address product quality issues more efficiently.
2.

Product risk management: Compared to product quality improvement, product risk management takes a more proactive approach towards product sustainability. By analyzing historical product data as well as product requirements data, manufacturers will be able to identify risk factors (e.g., underperforming suppliers, high production costs for parts, and non-compliant products) and address them before a product reaches the production stage.
3.

Product portfolio management: Based on quality, risk, and performance analysis, manufacturers are able to determine which products should be pursued. The result may include portfolios of existing and future products, which will affect product innovation investments in project portfolio management.
4.

Part portfolio management: Using standard parts is a long-term practice in various manufacturing areas. Based on part performance and usage data, analytics may help companies build an optimized parts library that contains standard parts (on international, regional, national, industrial, and organizational levels) and non-standard parts.

Project: Improving Product Development Process

Within the PLM setting, "project" mainly refers to product development and introduction endeavors. Common methodologies such as integrated product development (IPD), Product And Cycle-time Excellence® (PACE®), and Stage-Gate® have been developed to manage innovation processes and to facilitate project collaboration. The purposes of applying analytics to project-related data are to improve product development processes and to achieve the best project output.

1.

Project portfolio management: Project portfolio management adds discipline and structure to determining which product innovations should be pursued. While product portfolio management functionality focuses on the best assortment of products, project portfolio management functionality deals with project risks and returns in order to achieve the best combination of product innovation efforts.
2.

Project performance measurement: Besides helping people make "go" or "no-go" project decisions, analytics can also help evaluate projects that are in progress. Project completion status, resource usage, and cost allocation are some possible areas that project performance measurement can cover. Based on these analytics, project managers will be better equipped in making sound decisions.
3.

Project task measurement: Project managers can allow for finer granularity of the task (or activity) level within a project and evaluate task performance, whether it is related to a team, a role, an individual, or a lab resource. By doing so, productivity patterns can be revealed so project managers will be able to assign the most appropriate resources to a certain development task.

Process: Increasing Operation Efficiency

The intent of having this category is to cover business processes other than product development and introduction processes that are managed within a PLM system. For example, sourcing can be a task managed in a product development project. However, within the project management environment, the main interests include managing those involved in the assigned task and being updated on the current status of the task. However, there might be other data (e.g., transactional data and communication records with suppliers) in the sourcing process that are not included in project management. If interpreted appropriately, this additional data may reflect valuable information that will improve sourcing practices. Some examples include: What is the most efficient way to invite suppliers in a bid? Who are the most responsive suppliers?

Depending on the scale of a PLM system being used in an organization, the types of analytics that can be performed may vary. Based on data availability, companies need to use their own judgment to discover what insights they can acquire from PLM data. Possibilities may be located in ideation and conception process, manufacturing process management, sourcing, and others. In order to make the analytics more powerful, data from other systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and supply chain management (SCM) systems may be involved.


SOURCE:-
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/product-project-process-and-people-the-four-ps-of-plm-analytics-19934/