Years of publication: 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999   September 2004 September 30, 2004 Warehouse Management Systems: Pie in the Sky or Floating Bakery?         Part 1: Myths of the Warehouse Management Systems and Implementation When searching for a warehouse management system (WMS), a number of myths surface. "Huge staff reductions", "quick and easy implementation", and "fast and big" returns on investment are common promises. These combined with the enticing "bells and whistles" of a system can ultimately turn an eager customer into a patient suffering from confusion or at the very least disorientation. Knowing the stories behind the myths and determining what your warehouse needs are can lead to a profitable investment. September 29, 2004 The Many Flavors of Application Software Outsourcing Many companies are looking to outsource development and maintenance of their application software. Common reasons that companies outsource application software are to reduce their costs, improve quality, obtain flexible staffing levels, and obtain improved service and support so they can focus on their core competence such as, designing clothes, managing equity portfolios, or running hospitals. Choosing whether to outsource or not is a strategic decision for a company. Once a company has decided to outsource, however, it must still choose an outsourcing approach that best fits it needs. This paper will describe the many different options for application software outsourcing, including the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative. September 27, 2004 Production Planning and Scheduling Software for the Textile Industry: Unknown Frontiers The textile industry is famous for its very different characteristics when compared to industries in either process or discrete manufacturing. Developing production planning and scheduling software for any textile mill is a real challenge even for seasoned industry experts. This article focuses on some of the unique challenges posed to master requirement planning and master production scheduling (MRP / MPS) software vendors by the textile industry. September 25, 2004 The Trap of Accountancy Systems; When to Move on to ERP The differences between ERP and accountancy solutions are huge. Accountancy solutions help with financial management and statutory reporting, but do little to streamline or control operational activities. September 24, 2004 Lawson's Approach to the Retail Market Lawson Retail Operations Suite solutions are built for high-volume retail enterprises and encompass a range of activities, including the management of item information, category planning and review, assortment, pricing, promotions, warehouse replenishment, multichannel ordering, store replenishment, forecasting, and order determination. September 23, 2004 Maximizer Enterprise 8: A Strong Competitor on the SMB Front Line TEC recently reviewed Maximizer Enterprise 8. Tailored to the latest Internet technology, the offering is aggressively priced. Rich functionality is offered in a three-module structure that continues to compete in the demanding "best fit," customer relationship management, small and medium enterprise marketplace. September 22, 2004 Fed Warms Up to ERP Spending, but Will Contractors and Their ERP Vendors Comply?         Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations The Federal Government's peculiar and idiosyncratic regulatory requirements provide high barriers to entry, so that the novice companies that are not already offering the functionality for the sector will likely not be able to tap the recent surge in the defense and other federal markets. September 21, 2004 Feds Warms Up to ERP Spending, but Will Contractors and Their ERP Vendors Comply?         Part 1: Event Summary and Market Impact There has been noise in the US public sector about a strong federal (Feds) interest in ERP applications. This, coupled with the Feds customary huge purchasing appetite for goods and services ranging from consulting to purchasing military devices and components, building, many businesses that have previously competed only in the commercial sector are tempted to feed the Feds. However, the Feds' peculiar and idiosyncratic regulatory requirements provide high barriers to entry, and novice companies that are not already offering the functionality for the sector will likely not be able to tap the recent surge in Defense and other federal markets. September 18, 2004 Positioning Starts With A Message Strategy In business-to-business (B2B) software marketing, you'll get little debate about the importance of positioning. Yet few B2B software companies do it well, thus failing to set themselves apart from their competitors. There are many reasons for this void, and this column will help fill one big one by describing the business process of creating effective, compelling message strategies for your products or services. September 17, 2004 SSA Global Forms a Strategic Unit with an Extended-ERP Savvy         Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations While the Strategic Unit team formation should help SSA Global to figure out how to fully integrate organizational structure where employees are best integrated, service offerings best coordinated and cross-selling opportunities best tracked and pursued, the vendor must continue to clarify the position and integration of competing and complementary products in its fold, which gets complicated with every new addition to the family. September 16, 2004 SSA Global Forms a Strategic Unit with an Extended-ERP Savvy         Part 2: Market Impact Through its recently formed Strategic Solutions team, SSA Global might be showing that it is not just an ERP collector that is living off milking its install base, but rather an extended enterprise applications provider that can appeal to both its current and new users. September 15, 2004 SSA Global Forms a Strategic Unit with an Extended-ERP Savvy         Part 1: Event Summary SSA Global seems to be doing some proper thinking while continuing to acquire new software companies. Recent unification of its broadening collection of supply chain management (SCM) solutions under the SSA SCM brand and formation of a specialized Strategic Solutions division--which also includes other extended enterprise capabilities, such as customer relationship management (CRM), product lifecycle management ([PLM), and more—are both aimed at nurturing existing customers while attracting new prospects with products that exceed far beyond mere enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities. September 14, 2004 Retail Market Dynamics for Software Vendors         Part 2: Progress ERP vendors are making their way into the retail market by bundling, acquiring point solutions or partnering strategically to embed retail-specific functions within their suites. Like in all other enterprise applications markets, eventually, albeit not any time soon, the retail market too will come to a showdown between the pure retail vendors and the enterprise application vendors (e.g., Oracle, SAP, Lawson, PeopleSoft, SSA Global, Geac, Intentia, etc.), which have been striving to natively embed more retail-specific capability into their products. September 13, 2004 Retail Market Dynamics for Software Vendors         Part 1: Software Requirements for Retail Although the retail and wholesale customers have typically invested a low proportion of their total revenues in information technology, retail industry leaders have begun to demonstrate an ability to achieve market advantage through the effective use of specialized enterprise applications. As a result, the requirement for all retailers to increase their investment in IT and adopt best practices has thus grown. September 11, 2004 International Trade Logistics Challenge Automated Global E-Trading The Internet has enabled a networked world, a communication infrastructure, and emerging enterprise applications, which have opened the door for international trade in earnest. But not many applications really offer multi-enterprise services and software to automate the transportation and Internet-based logistics management needs of a global trading network. September 10, 2004 Product Review: GFI's LANguard Network Security Scanner Performing patch management is one of the most tedious chores that must be completed by network administrators. While there are many patch management tools available, they can be expensive, have sharp learning curves, or are not deployable across all software platforms. One third party solution, however, GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner, version 5, is an affordable option that can scan the network and deploy patches efficiently while looking for other potential security vulnerabilities. September 9, 2004 TEC Talks to the Compiere ERP/CRM ProjectFree and Open Source Software Business Models         Part 3: Compiere/ComPiere Compiere project leader, Jorg Janke, reveals to TEC the advantages and difficulties in developing an ERP solution as Open Source software. Jorg explains some of the intricacies in modeling a business around servicing mature Open Source software. September 8, 2004 TEC Talks to OpenMFGFree and Open Source Software Business Models         Part 2: OpenMFG TEC spoke with the President and Chief Executive Officer of OpenMFG, Edward L. Lilly, Jr., to find out how OpenMFG is leveraging commodity Free and open source software platforms to more cost-effectively deliver its own ERP solution. September 7, 2004 TEC Talks to the Open For Business ProjectFree and Open Source Software Business Models         Part 1: OFBiz In conversation with the Open For Business (OFBiz) project leader, David Jones, TEC discovers some of the challenges in raising an open source enterprise software solution. Mr. Jones explains his vision in this first part of three articles on maintaining a business centered around Free and open source software for the enterprise. September 6, 2004 Find the Software's Fatal Flaws to Avoid Failure For any business, software needs exist which will prove difficult to satisfy. Application packages will have fatal flaws where they do not meet these needs. When evaluating software, start with the potential fatal flaws and continually look at the details surrounding them. September 4, 2004 Microsoft Business Network (MBN)--Coming of Age?         Part 4: More Challenges and User Recommendations The objectives of end-to-end supply chain visibility are better plans, better service, increased inventory turns, and higher profit margins, where MBN might answer only some of these requirements at this stage. In any case, MBN is a great, initial idea that can lay the foundations for a future product of a more grandiose, collaborative undertaking. September 3, 2004 Microsoft Business Network (MBN)--Coming of Age?         Part 3: Challenges and Competition While on the surface, there are few economic or strategic reasons for organizations to persist with electronic data interchange (EDI), many seem reluctant to adopt the alternative at this stage. In fact, there has been almost negligible growth in the number of organizations replacing their EDI-based systems with XML. September 2, 2004 Microsoft Business Network (MBN)--Coming of Age?         Part 2: Market Impact Microsoft Business Network (MBN) has the potential to deliver the never really (or hardly ever) realized benefits of early dot-com era Internet trading exchanges or networks that could reasonably and effectively link customers to their trading partners. September 1, 2004 Microsoft Business Network (MBN)--Coming of Age?         Part 1: Event Summary While the Microsoft Business Network (MBN) product is worth considering for a number of compelling reasons, it will take some immense doing before it becomes a retailers' equivalent of what the Sabre reservation system means to airline agents.   August 2004 August 31, 2004 The Best ACT! Is Still to Come After a long history as a contact management and relationship tracking tool, ACT! 2005, is expanding to offer more sales force automation features for small to midsize businesses. Now available in a workgroup version, it offers new templates, enhanced opportunity management, additional security, contact record permissions, group scheduling features, and new quote generation functionality. Technical improvements include an SQL database and a complete .NET platform positioning ACT! for total Internet accessibility. The balance of power will surely shift in the competitive landscape as ACT! 2005 covers SME CRM areas currently marked by competitors such as Goldmine and MS CRM. August 30, 2004 Process Manufacturers--Great Batch, Every Batch If you run one hundred batches, some will be great, some will be terrible. But what causes some to be great and some to be terrible? Knowing the answer to that question can mean no more terrible batches, many more great ones, and making more money. August 28, 2004 HIPAA-Watch for Security Speeds Up Compliance         Part 2: Phase III and IV, and Product and User Recommendations Once the user defines compliance case boundaries and establishes the data criteria in Phases I and II, the HIPPA-Watch for Security tool begins Phase III by launching the risk analysis engine, and concludes with Phase IV, which generates the report. Using the HIPPA-Watch for Security tool can help an organization comply with the Final Security Rule and help companies understand which safeguards can generate a greater return on investment. August 27, 2004 HIPAA-Watch for Security Speeds Up Compliance         Part 1: Vendor and Product Information HIPAA-Watch for Security is a tool designed to guide organizations through the risk analysis required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance process (US). Relevant Technologies, a leading security research and advisory firm, evaluated HIPAA-Watch for Security to verify how well it performed in guiding organizations through the HIPAA security risk analysis process. August 26, 2004 Interface Software Expands Its CRM Functionality Interface Software, a provider of relationship intelligence to professional services firms, introduces InterAction 5 with three additional modules aimed at facilitating collaborative work in both legal- and project-based environments. InterAction 5 reinforces Interface Software's customer relationship management offering in response to its customer requirements and work processes. Interface Software targets particularly accountants, financial services, law firms, and management consultants. August 21, 2004 Selecting a PLM Vendor PLM enterprise applications should not be selected in a vacuum. The needs and requirements of multiple departments and even business partners must be represented in the documented requirements and also on the selection team, which should attempt to examine different functions and methods involved in critical areas. August 20, 2004 Provia Tackles RFID in a Twofold Manner Part Eight: Challenges and User Recommendations There are some indications that the main burden for RFID compliance will fall on suppliers, and not on retailers. Thus, these companies should start evaluating RFID technology soon as to avoid paying exorbitant compliance costs, in the nick of time or ensuing penalties due to their noncompliance after the deadline. August 19, 2004 Provia Tackles RFID in a Twofold Manner         Part 7: WMS Market Impact Since the warehouse is no longer merely a static storage facility, it now has to use real time data to closely match supply to demand, eliminate the need to hold excess inventory, and increase the flow of goods throughout the supply chain. August 18, 2004 Provia Tackles RFID in a Twofold Manner         Part 6: Market Impact Recently delivered products like ViaView, a product that combines supply chain visibility, event management, and decision support, or FourSite WMS product, designed specifically for the 3PL industry, show that Provia is adept at leveraging its position to generate new forms of revenue. August 17, 2004 Provia Tackles RFID in a Twofold Manner         Part 5: 3PL Support and SCE Optimization FourSite 4.4 is an upgrade of its fulfillment solution oriented towards third party logistics (3PL) providers. ViaOptimize, is an advanced step for companies who have already automated their facilities with Provia's WMS and are now looking at optimization as a key area of improvement, efficiency and cost reduction. August 16, 2004 Enterprise Process Improvement (EPI) Software: Customer and Software Vendor Collaboration Having just completed implementing your enterprise-wide software, you are about lean back, put your feet up on the desk, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Not so fast! While you were completing your implementation project, a new release of the software may have already hit the street or, for sure, there is one in the pipeline. Now you are faced with the decision as to if and when to take on the new release. Maybe now is the time to look at how a new class of software tools, enterprise process improvement (EPI), can assist you in the upgrade decision. August 14, 2004 Provia Tackles RFID in a Twofold Manner         Part 4: Global Availability For Provia, the ability to increase the awareness of the company's supply chain execution (SCE) solution for a global audience through the company's long-standing partnership with Menlo was the natural next step in the relationship. August 13, 2004 Provia Tackles RFID in a Twofold Manner         Part 3: Provia and Viastore Systems Alignment Provia and Viastore believe the ability to offer a complete radio frequency identification (RFID) compliance solution, with the software, hardware, and automation equipment needed to minimize investment, while maximizing results, is what companies needing RFID compliance truly desire. August 12, 2004 Provia Tackles RFID in a Twofold Manner         Part 2: RFID Compliance Provia's approach to radio frequency identification (RFID) compliance was to offer a bolt-on or drop-in product that works in conjunction with a company's existing logistics transactional software solution and process flows. This should put the suppliers back into control of prioritizing their IT projects because they could supposedly thereby be fairly easily and quickly made compliant with Wal-Mart or the DoD requirements for RFID. The next step for them would then be to look at how they can reap the benefits of RFID internally within their own operations. August 11, 2004 Provia Tackles RFID in a Twofold Manner         Part 1: Recent Annoucements The fact that the size does not necessarily mean everything in the enterprise applications space might be proven by Provia, which certainly still continues to differentiate its value proposition despite its smaller stature and quieter nature compared to most of its adversaries. Most recently, it would be its early embrace of RFID through two offerings for different levels of RFID needs: 1) ViaWare WMS--RFID compliant product, for intrinsic RFID enablement of many processes within the supply chain, and 2) the RFIDware add-on module, for achieving outbound RFID tag application only. August 10, 2004 The CIO's Agenda--Make IT Affordable, Workable, and Credible A recent forum included a round table discussion of CIOs from different companies and industries. They summarized their charter as make IT affordable, workable, and credible. These realities impact all IT users, professionals, and vendors. August 7, 2004 Program Testing Methodology         Part 2: Running Tests and Getting Approval After testing procedures have been created and the type of test data has been determined, link or string testing, and system testing must be executed to ensure the job stream is correct and to locate errors before production. Backup and restart testing must be also be conducted to ensure that the restart points within the system are accurately defined. Finally, to demonstrate the benefits and functionality of the system, management and user approval should be received. August 6, 2004 Program Testing Methodology         Part 1: Preparing for Testing Program testing and debugging is one of the most critical aspects of implementing a computer system. Without programs which properly work, the system will never process information and produce the output for which it was designed. Testing procedures should be established and testing roles should be demarcated between the programmer and the analyst. Once this is done, test data that can test the limits of the program should then be created. August 5, 2004 ''Best'' of the Three CRM Solutions In 2004, Best Software acquired ACCPAC through its parent company The Sage Group plc and has now released a new version of its CRM product: SalesLogix 6.2. Their objective is clearly to gain as much market share as possible in the growing small and medium sized enterprise market (SME). Acquiring additional market share is a clear objective when competing in a target market that houses players such as Microsoft CRM, Salesforce.com and the mid-sized Siebel offering. It will be interesting to watch how Best Software will position its new "trio" product lines ACT, ACCPAC, and SalesLogix on the battleground. August 4, 2004 RFID Case Study: Gillette and Provia         Part 2: Challenges and Lessons Learned Compliance with the market RFID mandate has unfortunately preceded the achievements of applied physics and computer science. One of the main obstacles is the lack of integration, since there is a dearth of software tools from enterprise application integration vendors to get data from RFID tags and readers into existing business systems, meaning that companies are often forced to do expensive custom integration work. August 3, 2004 RFID Case Study: Gillette and Provia         Part 1: Background The goal of the pilot project was not to see whether RFID tags on pallets and cases could be read automatically (although one should not assume that it is easy to achieve), but rather to develop or improve the systems and business processes needed to sustain higher levels of efficiency and productivity. August 2, 2004 Electronic Product Code (EPC): A Key to RFID The real benefits of radio frequency identification will be achieved, when the integration of the EPC data will be a substantial part for the control of supply chain business processes.   July 2004 July 31, 2004 The People Factor: Accelerating Supply Chain Transformation Through Education This article summarizes the findings from a study of why customers failed to attain the full value potential of their SCM projects. Most SCM projects continue to focus much of their energy on technology implementations and simply pay lip service to end-user training and executive alignment. Learn the pitfalls causing SCM project failures and how to avoid them. July 31, 2004 The Incredibly Shrinking Platform--and Price! The transformation to a new supply chain technology market wave is already occurring. That’s good news for some and bad for others. This article describes the next wave--SmallSmartFast--and its impact on end users and vendors. July 31, 2004 Business Strategy, Business Processes, and Business Systems Business strategy, a road map telling us how the business plans to be successful, does not guarantee success. Strategy execution requires business processes that do what the strategy calls for--and do it well. In today's automated world, these business processes rely on business systems. Therefore, a direct link exists between the success of business strategy and business systems. Poor systems are a frequent reason for the failure of a business strategy. July 31, 2004 Managing Your Suppliers as a Resource Suppliers are one of your most valuable resources. Unfortunately, Many companies have supplier relationships that are tacitly adversarial. This article discusses how to manage suppliers as a resource-- defining your needs and then engaging your best suppliers to have them suggest innovative ways to develop new customer-supplier business efficiencies. July 31, 2004 Leave No Farmer Behind Insights on the evolving policies and socioeconomics of the two largest countries in the world--China and India--and the impact for global business. July 29, 2004 PeopleSoft Revamps World for Its Mid-Market ''Express'' Conquest         Part 4: Challenges and User Recommendations PeopleSoft needs to more efficiently mine its client base by doing a better job of selling the broadened offering, by getting its affiliate channel both excited about the product portfolio and by upgrading the channel's ability to sell. July 28, 2004 PeopleSoft Revamps World for Its Mid-Market ''Express'' Conquest         Part 3: Strengths PeopleSoft's solutions within enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), enterprise portals, business intelligence (BI), and supplier relationship management (SRM) functionality provide a wide scope of features, and very few smaller vendors can provide tightly integrated applications of this magnitude under one umbrella. July 27, 2004 PeopleSoft Revamps World for Its Mid-Market ''Express'' Conquest         Part 2: Market Impact The major factors of success in business applications for the mid-market segment have traditionally been--flexible pricing, packaging and deployment options; speed of implementation; vertical focus; interconnectivity to other applications and legacy systems; product scalability and scope expandability; Internet and wireless device accessibility; low cost business-to-business (B2B) electronic connectivity; and a single point of contact possibly with a local consulting and implementation support. PeopleSoft seems to have captured (or at least tackled) most of these. July 26, 2004 PeopleSoft Revamps World for Its Mid-Market ''Express'' Conquest         Part 1: Recent Annoucements Amid an intensifying hullabaloo in the mid-market, with all tier one players delivering solutions tailored for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and incumbent tier one and tier three vendors defending their turf, PeopleSoft seems to have thrown another strike by utilizing its acquisition of former J.D. Edwards. July 24, 2004 SCM Software for Real World Manufacturing: A Case for Mission Critical Use In an ideal world, we can have an exception free manufacturing operations. And for the most part, it will be a "management by exception" operations with no constraints or bottlenecks to worry about. But in reality manufacturing is all about managing constraints. A lot of constraints! This article discusses the impacts of constraints on manufacturing planning and execution and how a well implemented SCM software can help in overcoming these constraints. July 23, 2004 CRM ROI: Creating a Business Case Companies need to implement serious yardstick work when seeking to evaluate CRM-software investments. This involves creating a cost-benefit analysis, determining the tangible and intangible benefits, and the risks involved with CRM implementation. July 22, 2004 Is MAPICS Getting the Magic of PLM?         Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations MAPICS hereby joins the raft of enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors that are making their way into the product lifecycle management (PLM) market by bundling or partnering strategically to embed PLM functions within their suites. July 21, 2004 Is MAPICS Getting the Magic of PLM?         Part 2: Strategy During our recent briefing, MAPICS' executives acknowledged that almost all enterprise software companies are either "hunting" or being "hunted". July 20, 2004 Is MAPICS Getting the Magic of PLM?         Part 1: Recent Events and Market Impact The former die-hard IBM AS/400-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) supplier to mid-market manufacturing companies, MAPICS, seems to have found its soul after the recent acquisition of its former competitor Frontstep and Frontstep's extended-ERP product line on a Microsoft .NET-based technology platform. While another acquisition of an ERP competitor is not very likely, MAPICS seems to have rather opted for lateral acquisitions of strategic extension products, starting with the MAGIK! PLM product. July 19, 2004 PLM Coming of Age: ERP Vendors Take Notice With a PLM solution in place, a company has the ability to automate, monitor, and track product development and revision processes with their customers, suppliers, and employees amid the increasing pressures of mass customization, globalization, regulatory compliance, outsourcing, and product accountability, which are just some market driving forces. July 17, 2004 SCM Software for Mills Demand for mill products especially in the metals and packaging industry is growing fast. This presents a good opportunity for the software vendors who cater to the needs of customers in these industries. But these industries have some unique requirements which are discussed throughout this article. Supply chain management software which does planning and execution for manufacturing, transportation, distribution etc. for mills industry, needs to address these unique requirements. July 15, 2004 Future Compatible Companies contemplating upgrading or replacing their enterprise resource planning systems should evaluate whether the change will be compatible with future ERP II deployment strategies. This article examines the future of enterprise business applications and the requirements to ensure future compatibility. July 13, 2004 Should Your Software Selection Process Have a Proof of Concept?         Part 2: Advantages, Disadvantages, and Conclusion A proof of concept (POC) should be completed as part of the selection process when the risk of project failure is comparatively high. Risk can be measured by two key variables. These variables are complexity of requirements and level of expertise of the selection/implementation team. The more complex the system requirements, the greater the benefit obtained from a POC. July 12, 2004 Should Your Software Selection Process Have a Proof of Concept?         Part 1: Structures and the Selection Process This article explores how the proof of concept (POC) fits into the software selection process, when a POC should be undertaken, structural variables, and the advantages and disadvantages of the POC from the client and value-added reseller point of view. July 10, 2004 Microsoft to Add ''Encore'' Functionality to MBS Great Plains 8.0         Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations MBS' current strategy of letting extension functionality proliferate spontaneously largely resembles the current development practice of the open source community. This can be be considered ironic, because open sourcing is something Microsoft loves to hate. July 9, 2004 Microsoft to Add ''Encore'' Functionality to MBS Great Plains 8.0         Part 2: Market Impact Microsoft's Encore acquisition should bring the two former partners' complementary product offerings even closer together and should widen opportunities within the public and nonprofit sectors under the Microsoft umbrella. The products' technologies are quite compatible and so their integration will not be terribly complex, if it is to be complex at all. July 8, 2004 Microsoft to Add ''Encore'' Functionality to MBS Great Plains 8.0         Part 1: Event Summary By adding nonprofit and public sector accounting capabilities to the forthcoming MBS Great Plains 8.0 release via acquiring a former independent software vendor (ISV) partner Encore Business Solutions, Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) may find a way to counteract its archrival Best Software's superiority in the target market. July 7, 2004 Buy, Build, or Somewhere Between Whether an organization buys or builds a resource management solution depends on a number of factors, and both approaches has its pros and cons. There is, however, a third option, one that allows a company to take a "somewhere between" approach. This latter approach, is made possible by ERP II which employs c-commerce and the use of sufficiently mature technology software programs. July 5, 2004 Mid-market Getting the Taste of Some Emerging Technologies Fledgling smart enterprise suite, business activity monitoring, and business process management technologies hold significant potential for end user organizations as they can accelerate the velocity of the business and deal with the details of everyday needs. The challenge is to fine-tune the system to dynamically combine event and contextual data. July 3, 2004 Can Webplan Reconcile Planning and Execution?         Part 4: Challenges and User Recommendations Webplan appears to be ahead of the pack in applications for concurrently optimizing demand, order promise, and inventory management, taking constraints into consideration. Yet, in many markets, Webplan is far from a household name. July 2, 2004 Can Webplan Reconcile Planning and Execution?         Part 3: Market Impact Continued Webplan believes its offering should benefit many departments within a manufacturing organization. When it comes to operations and manufacturing, the benefit is in getting the right information to the right people and ensuring the results of decisions align with goals and objectives. July 1, 2004 Can Webplan Reconcile Planning and Execution?         Part 2: Market Impact Increasingly, every user company's success is contingent upon its ability to make an almost immediate finished product or service delivery to customers. As supply chains become more dynamic and operate in near real-time, the lines between planning and execution continue to blur, which bodes well for their functional convergence. Thus, some supply chain execution (SCE) vendors have started to move beyond pure execution to offer some planning and optimization capabilities, often with the "adaptive" moniker.   June 2004 June 30, 2004 Can Webplan Reconcile Planning and Execution?         Part 1: Event Summary According to the early signs, it appears that key elements of Webplan's business plan are producing results with dividends. These elements involve positioning itself as a response management player with new pricing and packaging that provides an aggressive entry point and fixed priced, fixed duration implementations; leveraging partnerships with enterprise applications vendors; and investing in field operations in North America and Asia with an expanded distribution model to include both direct and indirect global sales. June 29, 2004 ROI for RFID: A Case Study         Part 2: Implementation and Results If companies are to find value in radio frequency identification (RFID), they need to view this technology as more than eliminating the scanning gun from the barcode equation. Companies considering implementing RFID must think beyond the confines of the four walls of the plant and factory in order to take full advantage the benefits that this type of technology has to offer. However, as is with any emerging technology, the bottom line is to only implement RFID when the ROI justifies it. June 28, 2004 ROI for RFID: A Case Study         Part 1: Company Background Radio frequency identification (RFID) is the latest buzzword in the world of manufacturing and distribution technology. If you believe the press releases, it is a panacea and cure-all for what ails the industry. While RFID may not solve world hunger, you may not want to propose a solution without it. This research note looks at a recent and successful, implementation of RFID, examining the characteristics of the process and common obstacles and speed bumps to avoid. June 26, 2004 Nonprofits and Public Sector: The Latest Hot Market Many recent circumstances have rendered the nonprofit and public sector accounting markets a land of both opportunity and challenges. June 25, 2004 Intuitive Manufacturing Systems Shows Maturity in Adolescent Age         Part 4: Challenges and User Recommendations As long as the "old" software is meeting business needs, new technology is not the change driver, which makes building replacement products on a new framework a higher risk strategy. Product functionality still matters and, while it is important for enterprise applications providers to implement the latest computer science "quantum leap", there is no guaranteed correlation between first-to-market and the ultimate-success-in-the-market. Iin fact, based on many experiences, one could even argue that the correlation might be inverse. June 24, 2004 Intuitive Manufacturing Systems Shows Maturity in Adolescent Age         Part 3: Market Impact Continued By deliberately steering clear of too ambitious expansionist policies that have hindered so many smaller software companies in the past, and by focusing on a handful of core markets, Intuitive has managed to keep itself on healthy track. June 23, 2004 Intuitive Manufacturing Systems Shows Maturity in Adolescent Age         Part 2: Market Impact Intuitive is one of the vendors that have long attempted to mitigate the actual and perceived barriers to enterprise resource planning (ERP) acceptance by smaller enterprises. June 22, 2004 Intuitive Manufacturing Systems Shows Maturity in Adolescent Age         Part 1: Company Overview Having reached its first decade of existence, Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, a stealth mid-market ERP provider, has long taken the plunge of rewriting its system onto the pure Microsoft .NET managed code framework, which might bear fruits in the long run, if not immediately. June 22, 2004 Service Chain Information will Transform the Total Chain Moving to a performance-based service business model will have huge implications for the whole value chain. Its principle is to manage for outcomes—procure performance rather than parts and people. It requires total business process reorientation from services and maintenance through procurement techniques, as well as the IT platform for integration. June 22, 2004 The Interview: Having an Experience with Joe Pine Today's business climate is all about competition - we're lean, we’re mean, but competing on price is not where it’s at. How do you create a lasting identity and relationship with your customer through your processes from marketing, sales and supply chain to keep them loyal? A fascinating discussion with the author of "Mass Customization" and "The Experience Economy". June 22, 2004 Service Supply Chain Strategies to Increase Corporate Profitability This article describes the unique challenges of the service supply chain, provides a framework for understanding the service management decision hierarchy, and highlights the dramatic value proposition available to companies that deploy advanced service strategies and decision-support tools to address these challenges. Brief case studies from leading service organizations Cisco and KLA-Tencor show examples of successful deployments of service supply chain strategies. June 22, 2004 A Matter of Trust When important information is withheld, it leads to enormous inefficiencies or even disasters in the supply chain. Trust is needed to streamline decision making and interactions in the supply chain. But, in spite of what "Kumbaya Collaborationists" preach, there are very real and serious risks with sharing information. This article explores answers to this conundrum. June 18, 2004 ERP II Demystified As organizations prepare for their next ERP version upgrade, they find themselves trying to make sense of a new iteration that disrupts the traditional understanding and thinking about ERP. ERP II requires organizations to transform from a focus on internal resource optimization to a new focus on process integration and external collaboration. To help organizations make sense of this new iteration, we look at why ERP II has come about, how it differs from ERP, and how it promises to change the way organizations do business in the future. June 17, 2004 Bridging the Reality Gap Between Planning and Execution         Part 2: The Manufacturers' Perspective Manufacturers today need to react quickly in order to remain efficient and competitive, given that the biggest problem they face is that change is the only constant in manufacturing. For those who are lucky, only minor changes will happen between the "as planned" and "as executed" worlds. June 16, 2004 Bridging the Reality Gap Between Planning and Execution         Part 1: The Problem At sites where both planning and execution modules are stand-alone implementations, neither deliver enough benefit because there are almost always manual connections and processes between these two crucial supply chain management (SCM) areas. Yet, planning and execution in the supply chain are slowly but surely converging because no plan is useful if it cannot be executed. June 15, 2004 The Importance of Server Robustness in CRM In today's software frenzy and with the increasing demand for applications that provide maximum return on investment, many companies have failed to focus on subjects like reliability, downtime, and scalability. Since 1991, Touchtone Corporation has devoted its efforts to developing and maintaining a client/server customer relationship management (CRM) application and has equipped more than 750 IBM AS/400 and iSeries customers with its native OS/400 CRM solution. June 14, 2004 Instead of Discounting, Back Some Value Out of Your Proposal Last minute discounting has become so prevalent that many companies have come to depend on it as their default sales strategy. Employing a go-to-market strategy of being the lowest cost provider is one thing, but dramatic, tactical discounting on every deal will erode your company's margins and leave you digging a deeper and deeper hole in which your company will ultimately bury itself. June 12, 2004 Will Sage Group Cement Its SME Leadership with ACCPAC and Softline Acquisitions? Part Eight: More Challenges and User Recommendations Best Software/Sage will remain a pragmatic company that delivers products based on a savvy understanding of its customers' needs and the competitive forces in the market, and on constant adaptability. It is still standing on top of the hill in many SME markets, and it is typically a much more difficult task for anyone to capture the hill than to defend it. June 11, 2004 Will Sage Group Cement Its SME Leadership with ACCPAC and Softline Acquisitions?         Part 7: Challenges The major quandary for Sage/Best will be whether to base the long-term strategy on leveraging ACCPAC's technologically superior product into and overriding a unified enterprise solution, or to remain as a conglomerate of stand-alone solutions with strong brand names. June 10, 2004 Will Sage Group Cement Its SME Leadership with ACCPAC and Softline Acquisitions?         Part 6: Market Impact--Nurturing Channels The merging vendors, Sage/Best and ACCPAC, have understood that a broad, impeccably integrated, horizontal offering with selected vertical enhancements, a nurturing resellers network in addition to providing well-attuned pricing and catering to the evolving scalability and migration needs of customers through products of upward compatibility are necessary tenets for success in the SME market segment. June 9, 2004 Will Sage Group Cement Its SME Leadership with ACCPAC and Softline Acquisitions?         Part 5: Market Impact of Joint Effort "Freedom of choice" and "openness" mantras have been professed independently by both Best and ACCPAC, which bodes well for the joint effort going forward, but ACCPAC also brings many other missing parts to the Sage/Best collection. June 8, 2004 Rewrite or Wrap-Around Old Software?         Part 2: Extending to the Web and Challenges Product functionality still quite matters, and while it is important for enterprise applications providers to implement the latest computer science "quantum leap", there is no guaranteed correlation between first-to-market and the ultimate success in the market (in fact, based on many experiences, one could even argue that the correlation might be inverse). June 7, 2004 Rewrite or Wrap-Around Old Software?         Part 1: Event Summary Product architecture is going to do much more than simply provide the technical functionality, the user interface (UI)/presentation, and the platform support. It is going to determine whether a product is going to endure, whether it will scale to a large number of users, and whether it will be able to incorporate emerging technologies, all in order to accommodate increasingly evolving user requirements. June 5, 2004 Will Sage Group Cement Its SME Leadership with ACCPAC and Softline Acquisitions?         Part 4: Market Impact Given Sage's revenue level is quite higher than those of Geac, MBS, SSA Global, and Lawson Software, making it an ultimate juggernaut within the SME market per se, the time has long come for its mind share to become commensurate with its size. June 4, 2004 Will Sage Group Cement Its SME Leadership with ACCPAC and Softline Acquisitions?         Part 3: ACCPAC's Back-Office Products Enhancements ACCPAC continues to enhance the PRO series and Advantage series product lines. June 3, 2004 Will Sage Group Cement Its SME Leadership with ACCPAC and Softline Acquisitions?         Part 2: ACCPAC's Recent Product Enhancements Businesses wary of larger initial upfront investments can start with an easily affordable subscription at ACCPACcrm.com and have the knowledge that any investments in their data, customizations, and training are fully protected should they later need or want to move their solution on-premises. June 2, 2004 Will Sage Group Cement Its SME Leadership with ACCPAC and Softline Acquisitions?         Part 1: Event Summary By recently acquiring ACCPAC International and Softline, the Sage Group continues to round out by annexation. It currently still has the largest geographic coverage in the lower-end of the mid-market. June 1, 2004 ROI: Are You Ready to Walk The Walk? ROI marketing is just starting to become mainstream. ROI selling is already out there, further advanced in adoption because of its perceived relevance to the selling process. It won't be long before several B2B software companies position their products as providing a superior ROI. Read on to find out if it's the right position to claim.   May 2004 May 31, 2004 What's Wrong With Application Software? Business Changes, Software Must Change with the Business. Business changes constantly in small ways and large. It is rare to find an application product that can change once it is implemented. This gap is a reality leading to dissatisfaction and the application being a drag on the business. This gap, the lack of the ability to change, costs the business dearly. Software needs to be the agent of change, not the enemy of change. May 28, 2004 Process Manufacturing: Industry Specific Requirements         Part 3: Textiles As with any manufacturing operation, process manufacturing has special system requirements such as formulas, unit of measure conversions, and packaging recipes. However, within the realm of process manufacturing, specific industries have needs that are more critical than others. This article explores these critical needs for the food and beverage, chemical, and a hybrid industry (textiles), so that you can focus on these requirements when evaluating enterprise-wide software. May 27, 2004 Process Manufacturing: Industry Specific Requirements         Part 2: Chemical As with any manufacturing operation, process manufacturing has special system requirements such as formulas, unit of measure conversions, and packaging recipes. However, within the realm of process manufacturing, specific industries have needs that are more critical than others. This article explores these critical needs for the food and beverage, chemical, and a hybrid industry (textiles), so that you can focus on these requirements when evaluating enterprise-wide software. May 26, 2004 Process Manufacturing: Industry Specific Requirements         Part 1: Introduction As with any manufacturing operation, process manufacturing has special system requirements such as formulas, unit of measure conversions, and packaging recipes. However, within the realm of process manufacturing, specific industries have needs that are more critical than others. This article explores these critical needs for the food and beverage, chemical, and a hybrid industry -- textiles, so that you can focus on these requirements when evaluating enterprise-wide software. May 25, 2004 Encompix--Thriving on Encompassing Complexity         Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations While the company’s focus allows it to keep pace with trends in technology and with customer requirements in its target niche, too narrow a focus comes with its liabilities as well. Nevertheless, Encompix seems to be making the right moves. May 24, 2004 Encompix--Thriving on Encompassing Complexity         Part 1: Event Summary If Encompix has for any reason deliberately maintained its ETO-oriented (engineer-to-order) enterprise resource planning system as one of the best-kept secrets in the complex manufacturing mid-market, it has certainly succeeded so far. However, given a certain number of viable solutions from more renowned and visible (even if not that focused) vendors, the company will have to spread the word much more aggressively from now on. May 22, 2004 Leveraging Technology to Maintain a Competitive Edge During Tough Economic Times -- A Panel Discussion Analyzed         Part 6: Custom Development and Single-Vendor versus Multi-Vendor As componentization and Web services mature, packaged software will be less rigid and easier to adjust to unique practices-- thereby gaining some of the benefit of the custom approach. Although an enterprise can generate many benefits from standardization, it may also create other issues that may often result in disruptions. May 21, 2004 Leveraging Technology to Maintain a Competitive Edge during Tough Economic Times -- A Panel Discussion Analyzed         Part 5: Profitability and Changing Existing IT Systems Every technology deployment should be about improving business. Old software hardly ever dies; however, old technology may become too costly to operate, which can drive a replacement strategy, but not all the time. May 20, 2004 Leveraging Technology to Maintain a Competitive Edge During Tough Economic Times--A Panel Discussion Analyzed         Part 4: RFID Software Issues Logically, radio frequency identification (RFID) deployment will be a far cry from a minor development project that can be completed in a few months or weeks. It will take months and years to assess how RFID will affect manufacturing and shipping operations and IT systems. It will take time to bring software up to a pilot stage, and after that, years of fine-tuning and IT system development will be needed to fully realize the gains in operational efficiency that the technology promises. May 19, 2004 Leveraging Technology to Maintain a Competitive Edge During Tough Economic Times -- A Panel Discussion Analyzed         Part 3: Applications Hosting Mid-market enterprises might benefit from objectively evaluating the value propositions represented in successful next-generation applications service providers (ASP). May 18, 2004 Leveraging Technology to Maintain a Competitive Edge During Tough Economic Times -- A Panel Discussion Analyzed         Part 2: Business Process Modeling Business processes must be enabled across the artificial boundaries of disparate applications that must work together to support these business processes. To that end, business process management (BPM) could assist in compliance issues, can reduce training requirements, and increase the overall efficiency of a business. May 17, 2004 Leveraging Technology to Maintain a Competitive Edge during Tough Economic Times --A Panel Discussion Analyzed         Part 1: Introduction Follow up with analysis on the recent executive panel titled "The Future of Enterprise Software and How It Impacts Your Profitability" at the recent IFS Executive Forum. May 15, 2004 Marketing Automation: Coming of Age Slowly Marketing is possibly the only remaining major business function yet to revise its core processes to take advantage of IT that can cut time, costs, and improve the quality of its operation. Nevertheless with marketing automation there are huge untapped opportunities for business improvement, given marketing has a unique vantage point in any enterprise to understand the customer needs, buying behavior, and value perception. May 14, 2004 Proactive IT Managers Can Make a Difference IT managers, under increasing pressure to align their activities and spending with the strategic objectives of the enterprise, need to find new ways to raise the awareness of IT opportunities throughout the enterprise. This paper presents a framework for IT managers to use as a foundation to their planning processes and as a basis for influencing enterprise strategic planning. May 12, 2004 SoftBrands to Institute Fourth Shift for SAP Business One Manufacturing Work-Plan         Part 5: Challenges and User Recommendations Make sure that what you select now will keep abreast of the technology changes in the future. It may sometimes be more beneficial to implement the right solution slowly than to rush the wrong one into place. May 11, 2004 SoftBrands to Institute Fourth Shift for SAP Business One Manufacturing Work-Plan         Part 4: SoftBrands This partnership provides SAP with the opportunity to further extend its reach within its large corporate customer base by serving the needs of its distant smaller plants and divisions dispersed around the globe. Thus, SAP should hereby have the wherewithal to defend its major accounts from encroachment by vendors touting low-cost, astute plant systems that "happily co-habit" with SAP. May 10, 2004 SoftBrands to Institute Fourth Shift for SAP Business One Manufacturing Work-Plan         Part 3: Market Impact SAP seems to have grasped that the key to success in the SMB market is brand awareness and an apt product, since SMBs are looking for support from incumbent vendors, with intimate knowledge of their vertical and business processes, ample local resources, and the commitment to support them both off- and on-site to achieve value over a long-term relationship. SAP partners' solutions have been leveraged and managed through SAP Global Solutions Network, so that partners do not have to reinvent the wheel, and even unnecessarily compete in the same industries. May 8, 2004 SoftBrands to Institute Fourth Shift for SAP Business One Manufacturing Work-Plan         Part 2: SoftBrands As for the lower-end of the market, SAP has designed SAP Business One to meet the core management needs of dynamically growing small and midsize businesses, and is moving to better address the specific needs of small manufacturers through a planned strategic solution relationship with SoftBrands whereby the two vendors have initiated efforts to integrate SoftBrands' leading manufacturing software product Fourth Shift with SAP Business One. May 7, 2004 SoftBrands to Institute Fourth Shift for SAP Business One Manufacturing Work-Plan         Part 1: Event Summary As the contest for the lower-end of the market intensifies, SAP is further honing a twofold strategy of promulgating its mySAP All-in-One vertical offerings for the higher-end of the mid-market, while offering the SAP Business One product to appeal to smaller enterprises with less complex processes. SoftBrands comes to help with its Fourth Shift product to bolster long-missing manufacturing capabilities of SAP Business One, but the benefits should go both ways, once the integration materializes. May 6, 2004 Can the Market Sustain a Stand-Alone EMM? The new millennium has completely redrawn the IT industry map especially in the enterprise marketing management (EMM) sector. The number of independent marketing automation vendors has significantly shrunk. Names such as Xchange, MarketFirst, Annuncio, and Prime Response no longer exist. Amongst the few still operating is Aprimo. Their strategy primarily targets large customers from the financial services, technology, media and entertainment, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing industries, and it pays. Aprimo just released its version 6.0 posed to help the vendor sustain the ongoing IT turmoil. May 5, 2004 ERP Systems and the ETO Manufacturing Market         Part 3: User Recommendations Companies that are project manufacturers, engineer-to-order (ETO), build-to-order, jobbing shops or contract manufacturers should think carefully when selecting an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Given the maturity of the ERP market, its ongoing consolidation, and that fact that competitive advantage is hard enough for manufacturers to find, they should not compromise on their requirements. May 4, 2004 ERP Systems and the ETO Manufacturing Market         Part 2: ETO versus Repetitive Differences ETO-oriented (engineer-to-order) systems must facilitate the near real time transfer of information and complex product knowledge for collaboration across the extended enterprise. It should especially be suited to organizations that seek to maintain complex selling relationships, such as businesses whose procurement and sales functions rely on subcontractors, channel partnerships or a distributed sales force. May 3, 2004 ERP Systems and the ETO Manufacturing Market         Part 1: Event Summary Users increasingly look for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system designed for a specific business, since software that combines industry-specific functionality with the flexibility to accommodate each company's unique processes goes a long way toward improving the functional fit and the speed of implementation. May 1, 2004 Catering to Small and Medium-Size Enterprises With opportunities in the large enterprise marketplace shrinking due to increased penetration, small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are starting to receive more attention and scrutiny. This article explores the special needs of the SMEs and asks, from a software standpoint, what companies can to do survive in this unique marketplace and what vendors can do to service them. Read on for the answers.   April 2004 April 30, 2004 RedPrairie to Spread Across Europe through LIS Acquisition         Part 3: User Recommendations The integration offered by enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors should not be unjustifiably overweighed at the expense of RedPrairie’s functional breadth and depth and its domain expertise. Existing RedPrairie customers should evaluate the remaining portions of the combined product suites in search for additional value, such as 3PLs wishing to widen services beyond a mere carriage. April 29, 2004 RedPrairie to Spread Across Europe through LIS Acquisition         Part 2: Market Impact It is becoming increasingly important for supply chain execution (SCE) suppliers to have global implementation and service capabilities, while multinational user companies conversely benefit from working with global application providers. Now, the two merged vendors, RedPrairie Corporation and LIS, should have the critical mass and geographical breadth necessary to better serve the needs of their global customers, with local, multilingual support, and to compete for an ever-increasing number of multi-modal transport, multinational engagements. April 28, 2004 RedPrairie to Spread Across Europe through LIS Acquisition         Part 1: Event Summary A consolidation within the warehouse management systems/ supply chain execution market, which many pundits had long been predicting, but had hardly taken place for various reasons, finally seems to be happening. April 27, 2004 ERP Vendors Intrude on SCE/WMS Safe Haven Within the warehouse management system (WMS) market, which is still the main breadwinning offering for most of the SCE vendors, most products are functionally on par with mere nuances in ease of configuration or industry focus to differentiate the winner. ERP vendors have taken advantage of this unfavorable perception for WMS specialists to in the very least shore up their huge install bases, if not compete for some "green field" WMS opportunities. April 24, 2004 Fatal Flaws in ERP Software Create Opportunity for Niche Software in CPG Companies ERP software may fail to meet critical business requirements. When companies find that their ERP doesn't meet all of their business requirements, they should investigate niche software vendors who are focused on fixing fatal flaws. This paper discusses one of the potential fatal flaw areas in the CPG industry. April 23, 2004 An Interview with Saj-nicole Joni (Author of The Third Opinion) The term The Third Opinion was coined by Clark Clifford, advisor and friend to many US Presidents. One thing is clear to all of us who have been observing business, politics, and life: good advice is hard to get. Ms. Joni bases The Third Opinion on the years of her advisory work with some of the world’s top executives. April 23, 2004 What is SRFM? The planning, execution and partner collaboration processes of nearly all companies today are driven by a "plan", itself typically part forecast, part performance target. April 23, 2004 RFID--A New Technology Set to Explode?         Part 2: Early Adopters, Challenges, and User Recommendations Radio frequency identification or RFID has a potential of becoming a new technology inflection point. It can be a missing piece in the long-lasting puzzle of squeezing excess inventory out of supply chains, but only when (and if) it reaches a critical mass of adoption and maturity over the next several years. April 23, 2004 Resilient Supply Chains: The Next Frontier Advances in leaner and faster supply chains have, in many cases, come at the price of increased brittleness. It is time to make supply chains more resilient, and deal with risk more intelligently to maintain the gains from lean strategies, and take performance to the next level. April 23, 2004 Understanding the True Cost of Sourcing In today's twenty-first century, global outsourced business world, the traditional and somewhat simplistic approaches used to measure cost for sourcing decisions of direct materials fall short. April 22, 2004 RFID--A New Technology Set to Explode?         Part 1: RFID Technology For retailers and the other vertical industries, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags present enormous opportunities to improve supply chain operations, since real-time inventory control, tracking, and alerting capabilities could be very important advantages of RFID. As tagged inventory goes through ports, terminals, freight forwarders, and into a distribution center, the RFID tag should provide near real-time visibility of an item's whereabouts at all times. April 20, 2004 Cookie-cutter Solutions Won't Cut It with the Mid-Market         Part 2: Challenges and the Lower-End More than their larger counterparts, small and medium businesses (SMB) are looking for relatively simple and inexpensive software that is easy to install yet easy to customize and extend. April 19, 2004 Cookie-cutter Solutions Won't Cut It with the Mid-Market         Part 1: Historical Relationships Small enterprises, like their bigger brethren, need some differentiation means in the market, and that will not be achieved by implementing a cut-and-dried business solution in a "cookie cutter", "me too" deployment approach April 17, 2004 Integrating All Information Assets         Part 4: What Approach Do You Take? The most crucial element of integration lies in the approach you take to achieve it. By far the most forward thinking approach is to "technology enable" existing systems, externalizing components by supplementing application logic with externally defined business rules, workflow technologies and event management. This is an excerpt from the book ERP Optimization (Subtitle: Using Your Existing System to Support Profitable E-Business Initiatives). April 16, 2004 Integrating All Information Assets         Part 3: What Constitutes Integration? So, whether the need for integration arises from the proliferation of business applications within your own enterprise, the results of mergers and acquisitions, or from the demands of e-business, integration emerges as a significant challenge in responding to the demands of business today. What then constitutes integration and how do you go about meeting these challenges? This is an excerpt from the book ERP Optimization (Subtitle: Using Your Existing System to Support Profitable E-Business Initiatives). April 15, 2004 Integrating All Information Assets         Part 2: Why is integration an issue? Successful e-businesses of the future will be those who treat e-business as the collection of processes, which allow multiple companies to work cooperatively and collaboratively to produce a seemingly seamless integration of businesses operating as a virtually vertical enterprise. And with this integration of business processes comes the requirement to integrate disparate business applications. This is an excerpt from the book ERP Optimization (Subtitle: Using Your Existing System to Support Profitable E-Business Initiatives). April 14, 2004 Integrating All Information Assets         Part 1: Why is integration an issue? More and more companies today face a significant challenge in integrating multiple business applications. This is the natural result of fewer companies running a single, all encompassing business application, either in a lone facility or across multiple sites of a multinational, multi-organizational enterprise. The inability to integrate leaves an incomplete or disjointed view of your enterprise. This is an excerpt from the book ERP Optimization (Subtitle: Using Your Existing System to Support Profitable E-Business Initiatives). April 13, 2004 Whose ROI is it Anyway?         Part 2: Sorting Through Claims ROI (return on investment) has taken on new importance in examining business initiatives and programs that often involve deployment of enterprise software and information technology. In some cases, "Show me the ROI" has become a smokescreen for "Let's wait and see" or, "Go away. Don't bother me." April 12, 2004 Whose ROI is it Anyway?         Part 1: Introduction With growing frequency, we hear business and IT managers asking a technology vendor to "justify the expenditure" or "demonstrate the ROI" on their particular hardware, software or service offering. In some cases, this may be possible. April 10, 2004 Technology Vendor--Can You Afford Credibility? For Technology vendors, credibility is the ability to sell. Credibility is vital, is hard to build, and easy to lose. Building credibility doesn't have to be costly. This article touches on the concepts you can employ to build your credibility. These concepts are the basis for a seminar presented by The Credibility Forum. April 9, 2004 ERP and SCM Implementations         Part 2: Interfaces and Priorities To a large extent, software packages do work out of the box. Packages that do not perform perfectly or as users would expect is when dissatisfaction arises. These can be dealt with in a rational manner through the employment of effective project and change management procedures. However, an area that typically creates problems, whether expected or not, is the development of interfaces between proprietary software that cannot be replaced. April 8, 2004 ERP and SCM Implementations         Part 1: Doing Too Much Too Soon In order to get ahead of the systems development power curve, companies are attempting what is equivalent to executing a quadruple jump in ice skating; running a sub 3:50 minute mile in track; and winning the Tour de France in cycling--all in the same year. How? By trying to implement enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) software at the same time. Read on why this is an ill-advised course of action with an extremely low probability of success. April 7, 2004 High Performance Organizations Are Driven by the Power of Enterprise Business Events "Agility", "real time enterprise", "zero latency" ... these are among the several buzzwords doing the rounds these days. Some would characterize these present times as belonging to the "Real Time Decade." Are these words just hype or do they proffer a vision of reality for the near future? This article attempts to examine the issues involved and offer some answers. April 6, 2004 Enterprise Applications--The Genesis and Future, Revisited         Part 6: Looking to the Future Unless all the functional modules have access to and use the same data in near real-time, unless all processes are fully integrated (so that, for example a mobile sales rep can see the live inventory data for order promising), and unless users can seamlessly move from one module to another, we are not talking about coherency but rather about the hodgepodge of disconnected (or very loosely connected, in the best scenario) islands of information. April 5, 2004 Enterprise Applications--The Genesis and Future, Revisited         Part 5: More on ERP Evolution If the ultimate objective is to win and retain customers, one must consider the entire chain, which includes traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) functions as well as the once considered more remarkable and supposedly more relevant CRM and e-commerce activity. April 3, 2004 Enterprise Applications--The Genesis and Future, Revisited         Part 4: Another Step in ERP Evolution Within recent years, enterprise resource planning (ERP) has been redefined as a platform for enabling collaborative e-business globally. Originally focused on automating internal processes of an enterprise, extended ERP systems increasingly include customer and supplier-centric processes. April 2, 2004 Enterprise Applications--The Genesis and Future, Revisited         Part 3: 2000s--Back to the Future A typical ERP system indeed now offers broad functional coverage nearing the best-of-breed capabilities; vertical industry extensions; a strong technical architecture; training, documentation, implementation and process design tools; product enhancements; global support; and an extensive list of software, services and technology partners. While it is not a system-in-a-box yet, the gap between its desired and actual features is becoming smaller every day. April 1, 2004 Enterprise Applications--The Genesis and Future, Revisited         Part 2: 1990s--Enterprise Resource Planning Integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions became synonymous with competitive advantage, particularly throughout the 1990's. Customers were demanding to have their products delivered when, where, and how they wanted them. Companies were therefore compelled to develop and embrace the philosophies of just in time (JIT) and closer supplier partnerships as a way to remain competitive.   March 2004 March 31, 2004 Enterprise Applications--The Genesis and Future, Revisited         Part 1: 1960s--Pre-Computer Era Knowing the history and evolution of enterprise applications is essential to understanding their current use and future developments. Each step in the evolution of the software is built on the fundamentals and principles developed within the previous one, which holds true for the contemporary phase of the 2000s as well. March 30, 2004 The Proof Is in the ROI A well-thought out, comprehensive ROI (return on investment) marketing and sales program is becoming a must in today's difficult business to business (B2B) software market. However, few companies seem to be investing appropriately. The first mistake they make is to try to keep costs down by attempting to create an ROI program internally. It's a sure way to waste value people, time, and effort. If you want a significant return on your ROI sales and marketing investment, hire an expert. March 26, 2004 Managing Your Supply Chain Using Microsoft Axapta: A Book Excerpt         Part 4: Guidelines and Case Studies The lack of effective game plans is typically cited as a leading cause of poor system implementation. The following guidelines provide suggestions for improving the effectiveness of sales and operations planning (S&OP) game plans. March 25, 2004 Managing Your Supply Chain Using Microsoft Axapta: A Book Excerpt         Part 3: Common Scenarios The nature of a sales and operations planning (S&OP) game plan depends on several factors, such as the need to anticipate demand, the item's primary source of supply, and the production strategy for manufactured items. Consideration of these factors can be illustrated with several common scenarios. March 24, 2004 Managing Your Supply Chain Using Microsoft Axapta: A Book Excerpt         Part 2: Understanding Planning Calculations The S&OP game plans drive coordination of supply chain activities based on planning calculations. The primary coordination engine-termed the master scheduling task-generates a set of requirements data and suggested action messages, and the system supports multiple sets of requirements data for simulation purposes. Further explanation starts with a review of all demands and supplies considered by planning logic, and then proceeds to an overview of the planning calculations. March 23, 2004 Managing Your Supply Chain Using Microsoft Axapta: A Book Excerpt         Part 1: Sales and Operations Planning Managing Your Supply Chain Using Microsoft Axapta provides an overall understanding of how the system fits together to run a manufacturing or distribution business. This book excerpt focuses on running the business from the top with sales and operations planning (S&OP). Variation in operations affect the S&OP process and the nature of demand impacts the S&OP game plans. March 22, 2004 The World Of Software Buying Has Changed; Will the Vendors Change With It? How an enterprise buys software has changed forever. Buyers are skeptical, risk adverse, and tighter with their budgets. What are those changes, why did they happen, and what does it mean for the both the buying enterprise and the selling vendor? March 19, 2004 BI Approaches of Enterprise Software Vendors The need for business intelligence (BI) is real for all enterprise software users. It is rare to find a user who feels they get the information they need from their enterprise software system and even those who do want more. The need is not just reporting; they need business monitoring, analysis, an understanding of why things are happening. They need diagnostic tools. March 18, 2004 What Matters Most: An Interview with Jeffrey Hollender Jeffrey Hollender has a broader definition of the Value Chain that includes the true end-to-end responsibilities as well as sustainability, a term (if you are not familiar with) means, not only recognizing all the costs incurred in the chain-human, environmental etc. March 18, 2004 SmallSmartFast Organizations At ChainLink we have talked a lot about the advent of SmallSmartFast technologies—ever-smaller and ever-smarter devices and software that is fast to implement and give us information and answers in real-time. March 18, 2004 Software Growth - Complete the Transaction!         Part 1 We got many letters for more ideas and details, so we are doing a more in-depth series for supply chain software leaders. In this article we will discuss the issue of completing the whole transaction—the complete solution—which is key to continued revenue growth. March 18, 2004 EAM versus CMMS: What's Right for Your Company?         Part 4: IFS and Intentia Responses The primary benefit of enterprise asset management (EAM) is the reliability-centered maintenance. Let’s face it: any process that can help you improve what you are doing now and enables you to do it better in the future is the best thing since "sliced bread". Providing data to feed back into a process can only increase operational revenues and decrease maintenance expenses. Nonetheless, beware of EAM vendors explaining the ease with which these interfaces can be constructed and modified in the future based on new software releases. March 17, 2004 EAM versus CMMS: What's Right for Your Company?         Part 3: Analysis of IFS and Intentia Having traditionally done implementations via their product delivery organization, IFS and Intentia also have long exhibited a focus on product quality and customer satisfaction, which manifests into a lasting relationship with each client. However like other enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) software vendors, Intentia and IFS need to string together several quarters of profitability to restore consumer confidence and long-term stability. March 16, 2004 EAM versus CMMS: What's Right for Your Company?         Part 2: Integration Concerns In most cases, companies will acquire enterprise asset management (EAM) software but the interfaces to external systems will have to be constructed. March 15, 2004 EAM Versus CMMS: What's Right for Your Company?         Part 1 As companies continue to look for more areas from which to squeeze out revenues and reduce expenses, enterprise asset management (EAM) and computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) software continue to receive good press as the systems providing an answer--and with justification. But what software makes the most sense for your company and from which providers--EAM/CMMS best-of-breed incumbents or enterprise resource planning (ERP) "newcomers?" Read on to understand the key differentiators. March 13, 2004 The Old ERP Dilemma--The Refresh Option If your enterprise resource planning system is "old", if it is highly modified, if it is far behind in releases, and if it is not really serving your current needs, you may be thinking of replacing it. Many companies ignore the option of "refreshing" the existing system up to the current release and implementing modules and functions added since your original purchase. It works for some people, but will it work for you? March 12, 2004 GXS Acquires HAHT Commerce or More Synchronized Retail B2B Data         Part 4: Challenges and User Recommendations. With the acquisition of HAHT, GXS is making a play to build out its complementary software offerings--in particular, its product information management (PIM) and data synchronization tools. March 11, 2004 GXS Acquires HAHT Commerce for More Synchronized Retail B2B Data         Part 3: Market Impact There is renewed interest to provide GXS' trading services from other surviving Internet exchange providers to leverage GXS' huge expertise and investment in a global infrastructure to provide its trading services. In particular, GXS could cater for integration between the exchange and the enterprise systems of the members, including diverse back-office and front-office systems, and for processing and routing of transactions between participants. March 10, 2004 GXS Acquires HAHT Commerce for More Synchronized Retail B2B Data         Part 2: HAHT Commerce HAHT PIM is a strategic solution designed to meet current and evolving standards for collaborative trading. It empowers manufacturers to manage product information and optimize product data synchronization from product launch through to sunset via the automation of internal and external business processes with trading partners. March 9, 2004 GXS Acquires HAHT Commerce for More Synchronized Retail B2B Data         Part 1: Event Summary GXS, a business to business e-commerce pioneer, announced its acquisition of channel management specialist HAHT Commerce. However, despite a good complementary fit, enlarged customer base, and improved cross-selling opportunity (especially to existing customers in the retail sector), some challenges will have to be overcome and a more detailed strategy will have to be fleshed out. March 8, 2004 Data Quality: Cost or Profit? Data quality has direct consequences on a company's bottom-line and its customer relationship management (CRM) strategy. Looking beyond general approaches and company policies that set expectations and establish data management procedures, we will explore applications and tools that help reduce the negative impact of poor data quality. Some CRM application providers like Interface Software have definitely taken data quality seriously and are contributing to solving some data quality issues. March 6, 2004 What Does the Future Hold for PRM? Almost every company has been scrutinizing their relationships with partners more closely and figuring out how best to reach and nurture them. With so much business going through indirect sales channels in the next five years, the need for some form of partner relationship management (PRM) should not be questioned. The natural question is then why only a few software vendors specializing in PRM have thrived? March 5, 2004 EDI versus. XML--Working in Tandem Rather Than Competing? Electronic data interchange (EDI), extensible markup language (XML) , and any other format are merely "semantics" and input streams for expressing data, and whether a transaction is transmitted in EDI format or XML is largely secondary to the fact that electronic document and data exchange is growing rapidly. March 3, 2004 Exact Software--Working Diligently Towards the ''One Exact'' Synergy         Part 6: Challenges and User Recommendations The current market trend is towards vendors that can provide comprehensive solutions for small and medium sized enterprises (SME) with a justifiable return on investment (ROI), and Exact seems to have a fair shot at making a mark. March 2, 2004 Exact Software--Working Diligently Towards the ''One Exact'' Synergy         Part 5: Market Impact (Continued) While most traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions are task-driven, by adding structure to processes that are typically handled inconsistently or manually, Macola ES is process-driven. A truly integrated workflow and business process management (BPM) tool allows users to achieve long coveted IT objectives--the paperless office, management by exception, and workflow as electronic framework to guide employees. March 1, 2004 Exact Software--Working Diligently Towards the ''One Exact'' Synergy         Part 4: Market Impact Continued Exact has established a global infrastructure and a network of offices offering direct support, sales, and services with the aim of providing customers a consistent level of service. It is also working toward the emergence of a new category of software that tackles enterprise relationship management, groupware and workplace collaboration management, and so on. Some leading analysts have named this nascent category smart enterprise suite (SES).   February 2004 February 28, 2004 Exact Software--Working Diligently Towards the ''One Exact'' Synergy         Part 3: Market Impact While not really a household name in North America before the Macola acquisition, Exact has always been a force to reckon with in the lower end of the ERP mid-market in Europe, and occasionally, to a degree, elsewhere in the world. February 27, 2004 Exact Software--Working Diligently Towards the ''One Exact'' Synergy         Part 2: Macola, the ERP and BAM Solutions In 2003, Exact Software announced the general availability of Macola Enterprise Suite (ES), the latest version of the company's ERP solution, which goes beyond traditional ERP solutions’ scope by allowing its users to define business rules, workflow, and exception alerts and events. Also, Exact Event Manager addresses the challenge of not knowing about existing and potential business problems or of learning of them too late by providing a way for organizations to define and respond to critical, time-sensitive data across the entire enterprise. February 26, 2004 Exact Software--Working Diligently Towards the ''One Exact'' Synergy         Part 1: Event Summary By determinedly executing a number of both prudent and bold initiatives, including some that encroach into the new frontiers of enterprise applications (such as business process management and business activity monitoring), Exact Software may have gotten the wherewithal to almost be reckoned with uniformly (i.e., One Exact) on a global scale by all earnest enterprise mid-market contenders. February 25, 2004 Maintenance Software--How to Negotiate Successful Contracts with CMMS Vendors When negotiating a contract with a computer maintenance management system (CMMS) vendor the guiding principals and definition of the project must first be determined. Deliverables, pricing options, payment terms, continuance, product and service quality, and liabilities are additional areas that must be considered in negotiations. February 24, 2004 Continuous Improvement Offers CMMS Maintenance Benefits Computer maintenance management system (CMMS) packages are excellent tools for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data and can offer insight into a process’ problem. Critical success factors for the effective use for the CMMS involves clear support from management and measurable drivers involving time, quality, and cost. February 21, 2004 Maintenance Software--Plan Ahead to Maximize CMMS Vendor Web Site Visits For those looking for a computer maintenance management system (CMMS) vendor, the Web is often the first place to start. There are a number of web site features one should examine in order to maximize web site visits. Reprinted with permission from Plant Engineering and Maintenance magazine. February 19, 2004 Use CMMS to Improve PdM Performance Companies that have moved from a highly reactive environment to a more planned one notice significant improvement. A computer maintenance management system (CMMS) or an enterprise asset management (EAM) is a useful tool to create a planned environment, help build accurate equipment history, and develop comprehensive analysis capability. Reprinted with permission from Plant Engineering and Maintenance magazine. February 18, 2004 3M Wraps Up HighJump, While Retalix Shops OMI International         Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations Existing smaller customers of both acquired vendors should closely monitor any changes to determine whether they will continue to receive acceptable support and service from their providers within these new arrangements. February 17, 2004 3M Wraps Up HighJump, While Retalix Shops OMI International         Part 2: Market Impact Both HighJump's and OMI's customers should be pleased because these acquisitions should center their vendors’ supply chain execution products inside a larger suite of complementary offerings and increase their vendors’ financial viability and market visibility. February 16, 2004 3M Wraps Up HighJump, While Retalix Shops OMI International         Part 1: Recent Events It appears that instead of a direct intra-market consolidation, some smaller, but profitable, undercapitalized, and undervalued warehouse management and supply chain execution vendors have lately found a shelter under wealthy, more visible parent companies with complementary products. February 15, 2004 Usability Poor usability leads to irritation and fatigue and it has an adverse impact on the usage experience. In an on-line shopping web site, it can lead to loss of revenues. Poor usability in business applications leads to increased help desk costs. On the other hand, better usability makes our usage experience more fun and can increase productivity. A highly usable on-line shopping web site tempts repeat visits, builds customer loyalty, and increases its revenue-earning potential. February 14, 2004 Run your Business with no Software! Picture your business today without software applications. It's hard to imagine, isn't it? But maybe you should try - and not for the reason you may be thinking. Think about how hard it would be to run your business if your software applications weren't working - and then build a plan to provide total application availability. February 13, 2004 Justification of ERP Investments         Part 4: Replacing or Re-implementing an ERP System An investment analysis focusing on enterprise resource planning (ERP) benefits frequently applies to those firms initially justifying an ERP implementation. It can also be used to justify a 're-implementation' when the initial efforts have failed to produce desired results. Reprinted from Maximizing Your ERP System by Dr. Scott Hamilton. February 12, 2004 The Store of the Future The big hit of the National Retail Federation show was the Metro Group's Store of the Future. The budget for this extravaganza - it appears to have been underwritten by some of the biggest technology firms in the world. February 12, 2004 Justification of ERP Investments         Part 3: Costs of Implementing an ERP System Enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation costs can be divided into one-time costs and ongoing annual costs. Both types of costs can be segmented into hardware, software, external assistance, and internal personnel. Reprinted from Maximizing Your ERP System by Dr. Scott Hamilton. February 12, 2004 Transenterprises - The Emerging Business Model of the Twenty First Century During the last two decades, many of the old vertically integrated enterprise/empires have splintered into numerous core-competency-focused firms, loosely bound into the so-called virtual extended enterprises. February 12, 2004 Supply Chain Portfolio 2004 Here we are in the New Year. So, what should the going forward picture be of the Supply Chain portfolio? Something old, something new, something from a service provider, something blue. OK, enough of that. February 11, 2004 Justification of ERP Investments         Part 2: The Intangible Effects of ERP The intangible or non-financial benefits of an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can be viewed from several perspectives. For illustrative purposes, the discussion will focus on the benefits for accounting, product and process design, production, sales, and management information system MIS functions. From the overall company standpoint, ERP provides a framework for working effectively together and providing a consistent plan for action. Reprinted from Maximizing Your ERP System by Dr. Scott Hamilton. February 9, 2004 CDC Software Wins the Pivotal Auction. Now What?         Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations It is essential that depth and expertise in vertical industries, which are critical to ongoing success, be encouraged and nurtured. However, it can be easily neglected in a slew of recent complementary acquisitions and subsequent attempts to intertwine them. However, CDC and Pivotal looks like the kind of acquisition that we would like to see more of in the industry. February 7, 2004 CDC Software Wins the Pivotal Auction. Now What?         Part 2: Market Impact Pivotal, had been feeling the competitive pressures coming from many directions. Despite many mid-market and niche CRM vendors' attempts to overcome these challenges, many will continue to struggle to avoid insolvency, while the luckier ones that have some attractive point solutions, such as partner relationship management (PRM) or portal solutions, will become the acquisition targets of large enterprise vendors gladly seeking to incorporate them. February 6, 2004 CDC Software Wins at the Pivotal Auction. Now What?         Part 1: Event Summary While Pivotal might have temporarily mitigated its protracted troubles by having the privilege to choose between three potential suitors, the time for some decisive moves is now, given that competitive pressures will not go away, but rather will intensify. February 5, 2004 Onyx/Pivotal Rivalry Through Thin Rather Than Thick The last few years have been harsh on most vendors within the CRM market segment, particularly on Onyx and Pivotal. The economic downturn and the standstill in IT spending have hit each company at a time when it was ramping up product development and business expansion. February 4, 2004 Intentia's Movex for Food and Beverage: Gaining a Foothold in North America         Part 3: Observations and User Recommendations The Movex collaboration application suite includes enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), business performance measurement (BPM), value chain collaboration, and e-business--although tempting to its target market, it may not likely be as profound or able to deal with the same levels of complexity as the best-of-breed concoctions or the industry’s leaders' offerings. Nevertheless, this software should be on every food and beverage prospect's shortlist of vendors, as it is highly likely to meet the requirements of many mid-size companies and even some large ones. February 3, 2004 Intentia's Movex for Food and Beverage: Gaining a Foothold in North America         Part 2: SCM and Other Functions The SCM features of Movex should assist you in streamlining your operations to make them more efficient and cost-effective. Movex has meanwhile expanded its hardware base and has long added customer relationship management (CRM) modules. February 2, 2004 Intentia's Movex for Food and Beverage: Gaining a Foothold in North America         Part 1: Functions and Features of Movex Intentia's Movex solution for the food and beverage industries has been highly regarded in Europe and the Pacific Rim. Now, Intentia is ready to gain foothold in North America. Read on to discover why this software for the process manufacturing industries should be on every food and beverage prospect’s shortlist of vendors.   December 2004 December 31, 2004 JDA Portfolio: For the Retail Industry         Part 5: Analysis of Market Impact Given the competition for retail customers and wholesale orders is intense, retailers, including software vendors, must be able to meet consumer demand quickly, accurately and at the most competitive price. Despite its failed QRS acquisition, which promised to expand JDA's retail demand chain optimization applications, JDA Portfolio may be able to help retailers if it can overcome the challenges of servicing a fragmented sector and withstand the increasing competition. December 30, 2004 JDA Portfolio: For the Retail Industry         Part 4: More JDA Portfolio 2004.1 and Microsoft Alliance JDA Portfolio 2004.1products have been developed or acquired by JDA in order to present customers with an enterprise offering that might currently be the broadest, most functional set of industry leading retail demand chain software solutions available to retailers and their suppliers. December 29, 2004 JDA Portfolio: For the Retail Industry         Part 3: JDA Portfolio 2004.1 Continued With its new business model, JDA plans to build upon the broadening collective JDA Portfolio product lines to enable its customers to achieve a new level of operational excellence. December 28, 2004 JDA Portfolio: For The Retail Industry         Part 2: JDA Portfolio 2004.1 Components The unveiled product set, JDA Portfolio 2004.1 should help retailers and their suppliers optimally plan and execute the selection, quantification, assortment, procurement and placement of finished goods at the point of sale (POS). December 27, 2004 JDA Portfolio: For the Retail Industry         Part 1: Event Summary From how to price and promote products to how to optimize profits, JDA Portfolio tries to create that perfect "moment of truth"--when the right consumer product at the right price is at the right place and at the right time. Yet, the portfolio rounding out process has to continue in earnest, especially after JDA’s aborted merger with QRS. December 25, 2004 Glossary of Enterprise Applications Terminology         Part 2: Just-in-Time to Extensible Markup Language As enterprise applications systems developed over time, a continuous stream of new terminology surfaced. This is a glossary of those terms. December 24, 2004 Glossary of Enterprise Applications Terminology         Part 1: Accounts Payable Through Internet As enterprise applications systems developed over time, a continuous stream of new terminology surfaced. This is a glossary of those terms. December 23, 2004 A Mid-Winter's Nightmare: Economic Notes for the Winter Holiday Season The US is the largest debtor nation in the world, with the largest per capita consumption of energy, and its currency is in decline. Does that mean a decline in America's wealth and super power status? This article makes some sobering observations, predictions, and recommendations. December 23, 2004 Understanding SOA, Web Services, BPM, and BPEL         Part 2: BPEL and User Recommendations In a somewhat simplified language, while Web services allow applications to easily exchange and reuse information, it is only when they are orchestrated (coordinated) into long-running business flows or processes that enterprises can realize their true value. December 23, 2004 N-Tier Demand Management The classic bull-whip effect means that the further a supplier is removed from the end consumer, the worse are the fluctuations in demand that they see. This has led many to recommend an n-tier approach to demand management, where everyone gets visibility to the end-customer demand at the same time. In practice, very few companies have been able to actually realize this vision. There are some practical approaches that a few leading suppliers deep in the supply chain are have taken to successfully mitigate the bull-whip effect. December 23, 2004 The Changing Face of the Holiday Season It seems that Santa will need to relocate to China! When traveling abroad (with the exception of low wage countries) it is becoming increasingly difficult to find items actually locally made in the region you are visiting. What are the implications of this for brands, companies, and consumers? December 23, 2004 Predictive Demand Supply If you're in the supply chain business, right up there with Newton's law of gravity stands Murphy's other law stipulating that demand and supply, if left to their own tendencies, will always tend to diverge and get you in trouble. Welcome to the world of predictive demand and supply planning whose mission is to predict imbalances as far in advance as possible, in order to provide ample time and opportunity to design and implement corrective sales and operations solutions. So how do we design a system for identifying potential issues and expressing them via a commonly understood key process indicator (KPI) where the cause and effect of our actions can be readily measured? Read this article by the former director of Dell's operations and demand management. December 22, 2004 Understanding SOA, Web Services, BPM, BPEL, and More         Part 1: SOA, Web Services, and BPM In the larger schema of things, SOA would espouse general, more abstract concepts of software reusability and encapsulation within certain boundaries (as to then provide access to that software via defined interfaces), Web services would then make these SOA concepts vendor-independent due to their use of generally accepted standards, while BPM and BPEL would be some of the engines making the whole system work. December 20, 2004 Lean Asset Management--Is Preventive Maintenance Anti-Lean? How can we determine the right maintenance strategy for a specific asset? To meet the objectives of lean, we need to evaluate the cost of failure in terms of both not meeting business objectives and any extra cost due to the need for unplanned or even emergency repairs. December 18, 2004 Stand Up, Sit Down...Don’t Fight, Fight, Fight Can you relate to the following software demo situation? Jennifer, the sales engineer, is at the keyboard. She's on a roll. She's been setting the stage to show how her price matrix capability will eliminate costly errors. This is all-important to the prospect. She has the audience's full attention and is steadily moving them toward her objective. Suddenly Robert, the account executive, interrupts from the back of the room. "Jennifer, I think this would be a great time to show how the information you’re working with updates the data warehouse and is immediately available for sales analysis purposes." Everybody shifts their attention from Jennifer and the all-important price matrix capability to Robert and the equally important data warehouse function. In an instant, the momentum Jennifer has been building dies. December 17, 2004 Epicor's Mid-Market Pitch Becomes Higher For (One) Scala         Part 5: More Challenges & User Recommendations Competition is also flying from many directions since the parent company now competes in many diverse markets, and it now has a number of competitors that vary in size, target markets, and overall product scope. December 16, 2004 Epicor's Mid-Market Pitch Becomes Higher For (One) Scala         Part 4: Merger Synergies and Challenges The acquisition has at least the following two synergies between the two merged companies 1) geographical coverage, and 2) the strong relationships that both independently have with Microsoft. December 15, 2004 Epicor's Mid-Market Pitch Becomes Higher For (One) Scala         Part 3: Market Impact Scala, with main direct office coverage in Europe and the Far East, and through its network of partners and dealers in most remote, esoteric, and still low-penetrated markets, perfectly fits the description of an ideal Epicor supplement. December 14, 2004 Epicor's Mid-Market Pitch Becomes Higher For (One) Scala         Part 2: How Scala Complements Epicor The merger looks like a positive move for both companies and their customers, since Epicor obtains a foothold in some complementary geographic regions, and in certain discrete manufacturing and service industries it has not really penetrated in the past by acquiring a reasonably run vendor without much excessive baggage. December 13, 2004 Epicor's Mid-Market Pitch Becomes Higher For (One) Scala         Part 1: Event Summary One should imagine Epicor has carefully thought out the rationale for the recent acquisition of its European counterpart Scala. The merger seems to have much of a strategic merit as opposed to a knee-jerk, ‘me too’ impulse owing to the ongoing consolidation craze in the market. December 9, 2004 Vertical Marketing--What Is A Vertical? What is vertical marketing? Vertical marketing is product and promotion efforts targeted at specific industries. Many benefits are derived from vertical marketing. These include messages that are better received, credibility, marketing budgets that go farther, less competition, etc. A common mistake is the failure to understand the verticals you choose to target. The definition of a vertical is not what the vendor thinks; it is what the prospects think. December 8, 2004 Understand J2EE and .NET Environments Before You Choose The Microsoft .NET versus J2EE platform argument often takes on the vehemence of a religious debate. Choosing one may amount to "betting the farm", whereas choosing neither or both typically forces unwieldy workarounds or excruciating duplicate development efforts. December 6, 2004 SAP Bolsters NetWeaver's MDM Capabilities         Part 5: Challenges and User Recommendations SAP customers waiting for MDM to address data synchronization initiatives can be confident that, in the long term, SAP will likely address consolidation of product data for more purposes than a mere compliance to retailers’ mandates. December 4, 2004 SAP Bolsters NetWeaver's MDM Capabilities         Part 4: SAP and A2i The A2i acquisition will in the short term bring together two complementary e-commerce products that should help retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers manage and sell their products to other companies and customers on-line. December 3, 2004 SAP Bolsters NetWeaver's MDM Capabilities         Part 3: Market Impact As business applications' scope continues to expand, so does a propagation of data sources across the businesses and IT systems. Achieving consistent understanding of this scattered data has become a major hurdle to improved business processes, with redundancy, waste and a plethora of lost opportunities as a result. December 2, 2004 SAP Bolsters NetWeaver's MDM Capabilities         Part 2: xCat and SAP MDM SAP purports that SAP MDM also lays the foundation for efficient and accurate exchange of cross-business information. Consumer products companies, for instance, can exchange timely product information with retail distributors, avoid costly inaccuracies, enhance merchandizing, and improve supply chain operations. December 1, 2004 SAP Bolsters NetWeaver's MDM Capabilities         Part 1: Event Summary SAP's determination to become a service-oriented architecture (SOA) applications lingua franca evangelist through SAP NetWeaver might have been further shown by its recent willingness to acquire catalog and product content management (PCM) vendor A2i, knowing its inclination to acquire little when it comes to technology vendors. Apparently, there should be some compelling time-to-market urge to add PCM value within the master data management (MDM) realm.   November 2004 November 30, 2004 A Spoonful of SugarCRMCase Study and Review of an Open Source CRM Solution SugarCRM is a rapidly growing open source CRM company with solutions that appeal to a community of enthusiastic users. This study, based on a client who selected the Sugar Sales Professional CRM solution, compares product functionality to the competition and highlights some of SugarCRM's open source business practices. November 29, 2004 Do You Need a Content Management System? Understanding what content management means is the first step to determine how a solution will suit your company. Because of the abundance of information both inside and outside of organizations, it is crucial to harness it as an effective business asset. November 27, 2004 When Is It Time to Re-implement? One "universal truth" still remains with all ERP systems deployed in companies today. Change in your business model is inevitable and if you do not readjust your ERP systems to support the change, your system can (and probably will), cripple your organization. November 26, 2004 Branding and Positioning: What’s the Difference? And Can You Afford It? Understanding the difference between branding and positioning is especially important if you're involved in marketing B2B software. That difference can seriously impact the cost of marketing your software. November 25, 2004 Do You Know What Are the ''Unintended Consequences'' of Your CRM Project? CRM, in its most straightforward definition, mandates that a company harmonize between a product/brand view of its business and the all-important customer view. Many companies, hard as it is to believe, do not have a clear idea of who are their most profitable customers. November 24, 2004 ICICI-Infotech's North American Strategy for Success         Part 3: Challenges and User Recommendations ICICI-Infotech is starting to make its presence felt in North America and raise some ERP eyebrows. Read on as to why you may want to take a closer look at this vendor and its product. In this research note, you'll also learn about the company’s strategy to target small and medium-size enterprises in order to enlarge its footprint in North America. It may appear that ICICI-Infotech is buying its way into the North American ERP market. The reason is simple; they are. November 23, 2004 ICICI-Infotech's North American Strategy for Success         Part 2: Customer Focus and Innovative Pricing ICICI-Infotech is starting to make its presence felt in North America and raise some ERP eyebrows. In this research note, you'll also learn about the company's strategy to target small and medium-size enterprises in order to enlarge its footprint in North America. It is targeting companies migrating from legacy systems or software that is simply out of gas. November 22, 2004 ICICI-Infotech's North American Strategy for Success         Part 1: Company Background and Market Focus You may not yet have heard of ICICI-Infotech or its ERP offering, ORION. Well, for some time the rest of the world has. ICICI-Infotech is starting to make its presence felt in North America and raise some ERP eyebrows. Read on as to why you may want to take a closer look at this vendor and its product. In this research note, you’ll also learn about the company's strategy to target small and medium-size enterprises in order to enlarge its footprint in North America. November 20, 2004 Inovis Delves into PIM by Snatching QRS         Part 5: Challenges and User Recommendations While many people have realized the power of e-commerce on the consumer side, there is still plenty of education to be conducted by all the B2B e-commerce vendors as to prove how much leverage their applications can bring to corporations. November 19, 2004 Inovis Delves into PIM by Snatching QRS         Part 4: Market Impact While owing to a number of similar products and to former competition between the merging parties this merger has a merit of growth by acquisition in a slow growing (or even declining) EDI-VAN market, the merger of Inovis and QRS may well emphasize some interesting dynamics within the retail market segment. November 18, 2004 Inovis Delves into PIM by Snatching QRS         Part 3: QRS Background As Inovis and QRS now review the prospects for their combined business, they might acknowledge expecting continued decline in the existing EDI-VAN component of the QRS business, which represents roughly $66 million (USD) in revenues over the past twelve months. November 17, 2004 Inovis Delves into PIM by Snatching QRS         Part 2: QRS Marketing QRS believes that it adds value to its customers because it offers the products and services that companies need to connect, transact, collaborate, and differentiate themselves, ultimately driving overall business performance improvement and improved brand equity as measured through customer awareness, image, preference, and loyalty. November 16, 2004 Inovis Delves into PIM by Snatching QRS         Part 1: Event Notes The termination of QRS' merger with JDA Software opened a window of opportunity for business commerce automation provider Inovis to acquire QRS, indicating a potential shift in its traditional strategy of B2B e-commerce connectivity (i.e., to drive its offerings well behind the enterprise firewalls). November 15, 2004 Knowing Your Prospect's Influencers A prospect is listening to many different people at the same time. While you are doing your best to influence the decision, the prospect sees you as only a single input to decision-making. Prospects listen to many, with each type of influence having a different degree of trust and therefore of influence. Understanding where you stand and how to influence the influencers can help you win. November 13, 2004 Mainstream Enterprise Vendors Begin to Grasp Content Management         Part 3: Challenges To conduct collaborative processes, businesses need embedded intelligence, and business intelligence (BI) or analytics applications focused on structured data offer only a part of the total solution. In other words, businesses also need content management for the unstructured data and content, which can contain a majority of business information, given that many decisions makers collaborate via e-mail or voicemail, which are examples of vast unstructured info that currently resides outside of business processes and of the reach of ERP and BI systems. November 12, 2004 Mainstream Enterprise Vendors Begin to Grasp Content Management         Part 2: Background & Lessons Learned The requirement for robust PCM is finally being recognized among chief information officers (CIO) and IT managers, who are looking to create and manage a centralized repository of rich product content, and also by many enterprise vendors. November 11, 2004 Mainstream Enterprise Vendors Begin to Grasp Content Management         Part 1: PCM System Attributes Enterprises are becoming painfully aware of the need to clean up their structured data and unstructured content acts to capitalize on more important efforts like regulatory compliance, globalization, demand aggregation, and supply chain streamlining. November 10, 2004 Atrion User Conference Highlights Need for Regulatory Compliance in PLM The Atrion International User Group met in Montreal, Quebec (Canada) to discuss ways to improve regulatory compliance for their respective companies. At the conference, Atrion presented a vision and product strategy to their customers that will provide critical regulatory and compliance capabilities needed to support the product life cycle. The conference pointed out the importance of regulatory compliance as an important element of a product lifecycle management (PLM) strategy, and the role that environmental health and safety (EH&S) plays in protecting PLM value. November 9, 2004 CRM: Creating a Credible Business Case and Positioning It with the CEO         Part 2: Linking CRM with Organizational Direction An effective business case must link CRM with achieving organizational objectives; but this step is just the beginning. Credibility implies that the document clearly delineates assumptions regarding cause and effect plus the mechanism that will be used to assess results and declare success. November 8, 2004 CRM: What Is It and Why Do It?         Part 1: Historical Background Many consultants, vendors, and analysts today define CRM in terms of being a customer-centric business strategy that is enabled by a set of applications that support customer-facing functions and management decision making. That may capture the essence of what CRM is, but it does not begin to capture why an end user organization should invest significant resources to pursue such an initiative. November 6, 2004 Differences in Complexity between B2C and B2B E-commerce Business-to-business (B2B) selling has proven to be more intricate than business-to-consumer (B2C) selling, as B2B involves dealing with longer-term contracts and complex products with specific requirements that are not needed in the consumer world. November 5, 2004 SSA Global--The Right Product Strategy SSA Global's Client Forum has reinforced our impression that the vendor's product strategy is an effective strategy that addresses the realities of today's market. However, the execution is not without challenges. Although we found confusion on the part of a few, customers appeared supportive of the SSA strategy. November 4, 2004 Not All Acquisitions Happen: JDA and QRS         Part 2: Market Impact The QRS acquisition by JDA would have eventually brought together two providers of complementary e-commerce products that would help retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers manage and sell their products to other companies and customers on-line. JDA now remains on its own to define a revised PIM/GDS strategy. November 3, 2004 Not All Acquisitions Happen: JDA and QRS         Part 1: Event and Market Impact Recent QRS' announcement that it has terminated its agreement to merge with JDA Software, while, in a separate announcement, it stated that it will be acquired by Inovis for a $16 million (USD) higher price, might have more ramifications for JDA than merely an "unrequited love". November 2, 2004 An Interview with Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin Many corporations have failed the customer; they focus on transactions, rather than customers. Ann Grackin recently talked to Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin, co-authors of The Support Economy, Why Corporations are Failing Individuals and The Next Episode of Capitalism, who have inspiring and radical ideas, as well as a proposal for the new corporation. November 2, 2004 Design for Serviceability When the product alone was the primary basis of competition, the life of a design engineer was a lot simpler. No more. Design engineers are being asked to make an increasingly complex set of trade-offs, requiring a very cross-functional and inter-enterprise approach to the design process. November 2, 2004 Where Has All the Service Gone? For some reason, once a product moves into the retail channel, most manufacturers lose control. The retailer abdicates responsibility. When faced with a problem, the consumer is alone! What happened to the lifetime value of the customer? This article examines the lapses and promises in providing service to the end customer. November 2, 2004 When Provider's Value Is Not In Synch With Customer's Value Embedded knowledge exists in the supply chain to understand and unlock customer value. Integrating the chain is crucial to aligning the goals of customers and provider.   October 2004 October 30, 2004 Automated Enterprise: Many High-ROI Opportunities An automated data center promises to self-configure, self-optimize, and self-protect. When looking to implement an automated data center, one must consider best practices in user and resource provisioning, infrastructure availability, and user management. Doing so will allow automated data centers to expedite the automation processes in IT operations and administration; virtualization and provisioning; security; and availability. October 29, 2004 Will Recent Acquisition Catalyze Catalyst's Strategy?         Part 4: Market Analysis, Challenges, and User Recommendations Existing customers should be comforted by the backing of a financially stable parent company with money to invest. Although this acquisition sounds like a very positive event, and ComVest and Catalyst appear to have strategic growth intentions, look for future proof in the actions they take in the coming months. October 28, 2004 Will Recent Acquisition Catalyze Catalyst's Strategy?         Part 3: Catalyst and SAP Catalyst serves customers in several different industries, representing several major vertical market categories, and it targets industries that have the most demanding supply chain requirements, hoping this should enable it to leverage its expertise and experience for competitive advantage. October 26, 2004 Will Recent Acquisition Catalyze Catalyst’s Strategy?         Part 2: Current Strategy Catalyst is one of the first supply chain execution suppliers to offer both the "flow-through" functionality and traditional warehouse management features in one system, allowing a facility to run in either or both modes. Its current strategy, termed "Best-for-Business," is to offer componentized products based on an open, modular technology, and solution-neutral consulting services driven by customers' business goals. October 25, 2004 Will Recent Acquisition Catalyze Catalyst’s Strategy?         Part 1: Event Summary For years, Catalyst International was a leading public WMS/SCE vendor before missteps by its previous management team caused serious problems in strategy and execution. Over the past few years Catalyst's turnaround strategy has returned it to growth and profitability. As a result, it has recently been acquired by ComVest, a wealthy, private investment firm. This development may indicate private equity investors' renewed interest in this market and might validate the company's turnaround strategy that began in late 2001. Still, the question remains whether the anticipated infusion of capital from ComVest will enable Catalyst to become a consolidator and rejoin its mightier direct competitors in the industry's upper echelon. October 23, 2004 Secure Transfers of Large Files Over the Internet Using YouSendIt A growing problem with rich multimedia electronic presentations is their increasing file size. Data files, in general, are larger, making it challenging to send them over the Internet. Most e-mail clients have limitations on attachment sizes, thus securely sending a one hundred megabyte PowerPoint presentation with embedded video over e-mail is nearly impossible. YouSendIt, however, offers solutions consisting of a free web service and the YouSendIt Enterprise Server. Both solutions offer comprehensive security options. The YouSendIt Enterprise Server is an enterprise level, complete large file transfer consisting of a dedicated server that can integrate with existing network security infrastructure. October 22, 2004 CRM, Success, and Best Practices: A Wake Up Call         Part 2: Modeling Success with Senior Management and CRM Culture To maximize the return on investment of a customer relationship management system, a new CRM best practices model should be used. A point-based system, self-assessment model that emphasizes senior management leadership and the need to create a culture consistent with CRM can lead to a deployment strategy that is correlated with success. An interactive version of this assessment is included with this article. October 21, 2004 CRM, Success, and Best Practices: A Wake Up Call         Part 1: Searching and Establishing the Business Parameters of CRM Customer relationship management is a sophisticated set of customer-facing tools; however, its technology has outpaced the management strategy used to implement it. Moreover, murky definitions and objectives have caused varying degrees of success and failure to emerge from the same initiative. Clearly defining the objective, implementing holistic best practices, and ensuring that senior management understands CRM as a business strategy can help maximize a CRM investment. October 20, 2004 What's Your Global Market Price? Thoughts on global trade, outsourcing, and your pay--how we can stop the downward pressure on wages and salaries. October 20, 2004 RFID in Healthcare--A Whole Industry of Value This article talks about recent and expected FDA regulations and how RFID can help meet those requirements while improving supply chain performance. October 20, 2004 RFID Case Study: HP and Wal-Mart HP is making strides in complying with Wal-Mart's RFID mandates. This article describes the key lessons learned. October 20, 2004 The Data Explosion RFID and wireless usage will drive up data transactions by ten fold over the next few years. It is likely that a significant readdressing of the infrastructure will be required--in the enterprise and the global bandwidth. October 20, 2004 The Name and Ownership Change Roulette Wheel for Marcam Stops at SSA Global         Part 6: Competition, Vendor, and User Recommendations Customers and the marketplace may have forgotten who Marcam is and what it stands for. The new owner must, for that reason, communicate its successes and strategy to the marketplace, and aggressively invest in customer satisfaction, marketing, and sales. October 19, 2004 The Name and Ownership Change Roulette Wheel for Marcam Stops at SSA Global         Part 5: Merger Impact and Challenges Like previous SSA Global's acquisitions, this merger too seems aimed at enlarging the existing customer base, market share, and, more importantly, the predictably recurring support revenue and consequently larger R&D pool. October 18, 2004 The Name and Ownership Change Roulette Wheel for Marcam Stops at SSA Global         Part 4: What SSA Global Gets The acquired company, although constantly morphing from Marcam to IPS back to Marcam, has a good track record and a heritage of selling solutions to manage divisional or autonomous plant sites within selected process industries. October 16, 2004 The Name and Ownership Change Roulette Wheel for Marcam Stops at SSA Global         Part 3: Last-Ditch Effort by Invensys Under Invensys, Marcam has seen things change frequently including reorganizations, management changes, strategy changes, and the loss of many employees with deep domain knowledge. October 15, 2004 The Name and Ownership Change Roulette Wheel for Marcam Stops at SSA Global         Part 2: Marketing By Invensys IPS was hoping that the early product vision and venerable reputation that Marcam has in the process manufacturing market for providing plant-centric ERP solutions might finally play well to capturing the marketing opportunity. October 14, 2004 The Name and Ownership Change Roulette Wheel for Marcam Stops at SSA Global         Part 1: Event Summary Sometimes, the enterprise applications market can produce many strange twists and turns, in addition to being tough for all and even cruel to some. The tale of Marcam, Baan, and SSA Global, whose paths have crossed, parted, and crossed once again since the early 2000s, might be an object case. October 13, 2004 CRM Testing Throughout Implementation In terms of strategic partnerships, the acquirer is responsible for judging how well customer relationship management (CRM) software will function on the equipment and at the site, and with staff, customers, and third-party applications. Acceptance testing involves three basic flavors: user acceptance, operational acceptance, and contractual acceptance. While it is not the only step involved when implementing a CRM system, testing is a fundamental way of finding information and will help you judge a system’s returns and pitfalls. October 12, 2004 Master Requirement Planning and Master Production Scheduling Software: Hard Facts         Part 2: Materials Requirement Planning and Master Production Scheduling Most of the manufacturing software vendors have planning and scheduling software which assume either infinite production capacity for calculating quantities of raw material and work in progress (WIP) requirements or infinite quantities of raw and WIP materials for calculating production capacity. There are many problems with this approach. This paper discusses the pitfalls of this approach and how to avoid these by making sure that the software you buy indeed takes into account finite quantities of required materials as well as finite capacities of work centers in your manufacturing facility. October 11, 2004 Master Requirement Planning and Master Production Scheduling Software: Hard Facts         Part 1: Planning and Scheduling Concepts in Manufacturing Most of the manufacturing software vendors have planning and scheduling software which assume either infinite production capacity for calculating quantities of raw material and work in progress (WIP) requirements or infinite quantities of raw and WIP materials for calculating production capacity. There are many problems with this approach. This paper discusses the pitfalls of this approach and how to avoid these by making sure that the software you buy indeed takes into account finite quantities of required materials as well as finite capacities of work centers in your manufacturing facility. October 9, 2004 Business Intelligence Success, Lessons Learned Is business intelligence (BI) an application that pays off? We have all heard mixed results but a 2003 extensive study on on-line analytical processing (OLAP) states that BI usually pays off over 60 percent of the time , explains where the value is found, and describes what’s required to get the pay off. October 7, 2004 Intentia: Stepping Out With Fashion and Style         Part 4: Movex Case Study Continued With User Recommendations Intentia's Movex provides ample tools to respond to the trends and challenges of the fashion industry. While Intentia needs to continue to work to get its financial house in order, based on its functions and features Movex deserves to be on anyone's short list of vendors able to competently compete in the world of fashion. October 6, 2004 Intentia: Stepping Out With Fashion and Style         Part 3: Movex, a Case Study of Fashion Industry Software The requirements for the fashion industry are some of the most demanding and unforgiving in the world of manufacturing. If you're not careful, you may find your profits falling on the cutting floor and money being swept out with the scraps. Read on to find out why running with a pair of scissors is not the only dangerous thing when selecting software for the fashion industry and why Intentia's offering bears investigation. October 5, 2004 Intentia: Stepping Out With Fashion and Style         Part 2: Software Challenges in the Fashion Industry The requirements for the fashion industry are some of the most demanding and unforgiving in the world of manufacturing. If you're not careful, you may find your profits falling on the cutting floor and money being swept out with the scraps. The product segmentation in the fashion industry brings into play every type of manufacturing scenario imaginable. October 4, 2004 Intentia: Stepping Out With Fashion and Style         Part 1: Characteristics and Trends of the Fashion Industry So your software vendor says that they can do fashion. You better make sure that the software features go far beyond styles, colors, and sizes. The requirements for the fashion industry are some of the most demanding and unforgiving in the world of manufacturing. If you're not careful, you may find your profits falling on the cutting floor and money being swept out with the scraps. October 2, 2004 SAP's Approach to the Retail Market SAP and its ERP peers appear to understand that continuously improving the way enterprise information is presented and by marrying analytics, optimization, and retail operation systems on top of an ERP platform is starting to win over retailers. October 1, 2004 Warehouse Management Systems: Pie in the Sky or Floating Bakery?         Part 2: The Pareto Principle, Processes, and People: Assessing Your Warehouse Management System Needs To ensure your warehouse management system is implemented as painlessly as possible, you must assess your warehouse situation before you decide on a warehouse solution. Using the Pareto Principle, where a minority of inputs yields the majority results; examining your processes; evaluating your personnel; monitoring the progress of implementation; and testing are the best ways to ensure both a successful launch and long term return on investment.   January 2004 January 31, 2004 Comparison of ERP and CRM Markets' Life cycle Snapshots Today's enterprise applications are required as a matter of course to address more than the processes taking place within the walls of an enterprise. Almost all traditional ERP vendors (small and big alike) had to experience a wake-up call and have long been trying to expand their product offering in tune with the ever-changing trends and requirements of the new collaborative economy. The need for providing a full, comprehensive CRM suite rather than an individual solution or a bundle of point solutions for each distinct CRM area remains firm, and will urge further market consolidation. January 30, 2004 I-Impact Predicts Your Customer Retention! More and more, the market is requesting that a CRM or an ERP application include analytics which can be used in a myriad of businesses to predict customer behavior and help businesses increase the effectiveness of their customer acquisition, retention, and cross-sell programs. It is a costly operation to develop such functionality from scratch. Vendors like I-Impact offer packaged application providers the opportunity of a shortcut. January 28, 2004 PeopleSoft Gathers Manufacturing and SCM Wherewithal         Part 4: Challenges and User Recommendations PeopleSoft manufacturing customers and J.D. Edwards customers in service industries should assess the vendor's product plans given these customers might benefit if PeopleSoft shares functions between the product sets. January 27, 2004 PeopleSoft Gathers Manufacturing and SCM Wherewithal         Part 3: The Manufacturing Industry Even before the mega merger, PeopleSoft had already set it sights on a bigger manufacturing presence. PeopleSoft’s acquisition of mid-to-large ERP system developer J.D. Edwards this summer, and most recently demand flow and lean manufacturing software solution from JCIT, might indicate some deep though process rather than a number of impulse initiatives from the past. January 26, 2004 PeopleSoft Gathers Manufacturing and SCM Wherewithal         Part 2: Market Impact The PeopleSoft-J.D. Edwards merger was, in great part, about retaining the big five (or big four, or big three) seat and the need to be bigger within shrinking market opportunities. The combined vendors should now a have solid foothold against SAP and Oracle, particularly because one better-performing side could, if necessary, cover up for the underachieving one. January 24, 2004 PeopleSoft Gathers Manufacturing and SCM Wherewithal         Part 1: Recent Anouncements Hiring the former APICS president to head its manufacturing industry efforts a year ago, the high profile acquisition of renowned manufacturing ERP provider J.D. Edwards this summer, and most recently, the acquisition of demand flow and lean manufacturing software solutions from JCIT, might indicate that PeopleSoft has finally gotten its manufacturing creed. Will these moves finally and lastingly establish it as a serious contender in the manufacturing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) space? January 23, 2004 Fujitsu Poised to (Inter)Stage Glovia's Comeback         Part 4: Challenges and User Recommendations Glovia has managed to maintain its existing customers' satisfaction level while successfully re-inventing itself. As a result, it has maintained a presence among the top 10 manufacturing ERP vendors in several markets. One cannot help feeling that Glovia's knowledge of its target market has always been deeper than its market visibility and share. January 22, 2004 Fujitsu Poised to (Inter)Stage Glovia's Comeback         Part 3: Market Impact Despite the digital marketplaces’ limited takeoff, the Fujitsu/Glovia's vision still remains to become the leader in B2B e-commerce for the global enterprises, pragmatically responding first to business globalization with the current multi-national capabilities of the former glovia.hub product. January 21, 2004 Fujitsu Poised to (Inter)Stage Glovia's Comeback         Part 2: Fujitsu's Support of Glovia As a result of its commitment and investment in Glovia as a strategic catalyst for Fujitsu's global growth and a vanguard to globalize Fujitsu's software and service business division, Fujitsu elevated Glovia to a business unit from a mere business group level in 2003. January 20, 2004 Fujitsu Poised to (Inter)Stage Glovia's Comeback         Part 1: Event Summary Glovia continues to provide astute solutions for manufacturers and service companies well beyond core ERP. Although, bundled with Fujitsu's Interstage infrastructure platform, low brand recognition outside Japan and nascent channel and traction for multiple products within the Fujitsu products' family will remain hurdles it must surmount. However, through a new partnership with Fujitsu Software Corporation and the backing of a resplendent and committed company, Fujitsu Limited, Glovia is now poised for a noticeable return. January 19, 2004 Outsourcing 101 - A Primer         Part 3: Approaches and Recommendations Outsourcing is a very diverse market, and there are many different outsourcing options and outsourcing service providers to choose from. This part discusses recommendations for companies looking to outsource, and recommendations for outsourcing providers. January 17, 2004 Outsourcing 101 - A Primer         Part 2: Outsourcing Categories Outsourcing is a very diverse market, and there are many different outsourcing options and outsourcing service providers to choose from. This part examines the four broad outsourcing categories: application software, information technology infrastructure, business process outsourcing (BPO), and manufacturing. January 16, 2004 Outsourcing 101 - A Primer Outsourcing is a very diverse topic, and there are many different outsourcing options and outsourcing service providers to choose from. Companies are telling TEC that they need a clearer picture of outsourcing, its potential benefits, and common pitfalls. They want examples of different types of outsourcing and advice on whether outsourcing is right for them. This primer addresses these questions. January 15, 2004 Pull vs Push: a Discussion of Lean, JIT, Flow, and Traditional MRP         Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations While lean/flow leverages practices to stay ahead of actual demand, traditional approaches better coordinate secondary, back-office systems like accounting and HR. Moreover, flow should be a company-wide strategy that impacts more than manufacturing. January 14, 2004 Pull vs Push: a Discussion of Lean, JIT, Flow, and Traditional MRP         Part 1: Tutorial Flow manufacturing leverages techniques to help manufacturers create any product on any given day, in any given quantity including the "quantity of one" (i.e., through the so-called mixed-model production), while keeping inventories to a minimum and shortening cycle times in order to quickly fill customer orders. January 13, 2004 Deltek Remains the Master of Its Selected Few Domains         Part 6: Challenges and User Recommendations While we believe that the Deltek’s strategy to shore up its current install base and to target new related markets has been sound, one should never discount fierce competition given the market for enterprise application software has become a highly competitive and rapidly changing field. January 12, 2004 Deltek Remains the Master of Its Selected Few Domains         Part 5: Deltek’s Major Product Lines Within its marketing and proposal automation product, Deltek espouses an emerging CRM derivative known as client relationship management, which should help firms track client relationships in a more sophisticated manner than through methods such as referral or word-of-mouth, which were appropriate during their start-up phases. January 10, 2004 Deltek Remains the Master of Its Selected Few Domains         Part 4: Deltek's Differentiators Deltek has focused on addressing the unique business needs of project-oriented organizations. Its product line has expanded from applications for managing the core back-office processes to the front-office and e-business of professional services and other project-based companies, of which many provide products and services under American Federal Government contracts. January 9, 2004 Deltek Remains the Master of Its Selected Few Domains         Part 3: Company Background and Market Strategy Deltek's founders have managed the company with great success by expanding client focus into the commercial sector during the late 1980s. In 1991, Deltek began to configure its software for larger customers. Since 2001, a key growth strategy for Deltek has been providing additional front-office software applications to its clients. January 8, 2004 Deltek Remains the Master of Its Selected Few Domains         Part 2: Product Announcements 2002 Several notable milestones achieved in 2002 set the stage for Deltek’s achievements in 2003. January 7, 2004 Deltek Remains the Master of Its Selected Few Domains         Part 1: Product Announcements 2003 By extending its traditional focus on project-based businesses into the closely related areas of PSA and CRM (i.e., the so-called "Project-PLUS" marketing spin), Deltek remains well-entrenched in the territory that many companies aspire to control, but have yet to penetrate. January 6, 2004 Oracle Renders Its PLM Outline         Part 2: Challenges and User Recommendations Key concerns for PLM prospects will be domain knowledge in design and engineering-specific functions and integration, including currently poor connections from Oracle workflow to third-party business applications and CAD/PLM interfaces. January 5, 2004 Oracle Renders Its PLM Outline         Part 1: Event Summary Although its PLM solutions will not likely be the "all things to all people" any time soon, Oracle might be showing us its ability to develop its own applications in collaborative effort with its prominent customers. January 3, 2004 Business Activity Monitoring - Watching The Store For You Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) can bring significant business value in the world of technical data, but its justification must be derived from business management improvements. The most important claim for BAM is that it can fundamentally alter the way businesses understand and act to threats and opportunities. January 2, 2004 Top 10 Reasons For Having A Project Kickoff - Part III You are about to embark on an important project. Whether the project is software or hardware related, it is a good idea to hold a project kickoff meeting. Don’t miss this excellent opportunity to get across important communications and establish the tone for the project. This article discusses the 10 objectives of a project kickoff meeting, how to achieve them, and templates for presenting them. In Part III, we complete the discussion of the remaining four reasons, which can be even more critical to beginning a project on a positive note and reaching a successful completion. January 1, 2004 Top 10 Reasons For Having A Project Kickoff - Part II You are about to embark on an important project. Whether the project is software or hardware related, it is a good idea to hold a project kickoff meeting. Don’t miss this excellent opportunity to get across important communications and establish the tone for the project. This article discusses the 10 objectives of a project kickoff meeting, how to achieve them, and templates for presenting them. In Part II, reasons 7, 6, and 5 focus on preparing the team to undertake the project and generally giving them the confidence to do it.
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