June 2008
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| June 16, 2008 |
Warehouse Management for Manufacturers: Why Extended ERP Might Be the Right Choice
As a provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrated workforce productivity solutions, we have seen many approaches to distribution automation. Adding a warehouse management system is a logical option for many manufacturers, but this article provides insight into another option: extending ERP distribution capabilities to take advantage of a single receiving, inventory, shipping database. |
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| June 13, 2008 |
"Star Search"—Talent Management Made Simple
One of the biggest challenges businesses face today in the area of human resources is the recruitment and retention of skilled talent. Combining a talent management strategy with an integrated talent management system can help ensure you have the right people in place to meet your organization’s needs. |
| June 6, 2008 |
Security Risk Assessment and Management in Web Application Security
Corporations are at risk because Web applications and servers make them susceptible to hackers and cyber crooks. However, companies can perform security risk assessments that mitigate risk by applying security risk management policies designed to protect a company’s data. |
| June 4, 2008 |
Open Platform Provider Answers Questions about the State of the Market
Rather than offering the customary opinions and analysis of major market trends beforehand and then giving the involved vendors a chance for a factual review and feedback, this time Technology Evaluation Centers has attempted to solicit vendors’ proactive views. |
| June 4, 2008 |
How Can Business Intelligence Benefit Small to Medium Businesses?
Research shows that the number one software solution that small to medium businesses plan to purchase in the coming year is business intelligence (BI). Download TEC’s latest podcast to find out why BI is so hot right now. |
| June 2, 2008 |
A Partner-friendly Platform Provider Discusses Market Trends
A background of Progress Software notes the vendor’s product line-up, and some of the benefits companies find by using Progress platforms and infrastructure products. The vendor’s recent growth is also detailed, as well as its relationships with partners. |
May 2008
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| May 30, 2008 |
Transportation Management Systems: The Glue of the Supply Chain
With manufacturing now a global industry, moving product throughout complex supply chains remains a challenge for most organizations. But transportation management systems are spearheading the way to help solve the dilemmas of today’s manufacturers, offering functionality that eases the transfer of goods from place to place. |
| May 28, 2008 |
A Road Map to Electronic Medical Record System Implementation
It’s crucial to define the scope of an electronic medical system implementation, as well as to outline each stage of the project and the resources that will be needed. A failed implementation will paralyze the operational capabilities of a health care organization, but the right methodology will help ensure a successful implementation. |
| May 26, 2008 |
Four Ways to Botch Your ERP Implementation Process
Here are four worst practices that can contribute to the failure of an enterprise resource planning implementation—or the implementation of any other enterprise software, for that matter. Protect your investment and prevent disaster by steering clear of these major mistakes. |
| May 23, 2008 |
The “Gentler” Giant’s Value Proposition to Overcome the “Little Guys’” Perception
Since its launch less than a year ago, Oracle’s VAD Remarketer Program has been quite successful in recruiting new value-added distributors worldwide. But the real challenges that remain for this software giant have more to do with its image within the market than with its products. |
| May 23, 2008 |
Welcome to ERP - Distribution Showdown!
Epicor Enterprise vs. JDA Supply Chain Planning & Optimization Suite vs. Pronto Xi
I'm Larry Blitz, editor of Technology Evaluation Centers’ (TEC) Vendor Showdown series. Welcome to our latest: ERP - Distribution Showdown. You’ll notice this one has a broader focus than Showdowns we’ve done in the past. Again we’ll be comparing three vendor solutions head-to-head, but not just on functionality. This time we’ll also look at the industries these solutions support, how well they cover different portions of the mid-market segment, and how their installed bases break out geographically. Of course, functionality is again a key component of this Showdown, broken down into four main distribution areas and 13 subareas. We hope you find today’s Showdown helpful and informative, and invite your comments and questions at showdown@technologyevaluation.com. |
| May 21, 2008 |
A “Gentler” Giant’s Success in Reaching Out to the “Little Guys”
Until recently, the few leaders in the lower end of the technology and platform market have hardly had any viable competition. However, Oracle is determined to give these players—especially archrival Microsoft—a run for their money, starting with offerings attractive to small to medium businesses and partners alike. |
| May 9, 2008 |
Today’s Discrete ERP Landscape: Trends, Challenges, and Solutions
With web-enabled technology, business intelligence, and supply chain management becoming integral parts of the manufacturing environment, discrete enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications today are not as they once were. Learn about the current trends and how to select a discrete ERP system for your needs. |
| May 7, 2008 |
Current Trends in Supply Chain Analytics Systems
Supply chain analytics is gaining popularity with organizations, as it is an effective mechanism to monitor and track supply chain performance. And with new technological innovations promising to enhance these tools, businesses can look forward to benefiting more fully from this area of supply chain management. |
| May 5, 2008 |
Pricing Management Vendor Must Show Proven Payback from Clients
Vendavo’s recent growth is due to its reseller partnership with SAP, and the segmentation and optimization functionalities of its pricing solutions. But the vendor needs to stay on its toes, at least until its role in lifting almost every client profit margins is proven. |
| May 2, 2008 |
Provider of B2B Price Management and Optimization Speaks Out
In addition to growing at a breakneck pace for the last few years, Vendavo has recently rounded out its suite for price and margin management. The market should take notice, while the competition should indeed watch out. |
April 2008
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| April 30, 2008 |
How to Measure Customer Satisfaction
Organizations often rely on surveys and questionnaires to determine customer satisfaction ratings, but such methods merely offer a perceived customer rating. Obtaining a realistic measure of customer satisfaction involves computing a metric based on a composite customer satisfaction rating system. |
| April 28, 2008 |
Tactical Human Resources Evolves into Strategic Human Capital Management
In contrast to traditionally investing in automation technologies for better use of tangible assets, enterprises have begun to invest in optimizing human capital. Human capital management, or talent management, is a set of human resources practices focusing on the acquisition, management, and optimization of the enterprise workforce. |
| April 25, 2008 |
From Local to Hosted: The Story of One Company’s Migration to On-demand ERP
Here’s the inside story on how an international manufacturer using a traditional, local enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution shifted gears to end up with an on-demand, remotely hosted ERP system. It wasn’t the change the company originally intended, but the benefits proved too overwhelming to resist. |
| April 23, 2008 |
An Analyst’s View of Process Industry SMB Challenges
Process manufacturing industries have distinct needs from an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Here’s an overview of what process manufacturing requires from an ERP solution, including business intelligence capabilities. |
| April 21, 2008 |
Service Level Agreements for Manufacturers and Software Vendors in the Supply Chain
Supply chains are very complex, as is discrete manufacturing and the software that addresses its needs. To ease the complexities, service level agreements are developed so that all parties involved remain on the same page and product delivery is facilitated. |
| April 18, 2008 |
Acquisitive Vendor Expands Its Enterprise Asset Management Potential
IFS has much to offer customers. Its IFS Applications suite now boasts an asset lifecycle management module for quick data retrieval. IFS also has a strong commitment to international standards, and with its acquisition of iSC, expertise in naval and marine operations. |
| April 16, 2008 |
"Once Bitten” Vendor Is Not “Twice Shy” about New Acquisition
IFS Defence Ltd., a joint venture between BAE Systems and IFS, recently acquired iSC, a British custom software firm. However, some product integration issues and questions about long-term benefits for IFS customers outside the defense sector should be monitored. |
| April 14, 2008 |
Choosing the Right Electronic Medical Record System for Your Health Care Organization
Health care organizations have special needs to consider when deciding what type of electronic medical record (EMR) system to implement. This article examines the advantages and disadvantages of on-demand and on-premise EMR systems. |
| April 11, 2008 |
Supply Chain 101: The Basics You Need to Know
Today’s manufacturers face increasing global competition and complex manufacturing networks. Supply chain management provides manufacturers with the needed visibility into their supply chain, as well as software solutions, to help give them a competitive edge. |
| April 4, 2008 |
Oracle Product Showdown!
I'm Larry Blitz, editor of Technology Evaluation Centers’ (TEC) Vendor Showdown series. Today’s Vendor Showdown is an encore presentation of a Showdown that was originally published last September. It compares two popular Oracle enterprise solutions—JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and E-Business Suite—head to head. |
| April 2, 2008 |
A Guide to Selecting Process Enterprise Resource Planning Software
Today, the issue of regulatory compliance touches every enterprise, and process manufacturers are no exception. To answer the challenge of this new reality, vendors now offer enterprise resource planning systems with far more features and functionality than ever before. But how can an organization choose the right system to meet its business needs? |
March 2008
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| March 28, 2008 |
The Challenges of Integrating Enterprise Resource Planning and Manufacturing Execution Systems
While enterprise applications solutions are moving closer to the plant floor, and plant-level systems are moving closer to enterprise planning application functionality, these systems will not likely converge anytime soon, because they use different technologies and have different user requirements. |
| March 26, 2008 |
The Rapid Response Solution Continues to Improve
Kinaxis’s latest response management product releases deliver even more refined software system tools to help global manufacturers with capacity planning and scheduling, including monitoring and alerting, action team selection, and inventory liability reduction capabilities. |
| March 26, 2008 |
How the Mining Industry Benefits from ERP Systems
Integrated enterprise resource planning software normalizes the reporting requirements for a mining company’s various departments. This article loosely shows the parallels between the operations in a mining company and those of a manufacturer whose product is sold on store shelves. |
| March 24, 2008 |
Thou Shalt Motivate and Reward Workforce Better
The potential of enterprise incentive management systems should not be ignored, since this software category promises a fairly rapid and tangible return on investment, outlines expensive over- and under-payment errors, and reduces administration overhead. |
| March 21, 2008 |
What Makes Process Process?
The systems dealing with manufacturing, inventory, procurement, and customer order management systems are among the systems that often prove to be the hardest to acquire due to the unique issues of the process enterprise. |
| March 19, 2008 |
A Response Management Pioneer Offers Its Solution
Kinaxis Inc. is answering the needs of global manufacturers by delivering an on-demand response management service. These services are designed to help manufacturers drive quick responses to ever-changing global supply chains and fulfillment networks. |
| March 17, 2008 |
A Possible Remedy for Non-responsive Supply Chains
Because the supply chains of most manufacturers have become complex, global networks, managing these systems requires enterprise applications that enable collaboration, visibility, demand-sensing, and quick response to unplanned and unexpected events. But from where will such solutions come? |
| March 14, 2008 |
Multi-enterprise Responsiveness—Can It Ever Be Achieved?
Most manufacturers are now operating in a multi-enterprise, multi-echelon context, and their supply chain processes and supporting IT tools need to accommodate responsive collaboration. Yet most enterprise resource planning systems currently used do not adequately serve the needs of these businesses. |
| March 12, 2008 |
Who Could Object to Faster, More Responsive Supply Chains?
Today, global manufacturers have all but abandoned traditional vertical supply chain management to adopt the more flexible horizontal and virtual supply chain concepts. But in changing their business model, they have given up a fair amount of control over their supply chain processes. |
| March 10, 2008 |
Chemical Industry ERP Showdown:
Infor vs. JD Edwards vs. Lawson vs. SAP vs. SSI
Today’s Showdown is based on an industry-specific case study. Five enterprise resource planning vendors were selected for the evaluation. All the results were based on the latest request for information (RFI) supplied to us by the vendors, and all priorities were assigned by the client. |
| March 7, 2008 |
What Are Manufacturing Execution Systems?
A manufacturing execution system (MES) can be defined as a collection of business processes providing event-by-event, real-time execution of planned production requirements. However, market ambiguity and functional overlap with enterprise resource planning systems obscure what an MES can bring to an enterprise. |
| March 5, 2008 |
Three Ways ERP Can Help Manage Risk and Prevent Fraud
If enterprise resource planning (ERP) isn't properly implemented to manage risk, your organization may face loss due to fraud or other hazards. Take advantage of ERP's capacities for role-based security, on both the business and the IT sides of your processes. |
| March 3, 2008 |
Yet Another Branding Debacle (This Time, It’s ERP for Services)
Organizations providing billable services to their clients can benefit from an enterprise resource planning solution. But what makes ERP for services different from solutions known as product portfolio management for professional services automation? And which is best for your organization? |
February 2008
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| February 29, 2008 |
How to Solve Your Warehouse Woes
Today’s manufacturers and distributors are under immense pressure to ensure their warehouse and supply chain activities are continually operating at peak performance. But before any improvements can be made, they must first develop a warehouse management improvement strategy. |
| February 27, 2008 |
The Convergence of ERP and Field Services—One Vendor’s Leadership
Agresso’s experience with people-centric services organizations has led the vendor to design a solution that effectively address these businesses’ need for field services and asset maintenance management. Agresso’s melding of two solutions, and the product’s underlying architecture, support change and tightly couple solution categories. |
| February 25, 2008 |
An ERP Vendor Poised to Overtake the Services Market
Companies in the services industry need both asset and field services management, but current integrated asset and field services maintenance systems often fail to meet these organization’s needs. However, enterprise resource planning vendor Agresso appears to have just the right solution. |
| February 15, 2008 |
Retail Merchandising Showdown! Lawson Software vs. Epicor vs. Aldata Solution
Using our Merchandising Evaluation Center, we compared Lawson Retail Operations Management, Epicor CRS Merchandising, and Aldata G.O.L.D. head on. For the overall rankings portion, we looked at these vendor solutions in two basic configurations: with and without POS functionality. To eliminate any chance of bias, and to ensure a level playing field, all 3,072 criteria comprising all the modules and submodules in the merchandising request for information (RFI) were given equal weight and priority… |
| February 13, 2008 |
Four Ways to Botch Your ERP Implementation Process
Here are four worst practices that can contribute to the failure of an enterprise resource planning implementation—or the implementation of any other enterprise software, for that matter. Protect your investment and prevent disaster by steering clear of these major mistakes. |
| February 11, 2008 |
Attribute-based Demand Planning: A Powerful Tool for Process Manufacturers
As manufacturing becomes a global process, advances in demand management software have given rise to attribute-based demand management software. In the process manufacturing environment, this software can help manufacturers deal with complex manufacturing processes and increase overall customer satisfaction. |
| February 8, 2008 |
Getting It Right: ERP Solutions for Mixed-mode Manufacturers
Falling somewhere between discrete and process manufacturing, mixed-mode manufacturers haven’t always been well served by traditional discrete or process enterprise resource planning solutions. But that’s changing now, as mixed-mode manufacturers finally have access to solutions that truly address their needs. |
| February 6, 2008 |
Best Practices for Transporters and 3PL Service Providers
The business of transporting goods is risky, complex, and effort-intensive. Despite the continuing rise in fuel prices, employee salaries, and other overhead costs, transporters often face the prospect of providing their services at lower rates. How can transporters survive in such a difficult business climate? |
| February 4, 2008 |
Six Misconceptions about Data Migration
A truly successful data migration project involves not only an understanding of how to migrate the data from a technical standpoint, but an understanding of how that data will be used and its importance to the operation of the enterprise. |
| February 1, 2008 |
How to Evaluate a Sales and Operation Planning System
The features available in today’s sales and operations planning (SOP) systems make these systems indispensable assets for an organization. Reporting tools and graphical representations are just a couple of these key features. Find out what else to look for in an SOP system. |
January 2008
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| January 30, 2008 |
Customer Relationship Management Showdown: Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs. Oncontact CRM vs. SageCRM
For this Showdown, we looked at all three of the main CRM modules: sales force automation, marketing automation, and customer service and support. To eliminate any chance of bias and to ensure a level playing field, all the criteria that make up these three modules in our CRM Evaluation Center were given equal weight and priority. In other words, no area of functionality was treated as being more important than any other. |
| January 25, 2008 |
Minimizing the Total Cost of Technical Support for Enterprise Applications
Many organizations don’t follow formalized processes for technical support evaluation. However, technical support is a vital component of any enterprise software solution. The fact is, poor technical support can have a severe impact on a solution’s total cost of ownership. |
| January 23, 2008 |
The Demo Crime Files!
This article is part of the continuing education all software demonstrators need to ensure their fundamental skills remain sharp. It points out three common “crimes” made in demonstrations, how to recognize them, and suggests alternative approaches. |
| January 21, 2008 |
Software Selection: A Third Alternative
Part One: The Buyer’s Perspective
There are two prevailing approaches for selecting enterprise-wide software: the functions and features approach and the business processes approach. Yet a third alternative does exist—one that takes the best aspects of these two to provide the assurances needed by the buyer and the efficiency desired by the vendor. |
| January 17, 2008 |
Human Resources for Small to Medium Businesses
When small to medium businesses shop around for a human resources (HR) solution, their main considerations are whether to go for a hosted or non-hosted solution, or to simply outsource HR functions altogether. It’s important to know the advantages and disadvantages of each before making a selection. |
| January 16, 2008 |
Your Reference Guide to SMB Accounting Software Features
This reference guide provides insight into the accounting features and functions currently available on today’s market for small to medium businesses (SMBs). It will help you determine which features your organization needs—and doesn’t need. |
| January 11, 2008 |
Are You Adequately Protecting Your IT Infrastructure Components Inside the Firewall?
Components such as applications, databases, web servers, directories, and operating systems rely mostly on built-in security features. But passwords and privileges are hardly enough, considering that many users have elevated privileges and fail to follow established corporate procedures. |
| January 7, 2008 |
Squeeze Play in the Supply Chain Management Market
Changing business requirements have forced supply chain execution (SCE) vendors to expand via add-on modules. Seeing this upward push from the SCE vendors, enterprise resource planning vendors are now pushing downward and including SCE modules within their solutions. |
| January 4, 2008 |
Audit Your Message Strategy by Answering Three Questions
Most companies create a new marketing plan every 12 months. At the same time, they should audit their message strategy to stay on top of competitors’ marketing and to have confidence that they are delivering the right message to their market. |
| January 2, 2008 |
Software Selection Processes—Accelerating Vendor Identification
Software selection is complex and time-consuming. Taking shortcuts or skipping steps in the process increases the risk of making the wrong choice. But attending a virtual trade show can accelerate the selection process, increase vendor interaction, and reduce this risk. |
