Part 1 of this blog series depicted the rise and fall of erstwhile public software company Click Commerce based in Chicago, Illinois (US). At the end of the post, I mentioned the merger of Servigistics and Click Commerce’s Service Network Services (SNS) division. The private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners acquired both entities recently with the idea of forming a new combined company to solve the planning, optimization, execution, and analytics challenges associated with delivering post-sale service.

Part 2 then presented two blog entries with opposing views on the merger and its prospects. It raised the point as to whether any prospective company in need of service-oriented solutions would look for an all-in-one service lifecycle management (SLM) solution (platform) per se, or would maybe start evaluating the service capabilities of their incumbent enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider, possibly combined with more focused best-of-breed vendors. Read the rest of this entry »

I am planning to attend this year’s Association for Operations Management (better known as APICS), conference in Toronto. To better understand the presenters who are going to be at the conference, I attended a webinar from APICS previewing what some speakers will present. I want to share with our readers the insight that was given to the audience of this particular webcast in terms of professional development. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series depicted the three evolutionary phases (or waves) of software as a service (SaaS) and the adoption of cloud computing. The post ended with some glimpses into the future and likely implications for SaaS users.

Part 2 then explored the apparent opportunities and accompanying challenges (and painstaking soul-searching exercises) that SaaS aspirants face in their endeavors. Some concrete examples of vendors and their new strategies and solutions were presented, most notably SAP Business ByDesign.

Part 3 of this blog series analyzes recent SaaS initiatives by mainstream mega-vendors with some concrete examples. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s always good to remember that science and technology follow general laws, and that those laws are inviolable. This is especially true when it comes to Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”
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I listened to a webinar organized by The Association for Operations Management (APICS) for their upcoming International Conference and Expo,which will be hosted in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) from October 4th to 6th 2009. This is the first webcast in the series, and its title really got my attention: “Time Management and Master Scheduling: Built from the Same Cloth.” The speaker for this webcast was Donald H. Sheldon, the president of DH Sheldon & Associates. He described in this particular webcast the importance of time management within master scheduling. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, many assets are designed and manufactured with the help of product lifecycle management (PLM) tools and systems, which contain highly valuable product definition information for enterprise asset management (EAM) and computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) operations.

That being said, if there is a way to tie the two systems (EAM and PLM) together, the result will be beneficial to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), asset owners, and third-party maintenance service providers. However, this isn’t an easy job. The following are a few barriers between EAM and PLM as I see it. Read the rest of this entry »

Accountants and business people overall are generally aware that whatever happens in the company must be reflected in the corresponding accounting books or ledgers as accurately and as quickly as possible.

This means that accounting as a business process should be able to obtain, process, and store a significant volume of data that comes from a battery of different sources. I do not believe we need to convince anybody to use a computer-based accounting system to perform those business functions—this has been obvious for quite some time.

That being said, the next questions to ask are these: How adequately does your existing accounting software measure up to reality? And how can you improve it? Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series outlined Epicor 9 (a.k.a., Epicor ERP [evaluate this product]), Epicor Software’s next-generation converged product suite. A similar feat is yet to be accomplished even by mighty Oracle within Oracle Fusion Applications.

The article also discussed Epicor’s accompanying “protect, extend, and converge” strategy for providing customers with a migration path choice at their own timetable and convenience. The article then went on to dig deeper and explain a number of enabling technologies and concepts within Epicor 9, starting with Epicor BPM (Business Process Management).

Part 2 then analyzed the major enabling concepts and technologies within the product, such as Epicor ICE (Internet Component Environment) 2.0 Business Architecture, which is based on Epicor TrueSOA™ and includes the Epicor Everywhere Framework™. The article also dug deeper into the suite’s built-in business intelligence (BI) and enterprise performance management (EPM) capabilities.

Part 3 of this blog series analyzes further unconventional and nifty tools and technologies within Epicor 9, and concludes the series with some insights into the product’s future enhancements. Read the rest of this entry »

When I speak with distribution executives nowadays, they all say the same thing: “We are struggling to keep our heads above water because of the economy.” However, before the economy took a turn for the worse, they talked about low profit margins, high inventory levels with low turns, and an erosion of their profitability because of their warehouses. I am often forced to ask, “Is the economy really that bad? Or, is your inability to deliver what your customers want, when they want it, and at a competitive price making it seem worse to your organization?”

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The current economic environment cries out for sustainable technology standards to be established at the core of information governance. The profound losses in the financial markets were the result of weak governance, failing risk management, and little regard for the consequences. The time has come to define and implement the methods needed to identify and manage risks, ensure oversight, and enforce corporate policies and procedures to exploit extensible business reporting language (XBRL). This extremely challenging economic climate is stimulating the demand to leverage the expanding taxonomy for financial reporting purposes to meet the challenges of operational risk and compliance management as part of the natural evolution of XBRL.

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Most business leaders rely heavily on their business management software for making critical decisions and for managing operations. That’s why when it becomes clear to you that your current system is hampering your ability to make those critical decisions, it’s time to start looking for something new. Read the rest of this entry »

Even though we have made enormous advances in technology and business processes, many organizations and manufacturers still cannot perform basic warehouse operations without going into reactive mode. This is mainly due to a lack of proper or basic inventory record maintenance and accuracy.

Some organizations don’t measure inventory in an accurate manner, or they don’t even have such measurements in place. Organizations need to understand that there are multiple benefits associated with having proper inventory management processes in place—to provide not only excellent customer service, but also to help determine future purchases and what needs to be prioritized in the manufacturing plant; reduce operating costs; and provide accurate data for financial records. Read the rest of this entry »

TEC analyst, Kurt Chen, recently completed work on a new research segment covering product lifecycle management (PLM) selection criteria for the fashion industry.

Soon we’ll announce the launch of fashion and retail industry-specific models in our online PLM Evaluation Center. However, I’d like to point out that as of today you can purchase a template of the functional criteria companies in textile and fashion industries frequently need in order to develop an RFP for a PLM system. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series depicted the three evolutionary phases (or waves) of software as a service (SaaS) and cloud computing adoption. The article ended with some glimpses into the future and likely implications for SaaS users.

Part 2 explores the apparent opportunities and accompanying challenges (and inevitable soul-searching exercises) that SaaS aspirants face in their endeavors. Some concrete examples of vendors and their new strategies and solutions will be presented. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series depicted the rise and fall of of erstwhile public software company Click Commerce based in Chicago, Illinois, United States (US). At the end, the article mentioned the July 2009 merger of Servigistics and Click Commerce’s Service Network Services (SNS) division.

The private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners acquired both entities recently with the idea of forming a new combined company to solve the planning, optimization, execution, and analytics challenges associated with delivering post-sale service. The new company, with estimated combined revenue of nearly $100 million (USD), will be headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (US) and retain the Servigistics name and its chief executive officer (CEO). Read the rest of this entry »