The 2009 APICS International Conference and Expo is starting next week in Toronto (Canada). One of the educational tracks is focusing on how to manage inventory in a changing economy. As inventory is a challenging issue for all types of manufacturing organizations, regardless of industry. If an organization can manage its inventory without losing focus on demand and where its dollars are being spent, it may achieve its inventory objectives. Gary Gossard (president of IQR International) gave a preview presentation in a webinar in which he pointed out a technique that can be used by organizations to manage inventory and reduce waste during changing economic times. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series depicted the differences and some subtle similarities between the well-established enterprise applications giant, SAP, and up-and-coming vendor Endeca Technologies. The article ended with the new fundamentals for the future of enterprise applications that were outlined at the Endeca Discover 2009 conference.

Part 2 of this blog series explores how SAP is adapting to the new fundamentals outlined in Part 1, especially to the notion of “BT” or “business technology,” which denotes a pervasive technology in use by casual and end-users, increasingly managed outside the direct control of IT departments. Read the rest of this entry »

I hope our readers, to greater or lesser degrees, are familiar with our business software selection methodology—as we have been writing a lot on this matter. But the lion’s share of these publications often refer to either the functional or technical sides of the selection process, or what type of business processes a future system can support and how can be achieved. Read the rest of this entry »

We recently got a sneak peek of the new version of Sage ERP X3 that is scheduled to be released in October 2009. We were given a detailed demonstration of some of its core functional changes and advancements and we have summarized our findings differently.

Gabriel Gheorghiu’s Take on Version 6

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After attending the iWay seminar on Enterprise Information Management (EIM) yesterday, I was thinking that a CIO who implemented their system might sing the following after the implementation: Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know that there is hidden money in your company? No, not in the safe, nor in some secret vault that you can access by pressing on a brick in the wall—it’s in your operations. At the 2009 APICS International Conference and Expo preview webinar series (session 4), Nicholas M. Testa (CEO Acuity Consulting Inc.) tried to answer the following questions concerning your company’s hidden money: How can you search for it? What tools can you use? How can you get results? Read the rest of this entry »

Throughout the late 1990s and the mid-2000s, Manhattan Associates was the epitome of a well-managed supply chain management (SCM) software company in terms of market share, growth, profitability, and its products’ capabilities. Simply stated, the company set the industry standard for the supply chain execution (SCE) space and was the envy of its competitors.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Utilities Industry

From TEC’s perspective and based on our understanding of the industry, the utilities industry consists primarily of the following service providers: electric power generators, network operators, customer power retailers, natural gas, steam supply, water supply, and sewage removal. All of these business segments have common criteria such as a mass customer service department and billing process, remote service supply or power generation, and high cost of asset owning and maintenance. Also, a big part of the utility business is project based as well. Below are some challenges the industry faces: Read the rest of this entry »

We’re seeking an additional HR software-focused research analyst to join our team at our Montreal headquarters. Please contact us if the following job description interests you. Read the rest of this entry »

SAP AG and Endeca Technologies might not appear to have much in common at first glance, other than occasional partnering in some joint opportunities, and perhaps that SAP Ventures owns a piece of privately held Endeca. In the world of home appliances, SAP would be analogous to a tried-and-true refrigerator, but with the most advanced features in the market, such as a built-in TV set.

Such an appliance stores important food (i.e., data and transactions) and provides some important basic information and entertainment (i.e., news reports) to nearly 90,000 customers in over 120 countries. Indeed, SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software, offering enterprise applications and services to companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries for nearly four decades. Read the rest of this entry »

On Monday, IBM gave me a sneak peek of its new business analytics software tool for midsized clients. The name of the new product is Cognos Express, and IBM’s press release says it’s an “all-in-one business intelligence and planning solution designed specifically for midsized clients.”
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A couple of weeks ago, I published a blog post called Customer Relationship Manufacturing. In this blog post, I described the symbiosis between the sales and production departments within a manufacturing company, mentioned some customer relationship management (CRM) vendors that seem to have adapted their products for the manufacturing industry, and I also promised I would get back to you with more information on these products. Read the rest of this entry »

I went through the agenda of the PLM Road Map 2009 (September 22 and 23, in Detroit, Michigan [US]) when I submitted my attendance preferences to conference organizer Collaborative Product Development Associates (CPDA). Looking at the agenda, I’m convinced that the two-day event is well structured to cover critical issues in the product lifecycle management (PLM) field and to apprehend the future of PLM. Below are what look to me like the conference highlights:

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In the forthcoming 2009 APICS International Conference and Expo, many educational tracks will be covered by industry leaders, and lean is one of them. Since we are in a global economic crisis where every manufacturer, supplier, and producer is trying to reduce cost and minimize waste while increasing production or throughput, I am particularly interested in the “lean” educational track to hear what the experts are saying. Recently, I had the privilege of attending the preview of “Lean for Materials Managers” by Bill Kerber, President of High Mix Lean. 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 post ended with some glimpses into the future and the 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 analyzed recent SaaS initiatives by mainstream mega-vendors. Some concrete examples of vendors and their new strategies and solutions were presented, most notably Oracle’s Platform for SaaS and SAP’s recently unveiled on-demand strategy for large enterprises.

Coming back to the company that has inspired this series, Progress Software, the vendor believes that most mega-vendors, based on their nascent and budding SaaS offerings described in Part 2 and Part 3, have been slow to market with SaaS offerings. Thus, the window of opportunity for Progress’ partners is still open. Read the rest of this entry »