SOFTWARE SELECTIONS and GO-LIVES

Agricultural equipment manufacturer selects Abas ERP
Industry tags: manufacturing
“Canadian company Cadman Power Equipment Ltd., a manufacturer of special agricultural machinery and irrigation equipment has conducted an ERP selection project, and ERP from abas Business Software emerges the winner of this competition. The company was looking for a system as a single ERP package, without having to turn modules on or off, that would cover all the necessary operations. User interface had to be easy to navigate and quick to learn. Finally, the company wanted to purchase directly from the ERP developer,side-stepping integrators and VARs. Abas ERP was the best fit for these and other criteria.” — Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Research Analyst

Overview: abas Business Software
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Industrial electronics assemblies manufacturer chooses Epicor ERP to support its operations
Industry tags: manufacturing, electronics, high-tech
“IO Electronics, a UK-based assembler of comprehensive electronic components for various industries, such as defense and aerospace, petrochemical, automotive, and a few others, has an ambitious business growth plan that would require an adequate ERP-class software. The company selected the Epicor ERP system, with a long-term perspective. Unlike the existing inflexible system that has been in place for 10 years and which is limiting the company’s operations in many aspects, Epicor ERP will provide all required functionality and, as important, the flexibility and technical capability to grow along with its rapidly expanding business. Another notable consideration in selecting Epicor over five other ERP software vendors was the multiple additional features it offers within a standard package.” — Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Research Analyst

Overview: Epicor ERP
Compare Epicor ERP head-to-head with other ERP solutions!

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In this good, bad, and arguably recovering economy, many companies are looking to their pricing strategies and practices as a way to improve profits without necessarily repelling customers. Pricing is an important component of an enterprise’s business processes and financial performance, since companies in many industries can face a variety of pricing problems such as unnecessary discounting and quoting prices below a break-even point.

Perhaps contrary to conventional wisdom, pricing has been acknowledged as the greatest lever to improving profit margins. In fact, pricing can be multiple times more effective than cutting costs according to the proverbial McKinsey study. Many believe that improving pricing is one of the most strategic and powerful ways for companies to improve their business and financial performance via, e.g., recovering costs of goods sold (COGS), shaping demand, speeding up quote time, and reducing invoicing errors. 

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Part 1 of this series expanded on some of TEC’s earlier articles about companies’ need for better pricing management and optimization practices. This series, which focuses on the complexity of pricing and promotions in retailing, was inspired by JDA Software’s recent “edu-nouncement” on leading retailers consumer-centric pricing and promotions strategies, and by Revionics’ recent (and still ongoing) educational series of Web-seminars.

Part 2 analyzed some common retailers’ practices and explained the frequently used vernacular terms. Then the post went into the building blocks of pricing optimization, starting with setting optimal initial (everyday) prices.

Part 3 analyzed the other two building blocks of pricing optimization: promotions and markdowns. Then, the post went into the next generation of pricing optimization according to JDA: Lifecycle Pricing.

Part 4 continued the series by analyzing the pricing optimization vendor landscape, and featured the next-generation pricing optimization approaches of two on-demand software specialists, Revionics and DemandTec. Coming at the heels of the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) BIG Show 2010, Part 5 will conclude the blog series by further analyzing the retail pricing optimization vendor landscape and other vendors’ approaches to the next generation of pricing optimization solutions. 

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For many retailers, price optimization is not being implemented appropriately because of the lack of communication between the supply and demand cycles. Read the rest of this entry »

The “Four Ps” of marketing strategy, also known as the “marketing mix,” are basically applicable to all businesses. TEC’s two-part blog post series in 2008 talked about the importance of pricing management in a down economy. Price and promotion in particular are the lubricants in retailing, although the two remaining Ps–product and place, are indisputably important there as well.

In his guest author article in Retail Info Systems (RIS) News, Wayne Usie, senior vice president of retail at JDA Software, remarks that one doesn’t have to go far to see the impact the economy is having on retailers. The evening news is plagued with store closings, while “going out of business signs” and ominously empty “for rent” spaces seem to pop up on every corner. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog series expanded on some of TEC’s earlier articles about companies’ need for better pricing management and optimization practices. It also introduced the FUD (fear, uncertainty & doubt) notion about how appropriate these solutions might be in a down market. It appeared that at least the service sector (including spare parts pricing) remains largely impervious to the economic climate (if not even bolstered by a downturn).

So, What’s in Store for Pricing Management Solutions?

Given that the way the manufacturing suppliers position their products and pricing changes with the economy, natural question is whether pricing solutions providers will suffer or blossom these days. Namely, during good times positioning is about increasing revenue, and that case has been proven by pricing optimization solutions. However, in bad times it is rather about lowering costs where pricing doesn’t seemingly help, but rather procurement-oriented applications. Read the rest of this entry »