Heard in the Hall, Part 1

There was a lot of vendor buzz at our recent Supply Chain Executive Conference at The Phoenican. I’ve attempted to capture some of the news and insight that I picked up in various formal and informal sessions, and through dozens of e-mails. Here is a quick summary in alphabetical order, starting with A through C.

Acresso Software recently launched FLEXnet Embedded, part of FLEXnet Suite for high tech device manufacturers. Built on Acresso’s expertise in license and entitlement management, the new software allows manufacturers to easily modify product configurations, simplify field upgrades, and enable trials of new capabilities. The new release enables high tech manufacturers to configure capability and capacity on their products by managing the licensing of embedded software.

Active On-Demand has crafted new partnerships with Inovis and Transfreight. The company is linking its TMS-as-a-service platform with Inovis' BizLink Manager. This will provide FedEx, Honda, and YRC Logistics with increased collaboration capabilities for shipment execution. In the deal with Transfreight, Active On-Demand will provide the 3PL with unscheduled transportation procurement and execution services across North America. 

Next month Acorn Systems will release its new Operational Performance Simulator, which is designed to show the actual financial impact of business decisions. The software has been installed at a well-known retailer that has been using the product to model its supply chain and sourcing strategies, ensuring the most profitable product flow paths and cost effective paths to its retail store locations. Insiders estimate that the customer has already saved more than $30M.

Robert Di Scipio, CEO, Aegis Analytical Corp. was all smiles after adding Merck Serono to his customer list. Aegis provides software for manufacturing process intelligence to companies in life sciences, chemicals, and medical devices. In a nutshell, Aegis aggregates all of your process information from a host of different sources and makes it available for analysis. For example, a company looking at the test results of a new product batch may want to retrieve data on the pH level, raw material supplier, time in the dryer, environmental condition, operator of the production line, and other potentially pertinent details. As Bob put it, “we help customers get to the ‘why’ of the outcome.”

As we were welcoming former Disney CEO Michael Eisner to the stage, Amitive was announcing “SCM in the Cloud.” Customers can select and run Amitive Unity 5.0 in any cloud environment, including Amitive's private cloud, a customer's own private cloud, or a public environment such as those provided by Amazon, Go-Grid or Google. We will have more on this in an upcoming post.

Apriso is set to launch FlexNet Lean Material Flow jointly developed with Accenture, based in part on work completed at Valeo, a leading automotive supplier. The new software generates a unique barcode to scan and synchronize material flows while integrating with ERP across production to final shipment. Benefits include improved visibility, traceability, and material throughput across operations to cut costs and improve cash flow.

Sao Paolo-based Axia Consulting is looking to start operations in the United States this year with the opening of a new office in Atlanta. The company intends to leverage its experience in Global S&OP, Demand Management, and SAP APO to add American customers in consumer goods, mining & metals, life sciences, and machines & components.

Aldata told us that Delhaize has signed on to use its Apollo space optimization software. If the customer name is not familiar, Delhaize America operates 1,500 supermarkets in 16 states in the eastern United States. Stores include Food Lion, Bloom, Bottom Dollar, Harveys, Hannaford Bros., and Sweetbay. Delhaize is an existing customer of Aldata’s G.O.L.D. Enterprise Retail Suite. Aldata plans to integrate the G.O.L.D. and Apollo applications for supply chain and replenishment optimization.

Better Place executives were at our conference to accept one of our Sustainability Leadership Awards. This is the company Shai Agassi started after leaving SAP. Guryan Tighe brought me up to speed on a new agreement that her company has with the City of Copenhagen. The two entities are teaming to build an electric vehicle pilot project for the COP15 conference being held in the Danish capital in December.

It looks like BravoSolution’s expansion into the United States is bearing fruit as sales in this country have led to the most successful quarter in the company’s history. BravoSolution entered the U.S. market with the acquisition of financially troubled Verticalnet. The company is counting on continued strong sales in the health care and energy & utility sectors.

Centric Software's new Product Profitability Planning solution provides detailed visibility into all new product costs and margins before launch. Calculating the fully loaded cost of a new product is difficult, since information like royalties, COGS, marketing costs, freight costs, and channel costs are usually captured by different departments in different systems.

Chainalytics’ Mike Kilgore made it clear that “we're not just optimization guys anymore.” Over the last seven years, Chainalytics has helped clients apply operations research tools to make better decisions in areas like supply chain network design, transportation bid optimization, and inventory optimization, and to improve supply chain performance management. While staying away from systems integration work, Chainalytics is focusing on defining data models, root-cause analysis and cost/service drivers that take BI to a the next level of effectiveness. The company has had a number of recent successes helping companies implement tools and processes in the areas of cost-to-serve and profitability analytics (look for an upcoming AMR Research case study) and transportation management, including a BPO-like offering to help companies reduce the profit leakage from transportation procurement events.

Old friend and former colleague Louis Columbus was waxing enthusiastically about Cincom Guru™ reception at the company’s recently completed Cincom User Summit.  Guru™ is the company’s new .NET knowledge management engine. It integrates into office automation and productivity apps from Microsoft, salesforce.com, and SAP, and gives line-of-business managers hands-on control over workflows and business rules. Mash-ups can be quickly created. Louis overheard one customer say, “This unshackles us from IT once-and-for-all when it comes to getting what we need from our data.”

Look for the next batch soon.

Comments

[Jake Burns]

Bruce,

Let me know if you would be willing to take a look at our platform as a service. We offer vast customization and functionality all without programming. www.workxpress.com

[Bruce Richardson]

Sure. Not sure how this pertains to supply chain, but why not.

[Joe]

What a bunch of zombie companies in this list...