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SUPPLY CHAIN HIGHLIGHTS
Transportation Management Systems (TMS) — made to measure
The TMS market broke through the $1 billion mark in 2006 and will continue to plow past that milestone and grow about 7 percent annually—and we’re not surprised. Here’s how three shippers have recently yielded positive results after upgrading an existing package or finding a perfect fit with a third-party vendor. [ Click to continue ]
Logistics Technology Roundtable: Explaining the hype
Four top industry analysts explain some of the hottest supply chain technology applications and tools you’ve heard about but may not entirely understand.
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How automation solves the supplier enablement problem
Improved supplier enablement reduces procurement operating costs by utilizing automated processes instead of manual systems. It also enhances the quality of supplier relationships by improving communication channels and increasing the efficiency and accuracy of orders. There is a catch, though.
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Can technology handle supply chain risk?
For a global company managing an extended supply chain, risks in supply, demand, compliance and logistics are always lurking, necessitating a new way of thinking that balances traditional cost efficiency focus with the new goal of risk mitigation. [ Click to continue ]
Making better IT decisions
How can we improve the success rate of supply chain IT initiatives? This question provided a motivation for us to study the underlying problems in the IT planning and implementation. Not surprisingly, we noticed that many of the issues arise from the way the supply chain IT initiatives are treated in the companies and specifically the process of decision-making.
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3M spins off HighJump Software
After owning the supply chain software company for four years, 3M plans to sell HighJump to a private equity firm.
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RedPrairie latest E2E platform release adds new functionality
Supply chain software provider RedPrairie recently rolled out a new version of its E2E supply chain execution suite.
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INDUSTRY UPDATE
SmartForecasts to help Eight O’Clock Coffee brew big forecasting improvements
The Eight O’Clock Coffee® Company, maker of the fourth largest brand of coffee by volume in the U.S. grocery market, is planning a revamp of its forecasting system using a new product from Smart Software, Inc., a demand forecasting, planning and inventory optimization software company.
The software, SmartForecasts® Enterprise, is Smart Software’s flagship product, and will replace a manual spreadsheet-based forecasting system Eight O’Clock Coffee had been using until now, according to a press release from Smart Software.
Eight O’Clock Coffee is planning to use the software to improve forecasting and increase forecast accuracy, using SmartForecasts with its corporate ERP system using Microsoft’s SQL Server database. The new system will forecast all of the company’s finished goods items that are sold to grocers.
“Not only was SmartForecasts’ ease of use important to us, but the system has the breadth and depth of functionality that we needed now and will need as our business grows,” said Jeff Howard, the coffee company’s director of information technology.
CMGI acquires PTS Electronics
Expansion into telecommunications and consumer electronics repair services further strengthens reverse logistics service offering.
Supply chain management services giant CMGI®, Inc. has acquired PTS Electronics (PTS), one of the largest independent consumer-electronics service repair and reverse logistics providers in the U.S., according to a press release from CMGI.
The all-cash transaction is valued at approximately $45 million. The acquisition includes PTS’ four facilities in Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana, which employ approximately 500 technical and support staff. Based on unaudited financial statements, the PTS business generated 2007 revenue of approximately $37.4 million, according to the release.
“The transaction is expected to be cash flow positive, but neutral to earnings in fiscal 2008, and accretive to earnings in fiscal 2009 through a combination of planned revenue growth and operational synergies,” the release said.
PTS remanufactures of a number of consumer electronics products, including cell phones, HDTV and digital main boards and tuners. According to the release, CMGI plans for PTS to boost reverse logistics by creating an extension of the end-to-end supply chain solutions offered through ModusLink, CMGI’s supply chain services business subsidiary.
“The long-term demand for high-tech consumer electronics continues to grow, especially for high-value, wireless communication devices,” said Joseph C. Lawler, chairman, president and CEO of CMGI. “By acquiring PTS, we will be positioned to meet our clients complete reverse logistics needs. We view the aftermarket services space as a source of potential revenue and earnings growth in the future, and expect PTS to form the cornerstone of that service offering.”
“We have built our business on strong partnerships with the goal of continually exceeding customer expectations,” said PTS CEO Jack D. Craig. “Rapid time-to-market requirements, low-cost strategies and short product lifecycles demand that manufacturers have a highly responsive and tightly integrated supply chain, which we will now be able to offer as part of ModusLink’s end-to-end supply chain solutions.”
New Oracle console delivers targeted financial performance metrics and powerful business analytics to user desktops
Oracle has released a new console to give JD Edwards Enterprise One customers more targeted financial performance metrics and compliance information.
Dubbed the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financial Management and Compliance Console, the new software allows current EnterpriseOne
customers to define role-based views across a comprehensive set of performance metrics, according to a release from Oracle.
“Operational consoles are the new front door to analytics,” said Oracle Group Vice President, Lenley Hensarling. “The new JD Edward’s EnterpriseOne Financial Management and Compliance Console puts powerful analysis capabilities into the hands of operational users – such as those within a division or specific department – to support an agile and adaptive enterprise with more informed business decision making.”
Designed to an extension of EnterpriseOne’s financial applications, Oracle said in its release that the new software contains 47 pre-defined metrics such as general accounting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and corporate governance, can be adapted to hundreds of permutations.
Right now, Oracle is marketing the software to homebuilders, engineering and construction companies.
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