This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Molex implemented a multi-enterprise supply chain network platform from SAP called SAP Business Network. Molexs story is interesting because they excelled at overcoming these cultural issues. The most common form of trading partner collaboration is purchase order collaboration. The buyers dont report to Mr. Gainsford.
As companies consider purchasing new solutions based on better planning engines—machine learning, rules-based ontological frameworks, narrow AI, pattern recognition, large language models, and sentiment analysis— I ask for the use of caution. The decision to re-platform SAP ERP and focus on implementing HANA/Rise, is an opportunity.
Aptean is orchestrating the Blue Yonder/E2open/Infor playbook of buying undervalued assets and milking the maintenance and Software-as-a-Service contracts with existing customers. OMP, like o9 and Kinaxis, benefited from the SAP’s APO migration failure. This is despite the strengths of the recent purchase of Optimity.
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne: This platform specializes in discrete manufacturing , excelling in areas like shop floor control, quality management, and detailed product costing. It excels in project management, project accounting, regulatory compliance management, and other industry-specific requirements.
In 2012, when I started Supply Chain Insights , I believed that I could revolutionize the purchase of supply chain planning solutions by initiating a rating and review process across trading partners. Buying supply chain planning software is hard. Does anyone really think that the Oracle SCP solution is stronger than SAP’s?
Competition : The aggressive marketing of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) vendors introducing planning suites (led by SAP with a product named SAP APO) took the market off course. It did not matter that most of them had integrated to SAP suites for over a decade. During this time, I worked for Manugistics. Study Results.
In addition, a purchase order changes three-to-four times and there is a black hole (data is caught between email systems of trading partners for one-to-two days). Purchase order data, while not as important, has the smallest gap. PE Firm Buy-out and Consolidation. Most is silo’d. Many systems without interoperability.
<Bear with me… > Here I share a nine-step process in an attempt to help companies unravel the process for buying supply chain planning software. They center on how to make a good decision in the purchase of supply chain planning solutions. Most have purchased software, but are dependent on Excel spreadsheets.
In the process, there is a fine line between marketing hype and overpromising, making buying difficult. For example, I am working with a client that has deployed Ariba from SAP, GT Nexus from Infor, Everstream, and Project 44. For many tech providers, the message often becomes a religious argument. Who has the best approach?
Nick Lynch is the Global Excellence Manager at Shell Lubricants, a division of Shell Global. Shell operates as a single-instance of SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). What can often look like compliance in APO could actually be numbers calculated in Excel and posted into the SAP system.
SmartOps was purchased by SAP. If you do a google search, you will find lots of accolades and positive press on the acquisition of SmartOps by SAP, but the Shaman is a skeptic. SmartOps entered the supply chain optimization market in 2000 and became an SAP partner in 2006. Failure of the SAP Partnering Ecosystem.
As an analyst in the supply chain market for 15 years, I have written many articles on best-of-breed technology companies purchased by a larger company. While ToolsGroup and SAP (with the acquisition of SmartOps) are the nearest competitors, Terra prided itself on delivering better decisions through better math.
My takeaway is a serious concern by attendees on the impact of SAP RISE on global supply chains. Definition: “The RISE with SAP offering includes an AI-powered cloud ERP that’s managed and optimized by SAP. SAP is the maestro of charging customers for software upgrades. It was painful. I listened.
Demand latency is the time cycle to translate a channel purchase to an order.) Over the last seven years, the failure of the SAP APO migration to SAP IBP and the general deficiencies in ERP planning solutions gave headwinds to the best-of-breed supply chain planning market. Could SAP mobilize to redefine the space?
acquired by SAP). He is a board member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and a contributor to the Forbes Technology Council , Manufacturing Today, WardsAuto , Supply Chain Brain, Industry Today, Aerospace Manufacturing and Design, ASSEMBLY , and more. Richard previously founded and led Factory Logic, Inc.
At the time, the company started internal discussions on re-footprinting the organization and deploying SAP across manufacturing centers. The project included the centralization of SAP ERP and the augmentation with other software. The total cost of ownership analyzes the total costs of the buying decision.
Or agreement on the definition of supply chain excellence. As a result, functional excellence anchors action. The focus is on digitization—automating today’s processes—versus rethinking process excellence based on the art of the possible. We are driving functional excellence and incrementally. (To Moving Forward.
” Same for SAP HANA. My Point of View (POV) is that the best use case for SAP HANA is the in-memory capabilities for repetitive work. Or mine supplier shifts to build alternate buying plans. The problem with supply chain planning is that it is, by definition, not repetitive work. Test and Learn.
While there is work within SAP to rethink SNC and use the assets purchased with Ariba to build multi-tier capabilities, the progress is not encouraging. the company is owned today by 20 organizations representing manufacturers, distributors, hospitals and group purchasing organizations (GPOs). Marketplace Rebirth.
Avoid implementing Aera on top of an existing SAP APO implementation.) Initially, the output was published to procurement to design strategic buying strategies. Procurement: Purchase price variance and procurement cost. (Baseline demand reflects market potential.) Start small and test and learn. Over time, this changed.
However, in the polling data in the APICS webinar, we found that over 70% of the respondents had deployed solutions from the ERP-expansionists (either SAP or Oracle). Today, SAP and Oracle have market share dominance; however, the data is clear. The SAP and Oracle analyst relations groups are big machines. It is complex.
In a development similar to buying your first colour TV (yes my dear daughter, we watched black & white telly) or the first microwave cooker, I have finally bought a Smartphone. No, not me and the new Smartphone but you Mr. CEO; you and your Supply Chain IT purchases. By the way, I have purchased the same Smartphone for my wife.
I am speaking to companies that are being held hostage to SAP HANA upgrades with 70% cost overruns and 60% time schedule expansion. Similarly, SAP Ariba frustration is mounting in the market. Yet, the IT team is still mandating SAP standardization. For many, mandating SAP is job security for the IT implementation team.
They excel in the four Ps of marketing. In contrast, a market-driven organization connects bidirectionally market-to-market to orchestrate the signals to shape demand and mitigate risk (buy-side to sell-side and back). We have built transactional buying relationships. Yes; someday it will happen, but not any time soon.
Here are my predictions for 2018: Supply Chain Excellence as We Know It Is Redefined. Supply chain excellence definitions evolve as companies explore the Art of the Possible. We are moving out of the era of functional integration of transactional workflows. Confluence of Technologies. Fines and penalties will increase.
Studies show that 70% of digital transformation initiatives fail primarily due to insufficient management support and employee buy-in. 5 Effective Communication : Clear, consistent messaging about the benefits of digital transformation is critical for employee buy-in. Effective OCM reduces this risk.
Since the last report, Kinaxis successfully launched an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange, E2open launched an IPO and then went private with a buy out by Insights, IBS and Steelwedge sought new rounds of capital, and WAM Systems and Acorn Systems have new owners. Evolution of S&OP Options for SAP. A planner is not a planner.
As Allyson presented her story of working for multiple consumer products companies, with very advanced technologies (demand sensing, advanced automation of forecasting, data lakes and descriptive analytics), she spoke of why at the end of the day, the most important technology that she uses is Excel. The question is, “Why?
At Dow, Mr. Baker had Purchasing experience in raw materials, and logistics for their plastics supply chain. S&OP is the key process in effectively balancing supply – what can be made – with demand – what customers want to buy. This replaced an Excel based, part-by-part approach.
The third issue is the lack of understanding that global processes–to maximize the economies of scale in transportation and material buying–need strong governance. Without this discipline, the global organization cannot actualize buying power in procurement or lower costs and improve costs/customer service in transportation.
While there is much hype on DDMRP and the use of orders as a proxy for demand, companies need to remember that orders carry latency: they are out-of-step with market purchase behavior. The transformational wave is slowly transforming the automotive industry from a focus on selling “rides” versus the purchase of an automobile.
And perhaps most critically, a lack of real-time visibility into stock levels prevents informed decision-making about purchasing, production, and fulfillment. The investment in robust inventory management software is an investment in greater profitability, operational excellence, and long-term success.
Through digital marketing, small brands are cropping up all over, and it is sentiment analysis and digital content driving purchases. Instead, companies need to build it into digital process redefinition like digital path-to-purchase, digital procurement, digital agriculture, digital manufacturing or digital service.
I think that IBM, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Teradata are victims today in the information technology sector. I was an avid student of supply chain excellence; and in this role, I watched as best-of-breed solution after best-of-breed solution replaced with more complicated technology. This is disruptive innovation. I was a skeptic.
The second generation of solutions were built and marketed by Enterprise Resource Planning technology companies like SAP and Oracle. By purchasing planning and transactional systems for a common vendor, they had one throat to choke and they were familiar with the architectural elements. The book is a story.
Supply chain management, purchase requisitions and orders, budget management, and three-way matching – all these processes are integral to procurement as a whole. Purchase requisitions and orders, receipts, invoices, and other documents must each contain specific information, often legally binding. Low-Quality Documentation.
Executive, after executive, lament, “They have purchased many technologies and sponsored many projects to reduce inventories, but they are not seeing results.” The companies with the greatest market share—Oracle and SAP—have the weakest references. As a result, buyers should buy based on today’s functionality.
Despite numerous acquisitions and product development efforts, SAP and Oracle are much larger industry giants. In 2014, SAP posted revenues of 19.5B$ and Oracle with 38.3B$. On August 13th, Infor announced the intent to purchase GT Nexus for 675M$. SAP and several other companies passed on the opportunity.
Dependency on Excel. Due to the shortfalls in the evolution of Advanced Planning, 68% of business users use Excel spreadsheets as the primary mechanism for planning. This is especially true for processes dependent on the ERP-based solutions from Infor, Oracle and SAP. Driving supply chain excellence is a balancing act.
One of the barriers to greater progress in driving supply chain excellence is the current state of user satisfaction with current technologies. The purchase of supply chain solutions remains a complex sale with increased power by Line of Business Leaders. Lora thinks that we are never too old to learn or to push for excellence.
To drive global scale, companies need to design the supply chain to buy globally and execute locally. The company leverages globally sourcing strategies to buy products at a lower cost and then deploys some unique process logic to drive mass customization for retailers. In my experience, technologies like SAP are rigid.
As shown in Figure 1, the biggest obstacles to power improvement/performance are traditional supply chain thinking, the lack of organizational alignment and a focus on functional excellence. Companies using traditional technologies coupled with Excel spreadsheet ghettos will be at a disadvantage. These are tough to overcome.
The network senses, translates, and orchestrates market changes (buy and sell-side markets) bi-directionally with near-real time data to align sell, deliver, make and sourcing organizations outside-in. Thoma Bravo purchased Elemica in June 2016. This is a missionary buying market where taxonomies and technologies are not clear.
At the time, DuPont, now acquired by DOW, boasted externally on internal adherence to SAP standardization for decision support. Demand latency is two-eight weeks delayed from consumption purchase to translate to an order. I kept pressuring this client to use their channel data locked into the Excel files in their sales account teams.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 102,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content