Following a comprehensive information management research study on over 745 companies examining maturity, trends and direction, Ventana Research has released its results and announced an upcoming webinar to discuss findings.

“Our research found that organizations are striving towards more accurate and comprehensive information on which to base their important business decisions. The research shows businesses are ready to transform into information driven organizations in 2007 and beyond through advanced use of technology.” said Mark Smith, CEO and EVP of Research at Ventana Research.
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Leading business research firm IDC has announced worldwide system infrastructure software predictions for 2007. IDC defines system infrastructure software as software that controls the operation and management of computing infrastructure resources, and is a key element of any IT infrastructure deployment. Operating systems, enterprise virtualization software, and enterprise systems management software all are in system infrastructure software.
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The mobile employee is opening new opportunities for mobile enterprise application (MEA) providers worldwide as they demand more solutions for a expanding set of needs. Research firm IDC has released a study reviewing the expanding need and booming market for mobile enterprise applications. According to the study, the mobile reached and IDC forecasts that the market will grow enterprise application market will grow from $1.2 billion in 2005 to $3.5 billion in 2010, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23%.
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Data Sharing Partnership: Unilever Partners With RedPrairie In EPCIS Data Sharing Trial
11/20/2006
RedPrairie Corporation announced a partnernership with Unilever in the company’s trial of EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Service) to collect and access information from within the company’s logistics environment and from trading partners in the supply chain. Highlighting more effective data exchange and simplified interoperability, Unilever anticipates enhanced value in the areas of promotion management, supply chain visibility and metrics and RFID readability through RFID enablement and its integration with EPCIS.
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Oracle customers worldwide can now extend the capabilities of Oracle’s existing Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) suite through the two new modules, Oracle Strategic Network Optimization and Oracle Production Scheduling. Through a long-awaited marriage of Oracle’s JD Edwards and PeopleSoft Supply Chain Planning suite with Oracle’s Supply Chain Management applications, manufacturing companies can now optimize supply and distribution networks, mitigate risk, maximize shop floor throughput and dramatically reduce supply chain costs.
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Lockheed Martin has established the Savi Group to aligns Lockheed Martin’s decision support system expertise for large government In-Transit Visibility (ITV), cargo security and asset management efforts with Savi Technology’s real-time, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based data collection and management capabilities for supply chains.
“This unique combination of capabilities under our Savi Group will accelerate the development of turn-key solutions for our government and commercial customers to make their supply chains more efficient, dynamically responsive and secure,” said Stan Sloane, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Integrated Systems & Solutions (IS&S) business area.

The new organization will provide integrated real-time information solutions and services for securing and managing global supply chains. Vic Verma, previous chief executive officer of Savi Technology, acquired by Lockheed Martin in June, will lead the new group and serve as chief executive officer of Savi Networks. Verma highlighted that the newly formed Savi Group will leverage its expertise to address the development and delivery of integrated ITV, Cargo Security and Mobile Asset Management solutions for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Defense (including the U.S. Transportation Command and the Defense Logistics Agency), as well as other government agencies, port and terminal operators, and commercial customers.

“We will offer customers complete, integrated solutions, including powerful analysis tools that will enhance their situational awareness, security, and decision making in tracking and managing shipments every step along the way as they move through global supply chains from point of origin to destination,” Verma said. “To meet these significant challenges for our customers, Savi Group is being ‘turbocharged’ with Lockheed Martin resources, technical expertise and seasoned leadership in managing large complex systems integration projects.”

An important charter of the Savi Group will be to leverage the Savi Networks joint venture between Savi Technology and Hutchison Port Holdings, the world’s largest port operator. Savi Networks provides information services based on wireless data transmissions on the location, security and condition of cargo shipments as they are transported end-to-end throughout the global supply chain.

The Group will also support corporate initiatives for Secure Freight and Logistics. “We are actively participating in Lockheed Martin-wide efforts to offer the best integrated solutions to address our customers’ significant and complex asset management and security challenges,” Verma said.

By Sarah Murray and Andrew K. Reese

Years of surveying and conversations with readers have shown that busy executives turn to an industry magazine like Supply & Demand Chain Executive for essentially two reasons: to learn how to solve problems that they know they have, and to learn about solutions for problems they didn’t even know they had. The mission of this magazine, then, is to provide targeted information to help corporate executives and other supply and demand chain management professionals as they enable their supply chains for competitive advantage.

As part of this mission, each year the magazine uses its Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 feature to make its readers aware of those enablers that are leading the way in providing cutting-edge solutions and services to help enterprises address pain points in their supply chains through the application of new technologies and new processes.
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CSCO Staff
Thursday, 12 October 2006

Oct. 12, 2006 — Sales of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications are expected to grow an average of 10 percent over the next five years according to a report released this week by Boston-based research and analysis firm AMR Research. As has been the case in recent years in the ERP market, the category is dominated by two companies, SAP and Oracle, at least in terms of revenue share, and AMR Research is forecasting that this trend will continue in 2006. The report indicates that SAP captured 42 percent of the ERP market’s revenue share in 2005 and that the software company’s share will increase to 43 percent in 2006. Oracle comes in a distant second, but still commanded 20 percent of the ERP revenue share in 2005, with it too projected to grow its share even more in 2006, to 23 percent. After those two companies, there is a sharp dropoff in revenue market share captured by other ERP vendors. For example, the company with the third highest revenue share in 2005 was the Sage Group (6 percent), and AMR Research forecasts Sage’s share to decline slightly to 5 percent in 2006. Microsoft came in fourth, with 4 percent ERP market share in 2005 and projected 4 percent in 2006.

Around the year 2000, ERP in general was considered by most analysts as offering substandard supply chain capabilities for managing such activities as complex warehouse management, order management, advanced planning, and more. The ERP concept originally came up through the manufacturing world, and many ERP packages were initially focused on financials with human resources, and basic (infinite, not capacity-based/finite) planning and scheduling and warehouse management. But since then, most ERP companies have improved their supply chain functionality, with some extending their reach into manufacturing execution, Customer Relationship Management, Web portals, and more. That meant the ERP vendors started encroaching into the domain of so-called Best of Breed supply chain software vendors such as Manhattan Associates, EXE, Provia Software, and others. “The integrated versus best-of-breed debate still goes on in some organizations, but the [ERP] suite advocates are clearly winning,” says Jim Shepherd, senior vice president of research at AMR Research.

Indeed, a report issued last month by AMR Research about the supply chain management application market shows that SAP was the top SCM (Supply Chain Management, which includes warehouse, transportation, network design, inventory control, and more) vendor in terms of revenue, with 12 percent of the market in 2005. Oracle was second in 2005 SCM revenue share with 10 percent, followed by i2 Technologies with 5 percent, Manhattan Associates with 4 percent, and infor with 3 percent.

ERP sales are also benefiting from a widespread acceptance of the idea that businesses must have integrated information systems to be competitive, and the most effective way to satisfy this need is to purchase an ERP package that features broad functionality and pre-built integration. AMR Research forecasts that the global ERP market revenue will reach $29 billion in 2006.

Deb Navas, Editor at Large,
Supply Chain Manufacturing & Logistics

The increasingly global nature of consumer packaged goods manufacturing has had an impact on every supply chain link, especially the one that gets goods to market.

WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE that integrates with material handling equipment speeds fulfillment in complex, high-volume, retail distribution environments.

Roles are blurring in the retail, wholesaler, and distributor supply chain arena, and the definition of what the “distributor” now does is not so easily defined. Big retail operations—Wal-Mart naturally springs to mind—primarily use their own distribution networks, though they also use wholesale distributors.
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Designed to Help Companies Synchronize Their Sales and Supply Chain Organizations by Providing Continuously Optimized Execution of Order Processes

DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In the new world order the customer is king, and has become smarter and more demanding. Customers expect precise delivery and price quotes, perfect order execution, demand visibility to any potential issues with delivery and fulfillment, and they expect a clean, consolidated invoice regardless of your internal system challenges. Faced with these rising customer expectations, the order management and fulfillment process is now where the “rubber meets the road” for a company. The Customer Order Management suite from i2 Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:ITWO) can help companies overcome these obstacles and achieve unprecedented levels of customer service while serving as the engine to drive performance, accelerate cash flow and fuel growth.

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LONDON, November 15 /PRNewswire/ — The increasing need to prevent sales of counterfeit medicines and avoid stock outs of drugs has created a compelling need for effective IT solutions to rationalise pharmaceutical distribution channels across Europe. With comprehensive support from information technology (IT) across distribution channels, the European pharmaceutical industry will experience robust growth.
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“After participating in the beta program, we are eager to use the new capabilities in PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0, especially XML Publisher,” said Kentucky Community and Technical College System Lead Systems Analyst Patrick Wells. “This release has the potential to deliver improved usability, increased productivity and streamline business processes which is always of great interest to our organization.”
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