World Trade - October 2008 - (Page 31)

grappling with a rising fuel prices and a faltering U.S. offerings, according to Fary Matthis, Del Monte Director economy, industry analysts point out there is demand of IT Systems Solutions Delivery. for approaches that promise easier integration of supply Although major ERP vendors approach him and his chains into the core operation. ERP giants such as CIO “regularly,” Matthis said he was satisﬁed with their Oracle and SAP correspondingly argue that the “eco- current tools. If anything, he said they were “taking some systems” they are creating with add-ons like transporta- functionality out of our ERP system and moving the tion management, planning or purchasing tools are best system to what it’s meant to do, which is control ﬁnansuited to provide the integration customers need. cial information,” he said. Not everyone, however, is convinced. Art Mesher, CEO Speak to Jon Chorley, vice president of Oracle’s of Descartes Systems in Waterloo, Ontario, a provider of SCM Product Strategy based in Redwood Shores, Caliglobal logistics software based on the Descartes Global fornia, though, and you will hear a persuasive case for Logistics Network, considers the ERP vendors “vanilla” the large-scale ERP vendors at a time when the supply and best for companies whose competitive strategies are chain “is on the forefront of most CEO’s minds. They not based on supply chain performance. He notes, for know it’s critical to manage in a highly effective way and example, that Descartes chose to avoid “competing head that supply chain disruptions can put them business out on head” with the Oracles and SAPs by creating a net- of business.” It’s no longer “the guys in the back room work to solely serve transportation service providers—a trying to keep a business running.” niche where he says the ERP vendors do not have a strong That’s why he’s seeing supply chain applications moving presence. The same is true for niche player IES Ltd. in “out of the niche space into the mainstream space. When Midland Park, N.J., which is focused heavily on interna- you look at what businesses have to manage now, it’s enortional trade shipping and compliance. mously more complex As Forrester Research analyst Patrick Connaughton than five years ago. points out: “I wouldn’t say the best of breed are going away, The cost of transport, but they are evolving and making themselves more relevant which is a big factor in in this SAP-dominated ecosystem.” Those vendors that will be stand“In an industry that ing in ﬁve years, say the analysts, will specialize in continues to consolidate, providing results—and scale matters.” quickly. For a manager facing —Palab Chatterjee, i2 Technologies deployment of new supply chain solutions, it’s imperative to know as much as possible about the myriad of options now the cost of most goods available. This article reports the latest trends from the and is really inﬂuencsupply chain management front and offers some advice ing where people are i2 Technologies on picking and choosing the most appropriate approach looking to save costs, for a given business. means having visibility to all your data. That requires a difMany companies are offering what’s called on-demand ferent class of systems. That’s why companies are looking or software-as-a-service (SaaS) where software is hosted for industrial strength solutions.” by a third party. But i2’s Chatterjee was convinced, He argues that the big guns like Oracle and SAP even prior to the JDA deal, that even the SaaS approach are giving best-of-breed vendors a run for their money doesn’t go far enough for many customers coping with a because they have the advantage of being “very stable, volatile global economy. Instead, the answer is to expand well-established and have a global reach.” Plus, he says the scale of technology and business processes—in they have the advantage of offering integration and optiessence, providing platforms capable of tracking (and mization for transportation—from full audit to the cash even managing) all of a customer’s supply chain, includ- cycle. According to Chorley, ﬁve of the top ten logistics ing sales and marketing. service providers, for whom the supply chain is their For Lenovo, the China-based computer manufacturer core business, “use our solutions. We compete against that bought IBM’s PC business, i2 has been supervising the niche providers and have a healthy win rate.” marketing and promotions teams based in China. Tim Andreae views the ﬁeld from the perspective of a They’ve also worked closely with Panasonic’s TV divi- niche player that is partnering with an ERP major—SAP. sion analyzing point-of-sales data daily. Chatterjee says i2 Senior vice president of global marketing for Philadelpersonnel have helped readjust shipping so products are phia, Pennsylvania-based MCA Solutions, which pronot arriving at stores where there is no demand. vides expertise in spare parts planning, Andreae says Another long-term i2 customer, Del Monte Foods, SAP now recognizes that it “can’t build everything.” has found i2 consultants so worthwhile for demand The ERP giant has altered their architecture “to allow planning for the fruit and vegetable division that they service-oriented partners like us to plug in easily. Their recently expanded the tool set to cover all Del Monte whole partner strategy has become more open, and their WWW.WORLDTRADEMAG.COM 31 http://WWW.WORLDTRADEMAG.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Trade - October 2008

World Trade - October 2008 Contents Tune Up Your Supply Chain Globalization: The Real Competitive Threat Supply Chain Watch Tradewinds Shippers and Providers Collaborate to Take on a Challenging Economy Tweaking the Supply Chain to Optimize Value and Minimize Cost Supply Chain Software Morphs Into Enterprise Management Can Warehousing Really, Truly Be Strategic? Everybody is Global Between the Devil and the Deep The Hidden Costs of ‘Free’ Translation Blowing Smoke

World Trade - October 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.